Hessian Camp
Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
After Burgoyne's surrender, 1777, German mercenaries, mostly Hessian, were held prisoners at various places until end of war. Those brought to Reading, 1781, were encamped until 1783 in huts on the hillside a quarter-mile to the north.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
When General Burgoyne's British army surrendered at Saratoga in 1777, thousands of captured German auxiliary troops — most of them Hessians hired by the Crown — became prisoners of war held far from the fighting. Some were marched to Reading, where from 1781 to 1783 they lived in a camp of huts on the hillside just north of this spot. Many of these soldiers, once enemies, would remain in Pennsylvania after the war and settle among its German-speaking communities.
Why it matters
The Hessian prisoners are a reminder that the Revolution was fought partly by hired foreign soldiers, and that many chose to stay and become Americans once the war ended.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
By 1777, the American Revolution had grown into a wide and grinding war. Britain, needing more soldiers than it could raise at home, hired troops from several German states to fight in America. Because many came from Hesse-Kassel, Americans lumped them together as Hessians.
These were professional soldiers, sent across an ocean to fight in a conflict not their own. To American eyes they were the hired arm of a distant king, and their presence stirred deep resentment. Yet they were also ordinary men — many of them young, far from home, and caught up in a war they had not chosen.
Pennsylvania, with its large and well-established German-speaking population, was in some ways a strange place for such men to end up as captives. The language and customs of the countryside would have sounded startlingly like home.
People & events
The turning point behind this marker was the surrender of a British army under General Burgoyne at Saratoga in 1777, one of the great American victories of the war. That surrender put thousands of Burgoyne's soldiers, including many German auxiliaries, into American hands as prisoners.
As the inscription explains, these captives were held at various places until the war's end. Those brought to Reading arrived in 1781 and were encamped from then until 1783 in huts on the hillside a short distance north of this spot. A prisoner-of-war camp in the Pennsylvania hills, filled largely with Hessian soldiers, is a striking image of the war's long tail.
Many of these men, once counted as the enemy, chose to remain in Pennsylvania after the fighting stopped, settling among the German-speaking communities whose language and ways were already their own. The war made them prisoners; peace let some of them become neighbors.
Its place in the American story
The Hessian prisoners are a reminder that the Revolution was not a simple contest of Americans against Britons. It was fought in part by hired foreign soldiers, and it produced not only battles but the long, unglamorous work of holding captives for years on end.
Saratoga itself was a hinge of the whole war, a victory that helped convince France to support the American cause openly. The prisoners scattered across the interior, including those at Reading, were the living evidence of that triumph — the human aftermath of a battle that changed the war's course.
And the men who stayed added another thread to the American story. The nation that emerged was built partly by former enemies who put down roots, worked the land, and blended into the communities they had once been sent to fight.
If you visit
The camp itself is gone, but the marker points you to the hillside a quarter-mile to the north where the huts once stood. Look that way and picture rows of rough shelters holding men through the seasons, waiting out the final years of a war being decided far away.
Reading sits in the heart of Pennsylvania's German country, and that setting is part of the story. As you explore the area, notice the deep German heritage in the names, the churches, and the old farmsteads — the very world that some of these former prisoners chose to join.
This makes a thoughtful stop on a Revolutionary-era route through eastern Pennsylvania. It trades the drama of the battlefield for something quieter and just as human: the long aftermath of victory, and the surprising way old enemies became part of the fabric of a new country.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · John Burgoyne
Related events
- · Surrender at Saratoga
Themes & tags
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