<P> Many Hessian prisoners were held in camps at the interior city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania . Lancaster was a center for the Pennsylvania Dutch, who treated the German prisoners well . The Hessians responded favorably; some volunteered for extra work assignments, helping to replace local men serving in the Continental Army . After the war, many POWs never returned to Germany and instead accepted American offers of religious freedom and free land, becoming permanent settlers . By contrast, British prisoners were also held in Lancaster, but these men did not respond favorably to good treatment--they tried to escape . </P> <P> The Hessians served in Nova Scotia for five years (1778 - 1783). They protected the colony from American privateers, such as when they responded to the Raid on Lunenburg (1782). They were led by Baron Oberst Franz Carl Erdmann von Seitz . </P> <P> About 30,000 Germans served in the Americas, and, after the war ended in 1783, some 17,313 returned to their German homelands . Of the 12,526 who did not return, about 7,700 had died . Some 1,200 were killed in action, and 6,354 died from illness or accidents, mostly the former . Approximately 5,000 German troops settled in North America, either the United States or Canada . 4,500 of them, mainly press - ganged, settled in United States . </P> <Ul> <Li> Wilhelm von Knyphausen </Li> <Li> Oberst Franz Carl Erdmann Freiherr (Baron) von Seitz - led the regiment in the Battle of Fort Washington </Li> <Li> Oberst Johann Rall, commanding officer of the Hessian forces at the Battle of Trenton . </Li> </Ul>

Where did many of the hessians settle after the revolutionary war