Part 10

During the night an express was sent to Plymouth to acquaint Capt. Shortland of the event, and that the prisoners had complete possession of the whole garrison, and the control of all things at Dartmoor. In the morning Capt. Shortland arrived with a reinforcement of two hundred soldiers; but found all things quiet and tranquil; as the prisoners had obtained their usual allowance of bread, they were satisfied and sought nothing more. Capt. Shortland made an apology for the conduct of the contractor, and things passed on tolerably well; but great suspicions remained among the people who had formerly attended the market, and these had spread abroad and become the general opinion outside the walls, that the American prisoners being detained so long since the ratification had arrived, now three weeks, in which time Mr. Beasley might have had all discharged and on their passage to the United States, had grown impatient; and as no ships had yet sailed from London to receive them, their forbearance was quite exhausted, and from some threats that had been thrown out by some of the prisoners in presence of the market people, that if the agent of their country did not procure their release within one month from the arrival of the treaty, that they would take their liberty in a body, being determined to risk their lives at all hazards, and depend on their own exertions for their liberty among armed soldiers, rather than remain in the wretched condition they were then in. These suspicions had gone so much abroad, that every body about the prison was apprehensive the prisoners would make the attempt to escape in a body, and some unhappy issue grow out of it. But the prisoners generally had no design of escaping, as by that means they would lose their opportunity of returning home in the cartels. On the sixth, we addressed a letter to Mr. Beasley, on the subject of our discharge, and informed him that we had made application to the British Government to interfere in forwarding our release, as he, Mr. Beasley, had delayed the time already nearly one month, and had only procured three ships, and them still in London, when at the same time ships could have been procured at Plymouth, on equally as good terms as at London, which would, with very little exertion on the part of Mr. Beasley, have released the greater part of the prisoners in two weeks from the arrival of the ratification of the treaty.

The story I am about to relate is of the deepest concern, as well to every citizen of the United States as to those who were the immediate subjects of it. The event concerns the interest of both governments, and deserve to be treated in the most candid and impartial manner; every transaction whereby the intention of those acting in it can be discovered, require to be shown in the purest and most open view.

That the public may have all that can be known on this important subject, I purpose to lay before them, in the first instance, what passed within my own knowledge, that I myself was witness to; then to give them the report of the committee appointed by the prisoners to investigate the circumstances of the massacre; and lastly, to give the report of the agents appointed by the two governments.

What one of that Nation, or what soldier of that hardened, wretched band, can refrain from tears even while he relates the murderous deeds?

“What blind, detested madness could afford, Such horrid license to the murd’ring sword!”

Though the scene is of painful memory, and my soul shudders at the remembrance, and hath shrunk back with grief at the thought, yet will I relate what my eyes hath seen and my ears heard.

On the sixth of this month, April, about six o’clock in the evening, Capt. Shortland discovered a hole in the inner wall, that separates the barrack-yard from prison No. 6 and 7; this hole had been made in the afternoon by some prisoners out of mere play, without any design to escape.

On discovering the hole, Capt. Shortland seemed instantly to conceive the murderous design; for, without giving the prisoners any notice to retire, he planted soldiers in proper positions on the top of the wall, where they could best assist in perpetrating his murderous and barbarous deeds.

A few minutes past six, while the prisoners were innocently, and unapprehensive of danger, walking in the prison yards and those in No. 1, 3 and 4 were particularly so, as the yards of these prisons are entirely separated every way from the yard in which the hole in the wall had been made--the alarm bells rung, and the drums of the garrison in every direction beat to arms; this was about ten minutes past six.

This sudden and unexpected alarm excited the attention of all the prisoners, who, out of curiosity made immediately for the prison yard to inquire the reason of the alarm.

Among so many as were in this depot, it is reasonable to suppose that some mischievous persons were among them, and among those collected at the gate were some such persons who forced the gate open, whether by accident or design I will not attempt to say; but without any intention of making an escape, and totally unknown to every man, except the few who stood in front of the gates; those back naturally crowded forward to see what was going on at the gates; this pressed and forced a number through the gates, quite contrary to the intention of either those in front or those in rear.

While in this situation Capt. Shortland entered the inner square, at the head of the whole body of soldiers in the garrison; as soon as they entered, Capt. Shortland took sole command of the whole, and immediately drew up the soldiers in a position to charge.

The soldier-officers, perceiving by this move the horrid and murderous design of Capt. Shortland, resigned their authority over the soldiers, and refused to take any part, or give any orders for the troop to fire.

They saw by this time that the terrified prisoners were retiring as fast as so great a crowd would permit, and hurrying and flying in terrible flight, in every direction, to their respective prisons.

The troop had now advanced within three yards of the prisoners, when Capt. Shortland gave them orders to charge upon them; at this time the prisoners had all got within their respective prison yards, and were flying with the greatest precipitation from the point of the bayonet; the doors now being full of the terrified crowd, they could not enter as fast as they wished; at this moment of dismay, Capt. Shortland was distinctly heard to give orders to the troops to fire upon the prisoners, although now completely in his power, and their lives at his disposal, and had offered no violence, nor attempted to resist, and the gates all closed.

The order was immediately obeyed by his soldiers, and they discharged a full volley of musketry into the main body of the prisoners, on the other side of the iron railings which separated the prisoners from the soldiers.

These volleys were repeated for several rounds, and the prisoners falling, either dead or wounded, in all directions, while it was yet impossible for them to enter the prison, on account of the numbers that flew there for refuge from the rage of the blood thirsty murderer.

In the midst of this horrid slaughter, one man among the rear prisoners, with great presence of mind and the most undaunted courage, turned and advanced to the soldiers, amidst the fire of hundreds, and while his fellow-prisoners were falling all around him, and in an humble and suppliant manner, with his hat in his hand, this resolute soul, in the face of danger and death, implored mercy of Capt. Shortland to spare his countrymen. “O! spare my countrymen!” he cried, “O! Captain, forbear, don’t kill us all.” To this supplication, this cruel, inexorable Shortland replied, “Retire, you dammed rascal; I’ll hear to nothing.” The soldiers then pricked him with their bayonets, which compelled him to retreat to the prison door, where he must wait his doom with the other unfortunate prisoners, till the soldiers, who had now entered the different prison yards, and were pursuing and firing should dispatch him with the rest.

To do justice to the merits of this young man, I must inform the public that his name is Greenlow, of Virginia, and late a midshipman in the United States navy, but now a prisoner of the crew of the privateer Prince of Neufchattel.

The soldiers now advanced, making a general massacre of men and boys, whom accident or impossibility had left without the doors of the prison; they advanced near to the crowded doors, and instantly discharged another volley of musketry on the backs of those farthest out, endeavoring to force their passage into the prison.

This barbarous act was repeated in the presence of this inhuman monster, Shortland--and the prisoners fell, either dead or severely wounded, in all directions, before his savage sight.

But his vengeance was not glutted by the cruel murder of the innocent men and boys that lay weltering and bleeding in the groans and agonies of death along the prison-doors, but turned and traversed the yard, and hunted a poor affrighted wretch, that had flew for safety close under the walls of prison No. 1, and dared not move lest he should be discovered, and immediate death be his lot.

But, alas! the unhappy man was discovered by these hell-hounds, with this demon at their head, and with cool and deliberate malice, drew up their muskets to their shoulders and despatched the unhappy victim, while in the act of imploring mercy from their hands. His only crime was not being able to get into the prison without being shot before.

In the yard of No. 7, they found in their hunt another hapless victim, crouching close along the wall at the far end of the yard, and fearing to breathe, lest he should share the fate of his unfortunate countrymen that had already fallen a sacrifice to the rage of this lawless banditti; when, O! cruel to relate, five of them drew up the instruments of death, and by the order of this fell murderer, discharged their contents into the body of this innocent man, while begging them to spare his life!

This _Nero_, now having accomplished his murderous designs, retired with his troops from the yard, and left it a horrid scene of his relentless rage!

The dead and the wounded lay scattered about the yard; seven were killed dead on the spot, and six with the loss of a leg or an arm, and dangerously wounded; several were pronounced mortal. The names of every man, either killed or wounded will be given in the catalogue annexed.

As it was much feared the murderers would endeavor to conceal many of the dead, Dr. Magrath, head surgeon of the Hospital, an honest skillful man, entered immediately after Shortland retired, and exerted his utmost ability in collecting the dead and wounded from the several prison yards, and conveying them to the Hospital.

At the same time he sent to the neighboring towns to call in the aid of medical gentlemen that resided there; he also demanded admittance into the prisons, which were now closed, to receive the dead and wounded that had reached the inside of the prison.

A despatch was immediately sent to Plymouth, to inform the Admiral and Commodore, and the Commander in Chief of the Military Department, of the fatal _sixth of April, one thousand eight hundred and fifteen_; which day must be of horrid memory to every American, whose mind will revolt with indignity at the name of SHORTLAND AND THE MASSACRE AT DARTMOOR!!

_Shortland!_ thou foul monster and inhuman villain! is thy soul glutted with the blood of the innocent victims, that Fate had doomed to thy revengeful and blood-thirsty power? I appeal to the world to say whether the conduct of Warren Hastings, whether the massacre of St. Domingo, can exceed the horrid catastrophe of this ill-fated night, conducted under the immediate inspection of your murderous eye? and should the laws of your country not doom you to a death of the most severe nature as a public example for your well known crimes? Your whole nation is involved as a black accomplice in your monstrous guilt; and the blood of my unfortunate countrymen, shed by your base hand, must ever remain a stain to the character of your nation.

Tell me, _ye_ bloody butchers! and _thou_ who contrived, as well as ye who executed the execrable design, how dare ye breathe that air, which wafted to the ear of Majesty the groans of the wounded and the dying? How dare ye tread that earth which is wet with the blood of the innocent, shed by your accursed hands? Do not the goads and stings of conscious guilt wound you in your daily walks? Do not the ghosts of the murdered rise before you in your nightly dreams?

On the morning of the seventh, by order of the commander-in-chief at Plymouth, a Colonel, with a reinforcement of troops, arrived and took command of the depot. Immediately on his arrival, he sent notice to the prisoners of his taking the command, and that Capt. Shortland wished the prisoners to appoint some few men to receive the explanation of his last night’s conduct; but we unanimously agreed, and despatched a letter to the Colonel, acquainting him that as citizens of the United States of America, we should conceive it a disgrace to the national character of our country to hold any communication with the murderer of our fellow-citizens. But provided the Colonel should require any conference with the prisoners, they should at any time with pleasure attend, and explain the nature of every past event.

The Colonel, requesting a conference, came to the gate attended by the guilty Shortland, who could not now disguise the guilt of his crime; he could not look a prisoner in the face; as he walked along towards the prison bars with his eyes fixed on the ground, and as he came to the spot where, a few hours before, lay one of our murdered countrymen, he saw the blood, and faintly attempted to speak; but the monitor of Heaven was not quite overcome by the powers of Hell, and he could not utter a word. After several efforts he hesitatingly attempted to justify his conduct by saying it was a part of his duty, which was grounded on the fear he had of the prisoners making an attempt to escape, and imputed part of the fault to Mr. Beasley, in driving the prisoners to a state of desperation by his great delay of sending them home.

The Colonel very patiently heard the stories of both parties, and promised a jury of inquest should be held over the bodies of our departed countrymen the next day, and a strict investigation of every circumstance of the event had, according to evidence.

At nine o’clock we hoisted the colors half-mast on every prison; we then visited the Hospital, but the spectacle was painful indeed, and enough to freeze the blood of the most hardened parricide; the tables were covered with the amputated legs and arms of our fellow-prisoners, and our ears stunned with the groans of forty-two, wounded in the most shocking manner; and seven lay dead as solemn witnesses of the horrid act.

We then returned to the prisons and appointed a committee of ten to take depositions of a great number of persons who were best acquainted with the particular facts. The committee being severally sworn, proceeded to make all possible inquiry into the circumstances of the massacre, and prepare every testimony to lay before the jury which were to sit over the bodies the next day.

At two in the afternoon arrived an Admiral and another officer of high rank in his Majesty’s navy, and after introducing themselves to the prisoners, in a very friendly and feeling manner, expressed their extreme regret for the horrid and barbarous act of Capt. Shortland, and informed us that they had come clothed with proper authority to make inquiry into the conduct of Capt. Shortland in the late unhappy event and his conduct during his agency at the prison. They assured us, that he would be called to an account by the government, and that a fair investigation should be had of all his conduct.

I have omitted to mention a circumstance which occurred during the dreadful scene of the night. A lamp-lighter, who was in the act of lighting the lamp at the door of prison No. 3, in which I myself resided, being compelled to take refuge among the prisoners, was forced by the hurrying group into the prison. He belonged to the same regiment of soldiers who were that moment committing these most horrid outrages. He was immediately seized by the prisoners, and conveyed to a particular part of the prison, and the prisoners being in the most enraged state, it was immediately proposed to put him to death, and sacrifice him to our resentment, as a just retaliation of our injury; but on cool deliberation and debate throughout the prison, it was thought better to spare him; and to the pleasing astonishment of this man, half dead with fear, he was told to rest easy, for his life should not be taken, but he should be preserved, that the whole world might distinguish the difference of humanity between unprovoked British soldiers, and the injured and provoked American seamen; accordingly, when the doors were opened to take out the wounded, the man was released, which astonished and confounded the whole soldiery, who felt the force of the reproach with the keenest remorse, and were compelled to express the highest respect for this generous revenge.

_The following is a correct list of killed and wounded on the 6th of April, 1815, and contains a true statement of their condition at 12 o’clock on the 8th day of the same month._

KILLED.

John Haywood, black, Virginia, discharged; the ball entered a little posterior to the acromion of the left shoulder, and passed obliquely upwards; made about the middle of the right side its egress of the neck.

Thomas Jackson, N. Y. Orbit of N. Y., the ball entered the left side of the belly nearly in a line with the navel, and made its egress a little below the false ribs in the opposite side; a large portion of the intestinal canal protruded through the wound made by the ingress of the ball. He languished until 3 o’clock of the 7th, when he died.

John Washington, Maryland, Rolla privateer; the ball entered at the squamore process of the left temporal bone, and passing through the head, made its exit a little below the cruceal ridge of the occipital bone.

James Mann, Boston, Ciro; the ball entered at the inferior angle of the left scapula, and lodged under the integument of the right pectoral muscle. In its course, it passed through the inferior margin of the right and left lobes of the lungs.

Joseph Toker Johnson, not known; the ball entered at the inferior angle of the left scapula, penetrated the heart, and passing through both lobes of the lungs, made its egress at the right axilla.

William Leverage, N. Y., Saratoga; the ball entered about the middle of the left arm, through which it passed, and penetrating the corresponding side, betwixt the second and third ribs, passing through the left lobe of the lungs, the mediartenum, and over the right lobe, lodged betwixt the fifth and sixth ribs.

James Campbell, N. Y., discharged; the ball entered at the outer angle of the right eye, and in its course fractured and depressed the greater part of the frontal bone, fractured the nasal bones, and made its egress above the orbital ridge of the left eye. He languished until the morning of the 8th, when he died.

DANGEROUSLY WOUNDED, AND LIMBS AMPUTATED IMMEDIATELY ON THE NIGHT OF THE SIXTH.

John Gray, Virginia, prize to the Paul Jones, left arm. James Wills, Marblehead, Paul Jones, left arm. James Trumbull, Portland, Maine, Elbridge Gerry, left arm. Robbert Willett, Portland, Maine, left thigh. Thomas Smith, New-York, Paul Jones, left thigh. John Gier, Boston, Rambler, left thigh. Wm. Leversage, N. Y., Magdalen, right thumb.

DANGEROUSLY WOUNDED, LIMBS NOT AMPUTATED ON THE EIGHTH.

Thomas Findley, Marblehead, Enterprise, wounded in the thigh and back.

Ephraim Linson.

John Hogerberth, Philadelphia, Good Friends, of do., thigh and hip.

William Blake, Kennebeck, discharged, M. W., three wounds in the body.

Peter Wilson, New-York, Virginia Planter, in the hand.

James Israel, do., do., thigh.

Jacob Davis, do., do., thigh.

Caleb Cotton, Taunton, Mass., M. W., two places in the body.

John Roberts, do., do., thigh.

Joseph Phipps, Old Concord, Zebra, thigh and belly.

William Lamb, do., do., eyes.

Edward Gardner, Marblehead, impressed, in the wrist.

William Appleby, New-York, Magdelen, arm.

James Bell, Philadelphia, Joel Barlow, wrist and thigh.

Philip Ford, Philadelphia, impressed, five wounds, side, breast, back and thigh.

James Birch, thigh.

Henry Montcalm, Roxbury, Mass., Governor Tompkins, knee.

Andrew Garrison, thigh and head.

Robert Tadley, Bath, Maine, Grand Turk, privates.

William Penn, Virginia, impressed, thigh.

Joseph Reugh, thigh.

Thaddeus Howard, Rochester, Mass., Hart of Bedford, leg.

Edward Banker, Portsmouth, N. H., impressed, back.

Thomas George, Norfolk, Virginia, U. S. Rattlesnake, thigh.

Alexander Wilson, Providence, R. I., Leo, hand and leg.

John Surrey, N. Y., French privateer, cheek.

Nathaniel Wakeneld, Beverly, Mass., Ciro, right knee.

Samuel E. Tyler, Boston, Tom, thigh and arm.

Joseph Reaver, Salem, Mass., legs and thighs.

Stephen S. Vincent, New-Jersey, head and ears.

James Christie, Tickler, different places.

William Smith, New-York.

Robert Willet, Portland, man-of-war, knee.

SLIGHTLY WOUNDED.

Ephraim Lincoln, Boston, Argus, by the bayonet. Greenlow, Virginia, different places. James Newman, Baltimore, impressed, by the bayonet. Alexander Peterson, New-York, Erin, Boston, by the bayonet. Joseph Music, Charleston, S. C., impressed, by the bayonet. John Willet, Philadelphia, by the bayonet. Joseph Hindil, Philadelphia, Young Wasp, in the hand. Perry Richardson, Bath, Maine, Rolla, by the bayonet. John Cowen, Teezer, by the bayonet. James Barker, Wiscasset, Elbridge Gerry, by the bayonet. James Wedgewood, Portsmouth, N. H., Lark, in the head. James Mathews, Delaware, by the bayonet. John Murray, New-York, by the bayonet. William Marshal, Lawrence, by the bayonet. Thomas Johnson, Albany, Criterion, by the bayonet.

The list of killed and wounded contains all that could be ascertained at that time, but great suspicions remained among the prisoners that more had been killed than were certainly known, as some were missing, and not to be found among the living or the dead; it was supposed that these had been killed, and being mangled in a most shocking manner, were privately taken away by Capt. Shortland, and buried that night, before Doctor Magrath entered the yard, and a report prevailed that he had done it: as great numbers who were slightly wounded did not go to the hospital, I, to ascertain the exact number of killed and wounded, took the list of those in the hospital, from the doctor’s books, and every prison mustered all those that refused going to the hospital, by which means the list can be depended on as strictly correct.

At twelve o’clock, at noon, on the eighth, a jury of inquest arrived, composed of twelve farmers, and a coroner, and sat over the bodies of our murdered countrymen; they began to take the depositions of the prisoners and turnkeys, and proceeded on till seven in the evening, and adjourned till next morning.

The evidence of the prisoners corresponded with the statement in a preceding page.

On the morning of the ninth, the dead not yet being buried, the jury sat over them again, and proceeded on with the evidence on both sides, which consisted of Dr. Magrath, whose evidence was against Shortland, prisoners, turnkeys, soldier-officers, soldiers, &c.