Editorial Note

In a letter of 27 April 1782 to the secretary at war, Washington reported that “not a single recruit has arrived, (to my knowledge), from any State except Rhode Island, in consequence of the Requisitions of Congress in December last.” This alarming fact and the enemy’s failure to provide money for the support of prisoners in American hands led him to recommend as “highly expedient that measures should be adopted, at this moment, for taking the German Prisoners of War into our Service.” In Washington’s opinion the German captives would “make exceedingly cheap & valuable Recruits, and being able-bodied & disciplined Men will give a Strength & solidity to our Regts. which they will not otherwise acquire this Campaign” (NA: PCC, 149, I, 309–11).

Washington’s proposal was also supported by precedent. Influenced in part by a determination to retaliate against the enemy’s effort to entice “our troops to desert our service,” Congress as early as 14 and 27 August 1776 offered all “Hessians and other foreigners” who would “quit the British service” a land bounty of between fifty and one thousand acres, depending upon the rank of the deserter, and the opportunity to become a citizen of “any of these states” (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , V, 653–54, 707–8). Congress also had adopted Washington’s proposal of 9 August 1778 by permitting Pulaski’s Partisan Corps and Armand’s Legion to enlist German prisoners as well as deserters from the British army (Fitzpatrick, Writings of Washington description begins John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington, from the Original Sources, 1745–1799 (39 vols.; Washington, 1931–44). description ends , XII, 305; XIII, 357; JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , X, 291; XI, 642–44; Harrison to Virginia Delegates, 11 January, n. 5; Virginia Delegates to Harrison, 4 June 1782, n. 8).

The committee, under Elias Boudinot’s chairmanship, to which Congress on 4 May had referred Washington’s letter of 27 April, framed its recommendations of 15 May 1782 in consultation with Morris and Lincoln. The preface of the report mentioned the enemy’s practice of being cruel to American prisoners “with an apparent design of forcing them” to enlist under the British flag, the “considerable number of the German Prisoners” who had “expressed an earnest desire” to serve in the American army or “to become citizens of these states,” and the commander-in-chief’s highly satisfactory experience with those German captives who had been formed into a separate corps. For these reasons the committee advised Congress to adopt Washington’s proposal by directing Lincoln, in concert with Morris, to offer the German captives a three-years’ term of service in the continental army in exchange for their release from internment, a money and land bounty, wages, and the probability of acquiring citizenship, “provided that they do not act contrary to the Laws of any State in which such prisoners may become free Citizens.” On 15 May, after amending these proposals, Congress referred them to John Morin Scott, JM, and John Rutledge (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXII, 274–76, 276, n. 1). Although the amendments appear not to be extant, their general tenor probably is indicated by the differences between the reports of the two committees.