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Forgotten patriots : the untold story of American prisoners during the Revolutionary War / Edwin G. Burrows

Author
Burrows, Edwin G., 1943-2018
Published
New York : Basic Books, [2008]
Copyright Date
©2008
Physical Description
xii, 364 pages : illustrations, maps, plan ; 25 cm

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Contents
Brooklyn -- Destined to the cord -- The stool of repentance -- A cry of barbarity & cruelty -- Sweet liberty -- War ad terrorem -- The war of words -- Dead reckonings -- Forgotten patriots.
Summary
Between 1775 and 1783, some 200,000 Americans took up arms against the British Crown, and just over 6,800 died in battle. About 25,000 became prisoners of war, most of them confined in New York City under conditions so atrocious that they perished by the thousands. Evidence suggests that at least 17,500 Americans may have died in these prisons--more than twice the number to die on the battlefield. New York City was the principal base of the Crown's military operations. Beginning with the American captives taken during the 1776 invasion of New York, captured Americans were stuffed into a hastily assembled collection of public buildings, sugar houses, and prison ships. The prisoners were shockingly overcrowded and chronically underfed--those who escaped alive told of comrades so hungry they ate their own clothes and shoes. This book is the first-ever account of these hell-holes, a sobering commentary on how much we have forgotten about our struggle for independence.
Subject(s)
ISBN
9780465008353 (alk. paper)
0465008356 (alk. paper)
Bibliography Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 329-348) and index.
Source of Acquisition
Harrisburg copy : a gift in memory of Bernice Treyler Burdette ; 20089.
View MARC record | catkey: 4760795