lover of pleasant books to lay down our volume at the first page. We
shall see Cunningham, that burly, red-faced ruffian, the Provost
Marshal, wreaking his vengeance upon the defenceless prisoners in his
keeping, for the assault made upon him at the outbreak of the war,
when he and a companion who had made themselves obnoxious to the
republicans were mobbed and beaten in the streets of New York. He was
rescued by some friends of law and order, and locked up in one of the
jails which was soon to be the theatre of his revenge. We shall
narrate the sufferings of the American prisoners taken at the time of
the battle of Long Island, and after the surrender of Fort Washington,
which events occurred, the first in August, the second in November of
the year 1776.

What we have been able to glean from many sources, none of which
contradict each other in any important point, about the prisons and
prison ships in New York, with a few narratives written by those who
were imprisoned in other places, shall fill this volume. Perhaps
others, far better fitted for the task, will make the necessary
researches, in order to lay before the American people a statement of
what took place in the British prisons at Halifax, Charleston,
Philadelphia, the waters off the coast of Florida, and other places,
during the eight years of the war. It is a solemn and affecting duty
that we owe to the dead, and it is in no light spirit that we, for our
part, begin our portion of the task.



CHAPTER II

THE RIFLEMEN OF THE REVOLUTION