Hessians: The Best Armies Money Could Buy
By Dennis Showalter

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What was frequently described as Hesse-Kassel’s “golden age” had its downsides. The need to maintain the army’s strength and effectiveness opened the door to an increasing intrusion of government into everyday life. If someone in an exempted category enlisted, his case might even be investigated to make sure he was a true volunteer. On the flip side of the coin, the state encouraged a steady supply of marginalized “have-nots” by adjusting patterns of inheritance and employment. Parents were held responsible for sons who emigrated—even imprisoned until the miscreants reported for duty. One ambitious local official pushed for creation of a commission to enforce the fidelity of wives whose husbands were fighting in North America.

This precursor of what modern commentators call the “mommy state” was, however, more irritating than alienating. More significant was the diet’s growing perception of the subsidy system as a threat to the society it was supposed to nurture, not to mention on its own financial interests. In part this reflected an emerging critique throughout Europe of managed government, or <>dirigisme, in favor of more open economic systems. Its major taproot, however, was pragmatic. In 1773 new legislation in favor of rural primogeniture, with cash payments for younger brothers, created a large number of men suddenly—and unhappily—eligible for conscription. It also generated a legal crisis, as courts were flooded with suits and countersuits involving issues like the right to sell or mortgage land.

The resulting social disruption was enhanced by what initially appeared to be the greatest triumph of Hesse-Kassel’s subsidy system. Even before the outbreak of revolution in its American colonies, the British government had begun negotiations with the Landgraf—who was, not coincidentally, an uncle of King George III. The resulting treaty put almost 20 million thalers into Hesse-Kassel’s treasury—much of it up front, a rare phenomenon in subsidy arrangements. Conditions included payment at British rates—well above local ones—a guarantee not to commit Hessians outside North America, and another guarantee that if Hesse-Kassel itself were attacked, Britain would come to its aid. Finally, in contrast to contemporary British treaties with other German states, Hesse-Kassel’s did not include a blood bonus—to official Hesse-Kassel, proof of its ruler’s enlightenment and goodwill.

All the Landgraf, Frederick II, had to do was maintain some 12,000 men for service across the Atlantic. Meeting the original number required mobilizing four garrison regiments in addition to the field army. Despite the strain on the system, the proposition seemed ideal to the diet, which supported the treaty enthusiastically; it also provided support for the personal lifestyle of Frederick. The general population benefited from more than a half million thalers in pay and bonuses distributed directly to soldiers’ families.

Times, however, were changing. In Europe and in Germany, intellectuals and publicists raised a cry against a “trade in human flesh” that flew in the face of everything the Enlightenment supported. Casualty replacement became an unexpected problem. British soldiers and diplomats promised quick victory. Instead, almost 19,000 Hessians, 7,000 more than the original contingent, crossed the Atlantic after 1776. Five thousand died from all causes, more than 80 percent from disease alone. Another 1,300 were wounded. Between 2,500 and 3,100 went missing. Many of those simply remained in the New World. Their number nevertheless suggested a significant degree of alienation from the subsidy system among those at its sharp end.

The long absence of so many men bore heavily on their families and on a subsistence economy that proved more dependent than expected on the labor of furloughed soldiers. The subsidizing of trade and industry had absorbed funds without generating what would later be described as an economic takeoff.

Tags: 17th - 18th Century, American Revolutionary War, Historical Conflicts, Historical Figures

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