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
Dr. M'Grath was a very worthy man, and every prisoner loved him; but
M'Farlane, his assistant, a Scotchman, was the reverse; in dressing,
or bleeding, or in any operation, he would handle a prisoner with a
brutal roughness, that conveyed the idea that he was giving way to the
feelings of revenge, or national hatred.[Q] Cannot a Scotchman
testify his _unnatural_ loyalty to the present reigning family of
England without treating an American with cruelty and contempt.
Dr. Dobson, the superintendant physician of the Hospital-ship at
Chatham, was a very worthy and very skilful gentleman. We, Americans,
ought never to forget his goodness towards us. Some of us esteem him
full as high as Dr. M'Grath, and some more highly. They are both
however, worthy men, and deserve well of this country. There is
nothing men vary more in than in their opinion of and attachment to
physicians. Dobson and M'Grath deserve medals of gold, and hearts of
gratitude, for their kind attention to us all.
CHAPTER IV.
The establishment of prison-ships at Chatham is broken up, and the
last of the prisoners were marched from Plymouth to this place, the
30th of November. They were marched from that place to this, in one
day, half leg deep in mud. Some lost their shoes; others, to preserve
them, took them off, and carried them in their hands. When they
arrived here, they were indeed objects of pity; nevertheless they were
immediately shut up in a cold, damp prison, without any bedding, or
any of the ordinary conveniences, until they could be examined and
described in the commander's books; after which they were permitted to
mix with the rest of their countrymen. We found many of them, the day
after their arrival, unable to walk, by reason of their too long
protracted march, in a very bad road. A prudent drover would not have
risked his cattle by driving them through such a road in a few hours.
Such a thing never was done in America, with British prisoners.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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