What scholars of the RevWar say of the Hessians: one-third were killed, one-third stayed here and one-third went home. And to think of them as ‘mercenaries’ is not quite fair: they were conscripted by their prince and sent off to war. These were not, for the most part, paid soldiers of fortune.
I’m descended from one of those Hessian soldiers, my earliest ancestor in America. By the family account, he was considered a mercenary. But he did indeed choose to stay in America (New Jersey). It would be interesting to do more research on him, since I only have bare-bones accounts, I’m not clear on his last name.