Of the Capture of Ticonderoga: His Captivity and Treatment by the British

by Ethan Allen

In a few days after this, the prisoners were ordered to go on board of a man of war, which was bound for New York; but two of them were not able to go on board, and were left at Halifax; one died; and the other recovered. This was about the 12th of October, and soon after we had got on board, the captain sent for me in particular to come on the quarter deck. I went, not knowing that it was captain Smith, or his ship, at that time, and expected to meet the same rigorous usage I had commonly met with, and prepared my mind accordingly; but when I came on deck, the captain met me with his hand, welcomed me to his ship, invited me to dine with him that day, and assured me that I should be treated as a gentleman, and that he had given orders, that I should be treated with respect by the ship's crew. This was so unexpected and sudden a transition, that it drew tears from my eyes, which all the ill usage I had before met with, was not able to produce nor could I at first hardly speak, but soon recovered myself and expressed my gratitude for so unexpected a favor; and let him know that I felt anxiety of mind in reflecting that his situation and mine was such, that it was not probable that it would ever be in my power to return the favor. Captain Smith replied, that he had no reward in view, but only treated me as a gentleman ought to be treated; he said this is a mutable world, and one gentleman never knows but it may be in his power to help another. Soon after I found this to be the same captain Smith who took my part against general Massey; but he never mentioned anything of it to me, and I thought it impolite in me to interrogate him as to any disputes which might have arisen between him and the general on my account, as I was a prisoner, and that it was at his option to make free with me on that subject, if he pleased; and if he did not, I might take it for granted that it would be unpleasing for me to query about it, though I had a strong propensity to converse with him on that subject.

I dined with the captain agreeable to his invitation, and oftentimes with the lieutenant, in the gun-room, but in general ate and drank with my friend Lovel and the other gentlemen who were prisoners with me, where I also slept.

We had a little berth enclosed with canvass, between decks, where we enjoyed ourselves very well, in hopes of an exchange; besides, our friends at Halifax had a little notice of our departure, and supplied us with spirituous liquor, and many articles of provision for the cost. Captain Burk, having been taken prisoner, was added to our company, (he had commanded an American armed vessel) and was generously treated by the captain and all the offices of the ship, as well as myself. We now had in all near thirty prisoners on board, and as we were sailing along the coast, if I recollect right, off Rhode Island, captain Burk, with an under officer of the ship, whose name I do not recollect, came to our little berth, proposed to kill captain Smith and the principal officers of the frigate and take it; adding that there were thirty-five thousand pounds sterling in the same. Captain Burk likewise averred that a strong party out of the ship's crew was in the conspiracy, and urged me, and the gentleman that was with me, to use our influence with the private prisoners, to execute the design, and take the ship with the cash into one of our own ports.

Upon which I replied, that we had been too well used on board to murder the officers; that I could by no means reconcile it to my conscience, and that, in fact, it should not be done; and while I was yet speaking, my friend Lovel confirmed what I had said, and farther pointed out the ungratefulness of such an act; that it did not fall short of murder, and in fine all the gentlemen in the berth opposed captain Burk and his colleague.

But they strenuously urged that the conspiracy would be found out, and that it would cost them their lives, provided they did not execute their design. I then interposed spiritedly, and put an end to further argument on the subject, and told them that they might depend upon it, upon my honor, that I would faithfully guard captain Smith's life. If they should attempt the assault, I would assist him, for they desired me to remain neuter, and that the same honor that guarded captain Smith's life, would also guard theirs and it was agreed by those present not to reveal the conspiracy, to the intent that no man should be put to death, in consequence of what had been projected; and captain Burk and his colleague went to stifle the matter among their associates. I could not help calling to mind what captain Smith said to me, when I first came on board; "This is a mutable world, and one gentleman never knows but that it may be in his power to help another." Captain Smith and his officers still behaved with their usual courtesy, and I never heard any more of the conspiracy.

We arrived before New York, and cast anchor the latter part of October, where we remained several days, and where captain Smith informed me, that he had recommended me to admiral Howe and general Sir Wm. Howe, as a gentleman of honor and veracity, and desired that I might be treated as such. Captain Burk was then ordered on board a prison-ship in the harbor. I took my leave of captain Smith, and with the other prisoners, was sent on board a transport ship, which lay in the harbor, commanded by captain Craige who took me into the cabin with him and his lieutenant. I fared as they did, and was in every respect well treated, in consequence of directions from captain Smith. In a few weeks after this I had the happiness to part with my friend Lovel, for his sake, whom the enemy affected to treat as a private; he was a gentleman of merit, and liberally educated, but had no commission; they maligned him on account of his unshaken attachment to the cause of his country. He was exchanged for a governor Phillip Skene of the British. I was continued in this ship till the latter part of November, where I contracted an acquaintance with the captain of the British; his name has slipped my memory. He was what we may call a genteel, hearty fellow. I remember an expression of his over a bottle of wine, to this import: "That there is a greatness of soul for personal friendship to subsist between you and me, as we are upon opposite sides, and may at another day be obliged to face each other in the field." I am confident that he was as faithful as any officer in the British army. At another sitting he offered to bet a dozen of wine, that fort Washington would be in the hands of the British in three days. I stood the bet, and would, had I known, that that would have been the case; and the third day afterwards we heard a heavy cannonade, and that day the fort was taken sure enough. Some months after, when I was on parole, he called upon me with his usual humor, and mentioned the bet. I acknowledged I had lost it, but he said he did not mean to take it then, as I was a prisoner; that he would another day call on me, when their army came to Bennington. I replied, that he was quite too generous, as I had fairly lost it; besides, the Green-Mountain-Boys would not suffer them to come to Bennington. This was all in good humor. I should have been glad to have seen him after the defeat at Bennington, but did not. It was customary for a guard to attend the prisoners, which was often changed. One was composed of tories from Connecticut, in the vicinity of Fairfield and Green Farms. The sergeant's name was Holt. They were very full of their invectives against the country, swaggered of their loyalty to the king, and exclaimed bitterly against the "cow'ardly yankees," as they were pleased to term them, but finally contented themselves with saying, that when the country was overcome, they should be well rewarded for their loyalty out of the estates of the whigs, which would be confiscated.

This I found to be the general language of the tories, after I arrived from England on the American coast. I heard sundry of them relate that the British generals had engaged them an ample reward for their losses, disappointments and expenditures, out of the forfeited rebels' estates. This language early taught me what to do with tories' estates, as far as my influence can go. For it is really a game of hazard between whig and tory. The whigs must inevitably have lost all, in consequence of the abilities of the tories, and their good friends the British; and it is no more than right the tories should run the same risk, in consequence of the abilities of the whigs. But of this more will be observed in the sequel of this narrative.

Some of the last days of November, the prisoners were landed at New York, and I was admitted to parole with the other officers, viz: Proctor, Howland and Taylor. The privates were put into filthy churches in New York, with the distressed prisoners that were taken at Fort Washington; and the second night, sergeant Roger Moore, who was bold and enterprising, found means to make his escape with every of the remaining prisoners that were taken with me, except three, who were soon after exchanged. So that out of thirty-one prisoners, who went with me, the round exhibited in these sheets, two only died with the enemy, and three only were exchanged; one of whom died after he came within our lines; all the rest, at different times, made their escape from the enemy.

I now found myself on parole, and restricted to the limits of the city of New York, where I soon projected means to live in some measure agreeably to my rank, though I was destitute of cash. My constitution was almost worn out by such a long and barbarous captivity. The enemy gave out that I was crazy, and wholly unmanned, but my vitals held sound, nor was I delirious any more than I had been from youth up; but my extreme circumstances, at certain times, rendered it politic to act in some measure the madman; and in consequence of a regular diet and exercise, my blood recruited, and my nerves in a great measure recovered their former tone, strength and usefulness, in the course of six months.

I next invite the reader to a retrospective sight and consideration of the doleful scene of inhumanity, exercised by general Sir William Howe, and the army under his command, towards the prisoners taken on Long Island, on the 27th day of Aug. 1776; sundry of whom were, in an inhuman and barbarous manner, murdered after they had surrendered their arms; particularly a general Odel, or Woodhull, of the militia; who was hacked to pieces with cutlasses, when alive, by the light horsemen, and a captain Fellows, of the continental army, who was thrust through with a bayonet, of which wound he died instantly. Sundry others were hanged up by the neck till they were dead; five on the limb of a white oak tree, and without any reason assigned, except that they were fighting in defence of the only blessing worth preserving. And indeed those who had the misfortune to fall into their hands at Fort Washington, in the month of November following, met with but very little better usage, except that they were reserved from immediate death to famish and die with hunger; in fine the word rebel, applied to any vanquished persons, without regard to rank, who were in the continental service, on the 27th of August aforesaid, was thought, by the enemy, sufficient to sanctify whatever cruelties they were pleased to inflict, death itself not excepted; but to pass over particulars which would swell my narrative far beyond my design.