It requires no great sagacity
to know that crowding people together without fresh air, and feeding,
or rather starving them in such a manner as the prisoners have been,
must unavoidably produce a contagion. Nor is it a want of candor to
suppose that many of our enemies saw with pleasure this contagion,
which might have been so easily prevented, among the prisoners who
could not be persuaded to enter the service."
THE CASE OF CAPTAIN BIRDSALL
Soon after the battle of Long Island Captain Birdsall, a Whig officer,
made a successful attempt to release an American vessel laden with
flour for the army, which had been captured in the Sound by the
British. Captain Birdsall offered, if the undertaking was approved of
by his superior officer, to superintend the enterprise himself. The
proposal was accepted, when Birdsall, with a few picked men, made the
experiment, and succeeded in sending the vessel to her original
destination. But he and one of his men fell into the hands of the
enemy. He was sent to the Provost Jail under surveillance of "that
monster in human shape, the infamous Cunningham." He requested the use
of pen, ink, and paper, for the purpose of acquainting his family of
his situation. On being refused he made a reply which drew from the
keeper some opprobious epithets, accompanied by a thrust from his
sword, which penetrated the shoulder of his victim, and caused the
blood to flow freely.
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