Download or read book A Generous and Merciful Enemy written by Daniel Krebs and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2013-04-30 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some 37,000 soldiers from six German principalities, collectively remembered as Hessians, entered service as British auxiliaries in the American War of Independence. At times, they constituted a third of the British army in North America, and thousands of them were imprisoned by the Americans. Despite the importance of Germans in the British war effort, historians have largely overlooked these men. Drawing on research in German military records and common soldiers’ letters and diaries, Daniel Krebs places the prisoners on center stage in A Generous and Merciful Enemy, portraying them as individuals rather than simply as numbers in casualty lists. Setting his account in the context of British and European politics and warfare, Krebs explains the motivations of the German states that provided contract soldiers for the British army. We think of the Hessians as mercenaries, but, as he shows, many were conscripts. Some were new recruits; others, veterans. Some wanted to stay in the New World after the war. Krebs further describes how the Germans were made prisoners, either through capture or surrender, and brings to life their experiences in captivity from New England to Havana, Cuba. Krebs discusses prison conditions in detail, addressing both the American approach to war prisoners and the prisoners’ responses to their experience. He assesses American efforts as a “generous and merciful enemy” to use the prisoners as economic, military, and propagandistic assets. In the process, he never loses sight of the impact of imprisonment on the POWs themselves. Adding new dimensions to an important but often neglected topic in military history, Krebs probes the origins of the modern treatment of POWs. An epilogue describes an almost-forgotten 1785 treaty between the United States and Prussia, the first in western legal history to regulate the treatment of prisoners of war.

Download or read book Hessians written by Friederike Baer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 1776 and 1783, Britain hired an estimated 30,000 German soldiers to fight in its war against the Americans. Collectively known as Hessians, they actually came from six German territories within the Holy Roman Empire. Over the course of the war, members of the German corps, including women and children, spent extended periods of time in locations as dispersed and varied as Canada in the North to West Florida and Cuba in the South. They shared in every significant British military triumph and defeat. Thousands died of disease, were killed in battle, were captured by the enemy, or deserted. Collectively, they recorded their experiences and observations of the war they fought in, the land they traversed, and the people they encountered in a large body of letters, diaries, and similar private and official records. Friederike Baer presents a study of Britain's war against the American rebels from the perspective of the German soldiers, a people uniquely positioned both in the midst of the war and at its margins. The book offers a ground-breaking reimagining of this watershed event in world history.

Download or read book The Hessians written by Rodney Atwood and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-08-15 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of the German auxiliaries who fought with the British against the American colonists.

Download or read book A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution written by Johann Conrad Döhla and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unique diary, written by one of the thirty thousand Hessian troops whose services were sold to George III to suppress the American Revolution, is the most complete and informative primary account of the Revolution from the common soldier's point of view. Johann Conrad Döhla describes not just military activities but also events leading up to the Revolution, American customs, the cities and regions that he visited, and incidents in other parts of the world that affected the war. He also evaluates the important military commanders, giving readers an insight into how the enlisted men felt about their leaders and opponents. Private Döhla crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1777 as a private in the Ansbach-Bayreuth contingent of Hessian mercenaries. His American sojourn began in June 1777 in New York. Then, after several months on Staten Island and Manhatten, the Ansbach-Bayreuth regiments traveled to the thriving seaport of Newport, Rhode Island, where they spent more than a year before the British forces evacuated the area. The Ansbach-Bayreuth regiments returned briefly to the New York New Jersey area before they were sent to reinforce the English command in Virginia. Eventually Döhla participated in the battle of Yorktown—of which he provides a vivid description—before enduring two years as a prisoner of war after Cornwallis's surrender. Bruce E. Burgoyne has provided an accurate translation, helpful notes for scholars and general readers, and an introduction on the Ansbach-Bayreuth regiments and the history of Johann Conrad Döhla and his diary. This first edition of the diary in English will delight all who are interested in the American Revolution and the thirteen original colonies.

Download or read book Letters of Brunswick and Hessian Officers During the American Revolution written by August Hund and published by Albany, N.Y. : J. Munsell. This book was released on 1891 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Crossroads of the Revolution written by William L Kidder and published by Knox Press. This book was released on 2019-03-19 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History of Trenton New Jersey during the American Revolution Exhaustively researched and beautifully written, this it he story of revolutionary Trenton, New Jersey both a critical supply post and a crucial junction halfway between loyalist New York, and patriot Philadelphia. Trenton between 1774 and 1783 is a microcosm of the challenges faced by ordinary Americans during the revolution, struggles intensified by Trenton’s geographic location in the state which saw more military activity than others and on a road constantly user to move and supply armies. Life in Trenton connected to just about every aspect of the revolution. The story of the people who lived in Trenton, or who spent time there because of the revolution, helps us better understand the hitherto untold importance of their town beyond the one well known day of battle. Praise for CROSSROADS OF THE REVOLUTION: 1774 - 1783 A meticulous, compelling, and well-researched account of how the American Revolution pivoted around a village in southern New Jersey.– Rick Atkinson, Pulitzer Prize Winning Historian William L. Kidder’s Crossroads of the Revolution: Trenton, 1774-1783is a gem. In this engaging and well-researched narrative, Kidder shines a light on Trenton, its people, and the events that centered on that town. Most Americans know Trenton as the location of George Washington’s post-Christmas victory over a Hessian brigade in 1776. Trenton was, however, much more than that. It was an active and lively town at the center of the American Revolution in New Jersey. Through his lively writing bolstered by assiduous research, Kidder tells the stories of Whigs, Loyalists, slaves, Britons, Hessians, and others who helped make Trenton a crossroads of the American Revolution. Readers will not be disappointed. - Ricardo A. Herrera is Associate Professor of Military History, US Army School of Advanced Military Studies and the author ofFor Liberty and the Republic: The American Citizen as Soldier, 1775-1861. Known by most Americans for an hour of dramatic combat, Trenton was a small but important industrial city at the crux of so much of the War for Independence. Mr. Kidder’s marvelous study not only brings to life Trenton’s many unique personalities, but stands as a valuable case study for how a town and its people weathered and adapted through nine grueling years in the eye of the storm we know as the Revolution.Richard Patterson Executive Director, Old Barracks Museum, Trenton, NJ Most histories of the Revolution remember Trenton, New Jersey, simply as the battle site where George Washington snatched the Patriot cause from the jaws of defeat on December 26, 1776, with his surprise attack on a Hessian brigade. William L. Kidder’s Crossroads of the Revolution, presents a vivid, well-research portrait of a community at war, which reveals the daily courage and persistence it took to win independence. Trentonians faced a daunting array of crises and other challenges between 1774 and 1783, and innumerable options with unpredictable outcomes. Not all chose the same course – not all saw their stories end happily – but all were Americans who sought to define liberty in their own terms – much like their descendants who live in equally uncertain times today. Gregory J. W. Urwin, Professor of History, Temple University

Download or read book Dangerous Guests written by Ken Miller and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2014-09-19 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Dangerous Guests, Ken Miller reveals how wartime pressures nurtured a budding patriotism in the ethnically diverse revolutionary community of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. During the War for Independence, American revolutionaries held more than thirteen thousand prisoners—both British regulars and their so-called Hessian auxiliaries—in makeshift detention camps far from the fighting. As the Americans’ principal site for incarcerating enemy prisoners of war, Lancaster stood at the nexus of two vastly different revolutionary worlds: one national, the other intensely local. Captives came under the control of local officials loosely supervised by state and national authorities. Concentrating the prisoners in the heart of their communities brought the revolutionaries’ enemies to their doorstep, with residents now facing a daily war at home. Many prisoners openly defied their hosts, fleeing, plotting, and rebelling, often with the clandestine support of local loyalists. By early 1779, General George Washington, furious over the captives’ ongoing attempts to subvert the American war effort, branded them "dangerous guests in the bowels of our Country." The challenge of creating an autonomous national identity in the newly emerging United States was nowhere more evident than in Lancaster, where the establishment of a detention camp served as a flashpoint for new conflict in a community already unsettled by stark ethnic, linguistic, and religious differences. Many Lancaster residents soon sympathized with the Hessians detained in their town while the loyalist population considered the British detainees to be the true patriots of the war. Miller demonstrates that in Lancaster, the notably local character of the war reinforced not only preoccupations with internal security but also novel commitments to cause and country.

Download or read book Britannia s Auxiliaries written by Stephen Conway and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did continental Europeans contribute to the eighteenth-century British Empire? Stephen Conway observes how European settlers, soldiers, scientists, sailors, clergymen, merchants, and technical experts contributed to the British Empire, and how they were shaped by imperial direction and control.

Download or read book The British Invasion of Delaware Aug Sep 1777 written by Gerald J. Kauffman and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2011-01-06 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the American War for Independence in Augustand September, 1777, the British invaded Delaware aspart of an end-run campaign to defeat GeorgeWashington and the Americans and capture the capitalat Philadelphia. For a few short weeks the hills andstreams in and around Newark and Iron Hill and at Cooch's Bridge along the Christina River were the focus of worldhistory as the British marched through the Diamond State between the Chesapeake Bay and Brandywine Creek.This is the story of the British invasion of Delaware,one of the lesser known but critical watershedmoments in American history.

Download or read book The Hessian Prison Camp Reading Pennsylvania 1776 1783 written by Jane a Summer Owen Mrs D & B Kevin and published by Franklin Classics. This book was released on 2018-10-12 with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Download or read book Diary of the American War written by Johann von Ewald and published by New Haven : Yale University Press. This book was released on 1979 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a translation of the diary written by Hessian mercenary Captain Johann Ewald during his service in the American Revolutionary war. Written with humanity, sensitivity, and humor, Ewald's diary discloses many previously unknown facts. His opinions of the British generals and his discussions of their operations, tactics and mistakes are both revealing and entertaining.

Download or read book Engineers of Independence written by Paul K. Walker and published by The Minerva Group, Inc.. This book was released on 2002-08 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of documents, including many previously unpublished, details the role of the Army engineers in the American Revolution. Lacking trained military engineers, the Americans relied heavily on foreign officers, mostly from France, for sorely needed technical assistance. Native Americans joined the foreign engineer officers to plan and carry out offensive and defensive operations, direct the erection of fortifications, map vital terrain, and lay out encampments. During the war Congress created the Corps of Engineers with three companies of engineer troops as well as a separate geographer's department to assist the engineers with mapping. Both General George Washington and Major General Louis Lebéque Duportail, his third and longest serving Chief Engineer, recognized the disadvantages of relying on foreign powers to fill the Army's crucial need for engineers. America, they contended, must train its own engineers for the future. Accordingly, at the war's end, they suggested maintaining a peacetime engineering establishment and creating a military academy. However, Congress rejected the proposals, and the Corps of Engineers and its companies of sappers and miners mustered out of service. Eleven years passed before Congress authorized a new establishment, the Corps of Artillerists and Engineers.

Download or read book Washington s Crossing written by David Hackett Fischer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006-02-01 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Six months after the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution was all but lost. A powerful British force had routed the Americans at New York, occupied three colonies, and advanced within sight of Philadelphia. Yet, as David Hackett Fischer recounts in this riveting history, George Washington--and many other Americans--refused to let the Revolution die. On Christmas night, as a howling nor'easter struck the Delaware Valley, he led his men across the river and attacked the exhausted Hessian garrison at Trenton, killing or capturing nearly a thousand men. A second battle of Trenton followed within days. The Americans held off a counterattack by Lord Cornwallis's best troops, then were almost trapped by the British force. Under cover of night, Washington's men stole behind the enemy and struck them again, defeating a brigade at Princeton. The British were badly shaken. In twelve weeks of winter fighting, their army suffered severe damage, their hold on New Jersey was broken, and their strategy was ruined. Fischer's richly textured narrative reveals the crucial role of contingency in these events. We see how the campaign unfolded in a sequence of difficult choices by many actors, from generals to civilians, on both sides. While British and German forces remained rigid and hierarchical, Americans evolved an open and flexible system that was fundamental to their success. The startling success of Washington and his compatriots not only saved the faltering American Revolution, but helped to give it new meaning.

Download or read book Choosing Sides written by Ruma Chopra and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2013-06-07 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though scores of texts, films and stories have been told about the American Revolution from the perspectives of our Founding Fathers and their followers, comparatively little is known about those colonists who resisted the revolutionary movement, and tried desperately to preserve their nation’s ties to the British Empire. Choosing Sides: Loyalists in Revolutionary America shows us that America’s original colonies were not nearly as united behind the concept of forming free, independent states as our society’s collective memory would have us believe. There were, in fact, numerous colonists, slaves, and Native Americans who counted themselves among the Loyalists: those who never wanted to sever ties with the English crown and who viewed revolution as an unnatural and unlawful mistake. Too often overlooked, these men and women made valid and valuable arguments against the formation of the United States—both weighing the costs of revolution and the perilousness of existing without the Empire’s command— arguments that even hundreds of years into America’s existence were echoed and championed both within and beyond our borders. Colonists from commoners to clergymen had nuanced and complex reasons for wanting to remain under British control, and an awareness of these reasons and their origins paints a more historically accurate portrait of the American populous around the time of our country’s founding. This volume not only showcases Dr. Chopra’s comprehensive analysis of Loyalism and its arguments, but includes letters, legislation and even poems written by Loyalists during and after the Revolutionary War. Choosing Sides lays a detailed foundation of facts for its readers and provides them entry points to the debate surrounding the genesis of the United States. It is both a primary source and a touchstone for original interpretations and discussions.

Download or read book Journal of the Hessian J ger Corps 1777 1779 written by Ian Saberton and published by . This book was released on 2018-10-18 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work contains the more significant part of a wider journal kept by the Hessian Jäger Corps during the American Revolutionary War ― a corps forming part of the German mercenary troops employed by the British. It is particularly interesting for its first-hand account of the jägers' involvement in the Philadelphia campaign, the occupation of Philadelphia, and the subsequent withdrawal across New Jersey to New York. Besides an English translation, the German text is provided. At the start of the Philadelphia campaign the Jäger Corps comprised four companies of foot jägers ― three Hessian and one Anspach ― and one mounted company, in all 600 men. As their name implies, most were huntsmen and all were crack shots, being armed with rifles, not muskets. While at Philadelphia the Corps was augmented by two newly arrived companies from Germany, increasing the total complement to 900, but it had suffered materially by attrition. For example, in the Battle of Brandywine two officers and six men were killed, whereas three sergeants and 35 privates were seriously wounded, the former of whom and many of the latter died. And so the losses continued during the numerous minor actions in which the Corps was engaged. The élite of the Hessian troops, the jägers were employed to great advantage in leading the van of a marching army or protecting its rear, covering a withdrawal, reconnoitring, and conducting partisan warfare, particularly ambuscades.

Download or read book Historical Dictionary of the American Revolution written by Terry M. Mays and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2009-11-18 with total page 653 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This greatly expanded second edition of the Historical Dictionary of the American Revolution covers more battles, skirmishes, and raids of the American Revolution than any other printed source. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, maps and photos, a bibliography, and over 1000 cross-referenced dictionary entries.

Download or read book American Prisoners of the Revolution written by Danske Dandridge and published by IndyPublish.com. This book was released on 1911 with total page 760 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.