the prisoners were all quiet in their respective yards, it being
about the usual time for turning in for the night, and the greater
part of the prisoners being then in the prisons, the alarm bell was
rung. Many of the prisoners ran up to the Market Square (the outer
court) to learn the occasion of the alarm. There were then drawn
up in the square several hundred soldiers, with Captain Shortland
at their head; it was likewise observed at the same time, that
additional numbers of soldiers were posting themselves round the
walls of the prison yard. One of them observed to the prisoners
that they had better go into the prisons, for they would be charged
upon directly. This, of course, occasioned considerable alarm among
them. In this moment of uncertainty they were running in different
directions, inquiring of each other what was the cause of the
alarm, some towards their respective prisons, and some towards
the Market Square. When about one hundred were collected in the
Market Square, Captain Shortland ordered the soldiers to charge
upon them; which orders the soldiers were reluctant in obeying,
as the prisoners were using no violence; but on the order being
repeated, they made a charge, and the prisoners retreated out of
the square into their respective prison yards, and shut the gates
after them. Captain Shortland himself opened the gates, and ordered
the soldiers himself to fire in among the prisoners, who were
all retreating in different directions towards their respective
prisons. It appears that there was some hesitation in the minds
of the officers whether or not it was proper to fire upon the
prisoners in that situation; on which Shortland seized a musket
out of the hands of a soldier, which he fired. Immediately after
the firing became general, and many of the prisoners were either
killed or wounded; the remainder were endeavouring to get into the
prisons, when, going towards the lower doors, the soldiers on the
walls commenced firing on them from that quarter, which killed some
and wounded others. After much difficulty (all the doors being
closed in the interim, but one in each prison), the survivors
succeeded in gaining the prisons. Immediately after which parties
of soldiers came to the doors of Nos. 3 and 4 prisons, fired
several volleys into them, through the windows and doors, killed
one man in each prison, and wounded severely several others. It
likewise appears that the preceding butchery was followed up with
a disposition of peculiar inveteracy and barbarity. One man, who
had been severely wounded in No. 7 yard, and being unable to make
his way to the prison, was come up with by the soldiers, whom he
implored for mercy, but in vain; _five_ of the hardened wretches
immediately levelled their pieces at him, and shot him dead! The
soldiers who were posted on the walls manifested equal cruelty, by
keeping up a constant fire on every prisoner they could see in the
yard endeavouring to get into the prisons, when the numbers were
very few, and when not the least shadow of resistance could be made
or expected. Several of them got into No. 6 prison cook-house,
which was pointed out by the soldiers on the walls to those who
were marching in from the square; they immediately went up and
fired into the same, which wounded several; one of the prisoners
ran out with the intention of gaining his prison, but was killed
before he reached the door.[41]
“On an impartial(!) consideration of all the circumstances of the
case, we are induced to believe it was a premeditated scheme in the
mind of Captain Shortland, for reasons which we will now proceed
to give. As an elucidation of its origin, we will recur back to an
event which happened some days previous. Captain Shortland was, at
that time, absent in Plymouth, but before going, he ordered the
contractor or his clerk to serve out one pound of indifferent hard
bread, instead of one pound and a half of soft bread, their usual
allowance. This the prisoners refused to receive. They waited all
day in expectation of their usual allowance being served out; but
at sunset, finding this would not be the case, they burst open the
lower gates, and went to the store, demanding to have their bread.
The officers of the garrison, on being alarmed, and informed of
the reasons of this proceeding, observed that it was no more than
right the prisoners should have their usual allowance, and strongly
reprobated the conduct of Captain Shortland in withholding it from
them. They were accordingly served with their bread, and quietly
returned to their prison. This circumstance, with the censures that
were thrown on his conduct, reached the ears of Shortland on his
return home, and he must then have determined on the diabolical
plan of seizing the first slight pretext to turn in the military
to butcher the prisoners, for the gratification of his malice and
revenge. It unfortunately happened that in the afternoon of the 6th
of April, some boys who were playing ball in No. 7 yard knocked
their ball into the barrack yard, and on the sentry in that yard
refusing to throw it back to them, they picked a hole through the
wall to get in after it. This afforded Shortland his wished-for
pretext, and he took his measures accordingly. He had all the
garrison drawn up in the military walk, additional numbers posted
on the walls, and everything prepared before the alarm bell was
rung. This, he naturally concluded, would draw the attention of a
great number of prisoners towards the gate to learn the cause of
the alarm, while the turnkeys were dispatched into the yards to
lock all the doors but one of each prison to prevent the prisoners
retreating out of the way before he had sufficiently wreaked his
vengeance.
“What adds particular weight to the belief of its being a
premeditated massacre are, _firstly_, The sanguinary disposition
manifested on every occasion by Shortland, he having, prior to
this time, ordered the soldiers to fire into the prisons, through
the windows, upon unarmed prisoners asleep in their hammocks, on
account of a light having been seen in the prisons, which barbarous
act was repeated several nights successively; that murder was not
committed was owing to an over-ruling Providence alone, for the
balls were picked up in the prisons, where they passed through
the hammocks of men asleep in them: he having ordered the soldiers
to fire upon the prisoners in the yard No. 7 prison, because they
would not deliver up to him a man who had made his escape from the
cachot, which order the Commanding Officer of the soldiers refused
to obey;[42] and generally he having seized on every slight pretext
to injure the prisoners, by his stopping the marketing for ten
days repeatedly, and once a third part of their provisions for the
same length of time. _Secondly_, He having been heard to say, when
the boys had picked the hole in the wall, and some time before
the alarm bell was rung, and while all the prisoners were quiet
in their respective yards as usual, ‘I’ll fix the d---- d rascals
directly.’ _Thirdly_, He having all the soldiers on their posts,
and the garrison fully prepared before the alarm bell was rung. It
could not of course then be done to assemble the soldiers, but to
alarm the prisoners and create confusion among them. _Fourthly_,
The soldiers on the wall, previous to the alarm bell being rung,
informing the prisoners that they would be charged upon directly.
_Fifthly_, The turnkeys going into the yard and closing all the
doors but one in each prison, whilst the attention of the prisoners
was attracted by the alarm bell. This was done about fifteen
minutes sooner than usual, and without informing the prisoners
it was time to shut up. It was ever the invariable practice of
the turnkeys, from which they never deviated before that night,
when coming into the yards to shut up, to halloo to the prisoners
so loud as to be heard all over the yards, ‘Turn in! turn in!’
while on that night it was done so secretly, that not one man in
a hundred knew they were shut, and in particular their shutting
the door of No. 7, which the prisoners usually go in and out at
(and which was formerly always the last one closed), and leaving
one open in the other end of the prison, which was exposed to a
cross-fire from the soldiers on the walls, and which the prisoners
had to pass in gaining the prison.
“It appears to us that the foregoing reasons sufficiently warrant
the conclusions we have drawn therefrom. We likewise believe,
from the depositions of men who were eye-witnesses of a part of
Shortland’s conduct on the evening of the 6th April, that he
was intoxicated with liquor at the time, from his brutality in
beating a prisoner, who was then supporting another, severely
wounded; from the blackguard and abusive language he made use of;
and from his having frequently been seen in the same state: his
being drunk was of course the means of inflaming his bitter enmity
against the prisoners, and no doubt was the principal cause of the
indiscriminate butchery, and of no quarter being shown.[43]
“We here solemnly aver, there was no preconcerted plan to attempt
breaking out. There cannot be produced the least shadow of a reason
or inducement for that intention, the prisoners daily expecting
to be released, and to embark on board cartels for their own
native country. And we solemnly assert, likewise, that there was
no intention of resisting, in any manner, the authority of the
government of this depôt.
“Signed by the Committee (ten names in all).
N.B.--7 were killed,
30 dangerously wounded,
30 slightly wounded.
--
Total 67 killed and wounded.
“_Dartmoor Prison_, April 7, 1815.”
Some points in the above account deserve comment. It is obvious that it
is an entirely one-sided version of what took place. The committee do
not mention that after the gates to the inner yard had been fastened,
the prisoners pressing against it, and by means of some iron tool,
broke the lock and burst the gate open. Nor do they state that the
prisoners assailed the soldiery with abuse and with stones. They do not
state that Shortland gave the order to fire--only that he fired the
first shot. There is conflicting evidence relative to the order given;
but there is good evidence that Shortland fired the first shot.
The charge of a prearranged massacre need not be seriously entertained.
Apparently Shortland was thoroughly frightened and lost his head and
acted with extraordinary indiscretion.
The order of events seems to have been this:--
1. A hole was knocked through a wall, not an outer wall of the prison,
but one dividing the yards, by some boys after their ball. This was
reported to the Governor, who was alarmed, and fancied that an attempt
was being made by the prisoners to get at a few stacks of arms; but
there was no ammunition in the guard-house. There was a sentinel in
the yard, and there were soldiers about. That this hole-breaking was
done by the boys was proved afterwards by evidence taken. The hole was
knocked in open daylight and in the afternoon, so that there could have
been no sinister object contemplated.
2. When Shortland saw the hole it was just about the time for locking
up; and the warders had begun to do this, and had locked all the doors
of the prison houses except one in each for the ingress of those who
were still in the yards. There was no evidence that this was done
purposely before the proper time.
3. He ordered the alarm bell to be pealed and kept ringing, so that the
prisoners did not hear the summons to all to go within. This was the
real fact.
4. Then, surprised by the ringing of the bell, the prisoners in the
several houses ran out, and pressed against the gate fastened with
a chain; and one with a bolt or bar broke the chain, and with the
pressure of the crowd the gate was burst open, and the prisoners surged
forth into the outer or market square, which was also supplied with an
iron gate, then open.
5. Shortland thereupon drew up the militia across the yard, and going
before the line of soldiers, remonstrated with the prisoners and urged
them to retreat; but this they were unable to do, owing to those who
had entered the outer yard being pushed forward by those behind.
6. Thereupon he ordered the military to charge with fixed bayonets;
and as the prisoners were slow in retiring, he or some one else or the
soldiers on their own initiative fired on the crowd, and drove them
through the inner gate into the inner yard, where the soldiers were
assailed with insulting epithets, and some stones were thrown at them.
7. Some of the military ran up on the platform of the outer wall, and
thence enfiladed the flying prisoners. There was no evidence that
Shortland had placed these men on the wall before this took place.
8. Shortland then, possibly, retired into the outer yard and busied
himself with the wounded, and left the military to do as they thought
best in the inner yard, where they continued to fire volleys, driving
the frightened prisoners in at the doors of their respective houses,
fired in on them huddled together inside through the doorways and
windows.
9. Major Joliffe at the time was in the barrack half a mile from the
prison, when news reached him, whilst at mess, that there was a riot
in the prison. He at once called out his grenadiers and marched to the
prison, where he found firing going on, and he entered the inner yard
and stopped the firing. The firing was done by the Somersetshire and
Derbyshire militia.
10. Shortland at the same time or a little earlier, and conjointly with
Joliffe, urged the soldiers to cease from firing.
Such, as far as can be made out from the account given by the witnesses
on oath, both before the coroner and, subsequently, before the
magistrates and the commissioners, appears to have been the sequence
of events. Captain Shortland was not drunk at the time; indeed, as Dr.
Magrath, the prison surgeon, testified that “having observed him on
the evening of the 6th, no man could be more free from it; and from my
acquaintance with him and with his general habits in his family, I do
not think any man can be more abstemious.”
Governor Thomas George Shortland, Captain, R. N., gave his account on
oath later, before the commissioners, and from it he appears to have
been unarmed and in undress. His account is very confused, and speaks
for the condition of his mind at the time--that he had lost his head,
and did not know well what he did or did not do. It shall be given
verbatim, only omitting unimportant particulars:--
“On the evening of the 6th, a little before 7 o’clock, Mr.
Holmsden, 1st clerk, came to my house and informed me there was a
disposition of the prisoners to be riotous, as they had got between
the railings and wall of No. 7 yard; in consequence, I walked down
to the upper gate. On coming there, I was informed the prison
barrack wall had been breached. I went to the yard and saw a large
hole, and the military guarding it under an officer whom I since
know to be Lieutenant Avelyn. On getting to the breach I observed
the prisoners using an iron bar to enlarge it. I remonstrated and
told them it was the prison barrack-yard, and that it would be
dangerous for them to attempt to force in; the prisoners shouted
and threw stones through the breach, and still continued at times
to enlarge it. I then heard some one say they were breaking the
wall above the cook-house in the prison barrack-yard, and nearly at
the same time there was a call out that they were forcing the lower
gates, while I was still in the lower barrack-yard. I immediately
left the yard and Lieutenant Avelyn followed me, leaving the breach
with a party and a sergeant. When I arrived at the blacksmith’s
shop I saw a rush of prisoners between the iron rails under the
platform: the gate was at this time forced, and the prisoners
were without the gates in the market square, where they are not
allowed to be. Seeing this, and having in my mind the breach in
the barrack wall and the reported breach above the cook-house,
bearing this in mind with the reported threats that had been
constantly told me that the prisoners would liberate themselves
on or before the 10th April, I ordered the alarm bell to be rung.
At this time part of the west guard, which is called the piquet,
had gone round to turn the prisoners out of the railway in No. 7
yard, and another part of the same piquet was in the barrack-yard;
so that the force was reduced to the north guard only; Lieutenant
Avelyn formed that guard and marched down into the market square.
I preceded them, and about half-way down the guard formed in a
line, keeping their left close to the hospital wall. At this time
I should suppose there were from 4 to 500 prisoners in the market
square; I was perfectly unarmed, and went down to remonstrate with
them, using all persuasions in my power to make them return to
their prisons, stating that the military guard was formed about
them, and it was dangerous to attempt to use force. I was at this
time about six paces in front of the guard, and the prisoners kept
still pressing up, and pressing me on the military; they appeared
to want to get round the left of the military, keeping close to
the hospital wall. At this time I looked back,[44] and said, ‘For
God’s sake, soldiers, keep your ground!’ bearing in mind that there
was not a single soldier above these to prevent escape through the
outer gates. Almost immediately, about twelve or fifteen soldiers
charged down towards No. 1, towards the hospital gates, about 5 or
6 paces, and they returned into line again. I was still at this
time in front and had gone forward again, urging the prisoners who
had retreated when a discharge of musketry took place. While I was
in that position, being to the right of the centre of the guard,
and not near the hospital wall, a musket ball grazed my temple
in that discharge, when I retreated into line with the soldiers;
the prisoners retreated and advanced again, and about this time
Major Joliffe gave the orders to fire, conceiving he had done so
from seeing the Major appear at the moment. Indeed in a former
conversation with General Brown, in the presence of Major Gladding,
being asked if an attempt were made to resist the authority of the
depôt I should order the military to fire, I told General Brown
as well as the Major, that I did not think myself authorized to
command the military to fire, because it was their duty to do it
when they thought it necessary. I don’t recollect a suspension of
the ringing the bell and then commencing again; it was a continual
ringing; I ordered it in consequence of seeing that the prisoners
had broken through the breach in the wall, and the other reported
breach. I did not hear any orders to fire. It must be understood
that I was with the prisoners, who were making a great noise,
hurrahing and rioting at the time.... I was not out of the market
square until all the firing had ceased. I was not in No. 7 yard
until an hour after the whole was over. I recollect a man coming
up the market square with a wounded man, and after being told to
go away he would not, and I gave him a push; he said that I must
recollect I had struck him, but I made him no answer. Taking into
consideration the apparent temper and resolution of the prisoners,
and my remonstrances having no effect, I do not think they could
have been driven back without firing.”
Captain Shortland dated the commencement of the antipathy of the
prisoners towards him from the time when he got the Transport Board to
prosecute some men for tattooing others.
The evidence of Captain Shortland is remarkably meagre and
unsatisfactory. According to him, every one acted on his own
initiative, and he himself had little to do in the matter but make
useless expostulations. He says nothing about the fastening of the
inner gate being broken. The charge with bayonets took place without
his orders, as did also the firing on the prisoners. But he made the
astounding statement that in his opinion the military might fire on the
prisoners if they saw fit, without having received orders to do so. But
he believed that Major Joliffe had ordered the volleys, whereas Major
Joliffe with the grenadiers did not arrive till the firing had begun
and was in progress.
On 8 April, a coroner’s inquest was held at the prisons, by Joseph
Whitford, coroner; the jury consisted of Dartmoor farmers, and they
returned a verdict of “Justifiable homicide.” But the American
representative demanded a further examination, and accordingly Mr.
Larpent, an Englishman, and Charles King, an American, were appointed
to investigate the matter; and their investigation was made on 26
April. When their report was sent to Mr. Adams, the Minister of the
United States to the British Court, it was accompanied by a letter from
Charles King, in which he states his own independent opinion.
“In considering it of much importance that the report, whatever
it might be, should go forth under our joint signatures, I have
forborne to press some of the points which it involves, as far as
otherwise I might have done; and it therefore may not be improper
in this letter to enter into some little explanation of such parts
of the report. Although it does appear that a part of the prisoners
were, on that evening, in such a state and under such circumstances
as to have justified, in the view which the commander of the depôt
could not but take it, the intervention of the military force, and
even in a strict sense the first use of firearms, yet I cannot
but express it as my settled opinion, that by a conduct a little
more temporizing this dreadful alternative of firing upon the
unarmed prisoners might have been avoided.... When the firing
became general, as it afterwards appears to have done, and caught
with electric rapidity from the square to the platforms, there
was no plea nor shadow of excuse for it, except in the personal
exasperation of the soldiers: nor for the more deliberate, and
therefore more unjustifiable, firing which took place into three
of the prisons ... after the prisoners had retired into them, and
there was no longer any pretence of apprehension as to their escape.
“As to whether the order to fire came from Captain Shortland, I
yet confess myself unable to form any satisfactory opinion, though
perhaps the bias of my mind is that he did give such an order.”
I now subjoin the report signed by both Commissioners:--
“During the period which has elapsed since the arrival in this
country of the account of the ratification of the Treaty of Ghent,
an increased degree of restlessness and impatience of confinement
appears to have prevailed amongst the American prisoners at
Dartmoor; which, though not exhibited in the shape of any
violent excesses, has been principally indicated by threats of
breaking out, if not soon released. On the fourth of the month in
particular, only two days previous to the event, the subject of
this inquiry, a large body of the prisoners rushed into the Market
Square, from whence by the regulations of the prison they are
excluded, demanding bread instead of biscuit, which had on that day
been issued by the officers of the depôt. Their demands, however,
having been then almost immediately complied with, they returned
to their own yards, and the employment of force, on that occasion,
became unnecessary.
“On the evening of the 6th, about six o’clock, it was clearly
proved to us, that a breach or hole had been made in one of the
prison walls, sufficient for a full-sized man to pass; and that
others had been commenced in the course of the day, near the same
spot, though never completed; that a number of prisoners were
over the railing, erected to prevent them from communicating with
the sentinels on the walls, which was, of course, forbidden by
the regulations of the prison; and that, in the space between the
railing and these walls, they were tearing up pieces of turf, and
wantonly pelting each other in a noisy and disorderly manner. That
a much more considerable number of the prisoners were collected
together at that time, in one of their yards, near the place where
the breach was effected; and that, although such collection of
prisoners was not unusual at other times (the gambling tables
being commonly kept in that part of the yard), yet when connected
with the circumstances of the breach, and the time of day, which
was after the horn (the signal for the prisoners to retire to their
respective prisons) had ceased to sound;[45] it became a natural
and just ground of alarm to those who had charge of the depôt.
“It was also in evidence, that in the building formerly the petty
officers’ prison, but now the guard barracks, which stands in the
yard, to which the hole in the wall would serve as a communication,
a part of the arms of the guards who were on duty were usually kept
in the racks; and though there is no evidence that this was in any
respect the motive which induced the prisoners to make the opening
in the wall, or even that they were acquainted with the fact, it
naturally became at least a further cause for suspicion and alarm,
and an additional reason for precaution.
“Upon these grounds Captain Shortland appears to us to have been
justified in giving the order, which about this time he seems
to have given, to sound the alarm bell, the usual signal for
collecting the officers of the depôt, and putting the military
on the alert. However reasonable and justifiable this was, as a
matter of precaution, the effects produced thereby in the prisons,
but which could not have been intended, were most unfortunate and
deeply to be regretted. A considerable number of prisoners in the
yards where no disturbance existed before, and who were either
already within their respective prisons, or quietly returning as
usual towards them, immediately upon the sound of the bell, rushed
back, from curiosity, towards the gates, where, by that time, the
crowd had assembled; and many who were absent at the time from
the yards, were also, from the plan of the prison, compelled, in
order to reach their own homes, to pass by the same spot. And thus,
that which was merely a measure of precaution, in its operation
increased the evil it was intended to prevent.