This author enjoys a unique and pre-eminent position in the study of Hessian records of the American Revolution, having translated literally thousands of pages of the journals and writings of Dohla, Prechtel, Waldeck, Pausch, Von Feilitsch, Bartholomai, Piel, Wiederhold, Rueffer, "J.R." Steuernagel, and many other Hessian soldiers. To this impressive list he now adds the writings of Lieutenant Friedrich Julius Von Papet, a young Brunswick officer whose journal spans the period from May of 1776 to October of 1783. "One of the most significant and important effects of the English employment of...

In the closing days of 1776, the future looked gloomy for the American colonists; their Revolution was in dire straits. The remnants of the American army in Pennsylvania, led by General George Washington, were fading away. Across the Delaware River, the English forces had gone into winter quarters and were awaiting the start of a final campaign in the spring of the coming year, when they would crush any remaining American force. A brigade of Hessian hirelings was stationed at the most exposed English outpost at Trenton; their commander was Hessian colonel Johann Gottlieb Rall, hero of White...