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
That on the 6th of April, about six o'clock in the evening, as we
were walking in the yard of No. 1 and No. 3 prisons, just before
the usual time of turning in, we heard the alarm bell ring. At
this time most of the prisoners were in the prisons; a number with
us ran up the market square, out of curiosity, to see what was the
matter; there were about one hundred collected in the square, and
a number were standing by the gates inside the prison yard; the
soldiers were drawn up in the upper part of the square; orders
were given them to charge, on which the prisoners retreated out of
the square, and some of the last which came through the gates,
shut them to; the soldiers then commenced firing on them through
the iron pailings, and fired several vollies in succession. The
prisoners were, at this time endeavouring to get into their
respective prisons, when the soldiers perceived that they were all
dispersed from the gates, they followed them into the yard, and
continued firing on them; and after all the prisoners had got into
the prisons, a party of soldiers pursuing them, came up to the
door of No. 3 prison, and fired two vollies into the prison, which
killed one man and mortally wounded another.
We further solemnly declare, that there was no pre-concerted plan
or intention among the prisoners to make an attempt to break out,
or to resist, in any manner, the authority of the government of
the depot.
_John T. Foster_,
_Elisha Whitten_,
_Isaac L. Burr_,
_Charles Perry_,
_James Grennlaw_,
_Wm. B. Orne_,
_Geo. Stinchecomb_,
_William Perry_,
_Richard Downing_.
Done at Dartmoor Prison, this 7th day of April 1815.
No. III.
I, _Andrew Davis, jun._ being solemnly sworn upon the holy
evangelists of Almighty God, depose and say--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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