America's First POWs

By: Melanie Bussel

When we think of POWs, we mostly consider those held in World War II, Korea, or Viet Nam. And rightly so, since these are our members and our friends. Sometimes, remembering Andersonville, those captured on both sides of the Civil War come to mind. And that's about as far back as we usually go.

But the history of American POWs goes back much farther...all the way to the Revolutionary War.

During the battle for New York, starting in August, 1776 and after New York City fell to the British, thousands of "rebels" came into British hands. It didn't take long for the prison space to be filled up. At the same time, the British navy had taken a number of derelict vessels and soon turned them into maritime prison ships.

Each ship had more than 1,000 men crammed into the hold. Every morning, the dead would be carried up on deck to be hauled to shore later in the day. The bodies were then dumped into shallow mass graves on the shore of Wallabout Bay in Brooklyn.

The Jersey was only one of hundreds of ships floating about 100 yards from what became the Brooklyn Navy Yard, but the deprivation of its inmates is better documented than most. Robert Sheffield of Stonington, Conn. escaped and told his tale, relating that men were "swearing and blaspheming; some crying, praying and wringing their hands, and stalking about like ghosts; others delirious, raving and storming; some groaning and dying-all panting for breath; some dead and corrupting-air so foul at times that a lamp could not be kept burning, by reason of which the boys were not missed till they had been dead ten days."

The Jersey had been built in 1735 and was converted to a prison ship in 1779. All its portholes had been closed, replaced by a series of small holes, crossed by two pieces of iron.

Although there were several ways to get off the ships; men could be released if they joined the British forces; some who had money on them could buy their way off and officers were swapped for British officers in prisoner exchanges, for most the only way off was death or the end of the war.

According to the Department of Defense, there were 4,435 battle deaths during the Revolutionary War. The most reliable estimate of prison ship casualties is 11,500.

The Prison Martyrs were not entirely forgotten. About a century ago, Representative Howard F. McGowan addressed Congress, "One hundred years ago, the civilized world stood aghast with horror at the terrible suffering of those who perished in the black hole of Calcutta, yet their tortures were brief and mercifully ended in a few hours, while the agonies of the Prison Ship Martyrs were spent in long, drawn suffering and torture over weeks and months of misery." (In 1756, 146 British soldiers were imprisoned in a small cell in Calcutta. By the next morning 123 had died, many of them still standing up, due to the crowded conditions of the room.)

At the end of the war, the survivors were released and the ships abandoned. Over the years, the bones of those buried in 1-2 foot graves were exposed to the elements and for decades, bones of the POWs would wash up along the shores of Brooklyn and Long Island.

By 1808, the bones had been collected and were interred near the Navy Yard. They were re-buried in Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn in 1873. Around the turn of the century, enough funds had been collected to raise a 148-foot tower as a memorial to these POWs. It has fallen into disrepair and a committee is now raising funds to reconstruct the doors to the crypt. More information may be found at: The Monument for the Prison Ship Martyrs

For the past three years, Vincent Lisanti, Past Chapter Commander of the Hudson Valley Chapter AXPOW, has been working with Purple Heart organization to find a way to have all the Prison Ship Martyrs posthumously awarded the Purple Heart. It may require legislation to write special criteria to include these first American POWs. Since many of the hapless prisoners were merchant seamen, the Merchant Marine has records of about 8,000 names and an effort is being made to locate as many descendents as possible.

Members of the Hudson Valley Chapter intend to have the site of the crypt and monument declared a National Park, similar to the site at Andersonville. The park is currently under the jurisdiction of the New York City Department of Parks and is not adequately protected from vandalism. Although Fort Greene Park should be available for public recreation, the monument to America's first POWs should be properly protected by our National Government. The Prison Ship Martyrs deserve nothing less than national recognition and protection.