~ Jäger zu Pferd ~
"....The mounted jäger company consisted of men drafted from the Hessian
hussar and cavalry regiments and deserters from all the services of Europe"...
--- pg.68, Diary of the American War; a Hessian Journal
by Captain Johann Ewald
Horrido!.....Welcome to the Jäger zu Pferd page.
Unlike the jäger zu fuss (foot jägers), whom were recruited primarily from gamekeepers, woodsmen and hunters; the Jäger zu Pferd were, as Captain Johann Ewald noted, recruited primarily from the service of professional hussars and cavalrymen; a breed of men who by the very nature of their previous service were reckless and daring.
The role of the Jäger zu Pferd within the Feldjäger Corps was primarily to reconnoiter the enemy, provost duty, and to act as couriers and bodyguards to officers, and were used to forage for supplies, and both as a reserve to aide the jäger zu fuss and as hard hitting shock troops in ambuscades.
Though the German Brunswick troops stationed in Canada had a contingent of dragoons, these men never operated as a mounted force, and in fact marched on Burgoyne's campaign on foot (its oft reported that they wore heavy boots on this march, but recently some historians believe they actually wore shoes and long gaiters).
It has been reported that in 1781 that Colonel Balfour, the commandant at Charleston, organised a troop of fifty horse, all Hessians, under the command of Lieutenant Starkloff of von Benning's Battalion. Their primary duty appears to have been to scout the road leading to Camden.
The Jäger zu Pferd were the *only* Hessian/German troops in the Revolution to operate on a regular basis as a truly mounted force throughout the units existence (though with the expansion of the corps they did operate dismounted before acquiring their needed mounts); and as one acquaintance who has long studied the Hessians put it:
"...they were really tough buggers and drew many complaints from the rebels who were roughly handled by them. These were the fellows who wore the boots."
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