POWs in the American Revolution
Starvation & Neglect as Official Policy in Prisoner of War Camps
Sep 12, 2009
The American Prisoner of War experience began with the Revolutionary War. The first wholesale capture of American soldiers occurred in the American attack on Quebec 31 December 1775. Four hundred American soldiers were taken. One of these soldiers, 17-year-old Jeremiah Greenman of Rhode Island, kept a diary of the conditions in the POW camps.
Prisoner of War Experience in Canada
Jeremiah Greenman's diary gave a vivid picture of American prisoners held in Quebec. His entry for 1 January 1776 said they received a New Year's gift of a gill of rum and "bisquit." The Governor-General Guy Carleton established a ration allowance of "1 pound of bread[,] a half meat[,] 6 ozenses of butter[,] a half a pint boyled rice in a day." He also noted a "jintel man" gave the prisoners a cask of porter. The rations were generous; however, Greenman chronicles they did not always get the full amount ordered. Even so food appeared adequate as Greenman doesn't complain of hunger.
The prisoners were first confined in a "french convint" (Recollets); conditions were crowded and there was not enough room to lie down. The crowded conditions and the fear of a breakout in conjunction with a renewed assault on the city, the prisoners were moved to a "stone jayl"; the jail may have been an old barrack.
Work details helped relieved the boredom of captivity and allowed prisoners to be paid by gifts of extra food or clothing. Greenman's crew were assigned " to picking ochum for sum merchant thinking to get sum present but wass very much mestaken." This merchant appears not to have paid the prisoners for their labor. Prisoners on work details were required to take an oath of allegiance to the King. Greenman mentions a prisoner who refused the oath. He was placed "in irons and yoused very hard." In another instance, a detail of five men escaped to American lines.
During their captivity, smallpox and measles broke out. American troops had suffered from smallpox since the start of the campaign. The measles epidemic does not seem to have been caused by conditions in the prison. Very few men appeared to have died from disease in Quebec.
A mass escape had been planned. The plot was betrayed by an "old Contrymen." The prisoners were immediately placed in irons. They remained chained from April to May 1776.
In August 1776 the American POWs were released as a result of an exchange worked out by Governor-General Carleton and General Philip Schulyer, commanding the Northern Department of the colonies.
Prisoners Exchanges and Agreements
The question of exchange would be unresolved through most of the war. Britain refused to grant belligerent status to the American Army. To grant or recognize belligerency was to recognize an independent United States. Britain had no objection to local commanders entering into exchange agreements. However, these agreements were not binding. A succeeding commander could ignore the cartel.
The first mention of exchange was on 2 December 1775. Congress resolved to exchange "Citizen for Citizen, officer for officer of equal rank, and soldier for soldier." This plan had some problems. Were the prisoners captured by state militias, and/or privateers sailing under letters of marque issued by state governments included in the exchange? Congress declared itself to be the sole arbitrator of exchanges. On 30 July 1776 Lieutenant Colonel Pattison, Adjutant General of the British Army proposed a general exchange of prisoners to General Washington. Congress approved and authorized other departments to enter into similar agreements on a one-for-one basis. Soldiers captured in Canada were to have priority over soldiers captured in New York.
Prisoner of War Experience in New York
The treatment of Americans captured in the battles around New York was markedly different from that of the men captured in Canada. Five thousand men were captured, and prisoners were housed in commandeered warehouses, churches, a Quaker meeting house and two jails. Besides these buildings hulks of old ships were used.
The prisoners existed on rancid pork and mouldy bread. Water for drinking and washing was scarce; when available, it was delivered in latrine buckets. The starvation of prisoners was deliberate policy to induce prisoners to enlist in British and Loyalist units.
A Commissariat for Prisoners headed by Thomas Boudinot was charged with ensuring that American POWs received reasonable care. Boudinot's efforts to gain humane treatment was thwarted by the British Commissary for Prisoners Joshua Loring, assisted by the Provost Marshal William Cunningham.
The prisoners roasted in the summer and froze in winter. Ventilation was nonexistent and disease was rampant. Epidemics of measles, smallpox, yellow fever, dysentery, and flux abounded. Prisoners lacked strength to perform basic tasks or to escape. Men did get away, but for the majority of prisoners exchange was the only hope. The delay in reaching a prisoner cartel doomed many prisoners to a lingering death. Those prisoners fortunate to be released were unfit for duty.
Brutality was epidemic. Provost Marshal Cunningham conducted frequent inspections. His inspections resulted in severe beatings for the hapless prisoners who offended him. Many secret executions were conducted by Cunningham and his minions.
POW Casualties in the American Revolution
The signing of the Treaty of Paris ended the Revolutionary War. Of the 18,782 American POWs captured during the war, 8500 died in captivity. These deaths resulted from starvation and neglect.
Sources:
George Athon Billias, George Washington's Generals, William Morrow & Co., 1964
Robert Bray & Paul Bushnell, Diary of a Common Soldier in the American Revolution 1775-1783, An Annotated Edtion of the Military Journal of Jeremiah Greenman, Illinois University Press, 1978
Charles H. Metzger, The Prisoner in the American Revolution, Loyola University Press, 1971
Richard Garret, P.O.W. The Uncivil Face of War, Battle Standards, Redwood Burn Ltd., 1981, 1988
Howard Peckham, Toll of Independence, University of Chicago, 1974
Charles Royster, A Revolutionary People at War, The Continental Army and American Character 1775-1783, University North Carolina Press, published for Institute of Early American History and Culture, 1979
