might have been expected. It was proportionally
large among the prisoners of war. The army that
surrendered at Saratoga in October, 1777, numbered
five thousand seven hundred and ninety-one men, of
whom two thousand four hundred and thirty-one were
Germans. From this army six hundred and fifty-five
Englishmen and one hundred and sixty Germans had
deserted by the 1st of April, 1778. There is no doubt
that continual efforts were made to induce these and
other prisoners to desert and enlist in the American
army. Washington was very much opposed to this
system. On the 27th of November, 1776, he writes to
the President of Congress: “By a letter from the
Board of War on the subject of an exchange, they
mention that several of the prisoners in our hands have
enlisted. It is a measure, I think, that cannot be justified,
though the precedent is furnished on the side of
the enemy; nor do I conceive it good in point of
policy. But as it has been done, I shall leave it with
Congress to order them to be returned or not, as they
shall judge fit.”[1] And again, on the 30th, he expresses
the same opinion to the Board of War, and adds:
“Before I had the honor of yours on this subject, I had
determined to remonstrate to General Howe on this
head. As to those few, who have already enlisted, I
would not have them again withdrawn and sent in,
because they might be subjected to punishment; but
I would have the practice discontinued in future.”[2]
Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/317
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CONCLUSION.
287