The Surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga, Painted by John Trumbull
Burgoyne surrendering at Saratoga in October 1777, painted by John Trumbull between about 1822 and 1832 for the American national narrative rather than from the field. Roughly a third of the army that surrendered with him was German — Brunswickers and Hessians hired out by their princes.
The Convention Army marched into captivity with some two thousand German soldiers in it. They were there because their rulers had rented them: subsidy treaties signed with Britain paid the landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and the duke of Brunswick per soldier, with additional sums for the killed and wounded. Trumbull painted the surrender half a century later as a founding scene of the republic, and the German contingent is present in it as it was present in the war — numerous, essential, and not the story anyone chose to tell. The canvas is in the Yale University Art Gallery. See why German troops fought for the British crown.
Public domain — source (Wikimedia Commons). Free to reuse under the stated licence.
