whether they were true or false, nor sent any answer either written or
verbal.”
On 16 September, 1813, to the immense relief of the Americans, all the
French prisoners to the number of 436, who had herded with them in No.
4, were turned out and placed elsewhere. Many of these had been in
prison for ten years, and were in a condition of perfect nudity, and
slept on the bare floor without any rug under them or covering over
them. This endured for so many years had caused their skin to acquire
a hardness like that of the stones. But this condition was entirely
due to the passion for gambling. Whenever they were supplied with
clothes, instead of putting them on, they started playing and staking
every several article of clothing given them, till they had lost all.
They had often been supplied by their countrymen with hammocks, beds,
and garments, but they no sooner were in possession of them than
they went to the grating, sold them to the Jews outside, and gambled
the whole proceeds away. Very different was it in the No. 6 ward,
occupied by the industrious French prisoners. “Here is carried on
almost every branch of the mechanic arts. They resemble little towns;
every man has his separate occupation, his workshop, his store-house,
his coffee-house, his eating-house, etc.; he is employed in some
business or other. There are many gentlemen of large fortune there
who, having broken their parole, were committed to close confinement.
These were able to support themselves in a genteel manner; though they
were prisoners, they drew upon their bankers in other parts of Europe.
They manufactured shoes, hats, hair, and bone-work. They likewise,
at one time, carried on a very lucrative branch of manufacture; they
forged notes on the Bank of England to the amount of £150,000 sterling,
and made so perfect imitations that the cashier could not discover
the forgery. They also carried on the coining of silver, to a very
considerable advantage. They had men constantly employed outside the
yard, to collect all the Spanish dollars they could, and bring them
into the prison. Out of every dollar they made eight smooth English
shillings, equally as heavy, and passed as well as any in the kingdom.”
With regard to the forgery of bank-notes, something may be added. The
material for manufacturing the notes was imported from without, and
the Jews were largely involved in the matter. The method pursued was
revealed in 1809, before the American prisoners arrived, when two
French captives, Charles Guiller and Victor Collas, who were berthed
on board _El Firm_, in the Hamoaze, made overtures for their transfer
to the _Généreux_, from which they could direct their operations with
more freedom. They opened negotiations with the captain’s clerk of the
_Généreux_, candidly telling him that their object was the forgery
and passing of £5 bank-notes, and promising him a share of the spoils.
The man affected to entertain the proposition, but communicated the
whole to his captain, secured the transfers as desired, and supplied
the prisoners with all the necessary facilities. By means of fine hair
pencils and Indian ink they forged to a point of astonishing perfection
notes on the Bank of England, the Naval and Commercial Bank, and
Okehampton one-pound notes. To compensate for the deficiency of the
official perforated stamps, they set to work with smooth halfpennies
and sail-maker’s needles, and thus imitation was carried to perfection.
When the prisoners had made sufficient progress, their trunk was seized
with the evidences of their guilt, and they were restored to closer
supervision, and visited with the usual corporal punishment.[40]
On the whole, the French prisoners, if they conducted themselves well
and were industrious, did not suffer severely. A book was published
in Paris by Le Catel, in 1847, entitled _La Prison de Dartmoor, un
récit historique des Infortunes et Evasions des Prisonniers Français
en Angleterre, sous l’Empire, depuis 1809 jusqu’en 1814_, but it is a
romance, the “facts” drawn out of the lively imagination of the author.
The only prisoners who really suffered were those who brought their
sufferings on themselves. As Andrews says of the French, “they drink,
sing, and dance, talk of their women in the day time and dream of them
at night. But the Americans have not that careless volatility, like the
cockle in the fable, to sing and dance when the house is on fire over
them.”
In December, 1813, the cold was severe. Captain Cotgrave was governor
of the prison, and he ordered the prisoners to turn out every morning
at nine o’clock and stand in the yard till the guards had counted them,
and this usually took over an hour. Many of the prisoners were without
stockings, and some without shoes, and many without jackets. They cut
up their blankets to wrap round their feet and legs, that they might
be able to endure the cold and snow which lay thick whilst they were
undergoing this ceremony. They complained to Captain Cotgrave, but
he replied that he was acting upon orders. Several of the naked men,
chilled and half starved, fell insensible before him and the guards and
turnkeys, and had to be removed to the hospital; but as soon as they
were brought round they were sent back to their prison.
On 22 December, 1813, Captain Cotgrave was superseded and Captain
Thomas G. Shortland was appointed governor. At first he seemed to be an
improvement on the former, who had been a harsh martinet; he stopped
the roll-call and required the surgeon to visit the prisons daily. But
the favourable impression he caused at first did not last long.
Hitherto, for some unaccountable reason, the licence to trade with the
country-folk and pedlars in the outer court which had all along been
allowed to the French had been denied to the American prisoners, but
on 18 March, 1814, this restriction was withdrawn, and the American
prisoners were allowed greater privileges. They now began to receive
money from home, to make shoes of list, to plait straw, make bracelets,
and carve meat-bones. The French had been allowed to have plays with a
stage and scenery once a month, good music and appropriate comic and
tragic costumes. They had also had their schools for teaching the arts
and sciences, dancing, fencing, and fiddling. But all these privileges
had been denied to the Americans occupying No. 4. Now these privileges
were extended to them, and they considered that this indulgence was due
to Captain Shortland. Indeed, Shortland seems to have been on the whole
more humane than Cotgrave, and the final disaster which has blackened
his name was due to another cause, his moral and mental incapacity to
fill the position into which he had been thrust.
In 1814, there were 1500 prisoners of American nationality in No. 4.
They despaired of freedom, and were rendered restless by the French
prisoners evacuating the prison after the abdication of Napoleon, 4
April, 1814, and the end of the European war. Then there were 3500
American prisoners moved into No. 5, and by 31 December in that year
the number amounted to 5326, mainly in the buildings 4 and 5.
Those in No. 4 now resolved on making an attempt at escape, and they
began to excavate a tunnel that was to run 250 feet and enable those
in the ward to escape, not only out of the block, but also beyond the
outer wall. American blacksmiths among the prisoners furnished the
necessary tools, and correspondence was maintained with American agents
outside, and a fleet of friendly fishing boats was hovering about in
Tor Bay to receive the prisoners. But they were betrayed by one of
their number, who led the Governor to the excavation when it had been
carried as far as sixty feet. It was at once choked up with masses of
granite and cement, and those who had been engaged on it were put on
short commons. This was in the summer of 1814. The attempt completely
upset Governor Shortland’s nerves.
On 24 December, 1814, peace between England and America was signed at
Ghent, and the news speedily reached England, but did not arrive in the
United States, and was not published there till 11 February, 1815.
By 1 January, 1815, the American prisoners in Princetown were aware
that the time of their incarceration was drawing to an end. Indeed,
they might have all been discharged, but that the Government waited
for the United States Government to send men-of-war or other vessels
to convey the prisoners to America. A misunderstanding prevented their
immediate release. The American Government considered it the duty of
the British Government to reconvey the prisoners to the United States,
and undertook in return to reconvey the British prisoners detained
in their prisons to Bermuda or Halifax. Lord Castlereagh objected to
this as an unfair and unreasonable distribution of expenses, for Great
Britain would be put to the expense, not only of conveying the American
prisoners to the States, but also of bringing home from Bermuda and
Halifax all the prisoners of her own nationality.
At the end of March, 1815, three months after peace had been concluded,
there were 5693 prisoners within the walls of Princetown Gaol. That
these were restless and impatient at their detention is not to be
wondered at. But their chief irritation was against Mr. Beasley, the
agent, whom they considered as dilatory, and who they supposed ought
at once to have provided for their repatriation, they being unaware
of the contention between the two Governments as to the cost of this
repatriation. They were further incensed against him because, according
to the testimony of John C. Clement, one of them, made in Philadelphia:
“During our confinement, the American agent (Beasley) did not give us,
say from 2 April, 1813, to March, 1814, the 6s. 8d. sterling per month,
as well as the suit of clothes allowed us annually by our Government,
which money and clothes the prisoners have never received; and when
I, with two hundred and fifty others, were released from prison, there
was likewise a shirt, a pair of shoes, and 6s. 8d. due to us, which we
never received. The prisoners had applied to Beasley repeatedly for
what was due to them, but received no satisfaction. He never visited
the prisons but once during the two years and upwards I was there.”
On 4 April the Governor went to Plymouth; and orders had been left
that the prisoners were to be given biscuit in place of bread. This
they resented, and refused the biscuit. Towards evening they broke out
in mutiny and threatened to sack the stores unless they were at once
provided with bread, but this was done and they were satisfied.
A messenger was at once dispatched to Plymouth to announce to Shortland
that the captives were in rebellion. When he received the news he
rushed off to the Citadel and begged for a reinforcement of two hundred
men to be added to the five hundred Somersetshire and Derbyshire
militiamen already at Princetown. Accordingly these soldiers, under
Major Joliffe, were accorded him. He returned with them to Princetown,
and found that the rioters had peacefully retired to their beds after
the outbreak and promised to give no more trouble.
Governor Shortland was somewhat irritated against the Americans
on account of a practical joke they had recently played on him.
One evening they had attached a jacket and a pair of breeches to a
string, and had let them down over the outer wall. A turnkey saw what
he supposed to be a prisoner in the act of making his escape, and
communicated with the Governor, who called out some warders, marched
to within some yards of the spot, and ordered a volley to be fired at
the supposed escaping prisoner. As he did not fall, a little nearer
inspection revealed that an April fool had been made of him.
On 6 April, at 6 p.m., Captain Shortland was informed that a hole had
been discovered in the wall that separated the yard No. 6 from No. 7.
This hole, says Andrews, had been made that same afternoon by some of
the Americans out of mere mischief, and without any design of effecting
their escape. Indeed, why should they attempt it, when their release
was at hand, and they were in daily expectation of receiving their
cartels of discharge?
Other prisoners state that the hole was made by some of the boys whose
ball, as they were playing, had flown over into the next yard, and they
bored through so as to recover their ball. Directly it was discovered
a sentinel was placed by it to prevent its being enlarged; but it was
then no bigger than that a head could be thrust through; and afterward,
through the hole in the wall, the sentinel remonstrated with the
prisoners on the other side.
All the prisoners who were subsequently examined protested on oath
that the perforation was not made with intent to escape, or to get at
the armoury so as to provide themselves with weapons. This, however,
was the view taken of it by Shortland, and in a fit of nervous fear he
ordered the alarm bells to be pealed and the military to be called out.
These latter issued from their barracks with drums beating to arms.
This was at ten minutes to six in the evening.
This sudden and unexpected alarm excited the attention and curiosity of
the prisoners, and they poured forth from their wards, filled the inner
yard and rushed to the outer gates. They suspected that fire had broken
out.
“Among so many as were in the depôt,” says Andrews, “it is reasonable
to suppose that some mischievous persons were among them, and among
those collected at the gate were some such persons who forced the
gates open, whether by accident or design I will not attempt to say;
but without any intention of making an escape, and totally unknown to
every man except the few who stood in front of the gates. Those back
naturally crowded forward to see what was going on at the gates; this
pressed and forced a number through the gates, quite contrary to the
intention of either these in front or those in rear.
“While in this situation Captain Shortland entered the inner square
at the head of the whole body of soldiers in the garrison. As soon as
they entered Captain Shortland took sole command of the whole, and
immediately drew up the soldiers in a position to charge.”
Here ensues a difference between the report of the commissioners
appointed later to investigate the matter and that drawn up by the
prisoners. These latter assert that the officers of the regiment,
seeing what was Shortland’s intention, refused to act under him,
and withdrew. The commissioners state that the hour was that of
the officers’ mess, and that they were at dinner, and only two
young lieutenants and an ensign were with the soldiers. But this is
incredible. The alarm bell pealing and the drum calling to arms would
have summoned the officers from their mess, and we are rather inclined
to believe that the account of the Americans is correct. The officers
saw that the Governor had lost his head and was resolved on violence,
and they withdrew so as not to be compromised in what would follow. The
officers, says Andrews, perceiving the horrid and murderous designs
of Captain Shortland, resigned their authority over the soldiers and
refused to take any part, or give any orders for the troops to fire.
They saw by this time that the terrified prisoners were retiring as
fast as so great a crowd would permit, and hurrying and flying in
terrified flight in every direction to their respective prisons.
“The troop had now advanced within three yards of the prisoners, when
Captain Shortland gave them orders to charge upon them. At the same
time the prisoners had all got within their respective prison yards,
and were flying with the greatest precipitation from the point of the
bayonet, the doors being now full of the terrified crowd. They could
not enter as fast as they wished. At this moment of dismay, Captain
Shortland was distinctly heard to give orders to the troops to fire
upon the prisoners, although now completely in his power, their lives
at his disposal, and had offered no violence nor attempted to resist,
and the gates all closed.
“The order was immediately obeyed by the soldiers, and they discharged
a full volley of musketry into the main body of the prisoners on the
other side of the iron railings which separated the prisoners from the
soldiers. The volley was repeated for several rounds, the prisoners
falling dead or wounded in several directions, while it was yet
impossible for them to enter the prisons on account of the numbers that
fled there from the rage of the bloodthirsty murderers.
“In the midst of this horrid slaughter, one man among the rear
prisoners, with great presence of mind and undaunted courage, turned
and advanced to the soldiers, amidst the fire of hundreds, and while
his fellow prisoners were falling around him, and in a humble and
suppliant manner implored mercy of Captain Shortland to spare his
countrymen. He cried, ‘Oh, Captain! forbear--don’t kill us all.’ To
this supplication the cruel inexorable Shortland replied, ‘Return, you
d---- d rascal, I’ll hear to nothing.’ The soldiers then pricked him
with their bayonets, which compelled him to retreat to the prison door,
where the soldiers who had now entered the prison yard were pursuing
and firing.
[Illustration: HORRID MASSACRE AT DARTMOOR PRISON, ENGLAND.
Where the unarmed American Prisoners of War were wantonly fired upon
by the guard, under the command of the Prison Turn-key, the blood
thirsty SHORLAND; Seven were killed, and about Fifty wounded, (several
mortally,) without any provocation on the part of our unfortunate
American Citizens!----“Blood has a voice to pierce the Skies!”]
“The soldiers advanced making a general massacre of men and boys,
whom accident or inability had left without the doors of the prison;
they advanced near to the crowded door, and instantly discharged
another volley of musketry on the backs of those furthest out. This
barbarous act was repeated in the presence of this inhuman monster,
Shortland--and the prisoners fell, either dead or severely wounded, in
all directions before his sight.
“But his vengeance was not glutted by the murder of innocent men and
boys that lay weltering and bleeding in the agonies of death about
the prison door, but turned and traversed the yard, and hunted a poor
affrighted wretch that had fled for safety close under the walls of
Prison No. 1. This unhappy man was discovered by these hell-hounds,
with that demon at their head, and with cool and deliberate malice drew
up their muskets to their shoulders and dispatched their victim in the
act of imploring mercy from their hands. His only crime was not being
able to get into the prison before without being shot.
“In the yard of No. 7 they found another hopeless victim crouching
along the wall at the far end of the yard. Whereupon five of them drew
up their instruments of death, and by the order of this fell murderer
discharged their contents into the body of the innocent man.”
After this the soldiery were withdrawn.
The account by Andrews is tinctured with animosity, and is not to be
taken _au pied de la lettre_. He is unquestionably wrong in stating
that these two crouching men were shot by Shortland’s orders. The
evidence taken later is contradictory. Shortland, by his own account,
had already retired from the yard.
A dispatch was immediately sent to Admiral Sir J. T. Duckworth,
Commander-in-Chief at Plymouth, who lost no time in directing
Rear-Admiral Sir Josias Rowley, Bart., and Captain Schomberg, the two
senior officers at that port, to proceed to Dartmoor and inquire into
the circumstances.
It was ascertained that seven of the prisoners had been killed
outright, seven were so badly wounded that they had to have legs or
arms amputated, thirty-eight were dangerously wounded and fifteen
slightly.
Before the two sent from Plymouth arrived, Shortland had asked for
a reinforcement, and a colonel at the head of more troops arrived.
“The colonel came to the gate attended by the guilty Shortland,” says
Andrews, “who could not look a prisoner in the face, but walked towards
the prison bars with his face fixed on the ground.”
The report of Sir J. Rowley and Captain Schomberg was to the effect
that “the rioters endeavoured to overpower the guard, to force the
prison, and had actually seized the arms of some of the soldiers and
made a breach in the walls of the depôt, when the guard found itself
obliged to have recourse to firearms, and five of the rioters were
killed and thirty-four wounded ... that the Americans unanimously
declared that their complaint of delay was not against the British
Government, but against their own, which ought to have sent means for
their early conveyance home; and in replies to distinct questions
to that effect, they declared they had no ground of complaint
whatever.” Governor Shortland, according to Andrews, in alarm lest the
prisoners should attempt to retaliate on his family, hastily removed
his wife and children from the Governor’s house. But, as Andrews
asserts, such a dastardly thought as to revenge themselves on a woman
and children never entered the heads of any of them--and this we may
well believe.
[Illustration: PLAN OF DARTMOOR PRISON
_A. The Doctor’s House. B. The Governor’s House. C. Hospital. D. Petty
Officer’s Prison. E. Passage between outer wall and railway. F.F.F.
Turnkey’s Houses. G.G. Public Market and place where the prisoners
receive their daily allowances, 1-7. Prisons_]
The prisoners now formed a committee to draw up an account of the
circumstances, and to send it to the American agent, Beasley,
for transmission to the Government of the United States. It is
characterized, naturally, with bitterness and resentment, such as were
felt in the heat of the moment.
It will be as well to give this textually.
“We the undersigned, being each severally sworn on the holy
Evangelists of Almighty God, for the investigations of the
circumstances attending the late Massacre, and having heard the
depositions of a great number of witnesses, from our own personal
knowledge, and from the depositions given in as aforesaid,
/Report as follows./