Part 6

On the evening of the third, an event happened at Dartmoor, which ended in a very serious manner. A dispute arose between two of the prisoners late belonging to the United States’ brig Argus, by the names of Thomas Hill and James Henry; the quarrel growing quite warm, and not being ended that night, they agreed to fight next morning; accordingly, next morning, about nine o’clock, they commenced the battle in prison No. 4, and by an unfortunate blow from Hill, Henry was killed on the spot; a jury of inquest was called next morning and held over the body of the deceased, and after hearing the evidence, the jury brought in a verdict of manslaughter, (or a killing not wholly without fault, but without malice.) Thomas Hill was removed and confined in the county prison at Exeter, there to await his trial at the August assizes then next ensuing.

The fourth of July now having arrived, and all things in great preparation, we displayed our flag in the yard, with the following inscription upon it in large capitals, “_All Canada or Dartmoor prison for life_.” This pleased the soldiers, but irritated the officers, who, discovering our firm resolution to defend the flag, and not having but part of a regiment in the garrison, and they friendly toward us, thought best to be quite silent, and let us proceed our own way; for if they attempted to deprive us of the flag, we might rush on the guard, who would make but a faint resistance, or join us, and all the prisoners might make an easy escape. But the prisoners did not wish to make the attempt, for they knew a reinforcement could easily be raised, and make a vigorous pursuit, and were therefore willing to wait some more favorable opportunity. At eleven o’clock all the prisoners assembled in the yard. The British officers belonging to the garrison, colonels, majors, captains, clerks, turnkeys, and a great number of soldiers, assembled on the walls to hear an oration composed by a Yankee sailor, upon the circumstances of the present times. An empty cask was placed in such a situation, as all the strangers on the walls could hear distinctly.

The orator of the day then mounted the cask, and all the spectators keeping a profound silence, began his oration, which we shall give our readers verbatim, as it was delivered by the sailor.

_Countrymen and fellow-citizens_:

This day we dedicate as the birth-day of freedom, it being the fourth of July--the day that our fathers declared themselves free and independent from the tyrannical laws of this country. After many years hard struggle, and the loss of many of our fathers and friends, America was acknowledged by all civilized nations, a free and independent government.

For many years our fathers, and we, their offspring, remained in the most perfect state of peace and tranquility, and reaped every blessing that grows on the soil of liberty; England, ever envying us the honor our fathers acquired by their valor in arms, when they declared that themselves and their sons should no longer wear the yoke of tyranny. Since that time, England has used every intrigue to deprive us of the greatest of blessings. First, contrary to the laws of civilized nations, she has dragged you from your homes, from your wives, your families and friends, into her infernal bulwarks--her ships of war; there, after suffering every degradation, from the terror of the lash, she has sent you to the most horrid prison in compensation for your long and faithful services. England, envying the happiness our countrymen enjoyed under so mild a government, the reverse of her own tyrannical laws, exerted every art to destroy their tranquility, by offering insults to the United States ships at various times, impressing and murdering our brother seamen, within the jurisdiction of our own waters, and within sight of our capitol. Our country was passive, and wishing to remain at peace with all nations, bore these insults with a fortitude becoming a great and wise people, and was in hope that, at some future day, England would redress those injuries in a fair and honorable way. But, contrary to every expectation for years before the war, she grew more bold, and showed a disposition to add injury to insult, by issuing orders to make prizes of all American vessels not bound to her own ports or those of her allies.

All nations stood amazed to see our country insulted, our seamen impressed and murdered within our own waters; our commerce confined and completely destroyed, contrary to the laws of neutrality. All this was done by England, and she unprovoked. Then, fellow-citizens, the results of all these depredations must be a formal declaration of war, which could no longer be delayed. Our country then, prudently and wisely, mustered all their forces, both by sea and land; England stood ready for combat fully prepared, and with the fullest assurance of a speedy victory; but, alas! for England; within a few weeks after the declaration of war, the United States frigate Constitution, commanded by Captain Isaac Hull, fell in with His Majesty’s ship Guerriere, and then retaliated for one insult by sending her to the bottom. Great was the astonishment of England.

Shortly after, the U. S. ship Wasp fell in with His Majesty’s ship Frolic, of far superior force, and after a second retaliation, she acknowledged her country’s wrongs by striking her colors to the gallant Jones.

The officers and seamen of our infant navy now felt the ardor of our forefathers.

Decatur, in the frigate United States, fell in with a vessel of equal force, the Macedonian, the pride of the British navy; and, after displaying the courage of injured Americans, he took and brought her into port.

The Constitution shortly after took her station alongside of the Java, a frigate completely fitted and manned with a superior number of seamen; and again did the god of battle decide in favor of the injured Americans, and sent the Java to the bottom. The tidings had scarcely reached the American shore, when another laurel was added to our infant navy; the United States ship Hornet engaged His Majesty’s ship Peacock, of equal force; and Capt. Lawrence, unwilling to make any distinction between her and the Java, sent her to the bottom, too.

This intelligence had scarcely reached the shores of liberty, when victories were proclaimed from all directions.

The British, feeling their pride wounded by the great exploits of our undaunted seamen, fitted out the Boxer, with the fullest assurance of recovering her lost honor, and were confident of taking our brig Enterprise, of much inferior force. But Divine Providence, ever extending the hand of assistance to the injured, decided the contest in favor of our insulted country; and the Boxer was captured and brought safe into port, in the United States.

Our next laurel was reaped on Lake Erie, by Commodore Perry. He bravely captured all the naval force on that lake, to the amazement of all surrounding nations, and the disgrace of the British flag.

Commodore Chauncey, at the same time, had a complete ascendency over the whole British force on Lake Ontario; while Commodore Rodgers is traversing the ocean in every direction, and destroying British property to an immense value. The United States ship Essex is complete master of all the South Seas, in defiance of all the boasted superiority of the British. The United States ship Congress is cruising on the coast of Brazil, and completely intercepting the trade of Great Britain to all Spanish South America, and defying any thing of equal size.

And now, fellow-citizens, this country, what has she done? She has long boasted of her honor and her bravery; and she has issued orders to her frigates, never to engage an American frigate unless under cover of a ship of the line. She has likewise endeavored to rouse the anger of the savage tribes in the wilderness of Canada, to murder and scalp your brethren in arms, in that country. But Divine Providence, still assisting your injured country, turned the ferocity of the savages against those who moved them to anger, and their vengeance recoiled on the hand that attempted to use it. And you, fellow-citizens, although prisoners of war, feel the benefit of belonging to so great and wise a nation. Have the United States not assisted us in our unhappy situation, and much meliorated our sufferings, though illy able while carrying on so expensive a war?

And now, fellow-citizens, I conjure you to be patient, and consider your country to be using her utmost endeavor to bring about an honorable and speedy peace. In a state of war, many stories are circulated in this country favorable to her success in arms, which have no foundation; and this is done to encourage and inspire the soldiery to enlist in her wars; and perhaps, fellow-citizens, many of you may honestly believe the reports, but let them not make you despair of your country. No, depend upon it, she cannot be conquered. England may get momentary possession of one small city, or perhaps ten, but America is not conquered till every man is either taken prisoner or killed.

The success of our naval arms is a sufficient proof, and our country is now in triumph at her great naval success. Have we not this moment, as it were, heard of another brilliant achievement upon the ocean? The United States ship Peacock, on her first cruise after she left the stocks, captured and brought into port His Majesty’s ship L’Epervier, of equal size, with immense sums of silver and much treasure on board?

From the success of American arms, which have already astonished our enemies, we have nothing to fear; and we have the greatest reason to believe that the American cause is big with the most wonderful achievements; that the exploits of our countrymen in arms, in the present contest, will astonish all nations, and be recorded on the pages of history, and remain in the choicest archives of posterity, with equal glory to those of Marathon and Thermopylæ.

Fellow-prisoners, let us then be resigned to our present unhappy condition; and through the great exertion of our country, and the assistance of Divine Providence, who disposes of events and governs futurity, we may hope once more to revisit our native country in an honorable peace, and live happy and free.

After the oration was delivered, the officers that were on the walls entered the prison yard, and expressed the greatest surprise that we should entertain a hope that the United States would be successful in a war with Great Britain, when she was at peace with all other nations. But for _consolation_ to us in our present condition, we might rest fully assured that we should be released in a very short time by a peace, which would be brought about by their conquering the United States, and reducing them to colonies again; and such a change, which must shortly take place, they said must be imputed entirely to the bad management of our President and Congress: we have now conquered France, and America must be conquered next. We found them ignorant of the strength and resources of the American people; we gave them a particular account of the situation of America, her means of defence, and the spirit and determination of the people; the great superiority of gunnery which the American seamen possessed over those of Great Britain; the truth of which was shown in the actions of the Guerriere, Frolic, Java, &c., &c.

They left the yard much chagrined at these facts, which they could not deny; and remarking that they were surprised to find sailors so well acquainted with the politics of both countries, but that they believed they must be most of them Englishmen born, and that it was a very great pity His Majesty should be deprived of so many valuable seamen.

At two o’clock we sat down to our fourth of July dinner, which was composed of soup and beef, the best we could prepare. We gathered in parties, with the greatest animation, conversing of our President and Congress, for whom we sailors have the greatest respect; and Mr. Madison, particularly, is a great favorite of sailors. After dinner we had a song, which was composed for the occasion.

The day was passed in the greatest harmony; no quarrel or strife occurred to mar its pleasure. The next day every man resumed his occupation, and seemed to enjoy a negative happiness, which arose from a freedom from absolute pain.

On the eighth of this month, a friend of mine, for whom I had much respect, died; and at his burial I took occasion to survey the vast tenements of the dead, and consider, within myself, what innumerable multitudes of people lay confused together on this moor; how friends and enemies, officers and soldiers, the brave and the coward, collected from all quarters of the globe, of all nations, and of all colors, lay undistinguished in one common mass of matter; and not a stone to name one tenant of the tomb.

After having surveyed this great magazine of mortality as it were, in the lump, out of respect to my friend, I searched about and obtained a very slaty stone, on which I inscribed the following words:

Here lies the body of

JAMES HART,

A native of the United States of

America,

_Who departed this life July 8th, 1814_.

Under which was the following epitaph:

Your country mourns your hapless fate; So mourn we prisoners all; You’ve paid the debt we all must pay, Each sailor, great and small.

Your body on this barren moor,-- Your soul in Heaven doth rest, Where Yankee sailors, one and all, Hereafter will be blest.

The agent permitted us to put this stone up, and of the many thousands that lay indiscriminately mingled together upon this moor, this stone recorded the only syllable of the dead buried here. The life of these men is finely described in Holy Writ by the path of an arrow, which is immediately closed up and lost.

We received our monthly pay as usual, and nothing remarkable occurred during the remainder of the month; few persons arrived, but we had expectation of a great number. The weather was rainy and cold; the prisoners generally healthy; few died, but the prison was very much crowded, there being 1,500 in No. 4.

At the commencement of August, a draft of prisoners arrived, who had been recently captured on the coast of Europe, among whom were four men lately belonging to the private armed schooner Surprise, of Baltimore; these four men, on their first arrival at this depot, were put into close confinement in the cachot, there to remain on two-thirds allowance, without hammock or bed, sleeping on the stone floor, during their whole imprisonment. When the cause of their confinement was known, it seems it had grown out of the following circumstances:

The Surprise was cruising in the channel of England, and fell in with, and captured, a schooner, and put on board her these four men, to take charge of the prize.

Shortly after, the prize was recaptured by an English frigate, and, after taking possession of her, found stowed away in the round-house (which is a few feet above the deck) a cask of powder, which contained but a few pounds at most, and on examination they found part of a match and a candle; the captain of the frigate, being suspicious of these four men’s having an intention to blow the vessel up, took them and committed them to close confinement until he arrived in England; he then reported them to the Board of Transport, and delivered them into their custody, and they, from these suspicious circumstances, sentenced them to the punishment above mentioned. Whether the crime, had it been well proved, would warrant so rigorous a punishment, is not the subject of investigation; they had the power to treat them as they pleased, nor had the sufferers any redress, for, _inter armis lages silent_, “the laws are silent amid arms.”

On the arrival of these prisoners, Capt. Shortland opened the south yard of the enclosure, and gave all the officers liberty to go into No. 6. A few days after, a _habeas corpus ad testificandum_ was awarded to bring forward six prisoners, to appear and give evidence in the cause of Thomas Hill, then depending at the next Exeter assizes, who was charged with manslaughter for killing James Henry on the third of July. The termination of the trial, I shall give in a subsequent page.

The prisoners having no expectation or hope of exchange, or a peace, now set about contriving a method of escape, something of which we hinted at in a preceding page. The plan was to dig out of prison No. 6. The plan was made known to the prisoners in No. 4, who were expecting to be removed into No. 6 in a few days, when they would have access to Nos. 5, 6, and 7, which were contained in one yard. To have the plan circulated with the greatest secrecy that would obtain the opinion of all the prisoners, without the suspicion of the guards or officers, it was thought best to have it done in poetry, and accordingly it was done in that manner. This attracted the attention of the prisoners, and we soon found the intention of each man to favor the plan.

On the fifteenth of August, the six men whom we mentioned in the preceding page, were taken to Exeter, returned, and with them Thomas Hill, who was acquitted by the jury, and he remanded to Dartmoor as a prisoner of war.

The same day arrived a large draft of prisoners, who had been sent from Halifax prison on board the transport ship Bensen. These persons, on their passage, attempted to rise and take the ship, in which attempt a sharp contest ensued, and the struggle was for some time doubtful, but the American prisoners were overpowered, and afterwards treated with the greatest severity and cruelty. In the engagement several on both sides were severely wounded, but none killed or mortally wounded. Some of the prisoners were taken out and put on board the ship Commodore, and the remainder confined in the coal-hole, and kept on bread and water for several days.

These prisoners were put into No. 6, which now made about eight hundred in that prison, and about twelve hundred in No. 4, who were not yet removed.

We finding our number increasing daily, and no prospect of peace or exchange, now determined to put in execution our projected plan of escape; every prisoner being willing, and not a dissenting voice among the whole, we mustered a number of bibles in each prison, and began to solemnly swear every man to keep secret every transaction he should see or know of concerning the operation then about to be begun; when a man was sworn, he was strictly cautioned and charged not to make known, by word or sign, in any way whatever, anything which might lead to a discovery of their design, on pain of immediate death in a private and secret manner, which would most assuredly take place without the knowledge of the keepers.

After they were all sworn, and the fixed determination of hanging the first informer, a number of confidential persons were appointed as spies, to watch the conduct of others. We also appointed other trusty men to watch the movements of the turnkeys and sentries, and see that the prisoners held no conversation with either of them. We then divided ourselves into parties to work, and who were alternately to dig and relieve each other.

After taking a correct survey of the ground, measuring and making it out, and taking the course, on the twentieth we made a beginning in both prisons, and dug directly down. In this perpendicular direction we must sink our work twenty feet, which would come on a horizontal plane with the road. On this horizontal plane we must then pursue the work, in an eastern direction, two hundred and fifty feet, which distance would carry us beyond the outer wall and under all the foundations which extended below the surface of the earth about six feet; if this work were performed we should then have a passage into the road. The digging could be carried on with very little difficulty: but the great obstacle before us was to convey away the dirt, and this, on a little consideration, seemed to vanish when we considered the stream of water in the yard, which passed under the prison at the rate of four miles an hour; into this stream we threw great quantities of fine dirt, which passed off. We, as another means to get clear of the dirt, obtained permission to bring into the prison a large quantity of lime, under the pretence of white-washing the walls of the prison.

These walls were made of large rough stone, and every night we made of the dirt a sort of morter, and plastered on the walls, and then white-washed it over.

No. 5 prison containing no prisoners, and not being visited by the keepers, we thought best to begin a similar operation in that prison, as we could pass and repass into it unknown to the keepers. In this we commenced digging in the day-time, and found a hollow place under the prison to stow the dirt away.

In these three different places we made our attacks, and very rightly supposing, that if one should be discovered, that we should still have another, which we could proceed in without suspicion; we were apprehensive that the run of water, which passed through an iron grating at the outlet, might get stopped with the dirt, and lead to a discovery. We hastened on the work, every man as busy as a bee, and flushed with the hope and full belief that we should shortly make our escape.

At the close of the month, we had dug toward the wall in a horizontal direction forty feet, without the least suspicion. As we entered so far under ground we found a want of fresh air, and to remedy this, we contrived a lamp to keep burning in the hole, that would expel all the axotic gas, or dead air, and bring in a constant supply of fresh.

I must digress for a moment, to give an account of some events which took place during this operation.

In the meanwhile a number of prisoners arrived; some from Chatham, some from the West Indies, and from other places. These, as soon as they arrived, were made acquainted with our design and operations, and sworn and charged as the others had been. Among these prisoners was the crew of the United States brig Frolic. These prisoners were destitute of clothing, and in a very bad state of health, which was occasioned by being so very closely confined during the passage, and their allowance so very short. During the month we had great quantities of rain, which was very favorable to our operations. The prisoners were now more healthy than they had been before since our confinement. Those who had been sick for some time died. Those who had been here a long time had become used to the hardships, but new comers were sickly.

On the last day of August, our subterraneous passage was sixty feet from No. 5, and about the same from No. 6, and No. 4 nearly equal. The dirt being very loose, and but few stones to obstruct our way, our passage seemed short, and promised success.

September having commenced, and no suspicion or discovery as yet made, although the prisons were searched every day by the keepers; but the holes being very small, and so nicely closed every day, that it would require the minutest search to discover the place; but the hole was larger under ground, and would admit four men to work abreast.

But, to our great mortification, on the second, Capt. Shortland entered the prison with the guards, and went directly towards the hole, and as he passed, he informed us that he knew of our operations in No. 5, but his informer had not told him correctly, for after a long search, they could not discover the hole.

It was then suggested by his attendants to sound the prison; they then began with crow-bars to sound, and after having made the minutest examination, by accident found the entrance, to the great mortification of every man.