Even this was denied."
The young rifleman died in the dark.
"Now," said his brother, drying his tears, "if it please God that I
ever regain my liberty, I'll be a most bitter enemy!"
He was exchanged, rejoined the army, and when the war ended he is said
to have had eight large and one hundred and twenty-seven small notches
on his rifle stock. The inference is that he made a notch every time
he killed or wounded a British soldier, a large notch for an officer,
and a small one for a private.
Mr. Lecky, the English historian, thus speaks of American prisoners:
"The American prisoners who had been confined in New York after the
battle of Long Island were so emaciated and broken down by scandalous
neglect or ill usage that Washington refused to receive them in
exchange for an equal number of healthy British and Hessian troops. *
* * It is but justice to the Americans to add that their conduct
during the war appears to have been almost uniformly humane. No
charges of neglect of prisoners, like those which were brought,
apparently with too good reason, against the English, were
substantiated against them. The conduct of Washington was marked by a
careful and steady humanity, and Franklin, also, appears to have done
much to mitigate the war."
Our task is now concluded. We have concerned ourselves with the
prisoners themselves, not much with the history of the negotiations
carried on to effect exchange, but have left this part of the subject
to some abler hand.
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