He starts criticizing his own commanders.

In this episode, we explore Ewald's surprisingly sharp attack on Generals Howe and Cornwallis, his belief that the British Army squandered its chance to end the war, and what those complaints reveal about the rise of light infantry warfare. Was Ewald simply defending his own reputation, or was he making a broader argument about how wars should be fought?

Join me as we follow one frustrated Hessian officer from the banks of the Raritan River into one of the most fascinating military debates hidden inside the American Revolution.

Captain Johann Ewald rides into the American Revolution with one eye, a Hessian Jäger detachment, and astonishing levels of main character energy.

In this episode, we meet Ewald through his Revolutionary War journal, follow him from New York toward New Jersey in 1776, and ask why this Hessian light-infantry officer feels less like a footnote and more like the protagonist of his own extremely dramatic military adventure.

For maps, images, quotations, citations, and the full illustrated article, visit Mrs. Mac Travels Back on Substack.

In this episode of Mrs. Mac Travels Back, we begin following Ewald’s Revolutionary War journal from his voyage across the Atlantic to his first impressions of British-occupied New York. Along the way, we meet Scottish Captain John Peebles of the 42nd Royal Highlanders, compare British and Hessian accounts of Fort Washington, and ask whether the infamous Hessian reputation holds up when we read one of their own officers in his own words.

There are privateers, plundered chickens, burning cities, tactical drama, and just enough “main character energy” to make one thing clear: Ewald has entered the story, and New Jersey is not ready for him.