note were confined. At one time they were so crowded into this
building, that when they lay down upon the floor to sleep all in the
row were obliged to turn over at the same time at the call, 'Turn
over! Left! Right!'

"The sufferings of these brave men were largely due to the criminal
indifference of Loring, Sproat, Lennox, and other Commissaries of the
prisoners.

"Many of the captives were hanged in the gloom of night without trial
and without a semblance of justice.

"Liberty Street Sugar House was a tall, narrow building five stories
in height, and with dismal underground dungeons. In this gloomy abode
jail fever was ever present. In the hot weather of July, 1777,
companies of twenty at a time would be sent out for half an hour's
outing, in the court yard. Inside groups of six stood for ten minutes
at a time at the windows for a breath of air.

"There were no seats; the filthy straw bedding was never
changed. Every day at least a dozen corpses were dragged out and
pitched like dead dogs into the ditches and morasses beyond the
city. Escapes, deaths, and exchange at last thinned the
ranks. Hundreds left names and records on the walls."

"In 1778 the hulks of decaying ships were moored in the
Wallabout. These prison ships were intended for sailors and seaman
taken on the ocean, mostly the crews of privateersmen, but some
soldiers were also sent to languish in their holds.