From Farm House to the White House - 912 Freedom Library

Farm House to the White House, by William M. Thayer 146
General Gage in arming vessels to capture supplies along the American coast. One of his cruisers captured a
brigantine ladened with munitions of war,--two thousand stand of arms, one hundred thousand flints, thirty
thousand round shot, and thirty-two tons musket balls,--which were taken into Cape Ann, and transported
from thence on wagons to Cambridge.
In this way, as well as by the action of Congress and the Provincial Legislatures, the army of Washington was
strengthened and equipped. The British were so thoroughly entrenched in Boston, and their army so well
disciplined and powerful, that it would have been foolhardy for Washington to attack them; besides, an attack
would have resulted in burning the city and sacrificing the lives of many friends who lived there.
"British officers must understand that men fighting for their country are patriots, and not malefactors,"
remarked Washington to Mr. Reed, his secretary. "Cruelty to prisoners anyway is contrary to all the rules of
civilized warfare."
"Well, we are 'rebels,' you know," replied Reed sarcastically, "and General Gage thinks that 'rebels' have no
claim upon his clemency."
"Cruelty to prisoners is not confined to General Gage," responded Washington. "There is no doubt that the
king holds Allen [Ethan] in irons, and his fellow-captives, which is treating prisoners of war as savages do."
Ethan Allen was the famous patriot who led two hundred and thirty men against Fort Ticonderoga, and
captured it in May, 1775. He surprised the commander, and demanded an immediate surrender.
"By whose authority do you make this demand?" inquired the officer in charge.
"In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!" shouted Allen.
He was captured by General Prescott in Canada.
"Were the king's forces in Boston to sally forth and conquer our army, the rules of civilized warfare would be
of no account to them, I am thinking;" suggested Mr. Reed. "It behooves us to keep out of their clutches, or
die in the attempt."
The cruelty of British officers to prisoners was the subject of frequent discussion between Washington and his
advisers, and finally he wrote to General Gage as follows:
"I understand that the officers engaged in the cause of liberty and their country, who, by the fortune of war
have fallen into your hands, have been thrown indiscriminately into a common jail, appropriated to felons;
that no consideration has been had for those of the most respectable rank, when languishing with wounds and
sickness, and that some have been amputated in this unworthy situation.... The obligations arising from the
rights of humanity and claims of rank are universally binding and extensive, except in case of retaliation.
These, I should have hoped, would have dictated a more tender treatment of those individuals whom chance
or war had put in your power.... My duty now makes it necessary to apprise you that, for the future, I shall
regulate all my conduct towards those gentlemen who are, or may be, in our possession, exactly by the rule
you shall observe toward those of ours now in your custody.
"If severity and hardships mark the line of your conduct, painful as it may be to me, your prisoners will feel its
effects. But if kindness and humanity are shown to us, I shall with pleasure consider those in our hands only
as unfortunate, and they shall receive from me that treatment to which the unfortunate are ever entitled."
The reply of General Gage was characteristic of a conceited, ambitious, and domineering officer of the king,
and Washington closed his reply to it with these words: