Monday, February 25, 2013

February 28

   On February 28, 1776, the Continental Congress
   Resolved, That the committee of inspection and observation for the county of Berks, in Pennsylvania, be requested and authorized to contract, upon reasonable terms, for the subsistence of such prisoners now in Reading as are not supplied by Mr. Franks, together with the women and children belonging to all the prisoners there, and for supplying them with fire wood, and other things absolutely necessary for their support:
   That the committees of inspection and observation for the counties, districts, or towns, assigned for the residence of prisoners, be empowered to superintend their conduct, and, in cases of gross misbehavior, to confine them, and report to the Congress the proceedings had on such occasions.
   Ordered, That the foregoing resolve be published.
   Resolved, That committee of safety for Pensylvania, agreeably to the offer made by them of their service, of which the Congress have a sense, be authorized to distribute the officers, prisoners in Lancaster, in such places within the province of Pensylvania, as to that committee shall seem most proper, taking their parole, which, if they refuse to give, the said committee are empowered and directed to confine them; And that, in executing this resolve, the said committee have a regard to the resolutions heretofore made by the Congress, with respect to prisoners and their residence.
     Worthington Chauncey Ford, editor, Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, 34 volumes (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904-1937), 4:175-176, 164.  For American worries about prisoners in Reading, Pennsylvania, please see the posts for February 4 and February 6, 1776.  For concerns about Lancaster as a home for prisoners, please consult the posts for February 20 and February 21.  For the British and Americans in early 1776 permitting captured officers to have their servants attending them while prisoners, please consult the here, about a prisoner leaving Lancaster, PA for Frederick County, Maryland. 

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