Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,994
The Hessians are coming ...!
Landgraf Friedrich II of Hessen is well known for his extravagant, luxurious and very expensive lifestyle ...:
Only the best is just good enough for the provincial potentate!
In 1776 the Landgraf once again urgently needed money and was trying hard to find new sources of finance.
"Dear God save us from plague and death, from blood and misery and the lLandgraf with his Landjägers" was a popular prayer at the time.
What luck for the sovereign that at the same time a bitter war of independence against the English crown is raging in the American colonies of the friendly British.
If you look at the British cousin George III.
... so could sell soldiers that you don't need yourself anyway, because your own country is in deepest peace ...?
The English, on the other hand, are delighted to receive trained and disciplined blood - well-drilled according to the Prussian school of the Old Dessauer!
Whereby the English rate the Hessian soldiers as brave and disciplined, but also quite limited, as an English caricature of a Hessian from that time shows ...:
On January 15, 1776, the Landgraf of Hesse - together with princes of several other German states - signed the so-called "Subsidy Agreements" with English agents ...:
In total, the Hessian ruler sends around 19,000 soldiers to America, 12,000 of whom are real children of the country, the remainder were recruited in Germany "abroad".
The soldiers form 15 infantry regiments ...
- Füsilier-Regiment von Lossberg – (No.2)
- Füsilier-Regiment von Knyphausen Wilhelm zu Innhausen und Knyphausen – (No.3)
- Musketier-Regiment von Donop – (No.4)
- Musketier-Regiment von Wutginau (ab 1777 Regiment Landgraf) – (No.5)
- Leib-Infanterie-Regiment – (No.7)
- Musketier-Regiment von Trümbach (ab 1779 Carl von Bose) – (No.8)
- Musketier-Regiment Prinz Carl – (No.9)
- Füsilier-Regiment von Ditfurth – (No.10)
- Musketier-Regiment von Mirbach (ab 1780 Jung von Lossburg) – (No.11)
- Füsilier-Regiment Erbprinz (ab 1780 Musketier-Regiment Prinz Friedrich) – (No.12)
- Grenadier-Regiment von Rall (ab 1777 Wolfgang Friedrich von Wöllwarth; ab 1778 von Karl Levin von Trümbach; ab
1779 Louis d'Angelelli) – (No.14)
- Garnisons-Regiment von Bünau
- Garnisons-Regiment von Huyn (later von Benning)
- Garnisons-Regiment von Stein (later von Seitz; von Porbeck)
- Garnisons-Regiment von Wissenbach (later von Knoblauch)
... 4 merged grenadier battalions (from grenadier companies of several fusilier and musketeer regiments):
1. Grenadier-Bataillon von Linsing
2. Grenadier-Bataillon von Block (later von Lengerke)
3. Grenadier-Bataillon von Minnigerode (later von Löwenstein)
4. Grenadier-Bataillon von Köhler (later von Graf von Platte)
...2 companies of Feldjäer (who have reconnaissance, courier and police duties) ...
...and an artillery corps....:
Later there are three companies of Feldjäger on foot and one on horseback ...:
The troop strength of the Hessians in North America is always between 10,000 and 12,000 men during the course of the war and thus makes up about a third of the total contingent of British troops in the North American colonies.
The Hessian contingent is subordinate to the British General Sir John Bourgoyne ("Gentleman Johnny") ...:
Mr. Landgraf takes 19 million thalers in for this - of which around eight million are spent as advertising money to those recruited "abroad" and as wages!
On the whole, however, fights remained relatively rare exceptions!
There were units that had not participated in a single battle during the entire war. 6,500 Hessians die, 1,800 of them from fighting.
The next picture shows Hessian soldiers in the battle of Trenton on December 26th, 1776, which ended with a defeat - regimental commander Colonel Johann von Rall has just fallen ...
Instead, the troops march through the deserted wilderness or spend months and years in monotonous garrison service. Here the mercenaries met their most dangerous enemies: climate and disease.
The beautiful uniforms prove to be completely unsuitable from the start, and it sounds like a bad joke that a lot of Hessians died of heat stroke on the marches in summer.
But even in the bitter cold winters, the uniforms, which were then quickly tattered, were of little more use than the thin blankets and tents!
Especially in Canada there are heavy frostbite losses.!
Those Hessians who are stationed in one place for a longer period of time lived in earthen huts that are barely covered with boards, branches and straw.
The longer the war lasts, the more soldiers desert! They are beginning to appreciate the far freer life in America and did not want to return to their absolutist, narrow homeland!
One of the soldiers who eventually hit the bushes is a grenadier named Küster - one of his descendants will gain fame as General (Brev.) George Armstrong Custer in the US Civil War and the "Indian Wars" that followed!
Instead, the troops march through the deserted wilderness or spend months and years in monotonous garrison service. Here the mercenaries met their most dangerous enemies: climate and disease.
The beautiful uniforms prove to be completely unsuitable from the start, and it sounds like a bad joke that a lot of Hessians died of heat stroke on the marches in summer.
But even in the bitter cold winters, the uniforms, which were then quickly tattered, were of little more use than the thin blankets and tents!
After the end of the war, the remaining Hessian soldiers are repatriated to their homeland.
On September 22nd, 1783, for example, three companies from America arrive back in Steinau.
They are barely a quarter of their required strength. These companies had marched out 465 men.
Although they were no longer involved in fighting in the New World, 231 died of disease, 45 were able to desert and 9 were poached by the Dutch...
Landgraf Friedrich II of Hessen is well known for his extravagant, luxurious and very expensive lifestyle ...:
Only the best is just good enough for the provincial potentate!
In 1776 the Landgraf once again urgently needed money and was trying hard to find new sources of finance.
"Dear God save us from plague and death, from blood and misery and the lLandgraf with his Landjägers" was a popular prayer at the time.
What luck for the sovereign that at the same time a bitter war of independence against the English crown is raging in the American colonies of the friendly British.
If you look at the British cousin George III.
... so could sell soldiers that you don't need yourself anyway, because your own country is in deepest peace ...?
The English, on the other hand, are delighted to receive trained and disciplined blood - well-drilled according to the Prussian school of the Old Dessauer!
Whereby the English rate the Hessian soldiers as brave and disciplined, but also quite limited, as an English caricature of a Hessian from that time shows ...:
On January 15, 1776, the Landgraf of Hesse - together with princes of several other German states - signed the so-called "Subsidy Agreements" with English agents ...:
In total, the Hessian ruler sends around 19,000 soldiers to America, 12,000 of whom are real children of the country, the remainder were recruited in Germany "abroad".
The soldiers form 15 infantry regiments ...
- Füsilier-Regiment von Lossberg – (No.2)
- Füsilier-Regiment von Knyphausen Wilhelm zu Innhausen und Knyphausen – (No.3)
- Musketier-Regiment von Donop – (No.4)
- Musketier-Regiment von Wutginau (ab 1777 Regiment Landgraf) – (No.5)
- Leib-Infanterie-Regiment – (No.7)
- Musketier-Regiment von Trümbach (ab 1779 Carl von Bose) – (No.8)
- Musketier-Regiment Prinz Carl – (No.9)
- Füsilier-Regiment von Ditfurth – (No.10)
- Musketier-Regiment von Mirbach (ab 1780 Jung von Lossburg) – (No.11)
- Füsilier-Regiment Erbprinz (ab 1780 Musketier-Regiment Prinz Friedrich) – (No.12)
- Grenadier-Regiment von Rall (ab 1777 Wolfgang Friedrich von Wöllwarth; ab 1778 von Karl Levin von Trümbach; ab
1779 Louis d'Angelelli) – (No.14)
- Garnisons-Regiment von Bünau
- Garnisons-Regiment von Huyn (later von Benning)
- Garnisons-Regiment von Stein (later von Seitz; von Porbeck)
- Garnisons-Regiment von Wissenbach (later von Knoblauch)
... 4 merged grenadier battalions (from grenadier companies of several fusilier and musketeer regiments):
1. Grenadier-Bataillon von Linsing
2. Grenadier-Bataillon von Block (later von Lengerke)
3. Grenadier-Bataillon von Minnigerode (later von Löwenstein)
4. Grenadier-Bataillon von Köhler (later von Graf von Platte)
...2 companies of Feldjäer (who have reconnaissance, courier and police duties) ...
...and an artillery corps....:
Later there are three companies of Feldjäger on foot and one on horseback ...:
The troop strength of the Hessians in North America is always between 10,000 and 12,000 men during the course of the war and thus makes up about a third of the total contingent of British troops in the North American colonies.
The Hessian contingent is subordinate to the British General Sir John Bourgoyne ("Gentleman Johnny") ...:
Mr. Landgraf takes 19 million thalers in for this - of which around eight million are spent as advertising money to those recruited "abroad" and as wages!
On the whole, however, fights remained relatively rare exceptions!
There were units that had not participated in a single battle during the entire war. 6,500 Hessians die, 1,800 of them from fighting.
The next picture shows Hessian soldiers in the battle of Trenton on December 26th, 1776, which ended with a defeat - regimental commander Colonel Johann von Rall has just fallen ...
Instead, the troops march through the deserted wilderness or spend months and years in monotonous garrison service. Here the mercenaries met their most dangerous enemies: climate and disease.
The beautiful uniforms prove to be completely unsuitable from the start, and it sounds like a bad joke that a lot of Hessians died of heat stroke on the marches in summer.
But even in the bitter cold winters, the uniforms, which were then quickly tattered, were of little more use than the thin blankets and tents!
Especially in Canada there are heavy frostbite losses.!
Those Hessians who are stationed in one place for a longer period of time lived in earthen huts that are barely covered with boards, branches and straw.
The longer the war lasts, the more soldiers desert! They are beginning to appreciate the far freer life in America and did not want to return to their absolutist, narrow homeland!
One of the soldiers who eventually hit the bushes is a grenadier named Küster - one of his descendants will gain fame as General (Brev.) George Armstrong Custer in the US Civil War and the "Indian Wars" that followed!
Instead, the troops march through the deserted wilderness or spend months and years in monotonous garrison service. Here the mercenaries met their most dangerous enemies: climate and disease.
The beautiful uniforms prove to be completely unsuitable from the start, and it sounds like a bad joke that a lot of Hessians died of heat stroke on the marches in summer.
But even in the bitter cold winters, the uniforms, which were then quickly tattered, were of little more use than the thin blankets and tents!
After the end of the war, the remaining Hessian soldiers are repatriated to their homeland.
On September 22nd, 1783, for example, three companies from America arrive back in Steinau.
They are barely a quarter of their required strength. These companies had marched out 465 men.
Although they were no longer involved in fighting in the New World, 231 died of disease, 45 were able to desert and 9 were poached by the Dutch...
