1900.] ROSENGARTEN—AMERICAN HISTORY. 183 
and the historical portion deals with the Elector of Hesse and his 
share in supplying soldiers to his cousin, the King of England, to 
help in reducing his rebellious subjects in America. The events of 
the American War of Independence are followed very closely, and 
in an appendix are a number of hitherto unprinted letters and some 
_ documents drawn from the Archives at Marburg and from Eelking 
and other historical sources. 
The book has value and interest as showing that Germany to-day 
takes a curious pride in the share her sons played in the history of 
the United States. Of even greater interest is the diary of a Hes- 
sian officer at the time of the American War of Independence, 
recently printed at Pyritz, on the anniversary of the founding of 
the Royal Bismarck Gymnasium of that place. It is the journal of 
Captain von Dérnberg, preserved by his family at their home in 
Hesse. It covers the period from March, 1779, to June, 1781, and 
gives his letters home from the time he left with his command until 
his return on the staff of General Knyphausen. There isa brief histor- 
ical sketch of the War of American Independence, intended for the 
use of the boys of the Gymnasium or High School, and a short sketch 
of the life of the writer, who, after serving in the war with Napo- 
leon and later as Hessian Minister in London, died in Cassel in 
1819. His diary, journal and letters are mostly written in French, 
for that was the court language of the day, and his clever pencil 
sketches served to heighten their interest for the home circle, while 
their preservation until their recent publication shows that his 
descendants are not ashamed of his share of that service, which at 
least made America better known to the people of Germany, while 
it gave them lessons of value for their own improvement in the art of 
war. Although the campaigns took him through both North and 
South, it is characteristic of the German fidelity to duty that his de- 
scriptions are limited to his own modest share in the business of sol- 
diering, and that he nowhere gives the slightest intimation that he 
saw the future greatness of the new republic. In this respect he and 
his countrymen were greatly unlike the French, whose letters and 
descriptions were full of their anticipations of the country to whose 
independence they contributed alike in menand money. The Dérn- 
berg diary, however, has the value of an original and hitherto un- 
printed addition to the contemporary records of the American 
Revolution by one who did his best to prevent its successful issue. 
Then there are novels by Spielhagen and by Norden, dealing 
