Author: Neil Davie Publisher: Springer Nature ISBN: 3030838919 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 350
Book Description
This book explores the history of Dartmoor War Prison (1805-16). This is not the well-known Victorian convict prison, but a less familiar penal institution, conceived and built nearly half a century earlier in the midst of the long-running wars against France, and destined, not for criminals, but for French and later American prisoners of war. During a period of six and a half years, more than 20,000 captives passed through its gates. Drawing on contemporary official records from Britain, France and the USA, and a wealth of prisoners’ letters, diaries and memoirs (many of them studied here in detail for the first time), this book examines how Dartmoor War Prison was conceived and designed; how it was administered both from London and on the ground; how the fate of its prisoners intertwined with the military and diplomatic history of the period; and finally how those prisoners interacted with each other, with their captors, and with the wider community. The history of the prison on the moor is one marked by high hopes and noble intentions, but also of neglect, hardship, disease and death
Author: Trevor James Publisher: McFarland ISBN: 0786474076 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 243
Book Description
The incarceration of French and American prisoners of war in Dartmoor Prison, at a time when Britain was at war with both its traditional enemy and the young nation of former British colonies, was a dark and unusual episode. Acts of cruelty and degradation were countered by defiance and a spirited loyalty by the prisoners to their respective countries. Much of the story is told firsthand by those who were there, against a background of warfare and glorious victories on all sides. The author relates how a barren landscape that was (and is) subject to the worst of winter weather was transformed into a thriving township by one very determined man, Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt, and why such a place was chosen to build a prison. The design and construction of the prison are described, as are the experiences of the men held in the harsh, overcrowded conditions of Dartmoor. From May 1809 to February 1816, 271 American and more than 1100 French prisoners of war died in confinement.
Author: Brian Cuthbertson Publisher: Formac Publishing Company Limited ISBN: 0887808379 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 98
Book Description
A small island in Halifax's beautiful Northwest Arm was the site for a British military prison from 1794 to 1816. More than 10,000 French, Spanish and American seamen, privateers and soldiers passed through the prison during its 22-year existence. Of these, 270 died on Melville Island from 1803 to 1815 and were buried in unmarked graves on the adjoining Deadman's Island, now designated a national historic site. This book tells this little known story for the first time. Author Brian Cuthbertson focuses on the experiences of the American prisoners. Their treatment will be of particular interest to readers familiar with the recent experiences of prisoners in US military prisons.
Author: Paul Chamberlain Publisher: The History Press ISBN: 0750980532 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 203
Book Description
During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, over 200,000 prisoners of war of many nationalities were brought to Britain to be held in the infamous prison hulks, land prisons and parole depots. Many prisoners languished in captivity for over eleven years. This book tells the story of these men and women. Hell Upon Water examines how prisoners of war were acquired by the British, how they were fed, clothed and accommodated by the Transport Board of the Admiralty. The larger prisons such as Dartmoor, Portchester Castle and Norman Cross are described in detail, alongside the smaller lesser known depots of Forton, Stapleton, and Mill Bay. It compares the treatment of French prisoners with that of Britons in France, and also tells the stories of officers who fell in love with local girls and married, and those who fought to escape.
Author: Justin Jones Publisher: ISBN: Category : Prisoners of war Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
The War of 1812 is a conflict best characterized by two adjectives: ironic and forgotten. Conventional histories of the War of 1812 focus almost exclusively on the land engagements of the war, despite the occurrence of several crucial engagements at sea. In what is perhaps the greatest irony of all, one of the most infamous incidents of the war -- the shooting of several United States prisoners-of-war at Dartmoor prison in 1815 -- has received virtually no scholarly attention. The general topic of prisoners-of-war during the War of 1812 has received almost no treatment. Owing to the lack of substantial scholarly literature on Dartmoor Prison during its time as a place of incarceration for both French and American prisoners-of-war, this study's primary focus is on the autobiographical accounts of the men held there. For this study, the author has discovered ten narratives that each tell a slightly different story of what it was like within the prison on the moor. Without exception, all of these narratives are autobiographical in scope. Building upon the prisoner-of-war autobiographies, the thesis concludes with a discussion of the two most important events in Dartmoor's history as a prisoner-of-war compound. The first, a riot over bread, bears a direct correlation to what would take place on April 6, 1815, the date of the Dartmoor Massacre. To what degree did the former influence the latter? What did actually take place during both events? Was the Dartmoor Massacre really a massacre? Or have time, sensationalism, and political rhetoric obscured the truth?
Author: Benjamin Waterhouse Publisher: Fireship Press ISBN: 1935585827 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 260
Book Description
It's an account of life as a British prisoner of war during the War of 1812, and it's also a mystery. Prisoner of the British was originally released in 1816 as A Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts, Late a Surgeon on Board an American Privateer, Who Was Captured at Sea by the British. As such it is an immensely readable, if eye-opening, account of the author's experiences as a British prisoner of war during the War of 1812. At first he was held at Melville Island, Halifax, then in a prison ship at Chatham, England, and last in the infamous Dartmoor Prison. His descriptions and observations of the characters and characteristics of three nations are truly remarkable-as is his detailed descriptions of the massacre of American prisoners at Dartmoor on April 6, 1815. But there is a mystery surrounding this book as well-a mystery that is debated to this day. Who wrote it? Benjamin Waterhouse, the pioneering American physician, is credited with authorship, but he would have been 59 years old when the story transpired, and there is no record of his ever having served in the military. Modern scholars now suspect a 21 year old seaman from Massachusetts by the name of Henry Torey, but no one knows for sure. Whoever wrote it, it's a must read for anyone who wishes to genuinely understand the War of 1812.
Author: Eden Phillpotts Publisher: ISBN: Category : Americans Languages : en Pages : 482
Book Description
Thousands of French and American prisoners are herded into the war prison at Princetown in 1814 and goaded by their miseries into desperate outbreaks.
Author: Neil Davie
Author: Trevor James
Author: Brian Cuthbertson
Author: Basil Thomson
Author: Paul Chamberlain
Author: Justin Jones
Author: Trevor James
Author: Benjamin Waterhouse
Author: Eden Phillpotts
Author: Charles Andrews