should treat the Germans like brothers. All this
happens since our teachable Germans have learned a little
English.”[1]
Too much weight must not, however, be given to such stories, many of which, undoubtedly, obtained circulation in America during the war. “It is astonishing,” writes Ewald, many years afterwards, “what stuff deserters often tell in order to please their new friends and obtain a good reception. After I had been taken prisoner at Yorktown, and had made the acquaintance of several French officers, a French general, then chief of the Deux Ponts Regiment,[2] asked me quite in confidence whether the Hessians were not very discontented with the English service, as it was very hard that these troops should always be employed in the most doubtful battles; that they should often be wantonly sacrificed; that they should always have the worst quarters assigned to them; that they should receive the worst provisions; that they should be improperly paid and allowed to suffer want of all sorts. I could not help laughing at his story, and assured him that not a single word of all this was true, but quite the contrary; whereupon the general was very much astonished, for every deserter had assured him that it was so.”
It has sometimes been said that the German soldiers deserted in great numbers in America. This assertion is only partially borne out by facts. At the time
