History of Swansea, Massachusetts, 1667-1917; - citizen hylbom blog

54 History of Swansea
ductory words : "The horrors of the British prison ships of the
Wallabout have never been revealed to the pubHc eye. The
muse of history sits silent by the tomb of American martyrs,
draped in mourning, she cannot sing. The subject for song is
too sad and repulsive. Better perhaps, that the pall of oblivion
be not lifted. Burning words of indignation would stir
Gladstone's voice. What are the facts? I copy, he says, from
historical records."
So must every one copy from historical records.
But the searching of them is painful; they reveal the
darkest side of war and the lowest depths of human depravity.
Why, however, may not the pall of oblivion be lifted ; why
may not the canvas and the pen speak and the muse sing
though in the saddest strains, that the country may know all
that can be known of the history of the prison ship martyrs
who suffered so much and wrought so gloriously in the achievement
of American Independence.
The Wallabout—Uterally a bend in the inner harbor—is
a sheltered bay on the west end of Long Island ; it is now the
location of the Navy Yard. During five or six years of the
Revolutionary War there were anchored in this bay fifteen old
hulks, used in part for prison ships and in part for hospital
ships. Twelve of them bore the names of Good Hope, Scorpion,
Kitty, Whitby, Falmouth, Good Intent, Prince of Wales^
Stromboli, Hunter, Providence, Bristol and the Jersey.
The barbarities practiced in these vessels by the British
and their hirelings seem incredible. The cruelties inflicted
upon the prisoners confined in the Jersey are hardly equalled
in history. She was called " hell afloat. '*
Nor were the prisons located in New York but little less
atrocious. From the time of the disastrous battle of Long
Island Aug. 27, 1776, to the evacuation of New York by the
British Nov. 25, 1783, it was emphatically a city of prisons, it
was the British prison house. Every available building was
transformed into a dungeon for the soldiers of the American
army who happened to be taken prisoners. Those thus taken
were under the supervision of the infamous provost-marshal
Cunningham, with his deputy O'Keefe and the commissioners
Loring, Sproat and others. The buildings used for prisons
were the North Dutch Church, Brick Church in Beekman
Street, Friends Meeting House in Pearl Street; Presbyterian
Church in Wafl Street, Middle Dutch Church, Old Sugar
House, Liberty Street, Rhinelanders, and the other sugar houses
in the city were also filled with prisoners; BrideweU in the
Common, and the Provost jail perhaps the most notorious
dungeon of all.