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
On the arrival of the commissioners at the depot, the committee of
the prison were sent for; after waiting some time at the door of
the room, where the inquiry was held, they were called in
separately and questioned as to their knowledge of the
transactions of the sixth.--The depositions of those who were eye
witnesses of that disgraceful scene were taken; some were
questioned as to the general conduct of Shortland, previous to
that affair; it was represented by them as it would have been by
all, as being universally _cruel, overbearing and oppressive_.
After having finished the examination of the committee, they
requested them to bring forward all the evidence that was likely
to cast any light on the subject of inquiry. They accordingly
returned into the prison, and drew up a list of the names of some
of the eye-witnesses of that day's occurrence. Although they could
have brought hundreds to the examination, and the sum of whose
evidence would have amounted to the same, yet the committee not
wishing to impede the progress of the investigation, by a
redundancy of evidence, they were careful to select such men as
were most likely to give a clear and distinct account of all the
circumstances as they occurred under their knowledge, taking care,
at the same time, to procure those whose different situations
afforded them an opportunity of witnessing that transaction, from
the commencement to the close. Such was the evidence the committee
had selected, to the number of about fifty, VERY FEW of whom were
ever examined, although they were kept waiting in the turnkey's
lodge (where they were ordered to stay until called for) during
the hours of investigation. In the course of the inquiry, it
seems, the commissioners found it necessary to survey the
particular situation of the prisons, and the points from which the
different attacks were made; they accordingly came into the yard
for that purpose, and after having been shown all the places from
whence the firing was continued, where the crowd of prisoners had
assembled on the first alarm, and where the hole, so much made a
handle of, had been made--after a slight survey of these different
places, they retired into their session room, leaving orders, once
more, with the committee to hold their evidence in readiness, as
they would soon be called upon for examination. The committee
replied that they had been in readiness since the commencement of
the inquiry, and were then only waiting their orders to appear
before them, feeling happy in the idea of having it in their power
to show to the court, and to the world, by the evidence they had
to produce, that the attack of Shortland on the defenceless
prisoners, was premeditated and unjustifiable in ANY point of
view.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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