The prisoners were now marched within six miles of New York
and Graydon's party of officers were well quartered in a
house. "Here," he continues, "for the first time we drew provisions
for the famished soldiers. * * * Previously to entering the city we
were drawn up for about an hour on the high ground near the East
River. Here, the officers being separated from the men, we were
conducted into a church, where we signed a parole."
At this place a non-commissioned British officer, who had seen him at
the ordinary kept by his widowed mother in Philadelphia, when he was a
boy, insisted on giving him a dollar.
"Quarters were assigned for us in the upper part of the town, in what
was called 'The holy ground.' * * * I ventured to take board at four
dollars per week with a Mrs. Carroll. * * * Colonel Magaw, Major West,
and others, boarded with me."
He was fortunate in obtaining his trunk and mattress. Speaking of the
prisons in which the privates were confined he says: "I once and once
only ventured to penetrate into these abodes of human misery and
despair. But to what purpose repeat my visit, when I had neither
relief to administer nor comfort to bestow? * * * I endeavoured to
comfort them with the hope of exchange, but humanity forbade me to
counsel them to rush on sure destruction. * * * Our own condition was
a paradise to theirs.
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