On this day 250 years ago, the King of Great Britain entered into a treaty with the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel whereby the Landgrave would furnish “twelve thousand men, completely equipped, and with artillery if desired.” In return, Britain would pay “30 crowns banco, or £7 4s. 4½d.” for every man amounting to £108,281 5s. per year to the Landgrave. Although the Hessians soldiers were sometimes referred to as mercenaries, in fact they were simply soldiers of the Hessian army, and their prince rented his army out to the King of Great Britain to fight in America. Eventually, 16,992 soldiers from Hesse-Cassel would sail to America to fight as part of the British army during the Revolution.
Five other German principalities rented out their soldiers to the British (Brunswick, Waldeck, Anspach-Bayreuth, Anhalt-Zerbst and the similarly named but separate Hesse-Hanau), but the largest contingent of Germans — more than half of the total — came from Hesse-Cassel, and the Americans would call all the Germans fighting for the British simply “Hessians.” The majority of the German soldiers would return home to Germany after the War but 42% of them did not return. Most of those who remained in America died of disease or combat, but a significant portion liked what they saw in America and decided to stay. A few of the German soldiers defected during the War, but a larger number declined to go home when they were released as prisoners of war as part of the Treaty of Paris.
On This Day In The Revolution 