THE PRISONERS’ MEMOIRS, OR DARTMOOR PRISON; CONTAINING A COMPLETE AND IMPARTIAL HISTORY OF The Entire Captivity of the Americans in England, FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE LAST WAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND GREAT BRITAIN, UNTIL ALL PRISONERS WERE RELEASED BY THE TREATY OF GHENT. Also, a particular detail of all occurrences relative to the HORRID MASSACRE AT DARTMOOR, _On the fatal evening of the 6th of April, 1815_. THE WHOLE CAREFULLY COMPILED BY A PRISONER IN ENGLAND, Who was a Captive during the whole War. ----_Quæque ipse miserrima vidi, Et quorum pars magna fui; quis talia fando, Temperet a lacrymis?_ Virg. I., ii., v. 5. “These sufferings I myself have seen, and to the greater part of which I was a principal party. Who can relate such woes without a tear?” [Illustration] NEW YORK: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR. 1852. PREFACE. The following pages are presented to the public by one of the survivors of this worst of prisons, believing it will be read with deep interest by every American, and by every relative and friend of those who happened to be one of the unfortunate inmates of the Dartmoor Prison. If any part of the work should be found languid and tedious, it must be wholly attributed to the suffering situation of the author; the vigor and vivacity of whose mind was greatly affected by those of the body. If misery is less interesting collectively in groups than when viewed individually, let the reader single out one, and view him, separately, through the iron grating, and see him, pale and feeble, etching upon a stick, with a rusty nail, another notch, which adds to his calender another of those dismal days and nights he had spent in confinement; he may view him till he sees the iron enter his soul before he turns from him, and then say--it was my son, my brother, or my friend!--he will then have a picture interesting enough to his feelings. COPYRIGHT SECURED. CERTIFICATE. We, the undersigned, late prisoners of war, having been confined the greater part of the last war between the United States of America and Great Britain, and having carefully perused and examined the following Manuscript Journal, kept by Charles Andrews, our fellow-prisoner at Dartmoor, in the County of Devon, in the kingdom of Great Britain, do solemnly declare, that all matter and occurences herein contained, are just and true, to the best of our knowledge and belief; and that this is the only Journal kept at Dartmoor.