Across the Ocean, Into Battle: German Soldiers, Families, and Communities in the American Revolution

Historian Friederike Baer focuses our attention on the varied experiences of the German auxiliaries in the American Revolution. Between 1776 and 1783, Great Britain hired more than thirty thousand German soldiers to fight in its war against the American rebels. Collectively known as Hessians and accompanied by many civilians, including hundreds of women and children, they spent extended periods in locations as far-flung and varied as Canada and West Florida. Drawing on extensive research in German-authored private papers and official records, this talk examines the Hessians not merely as a fighting force but as a military community sustained through domestic labor, familial ties, and collective identity far from home. This program accompanies our current exhibition, Voices of Revolution, on view through January 10, 2027. About the Speaker Friederike Baer, Ph.D., is an early American historian with a research focus on the American Revolution and Early Republic, especially the…