Bob, Hoohah (fifteenth definition = ?Amen?)!That was an excellent breakdown of the ?to be or not to be?? ?a mercenary question.I understand that filling ranks by other than acceptable means was held to a bare minimum.It was not long ago that young American high school students in trouble with the law were offered by the judge a choice to join and serve their country or a prison term?I hardly see that as an acceptable means to fill the ranks of an all volunteer force.However, I don?t remember anyone tagging them as mercenaries.British troops today serving in Iraq suffer similar ridicule and indignity of being pegged ?mercenary? by other EU member nations. In Chapter IV, THE SOLDIERS in THE HESSIANS and the other GERMAN AUXILIARIES OF GREAT BRITAIN IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WARby Edward J. Lowell, Harper and Brothers Publishers New York, 1884 talks a great deal about Hessian Army regulation and recruitment.Nothing there would ever give me any indication anyone domestic and or foreign joining their ranks was a mercenary unless you stretch the true definition.Then you might have to include all Brits, Canadians, Germans, French, and other foreign nationals serving in the US Army (Green Card or no) mercenaries today. Not even the US "China" Marine in the Boxer Rebellion could be mistaken for a mercenary. /R Stephen Washington, DC >-----Original Message----- >From: Bob Brooks [mailto:rcbrooks@pivot.net] >Whether or not the German auxilary troops were "mercenaries" is a subject >where opinions get in the way of facts. In modern terms, it makes a good >"sound bite." I have not studied enough 18th century German history to >consider myself having any kind of expertise on the subject; however, my >limited studies have convinced me that (1) people did not have the person >freedoms which we are accustomed to today, and (2) a military career was an >honorable career. > >Snip... > >==== AMREV-HESSIANS Mailing List ==== >Please stick to our published subject - Hessian Soldiers of the >American Revolution, not WWII or the Civil War. No other Immigrants. >You can search the archives for a specific message or browse them, going from one message to another. >To search: http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/?list=AMREV-HESSIANS >To browse: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/AMREV-HESSIANS-L > >============================== >Census images 1901, 1891, 1881 and 1871, plus so much more. >Ancestry.com's United Kingdom & Ireland Collection. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13968/rd.ashx > >

The German 'soldier trade' as it has been called, is one of those common features of early modern warfare in Europe that seems to puzzle everyone today, and the perhaps one way to look at it is that in fact, those armies were more 'cosmopolitan' than we think of armies being today. Officers and men could serve in different armies with no problem or opprobrium--Rall served in the Russian Army for a while, and there were two French officers in the Hessian Jaeger corps that were given their discharges and safe conduct back to Europe when France declared War on Britain. Jaeger Captain Johann Ewald left the Hessian Army after the war and went to the Danish Army where he had a long career. Make no mistake, a quick look at the Hetrina volumes will show plenty of non Hessians in the Hessian regiments: In the regiment von Donop, for example, there are men from France, Sweden, England and Austria, plus other places in Germany not in Hesse-Kassel, like Mainz. To paraphrase the line in Thackeray's novel "Barry Lyndon"--'Landgraf Friedrich was too much in want of men to care from whence they came'. Friederich's father was supposed to have said that "The Army is our Peru" a reference to the great silver mines the Spanish monarchy had there (and hence money). While the individual soldier was either conscripted or volunteered, the Hessian state could be called mercenary, as Hesse-Kassel provided troops in exchange for money to, at various times between 1677 and the 1815, Denmark, Spain, Venice, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Austria, and Prussia, even going so far as to rent troops to both Austria and Prussia while those two were fighting each other in the War of the Austrian Succession. (A very neat trick, I've always thought). -Robert Sulentic > -----Original Message----- > From: stephen_kohler@mailsnare.net [mailto:stephen_kohler@mailsnare.net] > Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 4:00 PM > To: AMREV-HESSIANS-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [HESSIAN] the term Hessian > > Bob, Hoohah (fifteenth definition = ?Amen?)!That was an excellent > breakdown of the ?to be or not to be?? ?a mercenary question.I understand > that filling ranks by other than acceptable means was held to a bare > minimum.It was not long ago that young American high school students in > trouble with the law were offered by the judge a choice to join and serve > their country or a prison term?I hardly see that as an acceptable means to > fill the ranks of an all volunteer force.However, I don?t remember anyone > tagging them as mercenaries.British troops today serving in Iraq suffer > similar ridicule and indignity of being pegged ?mercenary? by other EU > member nations. > > In Chapter IV, THE SOLDIERS in THE HESSIANS and the other GERMAN > AUXILIARIES OF GREAT BRITAIN IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WARby Edward J. Lowell, > Harper and Brothers Publishers New York, 1884 talks a great deal about > Hessian Army regulation and recruitment.Nothing there would ever give me > any indication anyone domestic and or foreign joining their ranks was a > mercenary unless you stretch the true definition.Then you might have to > include all Brits, Canadians, Germans, French, and other foreign nationals > serving in the US Army (Green Card or no) mercenaries today. > > Not even the US "China" Marine in the Boxer Rebellion could be mistaken > for a mercenary. > > /R > > Stephen > Washington, DC > > > >-----Original Message----- > >From: Bob Brooks [mailto:rcbrooks@pivot.net] > > >Whether or not the German auxilary troops were "mercenaries" is a subject > >where opinions get in the way of facts. In modern terms, it makes a good > >"sound bite." I have not studied enough 18th century German history to > >consider myself having any kind of expertise on the subject; however, my > >limited studies have convinced me that (1) people did not have the person > >freedoms which we are accustomed to today, and (2) a military career was > an > >honorable career. > > > >Snip... > > > >==== AMREV-HESSIANS Mailing List ==== > >Please stick to our published subject - Hessian Soldiers of the > >American Revolution, not WWII or the Civil War. No other Immigrants. > >You can search the archives for a specific message or browse them, going > from one message to another. > >To search: http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/?list=AMREV-HESSIANS > >To browse: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/AMREV-HESSIANS-L > > > >============================== > >Census images 1901, 1891, 1881 and 1871, plus so much more. > >Ancestry.com's United Kingdom & Ireland Collection. Learn more: > http://www.ancestry.com/s13968/rd.ashx > > > > > > > ==== AMREV-HESSIANS Mailing List ==== > HETRINA - "Hessische Truppen im Amerikanischen Unabhaengigkeitskrieg" > Six Volumes covering Hessen-Kassel, Hessen-Hanau, and Waldeck. > HETRINA does not cover Braunschweig/Brunswick, Ansbach-Bayreuth or Anhalt- > Zerbst. Those are partly covered by other publications. > This list was started in 1998 by Johannes (John) Helmut Merz, and you will > find his explanations about HETRINA in our mail list archives. > > ============================== > Search Family and Local Histories for stories about your family and the > areas they lived. Over 85 million names added in the last 12 months. > Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13966/rd.ashx