Author(s): Lyman H. Butterfield
Source: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Jun. 20, 1950, Vol. 94, No. 3, Studies of Historical Documents in the Library of the American Philosophical Society (Jun. 20, 1950), pp. 233-241
Published by: American Philosophical Society
McConachy, Bruce
The Journal of Military History; Lexington Vol. 65, Iss. 3, (Jul 2001): 617-640.
German "Mercenaries" with the British in Canada during the American Revolution (1776-83)
by Jean-Pierre Wilhelmy, Virginia Easley DeMarce, and Marcel Trudel
Overview
A fascinating study that uncovers an important aspect of the history of the American Revolution, this account reveals how the British Army that fought the American Revolutionaries was, in fact, an Anglo-German army. Arguing that the British Crown had doubts about the willingness of English soldiers to fight against other English-speaking people in North America, the book details how the task of providing troops fell upon the princes of German States, who were relatives of England's ruling family. In return for large amounts of money, German princes and barons provided about 30,000 soldiers, many of whom were dragged unwillingly from their families and sent to fight in a war in which they had no interest. While some of the soldiers eventually melted into the French and English-speaking societies of Canada, little history has been available, not even to the descendant families. These soldiers' experiences offer new insight into the battles that took place between 1776 and 1783 and had an impact that spanned four countries.
(Book Review)
The subject of military culture has been neglected in recent writing on war and eighteenth-century central European society. A great deal is now known about the material conditions of German soldiers and their relationship to civilians, but this has yet to filter through to discussions of what might be considered military culture that is still presented through the paradigm of standing armies and absolutism. The primary focus is on Prussia as the defining German military power. The Hohenzollern monarchy is widely regarded as the most heavily militarized of all the old regime great powers. Military power not only created the state, but shaped its economic and social development, fostering a slavish subservience to authority and veneration of martial values, according to the influential 'social militarisation' thesis of Otto Büsch.Kleinstaaterei ) of the lesser principalities that are often perceived as debased, yet still more extreme versions of Prussia. Examples include Landgrave Ludwig IX of Hessen-Darmstadt and Duke Carl Eugen of Württemberg who dressed and drilled their 'miniature armies' in the Prussian manner. Better known are the 'Hessians' or auxiliaries from six principalities, including Hessen-Kassel, who fought for Britain against the American Revolutionaries and have long been regarded as the archetypal mercenaries of petty despots. In short, military culture is defined as 'militarism' and state power as despotic 'absolutism'.
Originally published in 1960, Captain Franz Roeder’s ability to bring to life the rigours in the Hessian Lifeguards during Napoleon’s ill-fated invasion of Russia in 1812-13, together with Helen Roeder’s skilful narrative, make this book one of the most compelling accounts of the sufferings of the Napoleonic Army. This is both an impelling personal story and a document of outstanding historical interest.
Description
Set in 1781, on the Connecticut Ridge. The American War of Independence has now moved south, but a detachment of Hessian soldiers land from a British frigate off the Sound and cause old wounds to reopen. Squire Hunt convenes the militia and seeks total revenge, leaving Evan Feversham with the question 'Is war merciless - or are men merciless Pastor?' There are times when the circumstances of life become implacable and then vou have the feeling that no force or argument or plea can alter them. One event moving in the tracks of another with the mindless, plodding motion of a great ox.'
GENERAL SIR WILLIAM HOWE'S OPERATIONS IN PENNSYLVANIA, 1777.
The Battle on the Brandywine Creek—11 September—and the Action at Germantown—4 October
Author(s): Evan W. H. Fyers
Source: Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research , OCTOBER, 1929, Vol. 8, No. 34 (OCTOBER, 1929), pp. 228-241
Source: Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research , JANUARY, 1930, Vol. 9, No. 35 (JANUARY, 1930), pp. 27-42
Grant’s Waterloo Intelligence: Was Dörnberg the Cause of Wellington’s Delays?
Author(s): Peter Hofschröer
Source: Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research , Autumn 1998, Vol. 76, No. 307 (Autumn 1998), pp. 163-176
Published by: Society for Army Historical Research
The Wars of the French Revolution, 1792–1801 offers a comprehensive and jargon-free coverage of this turbulent period and unites political, social, military and international history in one volume. Carefully designed for undergraduate students, through twelve chapters this book offers an introduction to the origins and international context of the French Revolution as well as an in-depth examination of the reasons why war began. Aspects unpicked within the book include how France acquired a de facto empire stretching from Holland to Naples; the impact of French conquest on the areas concerned; the spread of French ideas beyond the frontiers of the French imperium; the response of the powers of Europe to the sudden expansion in French military power; the experience of the conflicts unleashed by the French Revolution in such areas as the West Indies, Egypt and India; and the impact of war on the Revolution itself. Offering extensive geographical coverage and challenging many preconceived ideas, The Wars of the French Revolution, 1792–1801 is the perfect resource for students of the French Revolution and international military history more broadly.
Abstract
The link between Hitler's Third Reich and European royalty has gone largely unexplored due to the secrecy surrounding royal families. Now, in Royals and the Reich, Jonathan Petropoulos uses unprecedented access to royal archives to tell the fascinating story of the Princes of Hesse and the important role they played in the Nazi regime.Princes Philipp and Christoph von Hessen-Kassel, great-grandsons of Queen Victoria of England, had been humiliated by defeat in WWI and, like much of the German aristocracy, feared the social unrest wrought by the ineffective Weimar Republic. Petropoulos shows how the princes, lured by prominent positions in the Nazi regime and highly susceptible to nationalist appeals, became enthusiastic supporters of Hitler. Prince Philipp, son-in-law to the King of Italy, became the highest-ranking prince in the Nazi state and developed a close personal relationship with Hitler and Hermann Goring. Prince Christoph was a prominent SS officer and head of one of the most important intelligence agencies in the Third Reich. In return, the princes made the Nazis socially acceptable to wealthy, high-society patrons. Prince Philipp even introduced Goring to Mussolini at a critical stage in the Nazi Party's development and later served as a liaison between Hitler and the Italian dictator. Permitted access to Hessen family private papers and the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle, Petropoulos follows the story of the House of Hesse through to its tragic denouement--the princes' betrayal and persecution by an increasingly paranoid Hitler and prosecution and denazification by the Allies.
Jonathan Petropoulos
Oxford University Press, USA, May 1, 2006
Abstract
The occupation of Hesse-Kassel during the Thirty Years War has been discussed by historians like John Thiebault. This paper revisits this topic with an analysis of letters exchanged between ordinary Hessian civilians and common cavalrymen in the Liga army in July 1625. While this occupation was indeed a crisis, the relationships between these soldiers and other people were also ambivalent and contingent, including kinship. Since these relationships were inextricably meshed in the interactions between early-modern armies and their surroundings, this article discusses war and the environment. These letters help reveal early-modern military operations on the smallest scale.
"THE RIGOR OF THE LAW OF EXCHANGE":
How People Changed Commercial Law and Commercial Law Changed People
Author(s): Colin F. Wilder
Source: Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung , 2015, Vol. 42, No. 4 (2015), pp. 629-659 Published by: Duncker & Humblot GmbH
The Highlanders in Westphalia, 1760-62: And the Development of Light Infantry
Author(s): CT Atkinson
Source: Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, Winter, 1941, Vol. 20, No. 80 (Winter, 1941), pp. 208-223
Published by: Society for Army Historical Research
The Hesse-Cassel Emigrants: A New Sample of Transatlantic Emigrants Linked to Their Origins
Simone A. Wegge
ABSTRACT
Over fifty million people emigrated from Europe between 1815 and 1930. Only a small fraction of these emigrants have been studied using data collected in their homelands. This paper presents a new sample of European emigrants who migrated from Germany in the mid-nineteenth century. The emigrants are linked to data describing the socioeconomic characteristics of their home villages. These data are promising for studying many issues in the migration literature, particularly migration behavior and the causes of emigration.
Author(s): Friederike Baer
Source: Early American Studies, Winter 2015, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Winter 2015), p. 111-150
Author(s): Peter K. Taylor
Source: Central European History, Mar., 1989, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Mar., 1989), pp. 33-56
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of Central European History Society
Sir Henry Clinton's "Journal of the Siege of Charleston, 1780"
Author(s): Henry Clinton and William T. Bulger
Source: The South Carolina Historical Magazine, Jul., 1965, Vol. 66, No. 3 (Jul., 1965), pp. 147-174
Published by: South Carolina Historical Society
A British View of the Siege of Charleston, 1776
Author(s): Frances Reece Kepner
Source: The Journal of Southern History, Feb., 1945, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Feb., 1945), pp. 93-103
Published by: Southern Historical Association
Author(s): Joseph W. Barnwell
Source: The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Jan., 1910, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Jan., 1910), pp. 1-26
Published by: South Carolina Historical Society
Author(s): John Wilson and Joseph Ioor Waring
Source: The South Carolina Historical Magazine, Jul., 1965, Vol. 66, No. 3 (Jul., 1965), pp. 175-182
Published by: South Carolina Historical Society
Author(s): Alexander R. Stoesen
Source: The South Carolina Historical Magazine, Apr., 1962, Vol. 63, No. 2 (Apr., 1962), pp. 71-82
Published by: South Carolina Historical Society
Source: McGill University
Contributed by: McGill University Library; Digby, William, active 1776, author; Baxter, James Phinney, 1831-1921, publisher
Rhetorical Impetus: Methods and Motivations of Hessian
Desertion Source: Guilford College
Contributed by: Mask, Dylan Thomas
Prisoners of Independence: British and Hessian Enemy Prisoners of War
Book Title: The Enemy in Our Hands
Book Subtitle: America's Treatment of Prisoners of War from the Revolution to the War on Terror
Book Author(s): Robert C. Doyle
Published by: University Press of Kentucky
Author(s): Peter K. Taylor
Source: Journal of Social History, Spring, 1992, Vol. 25, No. 3 (Spring, 1992), pp. 479-504
Published by: Oxford University Press
Author(s): Brian Lyndon
Source: Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, SUMMER 1976, Vol. 54, No. 218 (SUMMER 1976), pp. 108-120
Published by: Society for Army Historical Research
Memoir's of a Hessian Conscript: JG Seumes Reluctant Voyage to America
Author(s): Margarete Woelfel
Source: The William and Mary Quarterly, Oct., 1948, Vol. 5, No. 4 (Oct., 1948), pp. 553-570
Published by: Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
Author(s): Major Carl Baurmeister, Bernhard A. Uhlendorf and Edna Vosper
Source: The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Jan., 1936, Vol. 60, No. 1 (Jan., 1936), pp. 34-52
Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press
