[PDF] The American Cruisers Own Book Illus By Billings eBook

Author : George Little
Publisher : Theclassics.Us
Page : 84 pages
File Size : 32,73 MB
Release : 2013-09
Category :
ISBN : 9781230466934

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1851 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter xxxvii. the massacre--boatswain'S leg shot off. It now becomes the painful duty of the writer of these pages to record that which he would have wiL lmgly been spared, and which calls up associations of the most melancholy nature. The many who have read the history of those times, know there was a massacre of the American prisoners in confinement at Dartmoor; but beyond this, little is known; all is in apparent darkness, without the seeming possibility of the circumstances attending this fatal event, being ever cleared of the obscurity with which they are so mysteriously enshrouded; or, that a full and satisfactory explanation can be given to the public, why these captive Americana were murdered in cold blood. If it is asked why the prisoners at Dartmoor were fired upon? the common answer is, "They were digging out," and the garrison were forced to fire upon them, being justified for the measure by military usage. In my endeavors to bring this horrible aiFair before the reader, let it not be sup posed that I shall entirely clear up that mystery after thirty years. It is presumed that at the time the investigation was going on, and the inquiries were making, 370 from the military platform, facing prison-yard No. 7, too little credit was given to what the prisoners said in evidence. It is a fact that cannot be contradicted, the' strongest testimony which could be brought forward by the aggrieved, met with as little respect as circumstantial evidence, and far less than the hap-hazard assertions from the side of the aggressors. The prisoners were looked upon, not only by the British officers who were carrying on the investigation, but (with a single exception, ) by those who, if possessing any national feelings in common with their...