As I look deeper into our History, finding out more information is always a good thing:
Patriots Or Terrorists? The Lost Story of Revolutionary War POW's : http://www.americanheritage.com/content/patriots-or-terrorists?page=show (http://www.americanheritage.com/content/patriots-or-terrorists?page=show)
Quote
Sometime that seismic spring of 1776, 16-year-old Levi Hanford of Norwalk, Connecticut, enrolled in his uncle's militia company and went to war against the British. He expected to make short work of the enemy. Everybody knew how simple farm boys like himself had just sent the redcoats reeling from Lexington and Concord, then cut them down at Bunker Hill. But Hanford's war got off to a slow start. Except for a brief stint building fortifications around New York City, his first year under arms consisted mostly of standing watch along the Connecticut coast of Long Island Sound and rounding up Tories. He missed the disastrous Battle of Brooklyn on August 27, 1776, in which Gen. William Howe's redcoats captured a thousand American rebels. Neither was he present two weeks later, when the British swarmed across the East River onto Manhattan, seized the city, and rounded up several hundred more Americans. Hanford did not get his first real taste of action, in fact, until a cold, stormy night in March 1777, when he and a dozen other Connecticut men were surprised and taken prisoner by a Tory raiding party from Huntington, Long Island. What happened next would haunt him until the day he died, 77 years later.
QuoteThe story of New York's Revolutionary War prisons and prison ships dropped out of sight in the 20th century, a victim of (among other things) improved Anglo-American relations. It deserves to be revived, however, because it enlarges our understanding of how the United States was made--not merely by bewigged founding fathers, of whom we have heard so much in recent years, but also by thousands upon thousands of mostly ordinary people who believed in something they considered worth dying for.
Makes one think.
Good point. A little understanding of this makes one wonder that we would ever ally ourselves again with that empire. Not that their treatment of our POWs was any worse, historically, than other countries. Astounds me that our "cousins" would wage such wars against us, and throughout the 20th century depended on us. I wonder how many Americans have died - directly or indirectly as a result of our ties with Britain since 1770?
Very good article outlining the sacrifices many suffered at the hands of those representing royal blood .
Thanx for posting it Mutti
I found a sad irony in the reference to NYC -- this is a place where the elected class has outlawed self defence and soft drinks of a certain size :(
" under conditions so atrocious that as many as 18,000 (almost 60 percent) perished--or two and a half times the 6,800 thought to have fallen in battle. More Americans gave their lives for independence in New York than anywhere else in the country"
I agree, it was a great article to read and re-emphasized the determination the colonists had to the ideals they believed in. As I think about it being a POW during that time and quite possibly now death might be a person's preferred option. I wish the book was available in e-format. I did add it to my wish list and will probably purchase it anyway.
PDF of poem in reference to Prisoner of War Ships: http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/makingrev/war/text6/freneaubritishprisonship.pdf (http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/makingrev/war/text6/freneaubritishprisonship.pdf)
Quote"Each DAY at least three carcasses we bore,
And scratch'd them graves along the sandy shore;*
By feeble hands the shallow tombs were made,
No stone memorial o'er the corpses laid;
In barren sands and far from home they lie,
No friend to shed a tear when passing by;
O'er the slight graves insulting Britons tread,
Spurn at the sand and curse the rebel dead.
"
e-book written from the recollection of an Officer aboard the Jersey Prison ship :
http://books.google.com/books?id=a95keiC6kooC&ots=Kz5ZCEdbJ-&dq=recollections%20of%20the%20jersey%20prison%20ship&pg=PR1#v=onepage&q&f=false (http://books.google.com/books?id=a95keiC6kooC&ots=Kz5ZCEdbJ-&dq=recollections%20of%20the%20jersey%20prison%20ship&pg=PR1#v=onepage&q&f=false)
The Bicknell recount (page 158 - 160 if you chose to read the e-book or 165 - 167 to download : ) - sets me to tears each time.
It kinda makes me feel like picking up another bucket or 10...
"...One of our number, who was thus seized by the fever, was a young man
named Bicknell, of Barrington, Rhode-Island. He was unwell when we left
the Jersey ; and his symptoms indicated the approaching fever; and when
we entered Narragansett Bay, he was apparently dying. Being informed
that we were in the Bay, he begged to be taken on deck, or at least to
the hatchway, that he might look once more upon his native land. He said
that he was sensible of his condition; that the hand of death was upon
him ; but that he was consoled by the thought that his remains would be
decently interred, and be suffered to rest among those of his friends
and kindred. I was astonished at the degree of resignation and
composure with which he spoke. He pointed to his father's house, as we
approached it, and said, it contained all that was dear to him on earth.
He requested to be put on shore. Our captain was intimately acquainted
with the family of the sufferer ; and as the wind was light, we dropped
our anchor, and complied with his request. He was placed in the boat,
where I took a seat by his side, in order to support him ; and with two
boys at the oars, we left the sloop. In a few minutes, his strength
began rapidly to fail. He laid his fainting head upon my shoulder, and
said, he was going to the shore, to be buried with his ancestors; - that
this had long been his ardent desire ; and that God had heard his
prayers. No sooner had we touched the shore, than one of the boys was
sent to inform his family of the event. They hastened to the boat, to
receive their long lost son and brother ; but we could only give them -
his yet warm, but lifeless corpse."