The Hessians ( in American history ) were soldiers loaned by the ruler of Hesse, in what is now Germany, to the king of England. Hessians fought the Americans in the Revolutionary War. They fought with the British--that is, on the side of the British, against the Americans. British soldiers also fought the Americans. There were many more British soldiers than there were Hessians.
Someone has started a historical error that seems to be spreading. I read it in a political science textbook--a college level textbook. The author claimed that the Hessians fought the Americans because the British didn't like to fight with a people so closely related. Not so. The British were here, quartered in Boston and some other places, before the revolution began, and they did most of the fighting. I don't know what made the author decide that if Hessians fought, that that the British didn't--he just guessed that part, perhaps, and incorrectly. There were at least as many British soldiers as Hessians--possibly twice as many. The British didn't need the Hessians because they didn't want to fight the Americans themselves--they wanted the Hessians so that their army would be large enough to defeat the Americans easily.
