Prajurit Hessen adalah prajurit Jerman dari abad ke-18 yang dibayar oleh pemerintah Britania karena lebih mudah meminjam uang untuk membayar mereka daripada merekrut pasukan sendiri. Nama prajurit ini berasal dari negara Hessen-Kassel. Britania menyewa prajurit Hessen untuk keperluan perang pada abad ke-18, terutama selama Perang Revolusi Amerika (1775–1783).
| Hessen | |
|---|---|
Dua prajurit Hessen | |
| Negara | Hessen-Kassel |
| Bagian dari | Angkatan Darat Britania |
| Julukan | "Tentara bayaran Hessen" |
| Pertempuran | Perang Revolusi Amerika |
| Tokoh | |
| Tokoh berjasa | Wilhelm von Knyphausen Johann Rall † |
Sekitar 30.000 prajurit Jerman bertempur untuk Britania selama Perang Revolusi Amerika dan mencakup seperempat pasukan yang dikirim Britania ke Amerika. Mereka memiliki satuan, bendera, komandan dan seragam mereka sendiri. Kontingen terbesar berasal dari Hessen yang mencakup 40% pasukan Jerman yang bertemur untuk Britania.
Kelompok Patriot Amerika menganggap prajurit Hessen sebagai tentara bayaran yang tidak memiliki kepentingan di Amerika. Banyak prajurit Hessen yang dipaksa bertugas untuk satuan tentara bayaran mereka. Prajurit yang berani lari dari tugas akan dihukum mati atau dipukuli. Sementara itu, prajurit Hessen yang ditawan Amerika dipekerjakan di tanah pertanian lokal.
Catatan kaki sunting
- Rodney Atwood, The bobs: Mercenaries from Hessen-Kassel in the American Revolution, (Cambridge University Press, 1980), bab 1.
- Alan Axelrod (9 January 2014). Mercenaries: A Guide to Private Armies and Private Military Companies. SAGE Publications. hlm. 66. ISBN 978-1-4833-4030-2.
- David Hackett Fischer (2006). Washington's Crossing, Oxford University Press. hlm.60. ISBN 0-19-518159-X
Daftar pustaka sunting
- Atwood, Rodney. The Hessians: Mercenaries from Hessen-Kassel in the American Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 1980), the standard scholarly history
- Crytzer, Brady J. Hessians: Mercenaries, Rebels, and the War for British North America (2015). excerpt
- Faust, Albert B. (1909). The German Element in the United States. I. Boston: Houghton & Mifflin. hlm. 349–356.
- Fischer, David Hackett (2004). Washington's Crossing. Oxford university Press. hlm. 517.
- Ingrao, Charles. "'Barbarous Strangers': Hessian State and Society during the American Revolution," American Historical Review (1982) 87#4 pp. 954–976 in JSTOR
- Ingrao, Charles W. The Hessian mercenary state: ideas, institutions, and reform under Frederick II, 1760-1785 (Cambridge University Press, 2003)
- Krebs, Daniel. “Useful Enemies: The Treatment of German Prisoners of War during the American War of Independence,” Journal of Military History (2013), 77#1 pp 9–39.
- Lowell, Edward J. (1884). The Hessians. New York: Harper & Brothers.
- Mauch, Christof. ""Images Of America--Political Myths-- Historiography: 'Hessians' in the War of Independence," Amerikastudien (2003) 48#3 pp 411–423
- Mellick, Jr., Andrew D. (1889). "Chapter XXV: The Hessians in New Jersey". The Story of an Old Farm. Somerville, New Jersey: The Unionist-Gazette. hlm. 352–370.
- Miller, Ken, Dangerous Guests: Enemy Captives and Revolutionary Communities during the War for Independence (Cornell Univ. Press, 2014) online review
- Winthrop P. Bell, ed. "A Hessian conscript's account of life in garrison at Halifax at the time of the American Revolution". Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, Volume 27, 1947
- Johann Conrad Döhla. A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution (1993)
- Ewald, Johann (1979). Tustin, Joseph P., ed. Diary of the American War: a Hessian Journal. Yale University Press.
- Valentine C. Hubbs, ed. Hessian journals: unpublished documents of the American Revolution (Camden House, 1981), translation of the Von Jungkenn manuscripts.
Pranala luar sunting
- American Revolution.org – The Hessians
- Johannes Schwalm Historical Association website
- Historical Project: Letters by a Hessian Officer, Marburg University
- Diary and letters covering the role of Hessian troops in America