The prisoners' memoirs, or, Dartmoor prison : $b 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.Andrews, C. (Charles)
History
The prisoners' memoirs, or, Dartmoor prison : $b 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.
Andrews, C. (Charles)
Dartmoor Prison; United States -- History -- War of 1812 -- Prisoners and prisons
We had been in this cold and dreary mansion twenty-one months, and the
above items were all the assistance we had received from Beasley, the
only person in this foreign land of our enemies to whom we could look
for any assistance, or from whom we had any right to expect it.
Our ears had been constantly assailed with the groans of the sick and
the dying; pestilence and disease had been our constant companions; our
minds had become almost distracted betwixt the grief for our departed
friends and fellow-prisoners and the hunger and want of our own body.
From such a long series of incessant sufferings, it is natural to
suppose that the bodies were emaciated and the mind debilitated; and
much of the sameness that may appear in this narrative is owing to
a uniform state of misery, which will not admit of a variety in the
description.
Capt. Shortland had got information on the second of November, 1815,
that the prisoners had counterfeited three shilling pieces, and passed
them to the market people, for their country produce, and shortly
after he detected two men attempting to pass bad money; he had them
apprehended immediately, and sent to the cachot.
Nothing worthy of note occurred till the twentieth, when two men lately
arrived were discovered to be the same who had entered the British
service the winter before. After having received many insults, and
much hard usage, on board the war ships, they had got tired of their
situations, and claimed their citizenship and got themselves delivered
up and sent to prison again, which they considered the least of the two
evils.
Their conduct on board the ships, was no doubt as disgraceful as the
act they committed to bring them there; they shifted from ship to ship,
till the one wherein they claimed their citizenship was ignorant of
the manner they had come into the service. The prisoners being highly
enraged at such conduct, made strict inquiry into the matter, and found
the facts as above mentioned.--After holding consultations, many were
for putting them to immediate death, others were for flogging them as
severely as they could bear, and every man for giving them some condign
punishment; but at last it was unanimously concluded to put upon them
a mark, which would be a lasting stigma, and an example for others.
They seized and took the traitors into prison, and fastened them to a
table, so that they could not resist, and then, with needles and India
ink, pricked U. S. on one cheek, and T. on the other; which is United
States Traitor. After we let them go, they were taken immediately to
the hospital, and their faces blistered on both sides, to endeavor to
extract the ink, but this only made it brighter and sink deeper in. The
doctors reported the traitors to be in a very dangerous state, and that
their lives were despaired of. If this had been the case, it must only
proceed from the application they had made use of, for no harm could
arise from marking.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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