General de Heister of Hesse, who was nearly 70 years old when he arrived with a German mercenary force hired by the British to support its efforts to suppress the Americans, a force that came to be known as the “Hessians”, is a principal in the story of the Battle of Brooklyn because it was to him that General William Alexander, Lord Stirling, surrendered. Stirling believed that by surrendering to de Heister he denied the British the right to claim victory that day. That by the end of the day Stirling was dining on Lord Howe’s flagship as a prisoner belies the validity of the effort.

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