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, the undersigned, being each severally sworn on the holy
evangelists of Almighty God, for the investigation of the
circumstances attending the late horrid massacre, and having heard
the depositions of a great number of witnesses, from our own
personal knowledge, and from the depositions given in as
aforesaid,
=REPORT AS FOLLOWS:=
That on the 6th of April, about six o'clock in the evening, when
the prisoners were all quiet in their respective yards, it being
about the usual time of turning in for night, and the greater part
of the prisoners being then in the prisons, the alarm bell was
rung, and many of the prisoners ran up to the market square to
learn the occasion of the alarm. There were then drawn up in the
square several hundred soldiers, with Capt. Shortland (the agent)
at their head; it was likewise observed at the same time, that
additional numbers of soldiers were posting themselves on the
walls round the prison yards. One of them observed to the
prisoners, that they had better go into the prisons, for they
would be charged upon directly. This, of course, occasioned
considerable alarm among them. In this moment of uncertainty, they
were running in different directions, enquiring the cause of the
alarm; some toward their respective prisons, and some toward the
market square. When about one hundred were collected in the
square, Capt. Shortland ordered the soldiers to charge upon them,
which order the soldiers were reluctant in obeying, as the
prisoners were using no violence; but on the order being repeated,
they made a charge, and the prisoners retreated out of the square,
into their prison yards, and shut the gate after them. Capt.
Shortland, himself, opened the gates, and ordered the soldiers to
fire in among the prisoners, who were all retreating in different
directions towards their respective prisons. It appears there was
some hesitation in the minds of the officers, whether or not it
was proper to fire upon the prisoners in that situation; on which
Shortland seized a musket out of the hands of a soldier, which he
fired. Immediately after the fire became general, and many of the
prisoners were either killed or wounded. The remainder were
endeavoring to get into the prisons; when going towards the lower
doors, the soldiers on the walls commenced firing on them from
that quarter, which killed some and wounded others. After much
difficulty, (all the doors being closed in the entrance, but one
in each prison) the survivors succeeded in gaining the prisons;
immediately after which, parties of soldiers came to the doors of
Nos. 8 and 4 prisons, and fired several vollies into them through
the windows and doors, which killed one man in each prison, and
severely wounded others.
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