"Get ready boys, those 'Hessian mercenaries' are headed our way!" That's what the old history books said about the German soldiers who fought alongside British regular troops in the Revolutionary War. But Truth is stranger than Fiction; Hessians weren't mercenaries. Also, a large number of them stayed in the infant United States to add Sauerkraut and spice (Nutmeg, of course!) to the Republic.;)