The Daytona daily news. [volume] (Daytona, Fla.) 1903-1926, 1912-12-07

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Breucklen shore) CUNNINGHAM
| disturb their slumbers. And they PREY
that Master Cunningham, our provost
marshal. will devise some means to
keep the poor wretches quiet of
nights
So runs an old letter written In
New York during the darkest days of
| the American Revolution. The Brit
ish had captured New York and Phila-
delphia. To both cities-but chiefly to
/ New York-they brought thousands Of
patriot soldiers, captured in battle,
and many non-combatants who had
risked freedom and life to help the
cause of liberty by money, gifts or by
patriotic speeches.
These unlucky captives were not
I treated like prisoners of war. They
were housed and fed-or, rather,
i starved-in a way the law nowadays
would not permit for cattle or swine.
/ And the man in charge of them was
/ blackguard whose own countrymen
loathed him, William Cunningham.
! Cunningham was the son of a Brit
/ ish dragon and was born in the
regimental barracks at Dublin. In 1774
| he came to America and settled in
| New York, where he made living for
some time by breaking" colts and by
giving riding lessons. When the Revo-
luton broke out, in ITS, he became
| involved in a political row with some
local patriots and was forced to fee
| to Boston, there to seek the protection
OF the British army.
His noisy loyalty to King George
, III. got him into trouble there and at
tracted the notice Of Thomas Gage,
the English general. Gage appointed
him provost marshal to the royal
army. His chance for revenge" had
come
Cunningham was sent back to New
York and was put in charge Of the
Revolutionary prisoners there and in
Philadelphia. There were several i'm
promptu prisons in New York where
the patriot captives were lodged. One
was the city hall, another the famous
old Sugar House" another. Kings
(now Columbia) college; another the
new gaoI" (the old hall Of records
1 in City Hall park, torn down only a
few years ago), and-worst of all
the :sprison ship Jersey" moored on
the Brooklyn shore. Churches were
also turned into jails.
In the prison ship the captives were
herded by hundreds in dark, foul pens,
destitute of pure air and sunlight.
They were given such food as a dos
might we'll scorn, and in such tiny
quantities as would not suffice to
keep a dog alive. The water they
drank was filthy. No medical care
or chance for cleanliness or exercise
was granted them. Prison fever and
other maladies scourged their ranks.
They died like so many flies To such
fearful condition were they reduced
that the lowest city outcasts were
touched by pity and secretly sent
them food
The fate of the captives in the new
gaol, or hall of records, was little bet.
ter. Here is an extract from Pin.
tard's account of their sufferings:
$50 closely were they packed to
gether that when they lay down al
night to rest, on the hard oak planks
and they wished to turn, it was al
together, by word of command
ht'-Ieft'-being so wedged as tt
form almost a solid mass of human
bodies"
All war is cruel But such torture
as this was inexcusable. And (thougt
, the British government might perhaps
have bettered matters had they chos
en- tor the lions share of the blame
. was Cunningham's. Here is a portion
, Of his sworn confession, made in 1871
just before his own execution:
4 81 shudder to think of the murders
: have been accessory to, both will
: and without orders from government
3 especially while in New York, during
which time there were more than tive
thousand prisoners starved by stop
ping their rations (Which sold)
There were also 275 American pris
: oners executed guard was des
patched to forbid people to look GU
:. from their doors or windows on pail
! :. of death, after which the prisoner
were conducted, gagged, at midnight
:, just behind the upper barracks. huns
without trial and then buried"
Cunningham went back to EngIsn,
after the war and took to riotous liy
ing Being short of money to squa1
. der on dissipation, he forged draft
: For this crime he was tried, cor
demned, and, on August 10, 1891, wa
Q hanged.
He il said to have been responsible
for the shameful death of nearly $50
American patriots. Nor could mer
hatred for the colonists account 70
o this wholesale slaughter, since hs dill
70 honestly sold for his own profit tn
urOyfaiona alloftaA - thew