AMREV-HESSIANS-L Archives

From: John Helmut Merz <>
Subject: Saratoga National Historical Park.
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1999 11:24:06 -0800

Professor Dr. Helga Doblin of Stillwater, N.Y. in a private e-mail
has replied to a query of mine in respect to prisoner lists of the
Burgoyne army captured at the convention of Saratoga. She says:
"Those lists about Braunschweiger troops certainly exist and are
available in the Saratoga National Historical Park. They are rather
extensive. But as names are usually written in Roman letters, they
could easily be copied by anyone interested."

She also wrote:
"I don't quite agree with you about the "Hessians". I have found
that if you insist about the difference among the Waldecks, the
Braunschweigers, the Anhalt-Zerbsts, the (her expression) Hessian-
Castlers and the Hessian-Hanauers etc., people are usually very
interested and ready to learn. Richard Ketchum never uses the term
out of place."

Well, of course we all know the differences in the make-up of the
German auxiliary troops who served for King George III in America,
and 225 years ago they were labelled rightly or wrongly "Hessians"
and it stuck. In my opinion it is not much different from the
expression "Americans", think about for a minute how many different
groups of people this encompasses.
John, in Hamilton, Ontario, digging out from the blizzard of 1999.

This thread:

• Saratoga National Historical Park. by John Helmut Merz <>