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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1958851, member: 19463&quot;]The interesting point to me was that Hessians were not individual mercenaries but units assembled by senior officers by whatever means necessary.&nbsp; Individual soldiers were not necessarily paid in cash while in America but their needs were provided including the promise that they would be disciplined or executed if they did not obey every command.&nbsp; When in America, the individual was offered a plot of 50 acres if they would desert and become Americans.&nbsp; Prisoners of War taken were put to work as farm labor.&nbsp; The incentive not to desert would be that they could never return to their homeland but impressed mercenaries are not known for being the most loyal troops.&nbsp; It is currently in fashion to downplay these stories of desertions by those applying modern standards to the point that we now question everything.&nbsp; I found the following interesting:</p><p><a href="http://www.americanrevolution.org/hessians/hess24.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.americanrevolution.org/hessians/hess24.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.americanrevolution.org/hessians/hess24.html</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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