Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/320

 290 Tories from east of Hudson's River, mostly Hessian deserters from the Convention troops. The sudden assembling of the militia deterred them from penetrating farther into the country, and prevented them from doing any material injury.” And in February, 1781, General Greene wrote that thirty-eight out of a detachment of forty men in Armand's legion had deserted to the enemy, and that Baron Steuben had been obliged to order a number of them to join their regiments, who were prisoners at Charlottesville.

If it be true, as the German writers assert, and as seems to be the case, that the German soldiers deserted less than the English in this war, the cause is not far to seek. The troops were employed for the most part in neighborhoods where the inhabitants could speak no German. Moreover, the “Hessians,” as the auxiliaries were indiscriminately called, were objects of peculiar abhorrence to the natives. Their name might probably be sometimes heard as a term of reproach to this day in country districts. The English deserter became indistinguishable from the moment when he took off his red coat. The German could speak no word that did not betray him.

Neither among the English nor among the Germans was desertion so prevalent as among the Americans. But in saying this, one great difference must be noted. The British or German soldier could only desert to the enemy. The American militiaman generally returned to his home. The Revolutionary militia were, in some important respects, more like the clans of