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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

_Fifthly_--The turnkeys going into the yard and closing all the
    doors but one, in each prison, while the attention of the
    prisoners was attracted by the alarm bell. This was done about
    fifteen minutes sooner than usual, and without informing the
    prisoners it was time to shut up. It was ever the invariable
    practice of the turnkeys, from which they never deviated before
    that night, when coming into the yard to shut up, to halloo to the
    prisoners, so loud as to be heard throughout the yard, "_turn in,
    turn in!_" while on that night it was done so secretly, that not
    one man in a hundred knew they were shut; and in particular, their
    shutting the door of No. 7, prisoners usually go in and out at,
    and which was formerly always closed last, and leaving one open in
    the other end of the prison, which was exposed to a cross fire
    from the soldiers on the walls, and which the prisoners had to
    pass in gaining the prisons.

    It appears to us that the foregoing reasons sufficiently warrant
    the conclusion we have drawn therefrom.

    We likewise believe, from the depositions of men who were eye
    witnesses of a part of Shortland's conduct, on the evening of the
    6th of April, that he was intoxicated with liquor at the time;
    from his brutality in beating a prisoner then supporting another
    severely wounded, from the blackguard and abusive language he made
    use of, and from his frequently having been seen in the same
    state. His being drunk was, of course, the means of inflaming his
    bitter enmity against the prisoners, and no doubt was the cause of
    the indiscriminate butchery, and of no quarter being given.

    We here solemnly aver, that there was no pre-concerted plan to
    attempt a breaking out. There cannot be produced the least shadow
    of a reason or inducement for that intention, because the
    prisoners were daily expecting to be released, and to embark on
    board cartels for their native country. And we likewise solemnly
    assert, that there was no intention of resisting, in any manner,
    the authority of this depot.

    N. B. Seven were killed, thirty dangerously wounded, and thirty
    slightly do. Total, sixty-seven killed and wounded.

                                    _Wm. B. Orne_,      }
                                    _James Boggs_,      }
                                    _J. F. Trowbridge_, } SIGNED,
                                    _John Rust_,        }
                                    _Walter Colton_,    }

                                    _Wm. Hobart_,       }
                                    _James Adams_,      }
                                    _Francis Joseph_,   } _Committee_.
                                    _Henry Allen_,      }
                                    _Thomas B. Mott_,   }


    No. XVIII.

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