Memorial Day

   Colonel Ethan Allen, a captured American officer granted parole in British-occupied New York City in the winter of 1776-77, visited the American privates detained in the city.  The British confiscated most of the cities houses of worship to serve as prisons that winter. 
   Allen met prisoners dying of starvation, reduced to mere skeletons.  By such deprivation, British officers hoped to coerce the enlistment of American prisoners.  In his 1779 Narrative, Allen recalled, “The integrity of these suffering prisoners is hardly credible.  Many hundreds, I am confident, submitted to death, rather to enlist in the British service, which, I am informed, they most generally were pressed to do.”
   For more information, consult sources listed here.  For the compassion shown by the British public, consult the posts here.  May the reflection occasion by Memorial Day in the United States include a thought for those who suffered and perished while prisoners or from deprivation and sickness endured in captivity.  

Boston, May 29, 1780

     Britain had no military draft during the Revolutionary War, a war unpopular with many Britons.  Desperate for recruits for the Army and Navy, the British tried to coerce American Prisoners of War to enter the British service.  On May 29, 1780, Massachusetts newspaper The Boston Gazette, And The Country Journal reported news of coerced enlistment of prisoners in the British West Indies.  Readers in the United States should again remember that “goal” was a common term for jail, and still is in British usage:

Captain Joseph Atkins of Newbury-Port, bound from Martineco [Martinique] to Newbury, was taken the 24th of December last, by the Sterling-Castle, of 64 guns, Robert Carket, Commander Capt Atkins informs, that there were about 100 American Prisoners taken out of Barbadoes Goal, and distributed on board the different Men of War—That on board the Sterling-Castle they were asked if they would enter, and they to a Man said they would they would not; they had Time given them to think of entering ‘till the next Morning, when being call’d on again, they still’d refus’d; the first who refus’d, as tied up, and receiv’d two dozen; the second, third and fourth the same, and then turn’d over to the boatswain to do duty: The fifth seeing it in vain to persist, comply’d as likewise did the rest, to the number of about ten.

    Presumably, the five American prisoners who “receiv’d two dozen” specifically received two dozen strokes of the lash.  In British seaports, the Royal Navy employed press gangs to force English civilian mariners into wartime service, sparking riots in England’s ports. 
     For more on British efforts to force American POWs to fight against their own independence, consult articles by Historian Philip Ranlet, including “In the Hands of the British: The Treatmentof American POWs during the War of Independence,” Historian, vol. 62 (summer 2000): 731-757.  For English resistance to the press gangs, please consult Malcolm Archibald, Sixpence for the Wind: A Knot of Nautical Folklore (Dunbeath, Scotland, UK: Whittles Publishing, 1999), page 75; and Frank Howley, Slavers, Traders and Privateers: Liverpool, the African Trade and Revolution, 1773-1808 (Birkenhead, UK: Countyvise, 2008), page 56.  

May 21, 1783

May 21 marked two major anniversaries for prisoners of war during the American War of Independence (1775-1783).  On May 21, 1776, the Continental Congress resolved that captives taken by land or sea should be “treated as prisoners of war, but with humanity….”

On May 21, 1783, after Great Britain and the United States reached a preliminary peace agreement, U.S. Secretary of War Benjamin Lincoln issued the following orders:

                         WAR-OFFICE, May 21, 1783.
     All officers holding commissions under the United States of America, who have been prisoners of war to Great-Britain, are hereby informed that they are absolved from their paroles.
                                        B. Lincoln.
     The printers in the several states are requested to insert this notification in their Gazettes.


The above notice appeared in, among other papers, The New Jersey Gazette (Trenton), 18 June 1783.  Starting in 1776, British commanders extended the right of parole to captive American officers.  The wartime custom of parole permitted captured officers to enjoy freedom of movement within an occupied territory if the officers gave their word not to abscond.  In many cases, captured officers could return to their own country, provided they promised to refrain from their country’s war effort until officially notified of their exchange. 

Officers on parole lived with some uncertainty.  Even if they returned to their homes and families, prisoners of war on parole remained answerable to recall by the enemy.  If the British requested that a paroled American officer return to British held territory, honor and the customs of war obliged such an officer to return.  With publication of this notice, Secretary Lincoln informed paroled American officers  they were released from the commitments of their parole agreements.    

The Infamous Murphy

     Privateers encountered risks even after a successful cruise.  After capturing an enemy ship, or several enemy ships, the captain of a privateer had to divide his crewmen among the captured prizes.  As the number of prisoners on a privateer increased, and the number of crewmen decreased, the commander could face a prisoner insurrection.  The Connecticut privateer sloop Eagle, captained by Edward Conkling, encountered such misfortune on Sunday, May 9, 1779. 
     Conkling and the Eagle were based in New London, Connecticut.  In the May 13, 1779 issue of the local paper, The Connecticut Gazette; And The General Advertiser, New London residents read this report with a dateline of New London, May 11,

Sunday last, the Privateer Sloop Eagle, Capt. Edward Conkling, then cruizing off Point-Judith, took six Sail of Vessels, chiefly small, except one of them, which was loaded with West-Indian Good.—The manning so many Vessels, reduced the Crew on Board the Privateer to 15, whilst the Number of Prisoners on Board was 16; who taking Advantage of this Circumstance in their Favour, fell upon, and murdered the whole of the Sloop’s Crew, except two Boys; many of them were mangled in a most savage Manner after they had surrendered.  

   After successfully commandeering the Eagle, the British prisoners retook one of the prize ships as well.  The privateers Hancock and Beaver regained the prize, however, and sent it and the five other prize ships to Stonington, Connecticut.  American crewmen assigned to the prize probably heard accounts of the prisoner mutiny from the British seafarers who briefly retook the prize ship. 
     The editors of The Connecticut Gazette noted, “Capt. Conkling’s Death is much regretted by all that knew him.  He was a humane and worthy Man, and a brave Officer.” 
     On May 14, two mariners arrived in Providence, Rhode Island with a slightly different account of the Eagle.  On May 15, The Providence Gazette; And Country Journal reported, “Yesterday arrived here two Men, belonging to a Vessel from Guadaloupe bound to Boston, which had been captured by the Enemy, and retaken by the Eagle Privateer, of New-London, late commanded by Capt. Conkling.”  The two men returning from Guadeloupe communicated a slightly different account the Eagle’s last few days. 
     The Providence Gazette reported of the two returnees, “They inform, that the Eagle had taken and manned seven Prizes, all which are safe arrived in Port, and that her Crew having been reduced to 13 Men and Boys, with 17 Prisoners on board, the latter rose and took Possession of the Vessel on Sunday Evening last, murdered Capt. Conkling and all his Crew, except the Doctor and 3 Boys, and carried the Privateer into New-York.” 
     Both the returnees in New London and the two who arrived in Providence probably acquired their information from British personnel who briefly retook a British ship captured by the Eagle.  The Eagle and at least some of her prizes probably traveled in a tight convoy, facilitating the brief recapture of one ship by the prisoners-turned-mutineers.  Although the number of prizes is different, and the number of crewmen left on the Eagle and the number of crew spared by the mutineers, both accounts agree that seventeen British prisoners were on the Eagle at the time of the mutiny.
     Both accounts also agree the mutineers committed wanton slaughter.  The Connecticut Gazette reported that the mutineers “mangled” the victims “after they had surrendered.”  Based on information from two returnees, The Providence Gazette reported the mutineers “murdered” their victims, implying the deaths were not the result of military engagement. 
      In its June 3 issue, The Connecticut Gazette named the man who purportedly murdered Capt. Conkling.  The Connecticut Gazette reported, “We have certain Advice by several Persons from New-York, That the Sloop Eagle, late commanded by the brave but unfortunate Capt. Conkling, was lately blown up at New York by Means of a Boy’s snapping a Pistol among some Powder, which communicated to the Magazine.  It is said, that a Number of Persons were in the Vessel at the Time, who lost their Lives, among them the infamous Murphy who murdered Capt. Conkling.”
     For more on the Connecticut Privateer Sloop Eagle, please visit the online database American War of Independence—at Sea.  Whether the captured Eagle crewmen spared by their captors were sent to New York City or Newport, the ordeal of a prison ship probably awaited them.  In New York, British Navy commanders operated prison ships like the notorious Jersey.  Occupying Newport from December 1776 to October 1779, British forces operated the prison ship Lord Sandwich in that harbor.  For mention of the prison ship Sandwich, please check Ralph E. Carpenter, The Arts and Crafts of Newport, Rhode Island, 1640-1820 (Newport, 1954), page 17.
     For the series of reversals experienced by the American brigantine Andrea Doria, please consult the posts "Reversals" and "James Josiah."  The Andrea Doria captured a transport ship carrying Scottish Highland troops in the British service.  The Highlanders overtook the Andrea Doria, but two American ships captained by the brothers James Barron and Richard Barron recaptured the Scots.  The Convention of Virginia resolved that the Scottish Highland prisoners should be "well used" and thereby "reconciled to the country."  For the Highlanders' changing fortunes at sea, please check the post here.  For Virginia's resolution to treat the prisoners of war humanely, please consult the post here.   

Denial: It Never Happened, But It Was Your Fault

  The 16 May 1778 issue of The Pennsylvania Ledger: Or the Philadelphia Market-Day Advertiser carried an essay by a man who identified himself only as “A British Officer.”  The British Army occupied Philadelphia, Pennsylvania until June 18, 1778. 
  The British officer at once denied and admitted horrendous atrocities.  Addressing the people of America, the British officer wrote, “We know that your scribblers have been lavish of their scurrilous abuse, in loading us with every imputation in humanity and cruelty, imputations equally false and scandalous….  Calamity and horror are inseparable and unavoidable companions of a civil war.  We wish it were possible to prevent them.” 
  The officer added, “Your leaders charge the war with all its calamities to our account, because they wish to inflame you…with such sentiments as may prompt you to persevere in sacrificing your peace and safety to support their usurpation.” 
  In other words, the horrors Americans suffer never really happened, but they are entirely your own fault. 
  Like many Britons opposed to what they considered “rebellion” by the Americans, the officer considered the conflict a civil war within the British realm, not a contest between two equal nations.  As a result, such Britons thought of the Americans as rebels, illegal combatants without any rights.
  For more on Americans as illegal combatants, please check the post here.  For a modern historian who claims that American prisoners did not suffer so terribly, but their terrible suffering was totally unavoidable, please consult the book Captives: Britain, Empire, and the World, 1600-1850, by Linda Colley.