American Prisoners of the RevolutionDandridge, Danske
History
American Prisoners of the Revolution
Dandridge, Danske
United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Prisoners and prisons
“These two brothers remained prisoners, the youngest but a few months,
and the elder nearly four years, both on prison ships, with the most
cruel treatment, in filthy holds, impure atmosphere, and stinted
allowance of food. With such treatment it was no wonder that but eight
hundred out of the 2800 prisoners taken at Fort Washington survived.
“During the captivity of his brother Henry, Major Bedinger would
by labor, loans at different times, and the property sold which he
inherited from his father, procure money to convey to the British
Commissary of Prisoners to pay his brother Henry’s board. Then he was
released from the filthy prison ship, limited on his parole of honor to
certain limits at Flatbush, and decently provisioned and better treated,
and it is pleasant to add that the British officers having charge of
these matters were faithful in the proper application of funds thus
placed in their hands. Major Bedinger made many trips on this labor of
fraternal affection. This, with his attention to his mother and family,
kept him from regularly serving in the army. But he, never the less,
would make short tours of service.”
So far we have quoted Dr. Draper’s recollections of an interview with
George Michael Bedinger in his extreme old age. We have already given
Henry Bedinger’s own acount of his captivity. What we know of Daniel’s
far severer treatment we will give in our own words.
It was four days before the privates taken at Fort Washington had one
morsel to eat. They were then given a little mouldy biscuit and raw
pork. They were marched to New York, and Daniel was lodged with many
others, perhaps with the whole company, in the Old Sugar House on
Liberty Street. Here he very nearly died of exposure and starvation.
There was no glass in the windows and scarce one of the prisoners was
properly clothed. When it snowed they were drifted over as they slept.
One day Daniel discovered in some vats a deposit of sugar which he was
glad to scrape to sustain life. A gentleman, confined with him in the
Old Sugar House, used to tell his descendants that the most terrible
fight he ever engaged in was a struggle with a comrade in prison for the
carcass of a decayed rat.
It is possible that Henry Bedinger, an officer on parole in New York,
may have found some means of communicating with his young brother, and
even of supplying him, sometimes, with food. Daniel, however, was soon
put on board a prison ship, probably the Whitby, in New York harbor.
Before the first exchange was effected the poor boy had yielded to
despair, and had turned his face to the wall, to die. How bitterly he
must have regretted the home he had been so ready to leave a few months
before! And now the iron had eaten into his soul, and he longed for
death, as the only means of release from his terrible sufferings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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