USA > New York > Kings County > Williamsburgh > A history of the city of Brooklyn : including the old town and village of Brooklyn, the town of Bushwick, and the village and city of Williamsburgh > Part 36
USA > New York > Kings County > Bushwick > A history of the city of Brooklyn : including the old town and village of Brooklyn, the town of Bushwick, and the village and city of Williamsburgh > Part 36
USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > A history of the city of Brooklyn : including the old town and village of Brooklyn, the town of Bushwick, and the village and city of Williamsburgh > Part 36
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1 Captain Coffin (Hist. Martyrs, p. 35) mentions " that a man of the name of Gavot, a native of Rhode Island, died, as was supposed, and was sewed up in his hammock, and in the evening carried upon deck to be taken with others who were dead, and those who might die during the night, on shore to be interred (in their mode of interring). During the night it rained pretty hard : in the morning, when they were loading the boat with the dead, one hammock was observed by one of the English seamen to move. He spoke to the officer, and told him that he believed the man in that ham- mock (pointing to it) was not dead. 'In with him,' said the officer ; 'if he is not dead, he soon will be.' But the honest tar, more humane than his officer, swore he never would bury a man alive, and with his penknife ripped open the hammock, when, be- hold ! the man was really alive. What was the cause of this man's reanimation, is a question for doctors to decide : it was at the time supposed that the rain, during the night, had caused the reaction of the animal functions, which were suspended, but not totally annihilated." This same man, Gavot, went afterwards in the same cartel with Coffin to Rhode Island.
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
near the wharf, and was used as a place of deposit for the hand- barrows and shovels provided for these occasions. Having placed the corpses on the hand-barrows, and received our hoes and shovels, we proceeded to the side of a bank near the Wallabout.1 Here a vacant space having been selected, we were directed to dig a trench in the sand, of a proper length for the reception of the bodies. We continued our labor until our guards considered that a sufficient space had been excavated. The corpses were then laid into the trench, without ceremony, and we threw the sand over them. The whole appeared to produce no more effect upon our guards than if we were burying the bodies of dead animals, instead of men. They scarcely allowed us time to look about us; for, no sooner had we heaped the earth above the trench, than the order was given to march. But a single glance was sufficient to show us parts of many bodies which were exposed to view; although they had probably been placed there, with the same mockery of interment, but a few days before.2 Having thus performed, as well as we were permitted to do it, the
1 Sherburne (p. 109) says this was called the " Volley Bank."
2 Andros (p. 14) says : "The first object that met our view in the morning, was an appalling spectacle-a boat loaded with dead bodies, conveying them to the Long Island shore, where they were very slightly covered with sand. I. sometimes used to stand and count the number of times the shovel was filled with sand to cover a dead body. And certain I am, that a few high tides, or torrents of rain, must have disin- terred them."
General Johnson (Recollections of Brooklyn and New York in 1776) says: "It was no uncommon thing to see five or six dead bodies brought on shore in a single morn- ing, when a small excavation would be dug at the foot of the hill, the bodies be cast in, and a man with a shovel would cover them, by shovelling sand down the hill upon them. Many were buried in a ravine of the hill ; some on the farm. The whole shore, from Rennie's Point to Mr. Remsen's door-yard, was a place of graves; as were also the slope of the hill, near the house (subsequently dug away by Mr. John Jackson, and whence he obtained the bones for the ' Dry-bone Procession'); the shore from Mr. Rem- sen's barn along the mill-pond, to Rapelje's farm, and the sandy island between the floodgates and the mill-dam, while a few were buried on the shore on the east side of the Wallabout. Thus did Death reign here, from 1776 until the peace. The whole Wallabout was a siekly place during the war. The atmosphere seemed to be charged with foul air from the prison-ships, and with the effluvia of the dead bodies washed out of their graves by the tides. We believe that more than half of the dead buried on the outer side of the mill-pond, were washed out by the waves at high tide, during northeasterly winds. The bones of the dead lay exposed along the beach, drying and bleaching in the sun, and whitening the shore, till reached by the power of a suc- ceeding storm ; as the agitated waters receded, the bones receded with them into the deep. * * * We have, ourselves, examined many of the skulls lying on the shore. From the teeth, they appeared to be the remains of men in the prime of life."
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HISTORY OF. BROOKLYN.
last duty to the dead, and the guards having stationed themselves on each side of us, we began reluctantly to retrace our steps to the boat. We had enjoyed the pleasure of breathing for a few moments the air of our native soil, and the thought of returning to the crowd- ed prison-ship was terrible in the extreme. As we passed by the water's side, we implored our guards to allow us to bathe, or even to wash ourselves for a few minutes ; but this was refused us. I was the only prisoner of our party who wore a pair of shoes; and well recollect the circumstance, that I took them from my feet, for the pleasure of feeling the earth, or rather the sand, as I went along. It was a high gratification to us to bury our feet in the sand, and to shove them through it, as we passed on our way. We went by a small patch of turf, some pieces of which we tore up from the earth, and ob- tained permission to carry them on board, for our comrades to smell them. . . . Having arrived at the hut, we there deposited our imple- ments, and walked to the landing-place, where we prevailed on our guards, who were Hessians, to allow us the gratification of remaining nearly half an hour, before we re-entered the boat. Near us stood a house, occupied by a miller ; and we had been told that a tide-mill, which he attended, was in its immediate vicinity ; as a landing-place for which, the wharf where we stood had been erected. It would have afforded me a high degree of pleasure to have been permitted to enter this dwelling, the probable abode of harmony and peace. It was designated by the prisoners by the appellation of the 'Old Dutchman's ;' and its very walls were viewed by us with feelings of veneration, as we had been told that the amiable daughter of its owner had kept a regular account of the number of bodies which had been brought on shore for interment from the Jersey and the hospital-ships. This could easily be done in the house, as its windows commanded a fair view of the landing-place. We were not, how- ever, gratified on this occasion, either by the sight of herself or of any other inmate of the house. Sadly did we approach and re-enter our foul and disgusting place of confinement. The pieces of turf which we carried on board, were sought for by our fellow-prisoners with the greatest avidity ; every fragment being passed by them from hand to hand, and its smell inhaled, as if it had been a fragrant rose."
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
We have already alluded to the poisonous and disgustingly impure nature of the water in which the prisoners' food was cooked. Equally deleterious in its effects was the water with which they were obliged to slake their constant and tormenting thirst. This was contained in a large water-butt, on the upper deck, and guarded by one of the marines, with a drawn cutlass. From the copper ladles, chained to the cask, the prisoners could drink as much as they pleased, but were not allowed to carry away more than a pint at a time. Dring estimates the daily consumption of water on board the Jersey at about seven hundred gallons, and a large gondola was constantly employed in conveying it from the Brooklyn shore.1 Brackish as it was, when brought on board, the haste and exertions of every one to procure a draught, gave rise to fearful scenes of confusion, which often called for the interposition of the guard.2 So much of the water as was not required for immediate use, was conveyed, through leathern hose, into butts, placed in the lower hold of the hulk ; and to this the prisoners had recourse, when they could pro- cure no other. These butts had never been cleaned since they were first placed there ; and the foul sediment which they contained, being disturbed by every new supply which was poured in, rendered their
1 Dring (p. 91) presumes "that this water was brought from Brooklyn." Captain Coffin (Hist. of Martyrs, p. 30) says it was brought from New York city, in a schooner called the Relief-(well-named ; " for the execrable water and provisions she carried, relieved many of my brave but unfortunate countrymen, by death, from the misery and savage treatment they endured")-water which, he affirms, was worse than he had ever seen on a three years' voyage to the East Indies; "water, the scent of which would have discomposed the olfactory nerves of a Hottentot ; while within a cable's length of the ship, on Long Island, there was running before our eyes, as though in- tended to tantalize us, as fine, pure, and wholesome water as any man would wish to drink." General Jeremiah Johnson, in his Rev. Recoll., states that the Jersey was supplied daily from his spring, referred to above by Coffin. And this was probably the case-the water being brought from New York only when the Wallabout spring was temporarily exhausted, or when the boats were otherwise employed. Johnson says: "The water-boat of the Jersey watered from the spring daily, when it could be done. Four prisoners were usually brought on shore to fill the casks, attended by a guard. The prisoners were frequently permitted to come to the house to get milk and food, and often brought letters privately from the ship. By these the sufferings on board were revealed. Supplies of vegetables were frequently collected by Mr. Rem- sen (the benevolent proprietor of the mill) for the prisoners ; and small sums of money were sent on board by the writer's father to his friends, by means of these watering parties."
2 Dring (p. 92), and Roswell Palmer, in Dawson's Dring (p. 179), and others.
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
contents a compound of the most disgusting and poisonous nature,' to which is directly attributable the death of hundreds of the prison- ers on the Jersey.
Near the Jersey, as before mentioned, lay three hospital-ships-the Scorpion, Stromboli, and Hunter-of whose interiors Dring (who, more fortunate than others, managed to maintain his health) says he could only form some idea " from viewing their outward appearance, which was disgusting in the highest degree." Their condition was probably preferable, in many respects, to that of the Jersey, as they were less crowded, and were provided with awnings, and with wind- sails at each hatchway, for the purpose of conducting the fresh air between decks, where the sick were placed; and, what was still better, the hatchways were left open during the night,? the keepers having no apprehension of any danger from the feeble wretches under their control. Every day (when the weather was good) a visit- ing surgeon from the Hunter-which was the station of the medical staff, etc .- came over to the Jersey and examined the sick who were able to present themselves at the gangway, on the upper deck. If a sick man was pronounced by the surgeon to be a proper subject for removal to the hospital-ship, he was hurried into the boat in waiting alongside-not being allowed to go below for the purpose of getting his clothes or effects (if he had any), which became the spoils of the nurses. The condition of the hospital-ships, however, was scarcely less crowded, filthy, and uncomfortable than that of the Jersey itself. Insufficient clothing, scarcity of blankets, the want of dry fuel to keep up even the small fires that were allowed, caused great suffering among the patients,? whose only provision
1 Mr. Palmer (Dawson's Dring, p. 72) also mentions this water taken from the hold of the vessel, which was " ropy as molasses."
2 Sherburne's experience (p. 111) on board the Frederick hospital-ship, Freneau's on the Hunter, and that of Coffin on the John, contradicts this.
3 Sherburne, who was a patient on the Frederick in January, 1783, says (p. 114) : " My bunk was directly against the ballast-port : and the port not being caulked, when there came a snow-storm, the snow would blow through the seams on my bed ;" which, however, he esteemed an advantage, when he could not otherwise procure water to quench his thirst. The sufferings which he endured from that cause alone, left their effects upon him until his death. He also mentions that a man near him in the ship was taken sick, and, while in that condition, had his feet and legs so badly frozen, that, at length, while they were being dressed, the toes and bottoms of his feet sloughed off
23
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
was a gill of ordinary wine, and twelve ounces of musty and poorly- baked bread, per day. The surgeons visited the ships only once in several days, their manner was indifferent and even unfeeling, their stay on board very brief, and their medicines very sparingly be- stowed.1 The greatest neglect was exhibited by the nurses, of whose conduct all our authorities speak in terms of indignant repro- bation. These nurses seemed to take more interest in the death of their patients than in relieving their wants, and scarcely waited for the breath to leave their bodies before they despoiled them of their blankets, clothes, and even their hair. By day their duties were most carelessly performed, and with a heartlessness which added additional pangs to the sufferings of those who depended upon their assistance ; but at night there was "not the least attention paid to the sick and dying, except what could be done by the convalescent ;
from the bone and hung only by the heel. Coffin also says, that "many of the pris- oners, during the severity of winter, had scarcely clothes sufficient to cover their nakedness, and but very few enough to keep them warm. To remedy those incon- veniences, we were obliged to keep below, and either get into our hammocks or keep in constant motion-without which precautions, we must have perished."
1 Sherburne (p. 116). "Freneau, who, as a patient on the Hunter, had ample means of knowing whereof he spoke, has pictured, in scathing rhyme, the unfeeling conduct of these medical men.
"'From Brooklyn heights a Hessian doctor came, Not great his skill, nor greater much his fame ; Fair Science never called the wretch her son, And Art disdained the stupid man to own. * * * * * He on his charge the healing work begun With antimonial mixtures, by the ton ; Ten minutes was the time he deign'd to stay, The time of grace allotted once a day .- He drench'd us well with bitter draughts, 'tis true- Nostrums from hell, and cortex from Peru. Some with his pills he sent to Pluto's reign, And some he blister'd with his flies of Spain ; His Tartar doses walk'd their deadly round, Till the lean patient at the potion frown'd, And swore that hemlock, death, or what you will, Were nonsense to the drugs that stuff'd his bill. On those refusing, he bestow'd a kick, Or menac'd vengeance with his walking-stick. Here, uncontroll'd, he exercis'd his trade, And grew experienc'd by the deaths he made.'"
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
who were so frequently called upon, that in many cases they over- did themselves, relapsed, and died."
Sherburne. mentions the sad case of two brothers, John and Abraham Fall, who lay sick upon a cot near his own. One night, when thus left to suffer in the darkness of this foul and miserable ship, Abraham Fall plead with his brother John to get off from him ; and the sick around swore at John for his cruelty in lying on his brother ; but John made no reply, he was deaf to the cries of his brother, and beyond the curses of the suffering crowd. In the morning he was found dead; and his brother Abraham, whose ex- hausted strength had given way under the pressure of the corpse, was in a dying state. The sick were unable to relieve them, and the nurses were not there.
Captain Dring also describes the case of a poor boy, only twelve years old, confined with him on the Old Jersey, and who had been inoculated for the small-pox. "He was a member of the same mess with myself," Dring says, "and had always looked upon me as a protector, and particularly so during his sickness. The night of his death was a truly wretched one to me; for I spent almost the whole of it in perfect darkness, holding him during his convulsions ; and it was heart-rending to hear the screams of the dying boy, while call- ing and imploring, in his delirium, for the assistance of his mother and other persons of his family. For a long time, all persuasion or argument was useless to silence his groans and supplications. But exhausted nature at length sunk under its agonies ; his screams became less piercing, and his struggles less violent. In the mid- night gloom of our dungeon, I could not see him die, but knew, by placing my hand over his mouth, that his breathings were becom- ing shorter ; and thus felt the last breath as it quitted his frame. The first glimmer of morning light through the iron grate fell upon his pallid and lifeless corpse."1
The Jersey became, at length, so crowded, and the increase of disease among the prisoners so rapid, that even the hospital-ships were inadequate for their reception. In this emergency, bunks were erected on the larboard side of the upper deck of the Jersey, for the
1 Dring's Narrative, p. 84.
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
accommodation of the sick from between decks. The horrors of the old hulk were now increased a hundred-fold. Foul air, confine- ment, darkness, hunger, thirst, the slow poison of the malarious locality in which the ship was anchored, the torments of vermin, the suffocating heat alternating with cold, and, above all, the almost total absence of hope, performed their deadly work unchecked. "The whole ship, from her keel to the taffrail, was equally affected, and contained pestilence sufficient to desolate a world-disease and death were wrought into her very timbers."
Notwithstanding the increasing mortality on board the Jersey, new arrivals more than supplied the vacancies occasioned by death, and the ship became unbearably crowded. In their despair, the prison- ers, early in June, 1782, bethought themselves of petitioning General Clinton, then in command at New York, for permission to transmit a memorial to General Washington, describing their pitiable condi- tion, and soliciting his influence in their behalf. The favor was unexpectedly granted by the British general, and three messengers, chosen by the crew from among their own number, were authorized to leave the ship on this embassy. In addition to the written me- morial which they bore, they were directed to state, in a manner more explicit than they dared to commit to paper, the peculiar hor- ror of their situation ; the miserable food and water on which they were obliged to subsist; and to promise him that if their release could be procured, they would gladly enter the American army, and serve during the remainder of the war as soldiers.
In a few days after, the prisoners were summoned to the spar- deck to listen to the reading of General Washington's reply; in which he expressed his deepest sympathy with their condition, and his determination to mitigate its severities by every means within his power. To the messengers personally, he had fully explained that their long detention in captivity was owing to a combination of circumstances against which it was very difficult, if not impossible, to provide. "That, in the first place, but little exertion was made on the part of our countrymen to secure and detain their British prison- ers, for the purpose of exchange; many of the British seamen being captured by privateers, on board which, he understood, it was a common practice for them to enter as seamen; and that, when this
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
was not the case, they were usually set at liberty as soon as the pri- vateer arrived in port ; as neither the owners, nor the town or State where they were landed, would be at the expense of their confine- ment and maintenance ; and that the officers of the General Govern- ment only took charge of those seamen who were captured by the vessels in the public service. All which circumstances combined to render the number of British prisoners at all times by far too small for a regu- lar and equal exchange." Copies of the correspondence on the sub- ject with the British authorities were also submitted' by the general, whose interference was soon followed by an improvement in their fare-especially in the quality of the bread, and in the furnishing of butter instead of rancid oil. An awning was also provided, as well as a wind-sail, for the conducting of fresh air between the decks during the day-which, however, was of no advantage during the nights, as the keepers continued to fasten down the hatchways after dark. To their other privations, the prisoners were obliged to submit, hoping- almost against hope-that further favors might possibly be granted, although they saw " but little prospect of escaping from the raging pestilence, except through the interposition of Divine Providence."
There was, indeed, one condition upon which these hapless suffer- ers might have escaped the torture of this slow but certain death, and that was enlistment in the British service. This chance was daily offered to them by the recruiting officers who visited the ship, but whose persuasions and offers were almost invariably treated with contempt, and that, too, by men who fully expected to die where they were .? In spite of untold physical sufferings, which
1 The whole correspondence between the American and British authorities, relative to the condition of the American prisoners in the hulks, will be found in Dawson's Dring (Appendix I). From these letters, it will be seen that Washington had not been unmindful of the sufferings of his unfortunate countrymen-his first letter to the Brit- ish authorities being dated in January 25, 1781 ;- but his authority in the premises was limited, the real power to negotiate for the exchange of naval prisoners being vested not in him, but in the Financier of the American Government. Exchanges between the belligerents were to be made in kind ; and owing, as above stated, to the course pursued by those engaged in privateering, in releasing captives without parole, or enlisting them in the American service, our Government had but few naval prison- ers to offer ; while, to accept the enemy's offer to receive soldiers in exchange, would, by furnishing him immediate re-enforcements in the field, have been subversive of the interests of the United States.
2 Coffin, Dring, and others.
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
might well have shaken the resolution of the strongest ; in spite of the insinuations of the British that they were neglected by their Government-insinuations which seemed to be corroborated by the very facts of their condition ; in defiance of threats of even harsher treatment, and regardless of promises of food and clothing-objects most tempting to men in their condition ; but few, comparatively, sought relief from their woes by the betrayal of their honor.1 And these few went forth into liberty followed by the execrations and undisguised contempt of the suffering heroes whom they left behind. It was this calm, unfaltering, unconquerable SPIRIT OF PATRIOTISM- defying torture, starvation, loathsome disease, and the prospect of a neglected and forgotten grave-which sanctifies to every Ameri- can heart the scene of their suffering in the Wallabout, and which will render the sad story of the " prison-ships" one of ever-increasing interest to all future generations. " They chose to die, rather than injure the Republic. And the Republic hath never yet paid them the tribute of gratitude !"
At the expiration of the war, the prisoners remaining on board the " Old Jersey" were liberated, and the old hulk, in whose "putrefac- tive bowels" so many had suffered and died, was abandoned where she lay. "The dread of contagion prevented every one from ventur- ing on board, and even from approaching her polluted frame. But the ministers of destruction were at work. Her planks were soon filled with worms, who, as if sent to remove this disgrace to the name of our common humanity, ceased not from their labor, until they had penetrated through her decaying bottom; through which the water rushed in, and she sunk. With her went down the names of many thousands of our countrymen, with which her inner planks and sheathing were literally covered; for but few of her inmates had ever
1 Coffin (Hist. Martyrs, p. 35) says he never knew of but one who so enlisted. Fox, however, admits that some did enter the British service, and was himself one of a small party who enlisted thus for garrison duty in Jamaica-a step which they all bitterly repented afterwards. We have also similar testimony from other sources ; yet these were but rare exceptions to the pure spirit of patriotic heroism displayed, in so sur- prising a degree, by the great mass of the sufferers in the prison-ships.
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