Skip to main content

Naval History and Heritage Command

The Navy Department Library

Tags
Food, Prisoners of War
Related Content
Topic
  • Food
Document Type
  • Monograph-Research Report
Wars & Conflicts
Navy Communities
File Formats
  • Image (gif, jpg, tiff)
Location of Archival Materials
Author Name
Place of Event
Recipient Name

Dartmoor Prison

A Journal, of a Young Man of Massachusetts, Late a Surgeon on Board an American Privateer, Who Was Captured at Sea by the British . . . and Was Confined First, at Melville Island, Halifax, Then at Chatham, in England, and Last, at Dartmoor Prison. Interspersed with Observations, Anecdotes and Remarks, Tending to Illustrate the Moral and Political Characters of Three Nations. To Which Is Added, a Correct Engraving of Dartmoor Prison, Representing the Massacre of American Prisoners. Written by Himself. Boston: printed by Rowe & Hooper, 1816. 240 p., frontispiece, 19 cm.

"A valuable and moving tale of prison life." -Fredriksen. "A novel founded on fact." --Allibone. The author, captured while serving as surgeon on board the American privateer Young Man in January 1813, was Dr. Amos G. Babcock. His journal was edited by Benjamin Waterhouse. The massacre to which he refers occurred on April 6, 1815. Angered by continued imprisonment following conclusion of peace and by poor quality of prison food, the captives demonstrated. The prison commandant called out troops who fired upon the captives, killing seven and wounding sixty.

Dartmoor Prison Frontispiece
Dartmoor Prison Frontispiece
Other titles of interest in the Navy Department Library:

Andrews, Charles. The prisoners' memoirs or, Dartmoor prison: containing a complete and impartial history of the entire captivity of the Americans in England, from the commencement of the last war between the United States and Great Britain, until all prisoners were released by the treaty of Ghent: also a particular detail of all occurences relative to the horrid massacre at Dartmoor, on the fatal evening of the 6th of April, 1815 / the whole carefully comp. by a prisoner in England, who was a captive during the whole war... New York: Printed for the author, 1852.

Browne, Benjamin F. The yarn of a Yankee privateer. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Co., 1926.

Cobb, Josiah. A green hand's first cruise: roughed out from the log-book of memory, of twenty-five years standing, together with a residence of five months in Dartmoor / By a Yonker. Baltimore: Cushing & Brother, 1841, c1840.

Little, George. Life on the ocean, or Twenty years at sea: being the personal adventures of the author. Baltimore: Armstrong & Berry, 1843.

Little, George. The American cruiser; a tale of the last war. Boston: W.J. Reynolds, and company, and Waite, Peirce, and co., 1847.

Message from the President of the United States transmitting a report of the Secretary of State in obedience to a resolution of the House of Representatives, of the twenty-eighth of February last, of a number of impressed American seamen confined in Dartmoor Prison: the number surrendered, given up, or taken on board British vessels captured during the late war: together with their places of residence. Washington: Printed by William A. Davis, 1816.
Message from the President of the United States transmitting a report of the Secretary of State, prepared in obedience to a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 4th inst. in relation to the transactions at Dartmoor prison, in the month of April last, so far as the American prisoners of war, there confined, were affected by such transaction... Washington: Printed by William A. Davis, 1816.

[END]

hide
Published: Thu Aug 15 15:14:54 EDT 2019