American Prisoners of the Revolution | Page 3

was soon to be the theatre of his revenge. We shall narrate the
sufferings of the American prisoners taken at the time of the battle of
Long Island, and after the surrender of Fort Washington, which events
occurred, the first in August, the second in November of the year 1776.
What we have been able to glean from many sources, none of which
contradict each other in any important point, about the prisons and
prison ships in New York, with a few narratives written by those who
were imprisoned in other places, shall fill this volume. Perhaps others,
far better fitted for the task, will make the necessary researches, in
order to lay before the American people a statement of what took place
in the British prisons at Halifax, Charleston, Philadelphia, the waters

off the coast of Florida, and other places, during the eight years of the
war. It is a solemn and affecting duty that we owe to the dead, and it is
in no light spirit that we, for our part, begin our portion of the task.

CHAPTER II
THE RIFLEMEN OF THE REVOLUTION
We will first endeavor to give the reader some idea of the men who
were imprisoned in New York in the fall and winter of 1776, It was in
the summer of that year that Congress ordered a regiment of riflemen to
be raised in Maryland and Virginia. These, with the so-called "Flying
Camp" of Pennsylvania, made the bulk of the soldiers taken prisoners
at Fort Washington on the fatal 16th of November. Washington had
already proved to his own satisfaction the value of such soldiers; not
only by his experience with them in the French and Indian wars, but
also during the siege of Boston in 1775-6.
These hardy young riflemen were at first called by the British
"regulars," "a rabble in calico petticoats," as a term of contempt. Their
uniform consisted of tow linen or homespun hunting shirts, buckskin
breeches, leggings and moccasins. They wore round felt hats, looped on
one side and ornamented with a buck tail. They carried long rifles, shot
pouches, tomahawks, and scalping knives.
They soon proved themselves of great value for their superior
marksmanship, and the British, who began by scoffing at them, ended
by fearing and hating them as they feared and hated no other troops.
The many accounts of the skill of these riflemen are interesting, and
some of them shall be given here.
One of the first companies that marched to the aid of Washington when
he was at Cambridge in 1775 was that of Captain Michael Cresap,
which was raised partly in Maryland and partly in the western part of
Virginia. This gallant young officer died in New York in the fall of
1775, a year before the surrender of Fort Washington, yet his company

may be taken as a fair sample of what the riflemen of the frontiers of
our country were, and of what they could do. We will therefore give the
words of an eyewitness of their performances. This account is taken
from the Pennsylvania Journal of August 23rd, 1775.
"On Friday evening last arrived at Lancaster, Pa., on their way to the
American camp, Captain Cresap's Company of Riflemen, consisting of
one hundred and thirty active, brave young fellows, many of whom
have been in the late expedition under Lord Dunmore against the
Indians. They bear in their bodies visible marks of their prowess, and
show scars and wounds which would do honour to Homer's Iliad. They
show you, to use the poet's words:
"'Where the gor'd battle bled at ev'ry vein!'
"One of these warriors in particular shows the cicatrices of four bullet
holes through his body.
"These men have been bred in the woods to hardships and dangers
since their infancy. They appear as if they were entirely unacquainted
with, and had never felt the passion of fear. With their rifles in their
hands, they assume a kind of omnipotence over their enemies. One
cannot much wonder at this when we mention a fact which can be fully
attested by several of the reputable persons who were eye-witnesses of
it. Two brothers in the company took a piece of board five inches broad,
and seven inches long, with a bit of white paper, the size of a dollar,
nailed in the centre, and while one of them supported this board
perpendicularly between his knees, the other at the distance of upwards
of sixty yards, and without any kind of rest, shot eight bullets through it
successively, and spared a brother's thigh!
"Another of the company held a barrel stave perpendicularly in his
hands, with one edge close to his side, while one of his comrades, at the
same distance, and in the manner before mentioned, shot several bullets