Sunday, February 10, 2013

February 11: Simsbury Mines

   February 11, 1775: George Washington to the Committee of Simsbury, Connecticut, from the Continental Army Headquarters at Cambridge, Massachusetts, “The prisoners which will be delivered you with this, having been tried by a court-martial, and deemed to be such flagrant and atrocious villains that they cannot by any means be set at large or confined in any place near this camp, were sentenced to be sent to Symsbury, in Connecticut.”
   Washington wrote, “You will be pleased to have them secured in your jail, or in such other manner as to you shall seem necessary, so that they cannot possibly make their escpae.”  Washington added that the charges for their imprisonment “will be at the Continental expense.” 
   Sadly, the jail at Simsbury was a semi-fortified mine.  Simsbury Mine became a detention center for Tory prisoners, that is, for Americans Loyal to the British Crown during the American War of Independence.  For a more on the Simbury Mine prison, please visit this page by the Colebrook Historical Society.  

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