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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

However reasonable and justifiable this was as a measure of
    precaution, the effects produced thereby in the prisons, but which
    could not have been intended, were most unfortunate, and deeply to
    be regretted. A considerable number of the prisoners in the yards
    where no disturbance existed before, and who were either already
    within their respective prisons, or quietly retiring as usual
    towards them, immediately upon the sound of the bell rushed back
    from curiosity (as it appears) towards the gates, where, by that
    time, the crowd had assembled, and many who were at the time
    absent from their yards, were also from the plan of the prison,
    compelled, in order to reach their own homes, to pass the same
    spot, and thus that which was merely a measure of precaution, in
    its operation increased the evil it was intended to prevent.
    Almost at the same instant that the alarm bell rung, (but whether
    before or subsequent is upon the evidence doubtful, though captain
    Shortland states it positively as one of his further reasons for
    causing it to ring) some one or more of the prisoners broke the
    iron chain, which was the only fastening of No. 1 gate, leading
    into market square by means of an iron bar; and a very
    considerable number of the prisoners immediately rushed towards
    that gate; and many of them began to press forwards as fast as the
    opening would permit into the square.

    There was no direct proof before us of previous concert or
    preparation on the part of the prisoners, and no evidence of their
    intention or disposition to effect their escape on this occasion,
    excepting that which arose by inference from the whole of the
    above detailed circumstances connected together.

    The natural and almost irresistible inference to be drawn,
    however, from the conduct of the prisoners by captain Shortland
    and the military was, that an intention on the part of the
    prisoners to escape was on the point of being carried into
    execution, and it was at least certain that they were by force
    passing beyond the limits prescribed to them at a time when they
    ought to have been quietly going in for the night. It was also in
    evidence that the outer gates of the market square were usually
    opened about this time to let the bread waggons pass and repass to
    the store, although at the period in question they were in fact
    closed.

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