before or subsequent, is upon the evidence doubtful, though Captain
Shortland states it positively as one of his further reasons for
causing it to ring) some one or more of the prisoners broke the
iron chain which was the only fastening of No. 1 gate, leading into
the Market Square, by means of an iron bar; and a very considerable
number of the prisoners immediately rushed towards that gate, and
many of them began to press forward as fast as the opening would
permit into the square.
“There is no direct proof before us of previous concert or
preparation on the part of the prisoners, and no evidence of their
intention or disposition to effect their escape on this occasion,
excepting that which arose by inference from the whole of the above
detailed circumstances connected together.
“The natural and almost irresistible inference to be drawn,
however, from the conduct of the prisoners, by Captain Shortland
and the military, was, that an intention on the part of the
prisoners to escape was on the point of being carried into
execution, and it was at least certain that they were by force
passing beyond the limits prescribed to them at a time when they
ought to have been quietly going in for the night.
“It was also in evidence that the outer gates of the Market Square
were usually opened about the time to let the bread-wagon pass and
repass to the store, although at the period in question they were,
in fact, closed.
“Under these circumstances and with these impressions necessarily
operating upon his mind, and the knowledge that if the prisoners
once penetrated through the square the power of escape was
almost to a certainty afforded to them, if they should be so
disposed,--Captain Shortland, in the first instance, proceeded
down the square, towards the prisoners, having ordered a part of
the different guards, to the number of about fifty only at first
(though they were increased afterwards) to follow him. For some
time, both he and Dr. Magrath endeavoured by quiet means and
persuasion to induce the prisoners to retire to their own yards,
explaining to them the fatal consequences which must ensue if they
were refused, as the military would in that case be necessarily
compelled to employ force. The guard was by this time formed in
the rear of Captain Shortland, about two-thirds of the way down
the square: the latter is about one hundred feet broad, and the
guards extended nearly all across. Captain Shortland, finding that
persuasion was in vain, and that although some were induced by it
to make an effort to retire, others pressed on in considerable
numbers, at last ordered about fifteen file of the guard, nearly in
front of the gate which had been forced, to charge the prisoners
back to their own yards.
“The prisoners were in some places so near the military that, one
of the soldiers states, he could not come fairly to the charge, and
the military were unwilling to act as against an enemy.[46] Some
of the prisoners also were unwilling and reluctant to retire, and
some pushing and struggling ensued between the parties, arising
partly from intention, but mainly from the pressure of those behind
preventing those in front from getting back. After some little
time, however, this charge appears to have been so far effective,
and that with little or no injury to the prisoners, as to have
driven them for the most part quite down out of the square, with
the exception of a small number who continued their resistance
about No. 1 gate.
“A great crowd still remained collected after this in the passage
between the square and the prisoners’ yards, and in the part
of those yards in the vicinity of the gates. This assemblage
still refused to withdraw, and according to most of the English
witnesses, and some of the American, was making a noise, insulting
and provoking and daring the military to fire; and according to
the evidence of several of the soldiers, and some others, was
pelting the military with large stones, by which some were actually
struck. This circumstance is however denied by many of the American
witnesses; and some of the English, upon having the question put
to them, stated that they saw no stones thrown previously to the
firing, although their situation at the time was such as to enable
them to see most of the other proceedings in the square.
“Under these circumstances the firing commenced. With regard
to any order having been given to fire, the evidence is very
contradictory; several of the Americans swear very positively,
that Captain Shortland gave the order, but the manner in which,
from the confusion of the moment, they describe this part of
the transaction is so different in its details, that it is very
difficult to reconcile their testimony. Many of the soldiers and
other English witnesses heard the word given by some one, but no
one of them can swear it was by Captain Shortland or by any one
in particular, and some, amongst whom is the officer commanding
the guard, think if Captain Shortland had given such an order,
that they must have heard it, which they did not. In addition to
this, Captain Shortland denies the fact, and from the situation in
which he appears to have been placed at the time, even according
to the American witnesses, in front of the soldiers, it may
appear somewhat improbable that he should then have given such an
order.[47] But, however it may remain a matter of doubt whether the
firing first began in the square by order, or was a spontaneous act
of the soldiers themselves, it seems clear that it was continued
and renewed both there and elsewhere without orders, and that on
the platform, and about the prison, it was certainly commenced
without any authority.
“The fact of an order having been given at first, provided the
firing was under the existing circumstances justifiable, does not
appear very material in any other point of view, than as showing a
want of discipline and self-possession in the troops if they should
have fired without orders.
“With regard to the above most important consideration of whether
the firing was justifiable or not; we are of opinion, under all the
circumstances of the case, from the apprehension which the soldiers
might fairly entertain, owing to the number and conduct of the
prisoners, that their firing, to a certain extent, was justifiable
in a military point of view, in order to intimidate the prisoners,
and compel them thereby to desist from all acts of violence, and
to retire as they were ordered, from a situation in which the
responsibility of the agent and military could not permit them with
safety to remain.
“From the fact of the crowd being so close and the firing at first
being attended with very little injury, it appears probable that
a large proportion of the muskets were, as stated by one or two
witnesses, levelled over the heads of the prisoners, a circumstance
in some respects to be lamented, as it induced them to cry out
‘blank cartridges,’ and merely irritated and encouraged them to
renew the insults to the soldiery, which produced a repetition of
the firing in a manner much more destructive.
“The firing in the square having continued for some time, by
which several of the prisoners sustained injuries, the greater
part of them appear to have been running back with the utmost
confusion and precipitation to their respective prisons--and the
cause for further firing seems at this period to have ceased. It
appears accordingly, that Captain Shortland was in the Market
Square exerting himself and giving orders to that effect, and that
Lieutenant Fortye had succeeded in stopping the fire of his part of
the guard.
“Under these circumstances it is very difficult to find any
justification for the further renewal and continuance of the firing
which certainly took place both in the prison yards and elsewhere,
though we have some evidence of subsequent provocation given to the
military, and resistance to the turnkeys in shutting the prisons,
and of stones being thrown out from within the prison doors.
“The subsequent firing appears to have arisen from the state of
individual irritation and exasperation on the part of the soldiers
who followed the prisoners into their yards, and from the absence
of nearly all the officers who might have restrained it, as well as
from the great difficulty of putting an end to a firing when once
commenced under the circumstances. Captain Shortland was from this
time busily occupied with the turnkeys in the square receiving and
taking care of the wounded. Ensign White remained with his guard
at the breach, and Lieutenants Avelyne and Fortye, the only other
subalterns known to have been present, continued in the square with
the main bodies of their respective guards.
“The time of day, which was the officers’ dinner hour, will in some
measure explain this, as it caused the absence of every officer
from the prison whose presence was not indispensable there. And
this circumstance, which has been urged as an argument to prove
the intention of the prisoners to take this opportunity to escape,
tended to increase the confusion and to prevent those greater
exertions being made, which might perhaps have obviated at least a
portion of the mischief which ensued. At the time that the firing
was going on in the square, a cross-fire was also kept up from
several of the platforms on the walls round the prison, where the
sentinels stand, by straggling parties of soldiers who ran up there
for that purpose.[48] As far as this fire was directed to disperse
the men assembled round the breach, for which purpose it was most
effectual, it seems to stand upon the same ground as that in the
first instance in the square. But that part which it is positively
sworn was directed against straggling parties of prisoners running
about the yards and endeavouring to reach the few doors, which the
turnkeys, according to their usual practice, had left open, does
seem, as stated, to have been wholly without object or excuse, and
to have been a wanton attack upon the lives of defenceless and, at
the time, unoffending individuals.
“In the same, or even in more severe terms, we must remark upon
what was proved, as to the firing into the doorways of the prisons,
more particularly into that of No. 3 prison, at a time when the men
were in crowds at the entrance.
“From the position of the prison and of the door, and from the
marks of the balls, which were pointed out to us, as well as from
the evidence, it was clear the firing must have proceeded from
soldiers a very few feet from the doorway; and though it was
certainly sworn that the prisoners were at the time of part of the
firing, at least, continuing to insult and occasionally to throw
stones at the soldiers, and that they were standing in the way of
and impeding the turnkey who was there for the purpose of closing
the door--yet still there was nothing stated which could in any
view at all justify such excessively harsh and severe treatment of
helpless and unarmed prisoners, when all idea of escape was at an
end.
“Under these circumstances we used every endeavour to ascertain if
there was the least prospect of identifying any of the soldiers
who had been guilty of the particular outrages here alluded to, or
of tracing any particular death, at that time, to the firing of
any particular individual, but without success, and all hopes of
bringing the offenders to punishment should seem to be at an end.
“In conclusion, we the undersigned have only to add, that whilst we
lament, as we do most deeply, the unfortunate transaction which has
been the subject of this inquiry, we find ourselves totally unable
to suggest any steps to be taken as to those parts of it which seem
most to call for redress and punishment.
“(Signed) /Charles King/,
/Francis Seymour Larpent/.
“/Plymouth/, _26th April_, 1815.”
This report was obviously drawn up so as to smooth the matter over,
lest the newly established peace should be broken by the angry
resentment of the Americans at the treatment which their fellow
citizens had received.
The prisoners at once presented a Remonstrance against the perfunctory
way in which the investigation had been carried out. They indignantly
complained that although their committee had named fifty men as
witnesses, only some of these were called, and these not the most
important. They had written a letter of complaint to the Commissioners,
who did not even trouble themselves to answer it.
The British Government and the American agent now bestirred themselves
to dispatch the prisoners to the States as speedily as might be. The
American Minister asked that Captain Shortland might be placed on his
trial, but did not press the demand, as this would have entailed the
bringing back of the principal witnesses against him from their homes
in the States. Lord Castlereagh promised on the part of the British
Government ample indemnification in money to the wounded and maimed
for life, and to the widows of those who had been killed, but this the
United States Government with dignity declined.
It is remarkable how reticent on the event were the English papers at
the time. Both England and America were heartily tired of the war which
profited neither, and were willing to let the unfortunate affair drop
out of consideration. Before the prisoners departed from Princetown,
they held a mock trial and condemnation of Mr. Beasley, and hung him in
effigy. Even when they departed, he took no pains to provide them with
suitable clothes, and some of them had to tramp barefooted to Plymouth.
They departed, marching under a banner on which was depicted Columbia
weeping over her murdered citizens. They were dismissed from the prison
on 19th April, but the investigation into the whole affair was begun
at Princetown and in Plymouth before the magistrates, on the 21st
April, and carried on to the 24th, Sunday included, in the presence of
two Commissioners, who, as we have seen, drew up their report on the
26th.
It will be well now to look at the depositions of such witnesses as the
Commissioners were pleased to summon, and to see how far they confirm
or contradict the account of the transaction as given by Captain
Shortland.
According to the Governor of the prison, the part he played in the
“massacre” was almost _nil_. He was the angel of peace hovering about,
soothing excited feelings, urging a cessation of the firing, and
ministering to the wounded. He gave no further directions than that to
ring the alarm bell. He neither ordered the soldiery to form in line,
nor to charge, nor to fire. It is impossible from his account to obtain
any connected idea as to the sequence of events.
I can only summarize the depositions in reference to the “massacre.”
_John Mitchell_, one of the clerks in the office of the Governor,
deposed “that this informant saw Capt. Shortland in the front of the
prison.... That Capt. Shortland advanced towards the prisoners, calling
on the guard to follow, form and be steady, and directed them to keep
possession of the Market Square. That this informant followed Capt.
Shortland, keeping between him and the military, and this informant
heard Capt. Shortland desire the prisoners to return quietly to
their prisons.... But they still continued advancing, speaking in a
riotous manner. That this informant observed a large body of prisoners
assembled at the other gate, at the opposite side of the Market
Square.... Hearing a noise he turned around and observed the prisoners
were much further up the square, and part of the guards had charged
their bayonets towards the prisoners to force them down, and almost
at the same moment he, this informant, heard the report of a musket
discharged.... That he, this informant, did not hear any person give
orders to fire. That several muskets were fired in the Market Square,
and immediately after the firing had ceased he heard Capt. Shortland
call for turnkeys to take up the wounded.... That this informant did
not observe anything thrown by the prisoners at the military, nor see
the prisoners armed with any offensive weapons.”
_Richard Arnold_, one of the turnkeys, after stating the fact of the
hole in the wall and Captain Shortland’s examination of it: “This
informant then returned to the Market Square leaving Capt. Shortland
in the barrack-yard, and the horn was then sounding for the prisoners
to turn into their respective prisons,[49] when he observed a large
body of prisoners collected between the iron railing in the front of
the prisons, and they were attempting to force the gates.... That this
informant went away to call the guard, and met Capt. Shortland at the
upper gate. That the guard was outside the guard-house drawn out,
and Capt. Shortland called to them to follow him, and this informant
returned with him, and by this time the prisoners had forced the gate,
and many hundreds had assembled in the Market Square. That Capt.
Shortland desired the soldiers to draw up, be steady, and keep their
ground, and the soldiers formed across the square. That this informant
saw Capt. Shortland go up in front of the military and heard him
desire the prisoners to go in, or otherwise he should be obliged to
use means which he should be very sorry for. That the prisoners were
very riotous, calling out ‘Keeno’ several times, and advanced instead
of retiring, when some of the soldiers came to a charge, and this
informant made the best of his way to the rear, and just after he got
in the rear he heard a single musket, and soon after he heard several
muskets discharged, but the muskets were at first elevated high, that
he does not think a single shot touched either of the prisoners ...
when some of them called out, ‘Fire, you----, you have no shot in your
guns,’ when the military fired again, ... and almost immediately he
heard Capt. Shortland call for the turnkeys to help the wounded away.
That this informant did not hear any person give any orders to fire,
that he was near to Capt. Shortland when the firing first begun, and
if Capt. Shortland had given any orders to fire he thinks that he
must have heard them.... That he did not see the prisoners armed with
any offensive weapons, nor did he see them throw any stones at the
military.”[50]
_Stephen Hall_, one of the turnkeys, gave information almost identical
with that of Richard Arnold. He did not hear any orders given to fire.
_Richard Cephus_, an American prisoner of war, gave no evidence of
value, as he was not present in the affray.
_George Magrath_, surgeon of the hospital at the prison. Hearing the
alarm bell he ran from his dwelling into the Market Square, where he
saw a line of soldiers drawn up and the prisoners breaking out at the
inner gate. “He advanced towards them and began to exhort them to
return quietly into the prison ... that this informant observed to
them that their detention appeared to be entirely the fault of their
own agent, Mr. Beasley ... that this informant heard a voice, but whose
it was this informant did not know, ordering the soldiers to charge;
that at this time Captain Shortland was near to this informant, and he
seemed to be employing means to induce the prisoners to return to the
prison; that on hearing the word ‘Charge’ given, he looked round and
found himself on the point of the soldiers’ bayonets ... that he found
it necessary to attempt to extricate himself and succeeded in getting
round the left wing, which rested on the wall.... Whilst this informant
was endeavouring to get around, the firing commenced, at first he
heard two or three muskets, but afterwards the discharges became more
frequent, and almost amounted to a volley.” He then retired to attend
to the wounded.
It must be added that the prisoners unanimously speak of Dr. Magrath
with high praise, as most kind and attentive to their wants and
ailments.
_John Odiorne_, a citizen of the United States. “He was at the store in
the Market Square, standing by the door; and the wagon with the bread
was partly unladen, when this informant heard some persons talking loud
at the gate at the uppercut (i.e. the main entrance) and went round
the wagon to see who it was, and saw Captain Shortland advancing into
the yard; and he was giving his orders to the turnkeys at the lodge in
a loud voice; and Richard Arnold spoke to him, and told him something
about the wall, when Captain Shortland said, ‘D---- you, why did not
you tell me about it before? Ring the bell, call the guard out.’ That
the guard immediately followed Captain Shortland into the yard, when
he ordered them to form across the yard, about two-thirds of the way
down.... That just as Captain Shortland gave the orders, this informant
saw the prisoners force the gate No. 1, and before this time this
informant had not seen a single prisoner in the Market Square, except
those who were employed with him (in unlading the bread wagon). He was
on the steps, at the store, which is about ten feet high and commands a
complete view of the square. That after the prisoners had advanced to
the distance of between twenty-five or thirty feet, Captain Shortland
then ordered the men to charge upon them, and the soldiers charged
upon the prisoners, when they retreated into the yard. That after the
prisoners had retreated within the prison ... he heard an order given
to fire by Captain Shortland, as the informant supposed, for he was
looking directly at him. That the order was not instantly complied with
... but in a few seconds a musket was fired by a person at the right of
Capt. Shortland, a few paces in advance of the others, and immediately
after two muskets were fired to the left of Capt. Shortland, and after
that there was a general discharge. And immediately after the general
discharge a party of soldiers marched into No. 1 yard, through the
gate, and fired a volley, and then wheeled about and returned into the
square, and after the soldiers had returned into the square and formed
into line the officer ordered them to fire, and immediately the whole
line across the square fired into the yard, after which the line broke
up and advanced into the yard, and this informant could not see any
further, but he heard the reports of guns in the yard.”
The evidence of John Odiorne is of special value, as he and Arnold were
the only witnesses of what took place in the Market-yard, who were not
actively engaged in the affray.