Could these dumb walls
speak what scenes of anguish might they not disclose!
"Cunningham and his deputy were enabled to fare sumptuously by dint of
curtailing the prisoners' rations, selling good for bad provisions,
etc., in order to provide for the drunken orgies that usually
terminated his dinners. Cunningham would order the rebel prisoners to
turn out and parade for the amusement of his guests, pointing them out
with such characterizations as 'This is the d----d rebel, Ethan
Allen. This is a rebel judge, etc.'"
Cunningham destroyed Nathan Hale's last letters containing messages to
his loved ones, in order, as he said, that "the rebels should not know
that they had a man in their army who could die with such firmness."
From Elias Boudinot's "Journal of Events" during the Revolution we
extract the following account of his interview with Cunningham in New
York. "In the spring of 1777 General Washington wrote me a letter
requesting me to accept of a Commission as Commissary General of
Prisoners in the Army of America. I waited on him and politely
declined the task, urging the wants of the Prisoners and having
nothing to supply them."
Washington, however, urged him not to refuse, saying that if no one in
whom he could trust would accept the office, the lot of the prisoners
would be doubly hard. At last Boudinot consented to fill the position
as best he could, and Washington declared that he should be supplied
with funds by the Secret Committee of Congress.
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