Norwich bulletin., 1921-05-31
ODD INCIDENTS IN AMERICAN
 HISTORY
AMERICANS IN ENGLISH PRISONS.

AMERICANS IN ENGLISH PRISONS. |
 During both the Revolutionary war and the War of 1872 many of the soldiers captured by the British were taken to 1 England and there imprisoned for cer- | tain period of time. This was particular | lv true of the War of 1912, during which | the British had less opportunity for the creating of a prison camp on this conti- 1 nent.
 In this war most of the American pris- oners were taken to Dartmoor prison, located in southern England, which place was little more than peat bog up to 1S05 In that year England and France, being at war, more room for French pris- oners was needed, and the famous granite structure destined to unpleasant notoriety as Dartmoor prisoU was begun. As site it had nothing to recommend 1t, but there were politics then as now, and they se- cured the adoption of the site,> the build ings. which were to hold at one time near Iy 1O- 900 men, were begun and first occu- pied in 1909.
 During the War of 1912 the whole num- Der of Americans imprisoned at Dartmoor was 6,554, two-thirds of them from New England and one-third of all being from l Massachusetts. In. April, 1913, there were i 700 American prisoners within the walls, 1 and what they suffered may be gathered ] from Mr. Thomas book, the latest and probably the last authority on the subject, | the author having recently been a superin- dent of the prison:
 The winter of 1S1S-14 was memorable;
 the running. stream that supplied all the water froze to the bottom. the prisoners quenched thei7 thirst with snow and hud- i dled at night to prevent being frozen ; ! their breath, condensing on the granite walls, covered with film of ice.
 Flight Americans escaped Jan. 19. when
 the weather was at it's worst. Seven were
 soon recaptured only one got far enough ! to be taken the next day. when all were put in the black hole for 10 days. They
 were no more wretched than the rest who
 passed this awful fortnight bare-legged, with salt beef for food and snow for drink, without fire or sufficient clothing
 overrun with verrnin and decimated by sickness.
 In spite of these sufferings, and of the
 inducements held out by the prison au-
 thorites to those who would enlist in the
 British navy, only 59 Americans embraced
 the opportunity at the cost of their patri.
 otism. So strong was the feeling of the
 better sort against it that, as soon as il
 was known that 3 man was coquettine
 with the idea, he was brought to sum. mary trial by his fellows, and unless he
 canted was flogged and threatened witf death as well.
 It is said that the American prisoners at Dartmoor kept Sunday as strictly as il they were in Puritan New England Sometimes preachers from outside would
 hold a service, but this was not often To relieve the intolerable tedium oi their existence the more ingenious of then used the bones Nof their beef. and those they could get from the cook, to make
 
 or the officials, or as mementoes. In the old statehouse, Boston, is a beautiful though small, model of the battleshir Ohio. made almost wholly of bones, by Lieut.. Thomas Lettican while in Dart moor.
 There was an uprising of the soldier.
 on April 6. 1915. which is known as tht l 'Dartmoor massacre Irritated by beinI ' kept in prison after the treaty of Chen 7 had been signed and proclaimed, ther, $ was small riot partly but not wholly : among the American prisoners, The gov ernor of the prison. Captain Shorthand t became "rattled,' the prison guard fret on the Americans, and in three minute, 5 63 men were killed or wounded. Short ' land was tried, but as the prisoner-wit 9 nesses could not identify any of the sol diers who fired without orders, nothin;
 came of it. To us, at this distance O r more than three generations, it is com 8 fortable to know that the British govern g ment provided pensions for the wounded ? J and for the families of the killed. Il