On August 15, 1776, the horizon off Staten Island, New York, bristled with the masts of a massive British flotilla. On board were not just the familiar "redcoats" of King George III’s regular army, but more than 8,600 foreign soldiers whose presence would forever alter the course of the American Revolutionary War. These men, clad […]

As the United States approaches its semiquincentennial—the 250th anniversary of its founding—historians and the public alike are revisiting the complexities of the Revolutionary War. Among the most enduring, yet frequently misunderstood, figures of that conflict are the "Hessians." Often depicted in folklore and early American textbooks as bloodthirsty mercenaries who fought solely for gold, the […]