American Prisoners of the RevolutionDandridge, Danske
History
American Prisoners of the Revolution
Dandridge, Danske
United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Prisoners and prisons
Although paroled the officers were closely confined in this place for
six weeks. Their provisions, he says: “were insufficient to preserve ye
Connection between Soul and Body, yet ye Charitable People of this City
were so good as to afford us very considerable Relief on this account,
but it was ye poor and those who were in low circumstances only who were
thoughtful of our Necessities, and provisions were now grown scarce and
Excessive dear. * * * Their unparalleled generosity was undoubtedly ye
happy means of saving many Lives, notwithstanding such great numbers
perished with hunger.
“Here we found a number of Officers made prisoners since we were,
Colonel Selden, Colonel Moulton, etc. They were first confined in Ye
City Hall. Colonel Selden died the Fryday after we arrived. He was
Buried in the New Brick Churchyard, and most of the Officers were
allowed to attend his Funeral. Dr. Thatcher of the British army attended
him, a man of great humanity.”
Captain Fitch declares that there were two thousand wounded British
and Hessians in the hospitals in New York after the battle of Fort
Washington, which is a much larger estimate than we have found in other
accounts. He says that the day of the battle was Saturday, November
16th, and that the prisoners were not brought to New York until the
Monday following. They were then confined in the Bridewell, as the City
Jail was then called, and in several churches. Some of them were soon
afterwards sent on board a prison ship, which was probably the Whitby.
“A number of the officers were sent to our place of confinement; Colonel
Rawlings, Colonel Hobby, Major (Otho) Williams, etc. Rawlings and
Williams were wounded, others were also wounded, among them Lieutenant
Hanson (a young Gent’n from Va.) who was Shot through ye Shoulder with a
Musq’t Ball of which wound he Died ye end of Dec’r.
“Many of ye charitable Inhabitants were denied admittance when they came
to Visit us.”
On the twentieth of November most of the officers were set at liberty on
parole. “Ye first Objects of our attention were ye poor men who had been
unhappily Captivated with us. They had been landed about ye same time yt
we were, and confined in several Churches and other large Buildings
and although we had often Received Intelligence from them with ye most
Deplorable Representation of their Miserable Situation, yet when we came
to visit them we found their sufferings vastly superior to what we had
been able to conceive. Nor are words sufficient to convey an Adequate
Idea of their Unparalled Calamity. Well might ye Prophet say, ‘They yt
be slain with ye sword are better than they yt be slain with hunger, for
these pine away, etc.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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