Moses McComesky did not desert until the 14th of June,
1777. Anthony Blackhead deserted November 15th, 1776, the day before
the battle was fought; Anthony Larkin, September 15th, 1776. We cannot
tell what became of any of these men. Those who died of the prisoners
are no less than fifty-two in this one company of seventy-nine
privates and non-commissioned officers. This may and probably does
include a few who lived to be exchanged. The date of death of each man
is given, but not the place in which he died.
A very singular fact about this record is that no less than
_seventeen_ of the prisoners of this company died on the same
day, which was the fifteenth of February, 1777. Why this was so we
cannot tell. We can only leave the cause of their death to the
imagination of our readers. Whether they were poisoned by wholesale;
whether they were murdered in attempting to escape; whether the night
being extraordinarily severe, they froze to death; whether they were
butchered by British bayonets, we are totally unable to tell. The
record gives their names and the date of death and says that all
seventeen were prisoners. That is all.
The names of these men are Jacob Wine, William Waller, Peter Snyder,
Conrad Rush, David Harmon, William Moredock, William Wilson, James
Wilson, Thomas Beatty, Samuel Davis, John Cassody, Peter Good, John
Nixon, Christopher Peninger, Benjamin McKnight, John McSwaine, James
Griffith, and Patrick Murphy.
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