The Hessians and the Other German Auxiliaries of Great Britain in The
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mP( UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH JJarlington jVl.einorial J_<ibrary THE HESSIANS AND THE OTHER GERMAN AUXILIARIES OF GREAT BRITAIN IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR EDWARD J. LOWELL WITH MAPS AND PLANS -> ,0, 3 J NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 1884 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884, by HARPER & BROTHERS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. All rights reserved. PREFACE. The history of the German auxiliaries, who fought for Great Britain in the Revolutionary War, has not received from American writers the amount of atten- tion which its importance would seem to deserve. Much has been made of the fact that seven thousand French soldiers and nineteen thousand French sea- men assisted the United States in the siege of York- town, but we have forgotten that a force of between fifteen and twenty thousand Germans served for seven years against us ; that more than twenty-nine thou- sand were brought to America for this purpose ; that more than twelve thousand never returned to Ger- many. I know of no American historian but Ban- croft, who has made any thorough study of this sub- ject in the original authorities, and the general nature of his work does not call on him, and, indeed, would hardly permit him, to write the history of the Ger- man troops in detail. Doctor George Washington Greene has published interesting reviews of three of Kapp's books, and the narrative of Baroness Riedesel has been translated into English by William L. Stone, ; viii PREFACE. to quote opinions or descriptions which, though genuine, were mistaken. I take this opportunity heartily to thank Doctor Duncker, Librarian of the Standische LandesbibHo- thek at Cassel, and the secretary, Herr Schultheiss Doctor Konnecke, Keeper of the Archives at Mar- burg, and his assistants ; and Doctor Speyer, Court Librarian to his Most Serene Highness the Prince of Waldeck, through whose kindness I have obtained copies of manuscripts in their respective keeping. A part of the contents of this volume appeared in the form of letters to the New York Times in the winter of 1880-1881. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I, The Princes . i II. The Treaties 14 III. The Treaties Before Parliament 27 IV. The Soldiers 37 V. From Germany to America 46 VI. The Battle of Long Island, August, 1776 .... 58 VII. From the Occupation of New York to the Taking of Fort Washington, September 15TH to Novem- ber i6th, 1776 70 VIII. Trenton, December 26th, 1776 85 IX. The Winter of 1777 100 X. The Brunswickers in Canada, 1776 117 XI. Baroness Riedesel's Journey, 1776 and 1777 . 126 XII. Ticonderoga and Bennington, July and August, 1777 136 XIII. Stillwater, September 19TH and October 7th, 1777 151 XIV. Saratoga, October iith to i6th, 1777 162 XV. The Brunswickers in Captivity 180 XVI. Brandywine, Germantown, and Redbank, Septem- ber and October, 1777 197 XVII. The British Retreat across New Jersey, January TO July, 1778 209 XVIII. Newport, November, 1776, to October, 1779. 215 XIX. The Neighborhood of New York, 1777 to 1779 . 221 XX. Wiederhold's Voyage — an Episode — September, 1779 230 XXI. Savannah, Charleston, and Pensacola, 1778 to 1781 239 XXII. New York in 1780 and 1781 255 XXIII. The Southern Campaign of i 781 265 XXIV. Conclusion 282 Appendix 293 Index 303 MAPS AND PLANS. Battle of Long Island Toface page 62, Operations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania . 85 Wiederhold's Plan of the Battle of Trenton. 92 Surrender of Burgoyne 163 Battle of Brandywine 198 Paulus Hook 228 Lord Cornwallis's Southern Campaigns . 265 Yorktown 278 THE HESSIANS. Chapter I. THE PRINCES. The little city of Cassel is one of the most attractive in North Germany to a passing stranger. Its galleries, its parks and gardens, and its great palaces are calcu- lated to excite admiration and surprise. Here Napo- leon III. spent the months of his captivity amid scenes wl^ich might remind him of the magnificence of Ver- sailles, v/hich, indeed, those who planned the beautiful gardens had wished to imitate. For the grounds were mostly laid out and the buildings mainly constructed in the last century, when the court of France was the point towards which most princely eyes on the Con- tinent were directed ; and no court, perhaps, followed more assiduously or more closely, in outward show at least, in the path of the French court than that of the Landgraves of Hesse-Cassel. The expense of all these buildings and gardens was enormous, but there was generally money in the treasury. Yet the land was a poor land. The three or four hundred thousand inhabitants lived chiefly by the plough, but the Land- graves were in business. It was a profitable trade I 2 THE HESSIANS. that they carried on, selHng or letting out wares which were much in demand in that century, as in all centu- ries, for the Landgraves of Hesse-Cassel were dealers in men; thus it came to pass that Landgrave Frederick IL and his subjects played a part in American history, and that " Hessian" became a household word, though not a title of honor, in the United States. The Landgraves were not particular as to their market or their customers. In 1687 one of them let out a thousand soldiers to the Venetians fighting against the Turks. In 1702 nine thousand Hessians served under the maritime powers, and in 1706 eleven thousand five hundred men were in Italy. England was the best customer. Through a large part of the eighteenth century she had Hessians in her pay. Some of them were with the army of the Duke of Cumber- land during the Pretender's invasion in 1745 ; but it is stated that they refused to fight in that campaign for want of a cartel for the exchange of prisoners.* It would have been well for many of them had they declined to go to America for the same reason. So little was it a matter of patriotism, or of political pref- erence, with the Landgraves, that in 1743 Hessian stood against Hessian, six thousand men serving in the army of King George II. of England, and six thousand in the opposing force of the Emperor Charles VII. The Landgraves of Hesse were not the only princes who dealt in troops. In the war of the American Revolution alone, six German rulers let out their soldiers to Great Britain. These were Frederick II., * Letter of Sir Joseph Yorke to the Earl of Suffolk, quoted in Kapp's " Soldatenhandel," ist ed. p. 229. THE PRINCES. 3 Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel ; William, his son, the in- dependent Count of Hesse-Hanau ; Charles I., Duke of Brunswick ; Frederick, Prince of Waldeck ; Charles Alexander, Margrave of Anspach-Bayreuth ; and Fred- erick Augustus, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst. The action of these princes was opposed to the policy of the em- pire and to the moral sense of the age : but the em- peror had no power to prevent it, for the subjection of those parts of Germany which were outside of his hereditary dominions was little more than nominal. The map of Germany in the last century presents the most extraordinary patchwork. Across the north- ern part of the country, from its eastern to its western side, but not in an unbroken line, stretch the territories of the King of Prussia. The Austrian hereditary do- minions, in a comparatively compact mass, occupy the southeastern corner. Beyond the boundaries of these two great powers, all is confusion. Electorates, duch- ies, bishoprics, the dominions of margraves, landgraves, princes, and free cities are inextricably jumbled to- gether. There were nearly three hundred sovereign- ties in Germany, besides over fourteen hundred es- tates of Imperial Knights, holding immediately of the empire, and having many rights of sovereignty. Some of these three hundred states were not larger than townships in New England, many of them not larger than American counties. Nor was each of them compact in itself, for one dominion was often composed of several detached parcels of territory. Yet every little princedom had to maintain its petty prince, with his court and his army. The princes were practically despotic. The remnants of what had once A THE HESSIANS. been constitutional assemblies still existed in many places, but they represented at best but a small part of the population.* The cities and towns were gov- erned by privileged classes. In the country some little freedom remained with the peasants of some neighbor- hoods as to the management of their village affairs, but in general the peasantry were not much better off than serfs, and subject to the tyranny of a horde of of- ficials, who intermeddled in every important action of their lives. Trade was hampered by tolls and duties, for every little state had its own financial system. Commerce and manufactures were impeded by mo- nopolies. In certain places sumptuary laws regulated the dress or the food of the people. Before the last quarter of the century some im- provement had taken place in the political condition of Germany. Frederick the Great of Prussia and Joseph II. of Austria were, in their different ways, en- lightened princes, and their example had stimulated many of the better sovereigns to exert themselves in some measure for the good of their people. The in- fluence of the Liberal movement in France was also felt. But the idea of political freedom had hardly taken shape in the most cultivated of German minds. The good or evil disposition of the prince was no more under the control of the ordinary subject than the state of the weather.