The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1898-07-25
Frenchmen Well Treated
i40lY Years Ago. II
ENGLISH AND HESsIANs.
American Prisoners Taken In 1912
Confined at Bermuda.
ALIENS MOVABLE MILE STONE

Uncle Sam has great many more
prisoners of war on his hands than he
has had for thirty years, and more for
eign prisoners than he has had TO look
out for since the war of 1912 was end
ed in 1915. OF course. he Is going TO
take as good care of them as he can
and Uncle Sam can take pretty good
care of people when he wants to. SO
the plain men are going to Portsmouth
and the officers to Annapolis, and per-
haps before they're released they may
all have become so pleased with things
here that they will want to be natural
lied. That, however, depends on the
way things turn out.
1t is so long since Uncle Sam has had
any war prisoners that perhaps some
of his nephews will have forgotten
what he did with them. The last pris-
oners he took were not really prison
rs;they were the people about whom
General Grant said: They will need
their horses for their ploughing." But
before he took these prisoners Uncle
Sam had had plenty During the war
he gathered in more than 476,000 pris-
nearly 100000. So he had had to care
for about $4,000 men. He did so at
Camp Douglas, near Chicago; Rock
Island, ILL.,; Elmira. n. Y, and at other
places. He took pretty good care of
them as a rule.
A hundred and forty years ago our
grandfathers, or such of them as were
here, had a swarm of French and Ca
madam prisoners on their hands. taken
during the war that we called the
French and Indian war;" though Ii is
known abroad as the seven years war.
Many of them were confined at Prince
Town." Brunswick, and Millstown, In
New Jersey, and the British quarter
master provided for them in way
that even now seems generous.
THE REVOLUTIONARY \. AR.
Now, though the British had treated
their French and Canadian prisoners
so well, during the Revolution they
were indisposed at first to treat our
forefathers who were unlucky enough
to be taken prisoners with any consid-
Grafton at all. This was because they
started out as the North did in 1860,
and tried to hold the prisoners as trait
ors and as destined for the cord"
accordingly they did not treat them
with much tenderness, and Il was not
till July 1875, after prisoners had been
taken for nearly year, that the Con-
gress passed a resolution agreeing to
the British suggestions in the way of
exchange of prisoners. Whenever
Washington had suggested exchange
Heretofore the British had evinced
shyness.
After the war was over the HesSianS
were sent to Lancaster. Pa, and the
others to Winchester and Staunton, Va.
The officers were distributed at various
places until the treaty of peace had
t..xl
TO ego 'ome" were allowed to go. Quite
number of the men stayed here.
Meantime our people in the prison
ships had had a terrible time. AS every
one knows, thousands and thousands OF
them died of starvation and disease. 1t
is said as a historical fact that the
present wealth of one distinguished
New York family is due to the starva-
ton of these prisoners; that its an
cestor, a canny Scot. had the contract
for feeding the prisoners. and so found
It more to his advantage to let them
die, than to feed them.
AMERICAN PRISONERS.
Where our prisoners of the war of
1912 were put doesn't appear in history
like many other things. Our own peo-
pie who were captured were taken
abroad. some to Halifax and thence to
Dartmouth Prison, England; some to
died in 1855, was prisoner at Bermuda.
First he was kept in "a loathsome old
prison ship moored i'm the road, upon
the south of st. Georges. where, how
ever, we were confined but about two
weeks, when all except the privateers-,
men were indulged with parole on
shore at Hamilton" M
Later the prisoners were exchanged
and ordered to prepare to go north.
They left Bermuda on June "a, 1913, on
the cartel Magnet; on July 4 the snip
Joined Commodore Hotham's fleet, and
then ran inshore to land her prisoners.
The Magnet was near the Highlands
when the pilot boat Yankee came out
to take her in. The Magnet then lay
10 TO let a dispatch boat from the feet
come up. The prisoners rose then and
vowed they'd be put ashore there.
Meanwhile they waited for the boat.
When she came up 40 armed men con-
cealed in the Yankee jumped UP and
fired at the dispatch boat killing or
wounding every one on 1t. Then the 40
turned to and took the prisoners
ashore.
MOVED THE MILESTONE.
During the war one of the famous
meme f-war was the Argus. She was
commanded by Capt. William Henry
Allen, who had as his navigator Lieut..
William Howard Allen. on August IA,
1913. the Argus got into more OF ngnt
with III. M. $. Pelican than she could
manage--not more than she wanted
however Capt. Allen was mortally
wounded Lieut.. Watson. the executive.
was seriously hurt, and finally Lieut..
Allen had to surrender. The Argus was
not must to boast OF. but she held to-
gether until they got her into Ply
mouth. There Capt. Allen died and
was buried with all honors. and then
Lieut.. Allen. having recovered from his
wounds, was put into Dartmouth
prison. After n time he was paroled,
with the right to walk out of the town
to the second milestone. He and a fell
low prisoner did not find that walking
TO that milestone gave them enough ex-
ercise or change OF scene, so what
did they do but move the milestone a
mile or 40 further out on the road. This
permitted them TO have much pleas
anter walk. and they did not confess IL
until they were exchanged. Perhaps
the milestone liz still out of place: the
English are very conservative.