The history of the rise, progress, and establishment of the independence of the United States of America, Vol. 2 (of 3) : $b Including an account of the late war, and of the thirteen colonies, from their origin to that periodGordon, William
History
The history of the rise, progress, and establishment of the independence of the United States of America, Vol. 2 (of 3) : $b Including an account of the late war, and of the thirteen colonies, from their origin to that period
Gordon, William
United States -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775; United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783
When the resolution was received by the Massachusetts council, instead
of conforming solely to the words of the order _to keep the colonel in
safe custody_, they sent him to Concord jail; where he was lodged in a
dungeon of twelve or thirteen feet square whose sides were black with
the grease and litter of successive criminals. Two doors with double
locks and bolts, shut him from the yard, with an express prohibition
from entering it, either for health, or the necessary calls of nature. A
leathsome black hole, decorated with a pair of fixed chains, was granted
him for his inner apartment; from whence a felon had been removed but
the moment before, and in which his litter and excrements remained a
fortnight after it was appropriated to the use of the colonel. The
attendance of a single servant on his person was denied him, and every
visit from a friend positively refused. When he had transmitted an
account of these and other matters to Sir William Howe on the 14th of
February, and the same had been communicated to gen. Washington, a
letter was directly written on the 28th, in which the general says, “You
will observe that exactly the same treatment is to be shewn to col.
Campbell and the Hessian officers, that gen. Howe shews to gen. Lee; and
as he is only confined to a commodious house, with genteel
accommodations, we have no right or reason to be more severe upon col.
Campbell, who I would wish should be immediately removed from his
present situation, and put into a house where he may live comfortably.”
The enemy have in their power and subject to their call, near 300
officers belonging to the army of the United States; while the Americans
have not more than 50 belonging to the enemy. The resolve therefore, of
putting in close confinement col. Campbell and the Hessian officers, in
order to retaliate Lee’s punishment, seems injurious in every point of
view, and to have been entered into without due attention to the
consequences. Gen. Lee’s misfortune has sunk him greatly in the opinion
of many Americans; and serves to convey a lively idea of the inconstancy
and ingratitude of mankind. Some of those very people who, when he was
marching to join gen. Washington, regarded him as the guardian angel
that was to deliver America, not only censure him bitterly, but even
insinuate that he was treacherous. The Americans however, have reaped
one advantage by that event—the enemy are convinced that they have not
gotten the palladium of America, as they fondly boasted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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