GENERAL WASHINGTON AND REAR ADMIRAL DIGBY--COMMISSARIES SPROAT AND
SKINNER
Washington’s best vindication against the charge of undue neglect of
American prisoners is found in the correspondence on the subject.
We will therefore give his letter to Rear Admiral Digby, after his
interview with the committee of three sent from the Jersey to complain
of their treatment by the British, and to endeavor to negotiate an
exchange.
GENERAL WASHINGTON TO REAR ADMIRAL DIGBY
Head-Quarters, June 5 1782
Sir:
By a parole, granted to two gentlemen, Messrs. Aborn and Bowen, I
perceive that your Excellency granted them permission to come to me
with a representation of the sufferings of the American prisoners at New
York. As I have no agency on Naval matters, this application to me is
made on mistaken grounds. But curiosity leading me to enquire into
the nature and cause of their sufferings, I am informed that the prime
complaint is that of their being crowded, especially at this season, in
great numbers on board of foul and infected prison ships, where disease
and death are almost inevitable. This circumstance I am persuaded needs
only to be mentioned to your Excellency to obtain that redress which is
in your power _only_ to afford, and which humanity so strongly prompts.
If the fortune of war, Sir, has thrown a number of these miserable
people into your hands, I am certain your Excellency’s feelings for
fellowmen must induce you to proportion the ships (if they _must_ be
confined on board ships), to their accommodation and comfort, and not,
by crowding them together in a few, bring on disorders which consign
them, by half a dozen a day, to the grave.
The soldiers of his British Majesty, prisoners with us, were they (which
might be the case), to be equally crowded together in close and confined
prisons, at this season, would be exposed to equal loss and misery. I
have the honor to be, Sir
Yr Excellency’s most obt Hble srvt George Washington
REAR-ADMIRAL DIGBY’S ANSWER
N. Y. June 8 1782
Sir:
My feelings prompted me to grant Messrs. Aborn and Bowen permission to
wait on your Excellency to represent their miserable situation, and if
your Excellency’s feelings on this occasion are like mine, you will
not hesitate one moment in relieving both the British and Americans
suffering under confinement.
I have the Honor to be your Excellency’s Very obdt Srvt
R. Digby
FROM COMMISSARY SKINNER TO COMMISSARY SPROAT
Camp Highlands, June 24th 1782
Sir:
As I perceive by a New York paper of the 12 inst, the last letters which
passed between us on the subject of naval prisoners have been committed
to print, I must request the same to be done with this which is intended
to contain some animadversions on those publications.
The principles and policy which appear to actuate your superiors in
their conduct towards the American seamen who unfortunately fall into
their power, are too apparent to admit of a doubt or misapprehension.
I am sorry to observe, Sir, that notwithstanding the affectation of
candour and fairness on your part, from the universal tenor of behaviour
on your side of the lines, it is obvious that the designs of the British
is, by misrepresenting the state of facts with regard to exchanges, to
excite jealousy in the minds of our unfortunate seamen, that they are
neglected by their countrymen, and by attempting to make them believe
that all the miseries they are now suffering in consequence of a
pestilential sickness arise from want of inclination in General
Washington to exchange them when he has it in his power to do it; in
hopes of being able by this insinuation and by the unrelenting
severity you make use of in confining them in the contaminated holds of
prison-ships, to compel them, in order to avoid the dreadful alternative
of almost inevitable death, to enter the service of the King of Great
Britain.
To show that these observations are just and well grounded, I think
it necessary to inform you of some facts which have happened within
my immediate notice, and to put you in mind of others which you cannot
deny. I was myself present at the time when Captain Aborn and Dr. Bowen
* * * waited on his Excellency General Washington, and know perfectly
well the answer his Excellency gave to that application: he informed
them in the first place that he was not directly or indirectly invested
with any power of inference respecting the exchange of naval prisoners;
that this business was formerly under the direction of the Board
of Admiralty, that upon the annihilation of that Board Congress
had committed it to the Financier (who has in charge all our naval
prisoners) and he to the Secretary at war. That (the General) was
notwithstanding disposed to do everything in his power for their
assistance and relief: that as exchanging seamen for soldiers was
contrary to the original agreement for the exchange of prisoners,--which
specified that officers should be exchanged for officers, soldiers
for soldiers, citizens for citizens, and seamen for seamen; as it was
contrary to the custom and practice of other nations, and as it would
be, in his opinion, contrary to the soundest policy, by giving the
enemy a great and permanent strength for which we could receive no
compensation, or at best but a partial and temporary one, he did not
think it would be admissible: but as it appeared to him, from a variety
of well authenticated information, the present misery and mortality
which prevailed among the naval prisoners were almost entirely, if not
altogether produced by the _mode of their confinement_, being closely
crowded together in infected prison-ships, where the very air is
pregnant with disease, and the ships themselves (never having been
cleaned in the course of many years), a mere mass of putrefaction, he
would therefor, from motives of humanity, write to Rear-Admiral Digby,
in whose power it was to remedy this great evil, by confining them on
shore, or having a sufficient number of prison-ships provided for that
purpose, for, he observed, it was as preposterously cruel to confine 800
men, at this sultry season, on board the Jersey prison-ship, as it would
be to shut up the whole army of Lord Cornwallis to perish in the New
Goal of Philadelphia, but if more commodious and healthy accommodations
were not afforded we had the means of retaliation in our hands, which he
should not hesitate, in that case, to make use of, by confining the land
prisoners with as much severity as our seamen were held.--The Gentlemen
of the Committee appeared to be sensible of the force of these reasons,
however repugnant they might be to the feelings and wishes of the men
who had destruction and death staring them in the face.
His Excellency was further pleased to suffer me to go to New York to
examine into the grounds of the suffering of the prisoners, and to
devise, if possible, some way or another, for their liberation or
relief. With this permission I went into your lines: and in consequence
of the authority I had been previously invested with, from the Secretary
at War, I made the proposition contained in my letter of the ninth
instant. Although I could not claim this as a matter of right I
flattered myself it would have been granted from the principles of
humanity, as well as other motives. There had been a balance of 495
land prisoners due to us ever since the month of February last, when a
settlement was made; besides which, to the best of my belief, 400 have
been sent in, (this is the true state of the fact, though it differs
widely from the account of 250 men, which is falsely stated in the
note annexed to my letter in the New York paper:) notwithstanding this
balance, I was then about sending into your lines a number of land
prisoners, as an equivalent for ours, who were then confined in the
Sugar House, without which (though the debt was acknowledged, I could
not make interest to have them liberated), this business has since been
actually negotiated, and we glory in having our conduct, such as will
bear the strictest scrutiny, and be found consonant to the dictates of
reason, liberality, and justice. But, Sir, since you would not agree to
the proposals I made, since I was refused being permitted to visit the
prison-ships: (for which I conclude no other reason can be produced than
your being ashamed or afraid of having those graves of our seamen seen
by one who dared to represent the horrors of them to his countrymen,)
Since the commissioners from your side, at their late meeting, would not
enter into an adjustment of the accounts for supplying your naval and
land prisoners, on which there are large sums due us; and since your
superiors will neither make provision for the support of your prisoners
in our hands, nor accommodation for the mere existence of ours, who are
now languishing in your prison-ships, it becomes my duty, Sir, to state
these pointed facts to you, that the imputations may recoil where they
are deserved, and to report to those, under whose authority I have the
honor to act, that such measures as they deem proper may be adopted.
And now, Sir, I will conclude this long letter with observing that not
having a sufficient number of British seamen in our possession we are
not able to release urs by exchange:--this is our misfortune, but it is
not a crime, and ought not to operate as a mortal punishment against the
unfortunate--we ask no favour, we claim nothing but common justice and
humanity, while we assert to the whole world, as a notorious fact,
that the unprecedented inhumanity in the _mode_ of confining our naval
prisoners, to the amount of 800 in one old hulk, which has been made use
of as a prison-ship for more than three years, without ever having
been once purified, has been the real and sole cause of the deaths
of hundreds of brave Americans, who would not have perished in that
untimely and barbarous manner, had they, (when prisoners,) been suffered
to breathe a purer air, and to enjoy more liberal and convenient
accommodations agreeably to the practice of civilized nations when at
war, (and) the example which has always been set you by the Americans.
You may say, and I shall admit, that if they were placed on islands,
and more liberty given them, that some might desert; but is not this the
case with your prisoners in our hands? And could we not avoid this also,
if we were to adopt the same rigid and inhuman mode of confinement you
do?
I beg, Sir, you will be pleased to consider this as addressed to you
officially, as the principal executive officer in the department of
naval prisoners, and not personally, and that you will attribute any
uncommon warmth of style that I may have been led into to my feeling and
animation on a subject with which I find myself so much interested, both
from the principles of humanity and the duties of office. I am, Sir,
yr most obdt Srvt Abraham Skinner
Letters full of recriminations continued to pass between the
commissaries on both sides. In Sproat’s reply to the letter we have
just quoted, he enclosed a copy of the paper which he had induced the
thirteen sea captains and other officers to sign, obtained as we have
seen, in such a dastardly manner.
In the meantime the naval prisoners continued to die in great numbers
on board the prison and hospital-ships. We have already described the
cleansing of the Jersey, on which occasion the prisoners were sent on
board of other vessels and exposed to cold and damp in addition to their
other sufferings. And while negotiations for peace were pending some
relaxation in severity appears to have taken place.