THE HOSPITAL DOCTOR--A TORY’S ACCOUNT OF NEW YORK IN 1777--ETHAN ALLEN’S
ACCOUNT OF THE PRISONERS
The doctor spoken of by Jabez Fitch as Dr. Dibuke is perhaps the
notorious character described by Mr. Elias Boudinot in the Journal from
which we have already quoted. On page 35 of this book he gives us the
following:
“AN ACCOUNT OF THE FRENCHMAN WHO POISONED. AMERICAN PRISONERS IN NEW
YORK, AND WAS REWARDED FOR SO DOING BY GENERAL, HOWE
“When the British Army took possession of New York they found a
Frenchman in Goal, under Condemnation for Burglery and Robbery. He was
liberated. He was a very loos, ignorant man. Had been a Servant. This
fellow was set over our Prisoners in the Hospital, as a Surgeon, though
he knew not the least principle of the Art. Dr. McHenry, a Physician
of note in the American Army, and then a Prisoner, finding the extreme
ignorance of this man, and that he was really murdering our people,
remonstrated to the British Director of the Hospital, and refused
visiting our sick Prisoners if this man was not dismissed. A British
Officer, convinced that he had killed several of our People, lodged
a complaint against him, when he was ordered to be tryed by a Court
Martial, but the morning before the Court were to set, this Officer was
ordered off to St Johns, and the Criminal was discharged for want of
Evidence. During this man having the Charge of our Prisoners in the
Hospital, two of our Men deserted from the Hospital and came into our
Army when they were ordered to me for Examination. They Joined in this
story. That they were sick in the Hospital under the care of the above
Frenchman. That he came and examined them, and gave to each of them a
dose of Physick to be taken immediately. A Young Woman, their Nurse,
made them some private signs not to take the Physick immediately. After
the Doctor was gone, she told them she suspected the Powder was poison.
That she had several times heard this Frenchman say that he would have
ten Rebels dead in such a Room and five dead in such a Room the next
morning, and it always so happened. They asked her what they should do:
She told them their only chance was to get off, sick as they were,
that she would help them out and they must shift for themselves. They
accordingly got off safe, and brought the Physick with them. This was
given to a Surgeon’s Mate, who afterwards reported that he gave it to a
Dog, and that he died in a very short time. I afterwards saw an account
in a London Paper of this same Frenchman being taken up in England for
some Crime and condemned to dye. At his Execution he acknowledged the
fact of his having murdered a great number of Rebels in the Hospitals at
New York by poyson. That on his reporting to General Howe the number
of the Prisoners dead, he raised his pay. He further confessed that he
poisoned the wells used by the American Flying Camp, which caused such
an uncommon Mortality among them in the year 1776.”
Jabez Fitch seems to have been mistaken in thinking that General
Robertson instead of Lord Howe was commanding in New York at this time.
We will now give the account written by a Tory gentleman, who lived in
New York during a part of the Revolution, of Loring, the Commissary of
Prisons, appointed by General Howe in 1776. Judge Thomas Jones was a
noted loyalist of the day. Finding it inconvenient to remain in this
country after the war, he removed to England, where he died in 1792,
having first completed his “History of New York during the Revolution.”
He gives a much larger number of prisoners in that city in the year
1776 than do any of the other authorities. We will, however, give his
statements just as they were written.
“Upon the close of the campaign in 1776 there were not less than 10,000
prisoners (Sailors included) within the British lines in New York. A
Commissary of Prisoners was therefore appointed, and one Joshua Loring,
a Bostonian, was commissioned to the office with a guinea a day, and
rations of all kinds for himself and family. In this appointment there
was reciprocity. Loring had a handsome wife. The General, Sir William
Howe, was fond of her. Joshua made no objections. He fingered the cash:
the General enjoyed Madam. Everybody supposing the next campaign (should
the rebels ever risk another) would put a final period to the rebellion.
Loring was determined to make the most of his commission and by
appropriating to his own use nearly two thirds of the rations allowed
the prisoners, he actually starved to death about three hundred of the
poor wretches before an exchange took place, and which was not until
February, 1777, and hundreds that were alive at the time were so
emaciated and enfeebled for the want of provisions, that numbers died on
the road on their way home, and many lived but a few days after reaching
their habitations. The war continuing, the Commissaryship of Prisoners
grew so lucrative that in 1778 the Admiral thought proper to appoint one
for naval prisoners. Upon the French War a Commissary was appointed for
France. When Spain joined France another was appointed for Spain. When
Great Britain made war upon Holland a Commissary was appointed for
Dutch prisoners. Each had his guinea a day, and rations for himself and
family. Besides, the prisoners were half starved, as the Commissaries
filched their provisions, and disposed of them for their own use. It
is a known fact, also, that whenever an exchange was to take place the
preference was given to those who had, or could procure, the most money
to present to the Commissaries who conducted the exchange, by which
means large sums of money were unjustly extorted and demanded from the
prisoners at every exchange, to the scandal and disgrace of Britons.
We had five Commissaries of Prisoners, when one could have done all the
business. Each Commissary had a Deputy, a Clerk, a Messenger in full
pay, with rations of every kind.”
As Judge Jones was an ardent Tory we would scarcely imagine that he
would exaggerate in describing the corruptions of the commissaries.
He greatly deplored the cruelties with which he taxed General Howe and
other officials, and declared that these enormities prevented all hopes
of reconciliation with Great Britain.
We will next quote from the “Life of Ethan Allen,” written by himself,
as he describes the condition of the prisoners in the churches in New
York, more graphically than any of his contemporaries.
ETHAN ALLEN’S ACCOUNT OF THE AMERICAN PRISONERS
“Our number, about thirty-four, were all locked up in one common large
room, without regard to rank, education, or any other accomplishment,
where we continued from the setting to the rising sun, and as sundry of
them were infected with the gaol and other distempers, the furniture
of this spacious room consisted principally of excrement tubs. We
petitioned for a removal of the sick into hospitals, but were denied.
We remonstrated against the ungenerous usage of being confined with
the privates, as being contrary to the laws and customs of nations, and
particularly ungrateful in them, in consequence of the gentleman-like
usage which the British imprisoned officers met with in America; and
thus we wearied ourselves petitioning and remonstrating, but o no
purpose at all; for General Massey, who commanded at Halifax, was as
inflexible as the d---l himself. * * * Among the prisoners were five
who had a legal claim to a parole, James Lovel, Esq; Captain Francis
Proctor; a Mr. Rowland, Master of a Continental armed vessel; a Mr.
Taylor, his mate, and myself. * * * The prisoners were ordered to go
on board of a man-of-war, which was bound for New York, but two of them
were not able to go on board and were left in Halifax: one died and
the other recovered. This was about the 12th of October, 1776. * * * We
arrived before New York and cast an anchor the latter part of October,
where we remained several days, and where Captain Smith informed me that
he had recommended me to Admiral Howe, and General Sir Wm. Howe, as a
gentleman of honor and veracity, and desired that I might be treated
as such. Captain Burk was then ordered on board a prison ship in the
harbor. I took my leave of Captain Smith, and with the other prisoners
was sent on board a transport ship. * * * Some of the last days of
November the prisoners were landed at New York, and I was admitted to
parole with the other officers, viz: Proctor, Rowland, and Taylor.
The privates were put into the filthy churches in New York, with the
distressed prisoners that were taken at Fort Washington, and the second
night Sergeant Roger Moore, who was bold and enterprising, found means
to make his escape, with every of the remaining prisoners that were
taken with me, except three who were soon after exchanged: so that out
of thirty-one prisoners who went with me the round exhibited in these
sheets, two only died with the enemy, and three only were exchanged, one
of whom died after he came within our lines. All the rest at different
times made their escape from the enemy.
“I now found myself on parole, and restricted to the limits of the
city of New York, where I soon projected means to live in some measure
agreeable to my rank, though I was destitute of cash. My constitution
was almost worn out by such a long and barbarous captivity. * * * In
consequence of a regular diet and exercise my blood recruited, and
my nerves in a great measure recovered their former tone * * * in the
course of six months.
“* * * Those who had the misfortune to fall into the enemy’s hands at
Fort Washington * * * were reserved from immediate death to famish
and die with hunger: in fine the word rebel’ was thought by the enemy
sufficient to sanctify whatever cruelties they were pleased to inflict,
death itself not excepted. * * *
“The prisoners who were brought to New York were crowded into churches,
and environed with slavish Hessian guards, a people of a strange
language * * * and at other times by merciless Britons, whose mode of
communicating ideas being unintelligible in this country served only
to tantalize and insult the helpless and perishing; but above all the
hellish delight and triumph of the tories over them, as they were dying
by hundreds. This was too much for me to bear as a spectator; for I saw
the tories exulting over the dead bodies of their countrymen. I have
gone into the churches and seen sundry of the prisoners in the agonies
of death, in consequence of very hunger; and others speechless and
near death, biting pieces of chips; others pleading, for God’s sake for
something to eat, and at the same time shivering with the cold. Hollow
groans saluted my ears, and despair seemed to be imprinted on every of
their countenances. The filth in these churches, in consequence of the
fluxes, was almost beyond description. I have carefully sought to direct
my steps so as to avoid it, but could not. They would beg for God’s sake
for one copper or morsel of bread. I have seen in one of the churches
seven dead, at the same time, lying among the excrements of their
bodies.
“It was a common practice with the enemy to convey the dead from these
filthy places in carts, to be slightly buried, and I have seen whole
gangs of tories making derision, and exulting over the dead, saying
‘There goes another load of d----d rebels!’ I have observed the British
soldiers to be full of their blackguard jokes and vaunting on those
occasions, but they seemed to me to be less malignant than the Tories.
“The provision dealt out to the prisoners was by no means sufficient for
the support of life. It was deficient in Quantity, and much more so in
Quality. The prisoners often presented me with a sample of their bread,
which I certify was damaged to such a degree that it was loathsome and
unfit to be eaten, and I am bold to aver it as my opinion, that it had
been condemned and was of the very worst sort. I have seen and been
fed upon damaged bread, in the course of my captivity, and observed the
quality of such bread as has been condemned by the enemy, among which
was very little so effectually spoiled as what was dealt out to these
prisoners. Their allowance of meat, as they told me, was quite trifling
and of the basest sort. I never saw any of it, but was informed, bad as
it was, it was swallowed almost as quick as they got hold of it. I saw
some of them sucking bones after they were speechless; others who could
yet speak and had the use of their reason, urged me in the strongest
and most pathetic manner, to use my interest in their behalf: ‘For you
plainly see,’ said they, ‘that we are devoted to death and destruction,’
and after I had examined more particularly into their truly deplorable
condition and had become more fully apprized of the essential facts, I
was persuaded that it was a premeditated and systematized plan of the
British council to destroy the youths of our land, with a view thereby
to deter the country and make it submit to their despotism: but as I
could not do them any material service, and by any public attempt for
that purpose I might endanger myself by frequenting places the most
nauseous and contagious that could be conceived of, I refrained going
into the churches, but frequently conversed with such of the prisoners
as were admitted to come out into the yard, and found that the
systematical usage still continued. The guard would often drive me away
with their fixed bayonets. A Hessian one day followed me five or six
rods, but by making use of my legs, I got rid of the lubber.
“Sometimes I could obtain a little conversation notwithstanding their
severities.
“I was in one of the yards and it was rumoured among those in the
church, and sundry of the prisoners came with their usual complaints to
me, and among the rest a large-boned, tall young man, as he told me from
Pennsylvania, who was reduced to a mere skeleton. He said he was glad
to see me before he died, which he had expected to have done last night,
but was a little revived. He further informed me that he and his brother
had been urged to enlist into the British army, but had both resolved to
die first; that his brother had died last night, in consequence of that
resolve, and that he expected shortly to follow him; but I made the
other prisoners stand a little off and told him with a low voice to
enlist; he then asked whether it was right in the sight of God? I
assured him that it was, and that duty to himself obliged him to deceive
the British by enlisting and deserting the first opportunity; upon which
he answered with transport that he would enlist. I charged him not to
mention my name as his adviser, lest it should get air and I should be
closely confined, in consequence of it.
“The integrity of these suffering prisoners is incredible. Many hundreds
of them, I am confident, submitted to death rather than enlist in the
British service, which, I am informed, they most generally were
pressed to do. I was astonished at the resolution of the two brothers,
particularly; it seems that they could not be stimulated to such
exertions of heroism from ambition, as they were but obscure soldiers.
Strong indeed must the internal principle of virtue be which supported
them to brave death, and one of them went through the operation, as did
many hundreds others * * * These things will have their proper effect
upon the generous and brave.
“The officers on parole were most of them zealous, if possible, to
afford the miserable soldiers relief, and often consulted with one
another on the subject, but to no effect, being destitute of the means
of subsistence which they needed, nor could they project any measure
which they thought would alter their fate, or so much as be a mean of
getting them out of those filthy places to the privilege of fresh air.
Some projected that all the officers should go in procession to General
Howe and plead the cause of the perishing soldiers, but this proposal
was negatived for the following reasons: viz: because that General Howe
must needs be well acquainted and have a thorough knowledge of the state
and condition of the prisoners in every of their wretched apartments,
and that much more particular and exact than any officer on parole could
be supposed to have, as the General had a return of the circumstances of
the prisoners by his own officers every morning, of the number who
were alive, as also of the number who died every twenty-four hours: and
consequently the bill of mortality, as collected from the daily returns,
lay before him with all the material situations and circumstances of the
prisoners, and provided the officers should go in procession to General
Howe, according to the projection, it would give him the greatest
affront, and that he would either retort upon them, that it was no part
of their parole to instruct him in his conduct to prisoners; that
they were mutinying against his authority, and, by affronting him, had
forfeited their parole, or that, more probably, instead of saying one
word to them, would order them all into as wretched a confinement as the
soldiers whom they sought to relieve, for at that time the British, from
the General to the private centinel, were in full confidence, nor did
they so much as hesitate, but that they should conquer the country.
“Thus the consultation of the officers was confounded and broken to
pieces, in consequence of the dread which at the time lay on their minds
of offending General Howe; for they conceived so murderous a tryant
would not be too good to destroy even the officers on the least pretence
of an affront, as they were equally in his power with the soldiers;
and as General Howe perfectly understood the condition of the private
soldiers, it was argued that it was exactly such as he and his council
had devised, and as he meant to destroy them it would be to no purpose
for them to try to dissuade him from it, as they were helpless and
liable to the same fate, on giving the least affront. Indeed anxious
apprehensions disturbed them in their then circumstances.
“Meantime mortality raged to such an intolerable degree among the
prisoners that the very school boys in the street knew the mental design
of it in some measure; at least they knew that they were starved
to death. Some poor women contributed to their necessity till their
children were almost starved; and all persons of common understanding
knew that they were devoted to the cruellest and worst of deaths.
“It was also proposed by some to make a written representation of the
condition of the soldiery, and the officers to sign it, and that it
should be couched in such terms, as though they were apprehensive that
the General was imposed upon by his officers, in their daily returns to
him of the state and condition of the prisoners, and that therefor the
officers moved with compassion, were constrained to communicate to him
the facts relative to them, nothing doubting but that they would meet
with a speedy redress; but this proposal was most generally negatived
also, and for much the same reason offered in the other case; for it was
conjectured that General Howe’s indignation would be moved against such
officers as should attempt to whip him over his officers’ backs; that he
would discern that he himself was really struck at, and not the officers
who made the daily returns; and therefor self preservation deterred
the officers from either petitioning or remonstrating to General Howe,
either verbally or in writing; as also they considered that no valuable
purpose to the distressed would be obtained.
“I made several rough drafts on the subject, one of which I exhibited
to the Colonels Magaw, Miles, and Atlee; and they said that they would
consider the matter. Soon after I called on them, and some of the
gentlemen informed me that they had written to the General on the
subject, and I concluded that the gentlemen thought it best that they
should write without me, as there was such spirited aversion subsisting
between the British and me.”
Ethan Allen goes on to say: “Our little army was retreating in New
Jersey and our young men murdered by hundreds in New York.” He then
speaks of Washington’s success at Trenton in the following terms: “This
success had a mighty effect on General Howe and his council, and
roused them to a sense of their own weakness. * * * Their obduracy and
death-designing malevolence in some measure abated or was suspended.
The prisoners, who were condemned to the most wretched and cruellest
of deaths, and who survived to this period, _though most of them died
before,_ were immediately ordered to be sent within General Washington’s
lines, for an exchange, and in consequence of it were taken out of their
filthy and poisonous places of confinement, and sent out of New York to
their friends in haste. Several of them fell dead in the streets of New
York, as they attempted to walk to the vessels in the harbor, for their
intended embarkation. What number lived to reach the lines I cannot
ascertain, but, from concurrent representations which I have since
received from numbers of people who lived in and adjacent to such parts
of the country, where they were received from the enemy, _I apprehend
that most of them died in consequence of the vile usage of the enemy._
Some who were eye witnesses of the scene of mortality, more especially
in that part which continued after the exchange took place, are of
opinion that it was partly in consequence of a slow poison; but this
I refer to the doctors who attended them, who are certainly the best
judges.
“Upon the best calculation I have been able to make from personal
knowledge, and the many evidences I have collected in support of the
facts, I learn that, of the prisoners taken on Long Island and Fort
Washington and some few others, at different times and places, about
two thousand perished with hunger, cold, and sickness, occasioned by the
filth of their prisons, at New York; and a number more on their passage
to the continental lines; most of the residue who reached their
friends having received their death wound, could not be restored by
the assistance of their physicians and friends: but like their brother
prisoners, fell a sacrifice to the relentless and scientific barbarity
of the British. I took as much pains as the circumstances would admit of
to inform myself not only of matters of fact, but likewise of the very
design and aims of General Howe and his council, the latter of which I
predicated on the former, and submit it to the candid public.”