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Book Cover
E-book
Author Burrows, Edwin G., 1943-2018

Title Forgotten patriots : the untold story of American prisoners during the Revolutionary War / Edwin G. Burrows
Published New York : Basic Books, ©2008

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 364 pages) : illustrations, maps, plan
Contents Brooklyn -- Destined to the cord -- The stool of repentance -- A cry of barbarity & cruelty -- Sweet liberty -- War ad terrorem -- The war of words -- Dead reckonings -- Forgotten patriots
Summary Between 1775 and 1783, some 200,000 Americans took up arms against the British Crown, and just over 6,800 died in battle. About 25,000 became prisoners of war, most of them confined in New York City under conditions so atrocious that they perished by the thousands. Evidence suggests that at least 17,500 Americans may have died in these prisons--more than twice the number to die on the battlefield. New York City was the principal base of the Crown's military operations. Beginning with the American captives taken during the 1776 invasion of New York, captured Americans were stuffed into a hastily assembled collection of public buildings, sugar houses, and prison ships. The prisoners were shockingly overcrowded and chronically underfed--those who escaped alive told of comrades so hungry they ate their own clothes and shoes. This book is the first-ever account of these hell-holes, a sobering commentary on how much we have forgotten about our struggle for independence
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 329-348) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Great Britain. Army -- Prisons -- History -- 18th century
SUBJECT Great Britain. Army. fast (OCoLC)fst00533555
Subject Prisoners of war -- United States -- History -- 18th century
Prisoners of war -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century
Military prisons -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 18th century
HISTORY.
Military prisons.
Prisoners of war.
Armed Forces -- Prisons.
SUBJECT United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Prisoners and prisons, British
New York (N.Y.) -- History, Military -- 18th century
Subject Great Britain.
New York (State) -- New York.
United States.
Genre/Form History.
Military history.
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780786727049
0786727047
9780465008353
0465008356
1283261405
9781283261401