American Prisoners of the RevolutionDandridge, Danske
History
American Prisoners of the Revolution
Dandridge, Danske
United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Prisoners and prisons
“Jan. 8th, ‘77. A flag of truce vessel arrived at Milford after
a tedious passage of eleven days, from New York, having above 200
prisoners, whose rueful countenances too well discovered the ill
treatment they received in New York. Twenty died on the passage, and
twenty since they landed.” New Haven, Conn.
CHAPTER XII
THE TRUMBULL PAPERS AND OTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION
We will now quote from the Trumbull Papers and other productions, what
is revealed to the public of the state of the prisoners in New York
in 1776 and 1777. Some of our information we have obtained from a book
published in 1866 called “Documents and Letters Intended to Illustrate
the Revolutionary Incidents of Long Island, by Henry Onderdonk, Jr.” He
gives an affecting account of the wounding of General Woodhull, after
his surrender, and when he had given up his sword. The British
ruffians who held him insisted that he should cry, “God save the King!”
whereupon, taking off his hat, he replied, reverently, “God save all
of us!” At this the cruel men ran him through, giving him wounds that
proved mortal, though had they been properly dressed his life might have
been spared. He was mounted behind a trooper and carried to Hinchman’s
Tavern, Jamaica, where permission was refused to Dr. Ogden to dress
his wounds. This was on the 28th of August, 1776. Next day he was taken
westward and put on board an old vessel off New Utrecht. This had been a
cattle ship. He was next removed to the house of Wilhelmus Van Brunt at
New Utrecht. His arm mortified from neglect and it was decided to take
it off. He sent express to his wife that he had no hope of recovery, and
begged her to gather up what provisions she could, for he had a large
farm, and hasten to his bedside. She accordingly loaded a wagon with
bread, ham, crackers, butter, etc., and barely reached her husband
in time to see him alive. With his dying breath he requested her to
distribute the provisions she had brought to the suffering and starving
American prisoners.
Elias Baylis, who was old and blind, was chairman of the Jamaica
Committee of Safety. He was captured and first imprisoned in the church
at New Utrecht. Afterwards he was sent to the provost prison in New
York. He had a very sweet voice, and was an earnest Christian. In
the prison he used to console himself and his companions in misery by
singing hymns and psalms. Through the intervention of his friends, his
release was obtained after two months confinement, but the rigor of
prison life had been too much for his feeble frame. He died, in the arms
of his daughter, as he was in a boat crossing the ferry to his home.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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