From Farm House to the White House - 912 Freedom Library

Farm House to the White House, by William M. Thayer 185
As winter approached, the French fleet, which sailed from Boston to the West Indies, appeared off the
Southern coast, to co-operate with General Lincoln, who commanded the Southern Department. On this
account the British commander was compelled to operate in that direction.
Washington, whose headquarters had been at West Point for several months, went into winter quarters at
Morristown, where the experience of Valley Forge was repeated with additional rigor.
The cruel treatment of Americans captured by the British had long engaged Washington's attention, and
reference to it here is in point. Many of their prisoners were confined in old ships, where they suffered all that
hunger, thirst, filth, and abuse could inflict. On account of the dreadful sufferings endured by the prisoners,
these ships were called "floating hells."
The "Jersey Prison Ship" and the old "Sugar House," converted into prisons by Lord Howe, are notorious for
their infamous character in American history. Congress appealed in vain to the commanding British general,
and Washington wrote to him upon the subject again and again. In one letter Washington said:
"From the opinion I have ever been taught to entertain of your lordship's humanity, I will not suppose that you
are privy to proceedings of so cruel and unjustifiable a nature; and I hope that, upon making the proper
inquiry, you will have the matter so regulated that the unhappy persons whose lot is captivity may not in the
future have the miseries of cold, disease, and famine added to their other misfortunes.... I should not have said
thus much, but my injured countrymen have long called upon me to endeavor to obtain a redress of their
grievances, and I should think myself as culpable as those who inflict such severities upon them were I to
continue silent."
A Rev. Mr. Andros of Massachusetts was confined in the "Jersey Prison Ship." After his escape and the close
of the war, he published a small book detailing the sufferings of its occupants. One brief paragraph therefrom
is all our space will permit.
"Her dark and filthy exterior corresponded with the death and despair reigning within. It is supposed that
eleven thousand American seaman perished in her. None came to relieve their woes. Once or twice, by order
of a stranger on the quarter-deck a bag of apples was hurled promiscuously into the midst of hundreds of
prisoners, crowded as thick as they could stand, and life and limb were endangered in the struggle. The
prisoners were secured between the decks by iron gratings; and when the ship was to be cleared of watch, an
armed guard forced them up to the winches, amid a roar of execrations and reproaches, the dim light adding to
the horrors of the scene. Thousands died whose names have never been known, perishing when no eye could
witness their fortitude, nor praise their devotion to their country."
The brave Lingan, hero of Fort Washington, was confined in the "Jersey;" and it was amid the horrors around
him that he exclaimed:
"Sweet, O my country, should be thy liberties, when they are purchased at this monstrous price!"
Custis relates that one day, when a coffin was brought in which proved too short for the dead comrade, and it
was proposed to cut off his head in order to adapt the body to the receptacle, Lingan "sprang from his couch
of pain, and, laying his hand upon the lifeless corpse of the departed soldier, swore he would destroy the first
man who should thus mutilate the body of his friend."
XXII.
CLOSE OF THE WAR.