Scotch Highlanders in the civil wars of the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries than like modern soldiers.
They came or went, as patriotism or selfishness,
enthusiasm or discouragement, succeeded each other in
their breasts. Often intrepid in battle, they were
subject to panics, like all undisciplined troops, and were
such uncomfortable customers to deal with that it
was equally unsafe for their generals to trust them or
for their enemies to despise them.
We have seen that seventeen thousand three hundred and thirteen Germans, or about fifty-eight per cent. of those who came over as mercenaries, returned safely to Europe. Of the twelve thousand five hundred and fifty-four that remained, a small proportion had been killed in battle or had died of their wounds, many had died of sickness, many had deserted, some had remained in America, after peace was concluded, with the consent of the authorities. Hessian officers and privates received grants of land in Nova Scotia, and the Duke of Brunswick, with characteristic inhumanity, ordered that not only soldiers guilty of crimes and disorderly conduct, but those who were bodily unfit for military duty, should be left in Canada.[1]
The Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel has not failed to find apologists. These dwell, in the first place, on the general wickedness of the Americans, and on their criminality in revolting against the King of England, under whose government they were only too happy; and, secondly, maintain that the letting of troops was in accordance with the customs of the last century, that the money received by the Landgrave was used
- ↑ MS. journal of the Grenadier Battalion von Platte; Eelking's “Hülfstruppen,” vol. ii. pp. 253-255; Appendix D.
