Posted on 08/02/2022 4:29:47 PM PDT by bitt
The remains of a dozen Revolutionary War soldiers who were killed in battle two centuries ago have been uncovered in a mass grave in New Jersey, scientists and officials said Tuesday.
Researchers believe they have located the remains of as many as 12 Hessian soldiers — German troops hired by the British — in a field at Red Bank Battlefield Park along the Delaware River in Gloucester County.
The remains were only discovered after a human femur was found back in June during a routine public archaeology dig at the site of the 1777 Battle of Red Bank.
Further excavation uncovered even more skeletal remains, as well as pewter and brass buttons and a King George III gold guinea, which would have been a soldier’s monthly pay.
Officials believe the Hessian soldiers were among the roughly 377 troops killed by Colonials forces during the battle 245 years ago.
Fourteen American soldiers were killed in that battle, according to historians.
“Based on everything we’ve found and the context of what we’ve found, these appear to be Hessians,” Wade Catts, principal archaeologist for South River Heritage Consulting of Delaware, said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Hessians were German, you know.
Pretty cool family history!!!
“One thing more. You know the Huguenot wars in France; what Religion was there, Liberty is here, simply fanaticism, and the effects are the same.”
Interesting comment by the German soldier fighting for the King.
They [the Hessians] weren't that kind of mercenary
Today we consider mercenaries individuals who voluntarily get involved with a conflict for their own personal profit. However, the German soldiers who came to fight were established soldiers in their national armies who were required by their country to serve; the Landgrave (Prince) of Hesse-Cassel himself pocketed the money. This was a widely unpopular move. American Patriots and sympathizers in Europe quickly turned this against the British government. Propaganda like the famous Sale of the Hessians, possibly authored by Benjamin Franklin,followed the defeat at Trenton, attacking the use of these soldiers as being cruel to the Germans who had no stake in the war. It also portrayed the Hessian military leaders and Landgrave as cruel and uncaring about their own people in addition to representing King George as hiring men to slaughter his own people.
https://allthingsliberty.com/2014/08/8-fast-facts-about-hessians/
One of the clauses in the Geneva Convention's definition of a "mercenary" is that they must be paid substantially more than the soldiers of the belligerent parties. The Hessians, however, were paid the same as a common British soldier. More than any other reason, Americans like to call them "mercenaries" because they consider it a pejorative. And 230+ years on they still think there's some point to belittling the British and their allies.
There was a Hessian prison camp out around Reading, Pennsylvania. Probably most of those men never saw home again. I don’t know if they were eligible to be formally exchanged for colonial prisoners.
It must be the only battle of the war in which two future Presidents were present: George Washington and James Monroe.
Install outhouses over the site.
my German greatest grandfather came over about 1710
phenomenal rock mason
he built a cellar in the Shenandoah Valley that a contemporary house sets upon (the original house was lost about 1960 iirc)
he probably fought your mercenary greatest grandfather
“There were, and still are several villas there [Long Island]. Newtown has several streets. Brooklinn, Kirk, etc., is all one long street with trees and houses built close together. You see here neat, little houses with gardens, meadows, and fruit trees in plenty. In Newtown there are two English churches and one Dutch Reformed church”
This was the neiborhood I grew up in, the Newtown section of Elmhurst. One of the English churches mentioned was still there when I left NYC in 02, St. James Church https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._James_Church_(Queens)
Across Broadway is the Reformed Church of Newtown also mentioned https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformed_Church_of_Newtown
A couple of towns East is Flushing which was home to the Flushing Remonstrance, the birth of religious liberty in yhe new world in 1657 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flushing_Remonstrance
ping to #31
During my daughter’s research into her family tree she discovered that, to our surprise, her earliest paternal American ancestor was a Hessian who had deserted. It was quite interesting because the primary record of his military involvement was preserved by the Hessians. We know when he enlisted, when promoted to the grenadiers, when he arrived in New York, when deployed to Howe’s Philadelphia campaign, who his battalion commander was, and where some of his battalion’s battlefield stations were.
What made it extra personal was I was born, grew up, got married and raised my family in the middle of the path of Howe’s march from the head of the Chesapeake to Philadelphia. My childhood home was within one hundred yards of his battalion’s encampment immediately following the battle of Cooche’s Bridge. I got to visit each of the battlefields where he was involved. It was shortly after the battle of Red Bank that he deserted. I can only wonder if he finally succumbed to the Colonial enticements after the Hessians took it on the chin there. What we don’t know is what became of him between his desertion and his marriage recorded to a girl in Lancaster, PA. After his marriage they became part of the very first pioneers to settle Butler county PA raising a slew of kids that generated a slew of descendants. We understand that to this day the families in Butler county have great family reunions.
The touch stones of liberty are still there for all of us.
He thought liberty a religion and mere fanatacism. He had not yet understood that it is the basic nature of all human beings to be free, living in Liberty. People back then did not know that there was a way to live beyong hierarchy or submission to a king. The posibility had not ocurred to them
and so the liberty movement of 1776 was “fanaticism.”
That soldier would make a good democrat, LOL.
I had to look into the history of the Huegonot wars in France. Pretty much a civil war with the Huegonots (Calvinist Protestants) wanting their own territory from Catholic France (late 1500’s).
While the Catholics did prevail, the Protestants did gain some rights and were protected under law.
Thanks!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.