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A journal, of a young man of Massachusetts, late a surgeon on board an American privateer, who was captured at sea by the British in May, eighteen hundred and thirteen and was confined first, at Melville Island, Halifax, then at Chatham, in England, and last at Dartmoor prison : $b Interspersed with observations, anecdotes and remarks, tending to illustrate the moral and political characters of three nations. To which is added, a correct engraving of Dartmoor prison, representing the massacre ofWaterhouse, Benjamin

History

A journal, of a young man of Massachusetts, late a surgeon on board an American privateer, who was captured at sea by the British in May, eighteen hundred and thirteen and was confined first, at Melville Island, Halifax, then at Chatham, in England, and last at Dartmoor prison : $b Interspersed with observations, anecdotes and remarks, tending to illustrate the moral and political characters of three nations. To which is added, a correct engraving of Dartmoor prison, representing the massacre of

Waterhouse, Benjamin

Dartmoor Prison; United States -- History -- War of 1812 -- Prisoners and prisons

We are induced to believe that our emancipation is nigh. We are every
day expecting, that we, too, shall be sent home; but this hope,
instead of inspiring us with joy and gladness, has generated sourness
and discontent. It seems that the government of the United States give
a preference to those who had enlisted in the public service over such
as were in privateers. We have felt this difference all along. Again,
the government are disposed to liberate the soldiers before the
sailors, because their sufferings are greater than those of sailors,
from their former mode of life and occupations. They were farmers, or
mechanics, or any thing but seamen; and this makes their residence on
ship-board very irksome; whereas, the sailor is at home on the deck or
hold of the ship. Most of these soldiers were from the state of
Pennsylvania and New York, and many from the western parts of the
union. These men could not bear confinement like sailors; neither
could they bear a short allowance of food; nor could they _shirk_[N]
for themselves like a Jack tar. A sailor could endure with a degree of
patience, restraints and deprivations that were death to landsmen.
Many of these youthful soldiers had not long left their native
habitations, and parental care, when they were captured; their morals
and manners were purer than those of sailors. Such young men suffered
not only in their health, but in their feelings; and many sunk under
their accumulated miseries; for nourished by indulgence, in the midst
of abundance, many of them died _for want of sufficient food_. These
miserable beings were, as they ought to be, the first objects of the
solicitude of government.

The prisoners were seen here and there, collected in squads, chewing
together the cud of discontent, and grumbling at the imagined
partiality and injustice of their rulers. These discontents and
bickerings too often damped the joy of their prospect of liberation
from captivity. The poor privateers' men had most reason for
complaining, as they found themselves neglected by one side, and
despised by the other.

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