Such conduct appears the more striking when contrasted with that of British officers. The murder of Mr. Sigourney, of the Alp, whose brains were beaten out; though when his vessel was taken possession of not a soul but himself was found on board—the confinement of Capt. Upton and his officers of the privateer Hunter, for three months in a filthy prison, and their after transfer to a prison ship—the cruelty shown to Capt. Nichols, who, after enjoying his parole for two months, was without the least reason thrown into a prison-ship and kept for more than a month in a room four feet by seven, and many other cases of extreme cruelty, were well known, for the facts had been sworn to and placed on record as state papers. Rumor aggravated all these a hundred fold, yet the English government can offset them with no retaliatory acts substantiated before courts of inquiry.
CHAPTER XIV.
DARTMOOR PRISON.
Impressed Americans made prisoners of war — Treatment of prisoners — Prison Ships — Dartmoor prison — Neglect of American prisoners — Their sufferings — Fourth of July in Dartmoor — Brutal attack of the French prisoners — Fresh arrivals — Joy at the news of our naval victories — Sufferings of the prisoners in winter — American Government allows them three cents per diem — Moral effect of this notice of Government — Napoleon's downfall — Increased allowance of Government — Industry of prisoners — Attempts to escape — Extraordinary adventure of a lieutenant of a privateer — Number of prisoners increased — A riot to obtain bread — Dartmoor massacre — Messrs. King and L'Arpent appointed commissioners to investigate it — Decision — The end.
A short chapter is due to those who, though not engaged in battle, suffered equally for their country, and despite the oppression and want which drove them well nigh to despair, refused to be faithless to the land that had nurtured them. The conduct of the land and naval officers to a vanquished enemy, did not present a more striking contrast than that of the two governments towards prisoners who had never taken up arms. Those placed in confinement by us were never allowed to suffer through want of clothing or food, while a barbarity characterized the treatment of American citizens that reflects the deepest disgrace on the British empire.
DARTMOOR PRISON.
When the declaration of war was made, the English vessels had a vast number of American seamen on board, most of them impressed, who flatly refused to fight against their country. Many of these, without having received the pay due them, were then sent to England as prisoners of war. Captures at sea swelled the number rapidly, which in the end amounted to nearly six thousand men. Officers of privateersmen and merchantmen on parole, were sent to Devonshire or Berkshire, where on thirty-three and a quarter cents per diem, they were allowed to subsist in comparative comfort; but the common sailors and merchant captains were scattered about in different prisons, the most, however, being collected and placed on board two old line-of-battle-ships in Portsmouth harbor. Hence, after a short imprisonment, characterized by a brutality not often found among half-civilized nations, they were transferred to Dartmoor prison, seventeen miles inland. This dreaded prison was situated high up on the side of a barren mountain, overlooking a bleak and desolate moor. It consisted of seven buildings, surrounded by two walls, the first a mile in extent and sixteen feet high; the second, thirty feet from the first, and surmounted by guards overlooking the spaces within. Each prison had but one apartment on a floor, around which, in tiers, six on a side, the hammocks were slung. Into one of these large cold apartments, nearly five hundred American prisoners were crowded during the year 1813. Their own Government had not then provided any thing towards their expenses, and they were dependent entirely on the allowance of the British officials. The garments they brought with them, at length wearing out, they were reduced to the most miserable shifts to cover their persons. As soon as it was dark, this half-famished multitude was turned into their prison, and left without a light to pass the long and dreary winter nights. Filthy, ragged, covered with vermin, they strolled around the yard in the day time, or lay basking in the sun to obtain a little warmth, and moody and despairing, gradually sank, through degrading companionship and the demoralization of want and suffering, lower and lower in the scale of humanity. A single bucket, only, containing the food, was allowed to a mess, around which they gathered with the avidity of starving men, and each with his wooden spoon struggled to eat fastest and most. To add to their sufferings the small-pox broke out among them, carrying many to their graves. Faint and far echoes from home would now and then rekindle hope in their bosoms, to be succeeded only by blank despair.
The better portion strove manfully to arrest the tendency around them to degradation, and constituted themselves a court to try offenders. When theft was proved on one, a punishment of twenty-seven lashes was inflicted. They also used every inducement to prevent the sailors from enlisting in the British service, to which last resort many were driven, to escape the horrors of that gloomy prison.
When the 4th of July arrived, they determined to celebrate the national anniversary in their own prison, and so having by some means obtained two American standards, they placed them at the two ends of the building, outside the walls, and forming into two columns marched up and down the yard, singing patriotic songs, whistling patriotic tunes, and cheering the flag of their country. The keeper, hearing of it, ordered the turnkeys to take away the flags; but the prisoners sent to him, requesting as a particular favor that they might be allowed to celebrate the anniversary of their country's independence, adding if he insisted on attacking their colors he must take the consequences. The guards were then ordered in, when a scuffle ensued, in which one flag was taken, but the prisoners bore the other off in triumph to their room. At evening, when the guards came as usual to shut them up, a great deal of severe language and opprobrious epithets were used, stigmatizing the pitiful revenge in taking away their flags as mean and contemptible. Retorts followed, blows succeeded, and finally the guard fired on the crowd, wounding two men. Thus ended the 4th of July, 1813, in Dartmoor.