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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

This afforded Shortland his wished for pretext, and he took his
    measures accordingly. He had all the garrison drawn up in the
    military walk, additional numbers posted on the walls, and every
    thing prepared, _before the alarm bell was rung_; this he
    naturally concluded would draw the attention of a great number of
    prisoners towards the gates, to learn the cause of the alarm,
    while the turnkeys were dispatched into the yards to lock all the
    doors but one, of each prison, to prevent the prisoners retreating
    out of the way, before he had sufficiently wreaked his vengeance.

    What adds peculiar weight to the belief of its being a
    premeditated, determined massacre, are,

    _First_--The sanguinary disposition manifested on every occasion
    by Shortland, he having prior to this time, ordered the soldiers
    to fire into the prisons, through the prison windows, upon unarmed
    prisoners asleep in their hammocks, on account of a light being
    seen in the prisons; which barbarous act was repeated several
    nights successively. That murder was not then committed, was owing
    to an overruling Providence alone; for the balls were picked up in
    the prisons, where they passed through the hammocks of men then
    asleep in them. He having also ordered the soldiers to fire upon
    the prisoners in the yard of No. 7 prison, because they would not
    deliver up to him a man who had escaped from his _cachot_, which
    order the commanding officer of the soldiers refused to obey; and
    generally, he having seized on every slight pretext to injure the
    prisoners, by stopping their marketing for ten days repeatedly,
    and once, a third part of their provisions for the same length of
    time.

    _Secondly_--He having been heard to say, when the boys had picked
    the hole in the wall, and some time before the alarm bell was
    rung, while all the prisoners were quiet as usual in their
    respective yards--"_I'll fix the damn'd rascals directly._"

    _Thirdly_--His having all the soldiers on their posts, and the
    garrison fully prepared before the alarm bell rang. It could not
    then, of course, be rung to assemble the soldiers, but to alarm
    the prisoners, and create confusion among them.

    _Fourthly_--The soldiers upon the wall, previous to the alarm bell
    being rung, informing the prisoners that they would be charged
    upon directly.

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