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man: University of Oklahoma Press. 2013. Pp. xv, 376.
Cloth $34.95.
Much has been written about the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), largely and understandably
from the view of the victorious American side. Often
overlooked have been the 37,000 German Hessians who
comprised one-third of the British forces and, in particular, the 5,400 who became prisoners of war. Daniel
Krebs has written an impressive chronicle of the Hessians as soldiers and as prisoners.
Krebs’s first lesson for his readers is that these German soldiers were generally conscripted from different
provinces in the Holy Roman Empire—especially the
landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel, hence history’s term
“Hessians.” Trafficking in soldiers was hardly uncommon; armies were regularly rented, an arrangement
that was legalized by treaty. Indeed, Hessian troops
supported William and Mary, helping guarantee a
peaceful transition of power during the Glorious Revolution; they served with British troops under Marlborough at Blenheim; and they assisted in subduing the
Highland uprisings of 1715 and 1745. It was not unusual
that Britain turned to Hessen-Kassel for help in suppressing the rebellion in its North American colonies.
The second lesson for readers is that the Hessians
were not mercenaries, but rather conscripted regular
soldiers. George II and George III paid for them, certainly, but the money went to the German princes. Hessen-Kassel and the principalities benefited enormously:
public projects, reduced taxes, and the occasional averting of bankruptcy. Once transported to the rebellious
American colonies, these subsidized German soldiers
were spread from Canada to Florida. Krebs examines
each unit in detail, including the soldiers’ religions
(mostly Protestant) and average age (24). The body of
the book describes the course of the Revolutionary War
as it affected the Hessian units captured at Trenton on
Christmas Day 1776 (which caused the now-cautious
Landgrave Frederick of Hessen-Kassel and his neighbors to reconsider the effects of the venture); at Saratoga, New York, on September 19 and October 7, 1777;
on the British transports Molly and Triton in 1779; at
Cowpens, South Carolina, in January 1781; and finally
during the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, from September to October 1781. By all accounts, the Hessians acquitted themselves bravely throughout the war, despite
their widespread looting of civilians, and were even allowed to rename Fort Washington “Fort Knyphausen”
in honor of the Hessian general who led the attack that
captured it.
The major theme of A Generous and Merciful Enemy,
however, is the breakaway nation’s treatment of the
more than 5,400 German prisoners. During a revolution in which policy decisions were chaotic and the opposing British starved to death some 11,000 American
rebel prisoners aboard such notorious prison ships as
the HMS Jersey (the British did not consider the rebels
to be prisoners of war until 1782), the experiences of
German POWs varied dramatically. Generally, Hessian
AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW
prisoners received tolerant treatment. Mass surrenders
were often ritual affairs, in which the German captives
marched past their new captors with flags encased and
weapons grounded. In fact, the first German prisoners
captured at Trenton were given a tour of Philadelphia
before being returned to their units. Such care was offered by George Washington to encourage the Hessians
to desert from their British commanders, although
fewer Hessians deserted than either British or American soldiers. Those who did desert to American captivity were motivated less by an attraction to the new
democracy than by their concern over rampant disease,
poor leadership, and the miseries of service (particularly on the Georgia front), and by the economic opportunities of life in America. As in most wars, the prisoners were viewed as bargaining chips in future
prisoner exchanges.
While hardly pleasant, the care of Hessian war prisoners was a bright spot in the treatment of war prisoners, considering the brutality of later conflicts. Although enemy officers were eventually paroled,
Congress viewed the rank-and-file Hessian POWs as a
sop to the war-induced shortage of skilled American
craftsmen such as carpenters, weavers, tailors, and
shoemakers. The prisoners were used as indentured laborers at major POW camps throughout Virginia,
Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Many were hired out to
army suppliers in lieu of payment, while others were
shipped to the Moravian towns of Bethlehem and Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and Hebron, Kentucky. Wherever
they spent the war years, the Hessian POWs’ salaries,
however meager, provided a welcome injection of
money into the hinterland. With the end of the conflict,
the German prisoners had several options: they could
join the Continental Army and become American citizens, they could sell themselves into three years of indentured labor before leaving, or they could pay a hefty
ransom and leave immediately. Most returned home to
a hero’s welcome, however penniless their future
seemed.
Krebs’s excellent study is surprisingly human, and includes family relations, living conditions, and even a report by one Johannes Adler, who respectfully complained that he “did not have any bowel movement for
twenty-one days” (p. 264). Krebs’s scholarship is most
impressive, largely drawn from original letters, diaries,
and contemporary documents from two dozen German
archives (the list of which occupies six full pages of the
forty pages of notes and bibliography), which alone is
worth the price of this book.
ARNOLD KRAMMER
Texas A&M University
JULIEN VERNET. Strangers on Their Native Soil: Opposition to United States’ Governance in Louisiana’s Orleans
Territory, 1803–1809. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. 2013. Pp. vi, 210. $60.00.
In their various paths to statehood, few territories in the
United States endured a more convoluted and complex
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Canada and the United States
process than Louisiana. Subject to political control by
multiple foreign governments, home to a wide diversity
of ethnic and racial groups, and the object of fierce
competing loyalties and faiths, Louisiana stumbled toward statehood on the very threshold of chaos. Despite
such challenges, the strategic significance inherent in
the region’s geographic location ensured that the struggle to secure stable governance would be embraced by
many.
In the first years of the nineteenth century, what we
know today as Louisiana consisted of multiple territories controlled by competing powers. The Orleans Territory served as arguably the most significant due to its
control of the strategic mouth of the Mississippi River,
along with the South’s lone emerging great metropolis,
New Orleans. The Crescent City served as the epicenter
of divided loyalties and intrigue. In this new volume
from the University Press of Mississippi, author Julien
Vernet seeks to provide an understanding of the complex circumstances surrounding the transfer of the Orleans Territory to the United States.
With its long tradition of French and Spanish governance, it should surprise no one that the transfer of
the territory to the United States was painful. The author demonstrates that the primacy of Creole culture
and Catholicism guaranteed a clash with the intruding
Anglo-Protestant traditions of the newly arriving
Americans. Equal to the culture shock was the intense
political maneuvering that characterized the arrival of
American governance in the form of Governor William
C. C. Claiborne. For many long-term residents, Claiborne’s inability to speak French personified the clumsy
governance practiced by the Americans. Similarly,
within months of his arrival in the territory, Claiborne
concluded that Louisianans remained utterly ignorant
of representative government. The governor advocated
near-dictatorial control, a position with which President Thomas Jefferson seemed to agree. The author
concludes that Louisiana became part of the United
States as a colony during a time in which the president
enjoyed near total control.
The book traces the various letter-writing wars, reports and counter-reports, and attacks in the newspapers, which reveal as much about the clash of cultures
as they do about political maneuvering. One of the
more interesting segments of the book details the infamous Aaron Burr conspiracy, significant segments of
which played out in the streets and courts of New Orleans. The political chameleons, land speculators, and
patrons of treason evident in the Burr debacle seemed
so much a part of the landscape of the Orleans Territory
that in the end, none answered definitively for their intrigues.
This book reads more like a road map for guidance
through complex events than a vehicle for interpretive
analysis. There is no groundbreaking reappraisal of issues or compelling argument. The notes are seldom fat
with documentation of supporting evidence and often
rely significantly on secondary source material. Yet the
book definitely has value. The events surrounding the
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American acquisition of the Orleans Territory and its
advance toward statehood can be so complicated and
confusing that a readable volume such as this one is
most welcome. The narrative is concise and well-written, and the author remains focused on his point, avoiding becoming overly entangled in lengthy anecdotes
that could distract the reader just as much as they entertain. In short, this book serves as an engaging and
accessible tool to assist both scholars and general readers in navigating a challenging segment of territorial
history.
SAMUEL C. HYDE, JR.
Southeastern Louisiana University
SUSAN SCHULTEN. Mapping the Nation: History and Cartography in Nineteenth-Century America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2012. Pp. xii, 246. Cloth
$45.00, paper $30.00.
Mapping the Nation is an arresting title. Although the
subtitle restrains the arc of this study to one century of
historical cartographic analysis, many details of both
history and cartography are overlooked in the book’s
less than 200 pages of text. Drawing from 161 “thematic
maps” (p. 47), Schulten contends that maps were powerful social and political images that helped cement the
nation together as it expanded across a continent. The
two chapters of Part One, “Mapping the Past,” focus on
historical cartography and its relationship to the growth
of a national history. Part Two, “Mapping the Present,”
contains three chapters that highlight the mapping of
the socioeconomic and political characteristics of the
people, particularly via “statistical cartography.”
In Part One, through an individualistic approach,
Schulten summarizes the work of Emma Willard—educator, author, and activist—who shared with students
and policymakers her conviction that if the nation’s citizens were to comprehend the flow of history, it was
essential that they develop an understanding of geographical settings, connections, and relationships. Willard’s work, and that of others, like cartographer Johann Georg Kohl, influenced such federal government
agencies as the U.S. Coast Survey and the State Department to collect and archive historical and contemporary maps to provide geospatial information for policymakers and the public. These efforts ultimately led,
at the end of the century, to the creation of the national
map archive at the Library of Congress.
The use of map analysis in explaining environmental
and socioeconomic problems, swaying policymakers
and voters, and revealing the demographic compositions of the populace are the undergirding themes of
Part Two. The linkage between disease and climate
brought fruitful inquiries and cartographic innovations
aimed at discovering and measuring sources of infectious vectors. Isolines (lines displaying equal value),
particularly isotherms (temperature) and isohyets (precipitation), became key concepts in climatic cartography. Choropleth maps showing the states and counties
with slavery infused the national political debate before
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