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 37
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 37
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 37
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
In many cases, forcible impressment of our brave sailors was practised by the British (see Fox, pp. 134, 135), and was justly characterized by Washington, in a letter to Lord Howe, in 1777, as "unprecedented."
359
HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
neglected to add their own names to the almost innumerable cata- logue. Could these be counted, some estimate might now be made of the whole number who were there immured ; but this record has long since been consigned to eternal oblivion," and the precise number of these unknown martyrs who perished in the prison-ships, and were buried in the loose sands of the lonely Wallabout, will probably never be accurately known. It was estimated, shortly after the close of the war, when the data were more easily attainable than now, that up- wards of eleven thousand died in the JERSEY alone!' The statement was never denied, either officially or by those then resident in New York and elsewhere, who, from their connection with the British Commissary department, had full opportunities of knowing the truth. Calculating, as we safely may, the deaths on board the Jer- sey as averaging five a day, during the time (1779-80-April, 1783) she was occupied as a prison-ship, and adding thereto the large number transferred from her to the hospital-ships, where they died, as well as the hundreds exchanged from time to time, and who
1 This estimate of 11,000, or, as elsewhere stated, 11,500, whether correct or not, undoubtedly originated in the following newspaper paragraph :
" FISHKILL, May 8, '83.
"TO ALL PRINTERS OF PUBLIC NEWSPAPERS.
" Tell it to the world, and let it be published in every newspaper throughout Amer- ica, Europe, Asia, and Africa, to the everlasting disgrace and infamy of the British King's commanders at New York : That during the late war, it is said, 11,644 Ameri- can prisoners have suffered death by their inhuman, cruel, savage, and barbarous usage on board the filthy and malignant British prison-ship, called the Jersey, lying at New York. Britons, tremble, lest the vengeance of Heaven fall on your isle, for the blood of these unfortunate victims. AN AMERICAN."
2 Dring (p. 123) says : "The average number who died on board, during the period of twenty-four hours, was about five." Freneau, in his stinging rhyme (The British Prison-ship) says :
" Each day, at least six carcases we bore,
And scratch'd them graves along the sandy shore."
Talbot (p. 106) states that while he was on board the Jersey, the number of deaths was reduced, by cool and dry nights (it being then October) to an average of ten, and this number was considered by the survivors but a small one when compared with the terrible mortality which had prevailed in the ship for three months pre- viously! Johnson says, "it was no uncommon thing to see five or six dead bodies brought on shore in a single morning." A letter from the Jersey, published in the Penn. Packet, of Sept. 4th, 1781, says: "We bury six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and eleven men in a day ; we have two hundred more sick and falling sick every day." And similar testimony on this point could be adduced ad infinitum.
360
HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
reached home only in time to die,1-the above estimate does not seem exaggerated if applied to the mortality, not of the Jersey alone, but of all the prison-ships.
The Prison-ships, as we have already seen, were condemned ves- sels of war, totally unsuitable for places of confinement; and, while the abstract right of the enemy to use them as such is unquestion- able,2 yet there was not the least necessity of so doing, when, within a stone's throw, were broad acres of unoccupied land, much better suited for the purpose. Neither was there any real or pretended necessity for resort to the extreme measures which were adopted towards the American naval prisoners. It is true that, according to the law of nations, their claims for consideration, as subjects in rebellion, were not as great as those of captives taken in solemn war; yet it is equally true that the main object of the war-the sup- pression of rebellion-did not justify the severity of treatment which these prisoners received, and which transcended that higher "law of humanity," which every nation is bound to observe and respect. It is evident that the JERSEY, which had once accommodated a crew of over four hundred, with full armament, supplies, etc., might, without
~ 1 At New London, in February, "79, arrived a cartel of one hundred and thirty of these poor victims of the prison-ships. In such condition were these men placed on board the cartel, that, in the short run between New York and New London, sixteen died on board; and sixty, when they landed, were scarcely able to move, while the remainder were much emaciated. In November, 1781, one hundred and thirty-two prisoners arrived from the prison-ships, "mostly sick." In December of the same year, one hundred and thirty prisoners landed from New York, "in most deplorable condition ; great part since dead, and the survivors so debilitated that they will drag out a miserable existence. It is enough to melt the most obdurate heart to see these miserable objects landed at our wharves, sick and dying, and the few rags they have on covered with vermin and their own excrements." At New Lon- don, in December, "78, nearly one hundred and seventy two American prisoners arrived from New York, the "greater part sickly and in most deplorable condition, owing chiefly to the ill-usage in their prison-ships, where numbers had their feet and legs froze."
Lieutenant Catlin, who was placed with two hundred and twenty-five men on board the Glasgow, to be sent to Connecticut as an exchange, says they were aboard eleven days, without fire, and with even less food than before ; and that twenty-eight died during the passage, from cold and ill-usage. Multitudes of such cases could be quoted.
2 In evidence that the Americans did not question this right, we may cite the fact that, in 1782, a vessel, fitly named the Retaliation, was fitted up as a prison-ship, moored in the Thames river, near New London, Conn., and used as a, place of confine- ment for captured British seamen.
361
HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
her stores, dismantled, and anchored in a protected situation, have easily been made comfortable for even the thousand prisoners which she is said to have averaged. That she was not so, and that she became a "festering plague-spot," was attributable largely to the conduct of those inferior officers under whose immediate care the prisoners were placed ; and who, by their disregard of the policy of their Government, their avaricious and shameful mal-appropriation of the supplies placed at their disposal by that Government for the use of the prisoners, and their frequent and uncalled-for severity, unnecessarily increased the sufferings which they should have miti- gated.
There is ample evidence, moreover, in the various narratives ex- tant concerning the prison-ships, that the prisoners themselves- demoralized by the accumulation of suffering to which they were subjected-were accountable, to a considerable extent, for much of their own suffering.1 The same narratives also, when divested of the vindictiveness and exaggeration to which their writers not unnat- urally gave expression, furnish incontestable evidence that prisoners were, in some instances, treated with more consideration than is generally supposed. Friends were permitted to visit them and
1 For example, although the leakage of the Jersey rendered necessary the frequent use of the pumps to keep her from sinking in the soft mud of the Wallabout, yet we have the testimony of Andros (p. 9) that the prisoners were only forced up to the winches, and to keep the pumps in motion, by the intimidation of an armed guard. He also states (p. 16) that "the prisoners were furnished with buckets and brushes to cleanse the ship, and with vinegar to sprinkle her inside ; but their indolence and despair were such that they would not use them, or but rarely."
According to Dring, soon after the Jersey began to be used as a place of confinement, the prisoners established a code of by-laws for their own regulation and government -- especially as regarded personal cleanliness, the prevention of profanity, drunkenness and theft, the observance of the Sabbath, etc. For a long time these laws were scrupu- lously observed ; but, as numbers constantly increased, and sickness, despair, and harsh treatment began to have their full measure of influence upon the prisoners, they exhib- ited the demoralization of despair ; and though the rules against theft, fighting, tyran- nical conduct, etc., were still enforced, it was not so much from principle, as from an instinct of self-preservation. Hawkins (p. 67) mentions a case of punishment inflicted by the prisoners of the Jersey upon one of their number, which was terribly severe.
The prisoners, also, rendered desperate by their sufferings, took no pains to conciliate their keepers; but, according to all accounts, showed an evident disposition to annoy the guard, the cook, and even the old marines who guarded the water-butt, and who always repaid these petty annoyances with interest, thus adding materially to the incon- veniences and horrors of their situation. Fox and others give many instances of this.
362
HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
to furnish them with articles necessary to promote their com- fort;1 correspondence, under proper restrictions, was allowed with their families ; in some cases they were allowed to visit their homes, on their simple word of honor to return at a specified time ;? and even the reading of the funeral-service was not refused when de- sired.3 From these well-substantiated facts, it is evident that the cruelties endured by the unfortunate inmates of the prison-ships, were not systematized aggravations practised by a great and civil- ized Government; but the result, generally, of avarice, indolence, indifference, and unwarrantable abuse of power by hirelings, "clothed with a little brief authority,"-a class proverbially despotic, cruel, and inhuman in their treatment of the helpless.
Time has softened the asperities engendered by the conflict of the Revolution ; and our own recent national experiences in the sup- pression of a similar revolt, have largely tended to dispel the historic glamour which has hitherto veiled the events of that period. De- plorable as some of these events were, and totally inexcusable on the ground either of justice or humanity, we can, at this time, bet- ter appreciate their causes, and understand-although we cannot excuse-the motives of the real actors therein. And, although His- tory cannot blot out from her imperishable pages the sad story of the prison-ships, yet Charity forbids that Vengeance should dictate the record against those who-however harshly their actions may be judged by man-have gone to receive their judgment before a Superior Tribunal.
Although not in strict chronological sequence, we deem it ap- propriate to conclude this chapter with a narrative of the numer- ous abortive attempts to secure for the remains of these untold and unknown heroes of the prison-ships, a fitting and permanent place of sepulchre.
1 Sherburne (p. 116) mentions that, through the kindness of some of the benevolent citizens of New York, all the sick on board the Frederick were constantly supplied with a pint each of Bohea tea (well-sweetened with molasses) each day. See, also, the Drowne correspondence, in Dawson's Dring, 173, and others.
2 See Drowne correspondence, 168; also other authorities in manuscript.
$ Ibid., 171.
363
HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
For several years after the close of the Revolution, the bones of those who died on board the prison-ships were to be seen, scarce earthed in the falling banks of the Wallabout, or strewn upon its shores, and bleaching beneath the winter's storm and the summer's scorching sun. And though, during this period, several patriotic individuals called the attention of Congress and of the public to these exposed and neglected remains,1 yet no formal movement seems to have been made towards their proper interment until 1792, when the citizens of the town of Brooklyn, at an annual town meet- ing, resolved that the bones disinterred and collected by Mr. John Jackson? (who had recently become the owner of the "Remsen
1 Among others, Joseph P. Cook, a member (from Connecticut) of Congress then in session in New York, writing under date of June 3d, 1785, from his lodgings in Brook- lyn, near the Wallabout, says : "Soon after we came to live on Long Island, several of us took a walk that way, and were struck with horror at beholding a large number of human bones, some fragments of flesh not quite consumed, with many pieces of old blankets, lying upon the shore. In consequence of a representation made to Congress, they were soon after taken up and buried. But walking along the same place, not many days ago, we saw a number more which were washed out ; and attempting to bury them ourselves, we found the bank full of them."
2 John Jackson, a native of Jerusalem, Queens County, L. I., removed with his brothers, Samuel and Treadwell, to the village of Brooklyn, shortly after the close of the Revolution. It is probable that the brothers were possessed of some means, for they soon purchased large estates in Brooklyn, which could, at that early period, be had at very low prices. John Jackson, about 1791, purchased the large and valuable farm then known as the "Remsen estate," situated on the Wallabout, and comprising about thirty acres of land and thirty-five acres of pond, together with the old mill and dwelling-house-for which he paid the sum of $17,000. It was in making improve- ments on this farm that public attention seems first to have been attracted, by the dis- interment of the remains of those buried from the prison-ships-large quantities of bones being found in cutting away the high banks, which then formed the shore of the bay. In the year 1801, Mr. Jackson sold to the United States forty acres of this property, which has ever since been occupied by the Government as a navy-yard. In other instances than this, also, Mr. Jackson appears in Brooklyn history mostly in the character of a shrewd speculator-as the originator and President of the Wallabout Bridge Company-as the builder of a saw-mill on the adjoining meadow, to be moved by wind, which failed-as the vendor of a part of the same meadow (to Captain Isaac Chauncey, of the U. S. N.), for the purpose of erecting thereon powder magazines ; but the dampness of the place damaged the powder, and, consequently, the reputation of the magazines. Indeed, in his sale of land and water privilege to the United States for a navy-yard, he seems to have granted rather more of the mill-stream than his own title fairly included, and to have covered the excess by an ambiguously worded deed, which ultimately gave rise to some well-founded complaint on the part of the citizens of the town-to which the said water privilege belonged-and to an extensive cor respondence between them and the Secretary of the Navy. Mr. Jackson is described,
364
HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
farm"-on which they were situated) should be removed to and buried in the graveyard of the Reformed Dutch church, and a monument erected over them. A committee, of which General Johnson was chairman,1 was appointed to carry the resolution into effect ; but their application, in 1793, was refused by Mr. Jackson, who, being a prominent politician and a Sachem of the then influential Tammany Society, or Columbian Order, had conceived the idea of turning to a political use, and to his personal aggran- dizement, the large deposit of prison-ship remains of which he had accidentally become the possessor. In accordance with this plan, he subsequently offered to the Tammany Society an eligible piece of land upon his property in the Wallabout, for the purpose of erecting thereon a suitable sepulchre. The society accepted his offer ; and on the 10th of February, 1803, an eloquent memorial was prepared, and presented by the learned and distinguished Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell to the House of Representatives, then in session in Washington. From Congress, indeed, much was expected, as the subject of the application to them was purely national, and one which deeply interested the public sensibility. No measures were, however, adopted by that honorable body, and the matter rested until 1808.ª On February 1st of that year it was again revived by the Tammany Society, who appointed a Wallabout Committee, which proceeded to take immediate steps towards effecting the long-talked- of and long-neglected sepulture of the remains, of which upwards of thirteen hogsheads had been collected. They initiated an extensive correspondence, published a stirring appeal in the columns of the public press, invited the cordial co-operation of their patriotic fellow-
by those who knew him, as a large man, of coarse features and florid complexion, loud spoken, energetic in his movements, and an ardent politician.
1 This movement was undoubtedly made at the suggestion of General Johnson himself. 2 In the interim, however, the patriotism of a private citizen, Mr. Benjamin Aycrigg, reproved the hesitation of the Congress of a great people. As we learn from documents published in the Transactions of the American Institute for 1852, Mr. Aycrigg, shocked at the exposed condition of these remains, during the summer of 1805, made a written contract with an Irishman living in the Wallabout, by which the latter was to " col- lect all the human bones as far as may be without digging," and deliver the same to Mr. A. at a stipulated price-which was done, and the remains thus collected formed a portion of those which were subsequently interred in the vault erected by the Tam- many Society. A biographical sketch of Mr. Aycrigg will be found in Stiles' privately printed edition of the Hist. Account of the Interment of the Martyrs, etc., pp. 218-220.
365
HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
citizens in every part of the Union, and in various ways strove to arouse a national interest in the sacred trust which had been con- fided to their care. In this they were eminently successful, and THE NATION, aroused by their appeal, touched by the memories which clustered around those martyr graves amid the sand-hills of the Wallabout, and shamed, it may be, by a consciousness of its own too great neglect, turned at last, with a quickened impulse of generous affection, towards the work of providing for those honored remains a place of final deposit.
Indeed, so unexpected was the zeal manifested by the public, and so effective were the individual exertions made in behalf of this object, that the committee were induced, at a much earlier period than they had originally contemplated, to commence the building of the vault. On Wednesday, April 13, 1808, the corner-stone was laid. The imposing military and civic procession which took place on that occasion formed at the old ferry (now Fulton ferry, Brooklyn), under the directions of Major Aycrigg, Grand Marshal of the day, and marched through Main, Sands, Bridge, York, and Jackson streets, to the vault, on Jackson street, adjoining the Navy-yard.
Arriving at the latter place, the artillery were posted on an adja- cent hill : the other parts of the procession took appropriate posi- tions, and Benjamin Romaine, Esq., Grand Sachem of Tammany, assisted by the Wallabout Committee and the master-builders, laid the corner-stone of the vault, upon which was the following inscrip- tion :
" In the name of the Spirits of the Departed Free-Sacred to the Memory of that portion of American Seamen, Soldiers, and Citizens who perished on board the Prison-ships of the British at the Wallabout during the Revolution.
"This is the corner-stone of the vault erected by the Tammany Society, or Columbian Order, which contains their remains. The ground for which was bestowed by John Jackson .- Nassau Island, season of blossoms. Year of the discovery the 316th, of the institu- tion the 19th, and of American Independence the 32d, April 6, 1808.""
1 Jacob Vandervoort, John Jackson, Burdett Striker, Issachar Cozzens, Robert Town- send, jr., Benjamin Watson, Samuel Cowdrey, Wallabout Committee. David & Wil- liam Campbell, builders.
366
HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
The completion of this ceremony was followed by national salutes from the Marine Corps and the Artillery, and solemn music by the bands. Then, before the procession and some two thousand citi- zens gathered in a circle around the door of the vault, JOSEPH D. FAY, Esq., a member of Tammany, pronounced a brilliant and elo- quent oration over "the tomb of the Patriots." At the conclusion of his address, the procession returned to the place of rendezvous at the ferry, where they formed a circle around the Liberty-pole,' near the market, gave three cheers, and dispersed to their homes.
Upon the completion of the vault, the remains were removed thereto on the 26th day of May following, with a civic and mili- tary pageant unprecedented for splendor and impressiveness, and which was witnessed, as then estimated, by upwards of thirty thou- sand persons .? At the head of this procession rode a trumpeter, mounted on a black horse, and dressed in black relieved with red, wearing a helmet ornamented with flowing black and red feathers, and bearing in his right hand a trumpet, from which was suspended a black silk flag, edged with red and black crape, bearing the follow- ing motto, in letters of gold :
MORTALS AVAUNT! 11,500 SPIRITS OF THE MARTYRED BRAVE APPROACH THE TOMB OF HONOUR, OF GLORY, OF VIRTUOUS PATRIOTISM !
He was followed by the Chief Herald, in full military dress, and
1 This Liberty-pole stood at the foot of Fulton street, Brooklyn, near the old market, which finally came to be regarded as a nuisance, and was torn down one night, in 1814, by a party of young men. The site of the market is now marked by the flag-staff which stands in the middle of Fulton street, near the Ferry-house.
1 A full account of these ceremonies is given in a now rare volume, entitled, “ An Account of the Interment of the Remains of 11,500 American Seamen, Soldiers, and Citizens, who fell victims to the cruelties of the British, on board their prison-ships at the Wallabout, during the American Revolution, with a description of the grand and solemn funeral procession, which took place on the 26th May, 1808, and an oration delivered at the Tomb of the Patriots by Benjamin DeWitt, M. D., a member of the Tammany Society, or Columbian Order; compiled by the Wallabout Committee. New York : Printed by Frank, White & Co. 1808: 96 pages, 12mo." A very elegant edi- tion, limited to one hundred and fifteen copies, was issued from the "Bradstreet Press," New York, in 1865, with notes and historical appendix, by the author of this history.
367
HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
mounted on an elegant white horse, richly caparisoned, bearing the staff and cap of liberty, from which was suspended an elegant blue silk shield, edged with red and black crape, the field covered with thir- teen stars in gold, emblematic of the original American constellation. Major Aycrigg, the son of a sufferer in the sugar-house, and Captain Alexander Coffin, himself twice a sufferer in the prison-ships, acted as his aids. The long line which followed was composed of cavalry, artillery, infantry, the members of the Cincinnati; the clergy, the Tammany Society, in the full and imposing regalia of their order, sur- rounding the thirteen coffins filled with the remains of the prison-ship dead, to which one hundred and four Revolutionary veterans, headed by the Hon. Samuel Osgood and the Hon. Henry Rutgers, acted as pall-bearers; the sailors, members of the Municipal, State, and Gen- eral Governments, foreign diplomatists, societies, trades, Masons, etc. The central feature of the procession, however, was the "Grand National Pedestal," as it was called, consisting of an oblong square stage, erected on a large truck-carriage, the margin of which repre- sented an iron railing ; below this dropped a deep festoon, which covered the wheels ; on the stage was a pedestal representing black marble, eight feet long, six feet high, and four wide, the four panels of which bore the following inscriptions :
(Front.) AMERICANS ! REMEMBER THE BRITISH.
(Right side.) YOUTH OF MY COUNTRY ! MARTYRDOM PREFER TO SLAVERY. (Left side.) SIRES OF COLUMBIA ! TRANSMIT TO POSTERITY THE CRUELTIES PRACTISED ON BOARD THE BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS.
(Rear.) TYRANTS DREAD THE GATHERING STORM,-
WHILE FREEMEN, FREEMEN'S OBSEQUIES PERFORM.
From a staff on the top of the pedestal was displayed a superb blue silk flag, eighteen feet by twelve, emblazoned with the arms of the United States; the staff itself, eighteen feet high, being crowned by a globe, on which sat the American Bald Eagle, enveloped in a cloud of crape.
368
HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
The "Genius of America" was represented by Josiah Falconer, a member of the Tammany Society, and the son of a Revolutionary patriot. His dress was a loose under-dress of light-blue silk, which reached to his knees, over which was a long flowing white robe, relieved by a crimson scarf and crape. He wore sandals on his feet, and on his head a magnificent cap, adorned with the most ele- gant feathers which could be obtained, all in the Mexican style. On the stage and around the pedestal, stood nine young men, each holding by a tassel the end of a cord connected with the flag. These represented Patriotism, Honor, Virtue, Patience, Fortitude, Merit, Courage, Perseverance, and Science, and were styled the " Attributes of the Genius of America." They were all dressed in character, with a plume of feathers in their hats, a white silk scarf, relieved with crape ; and each wore a scarlet badge, edged with elegant dark- blue silk fringe, in the shape of a crescent, inscribed in gold with the name of the attribute which he represented ; and each held also in his hand a blue silk banner, emblematic of the institution to which he belonged. This beautiful structure was drawn by four horses, dressed in ribbons and crape, and under the charge of two postilions.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.