Ensign
Jacob Barnitz was wounded in both legs at the battle of Fort
Washington. He was conveyed to New York and there thrown into the
Sugar House, and suffered to lie on the damp ground. A kind friend had
him conveyed to more comfortable quarters. Barnitz came from York, or
Lancaster, Pa.
Little John Pennell was a cabin boy, bound to Captain White of the
sloop of war, Nancy, in 1776. He testified that the prisoners of the
Sugar House, which was very damp, were buried on the hill called "The
Holy Ground." "I saw where they were buried. The graves were long and
six feet wide. Five or six were buried in one grave." It was Trinity
Church ground.
We will now give an account of Levi Hanford, who was imprisoned in the
Sugar House in 1777. Levi Hanford was a son of Levi Hanford, and was
born in Connecticut, in the town of Norwalk, on the 19th of Feb.,
1759. In 1775 he enlisted in a militia company. In 1776 he was in
service in New York. In March 1777, being then a member of a company
commanded by Captain Seth Seymour, he was captured with twelve others
under Lieut. J. B. Eels, at the "Old Well" in South Norwalk,
Conn. While a prisoner in the Old Sugar House he sent the following
letter to his father. A friend wrote the first part for him, and he
appears to have finished it in his own handwriting.
New York June 7. 1777
Loving Father:--
I take the opportunity to let you know I am alive, and in reasonable
health, since I had the small-pox.
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