eight, a lieutenant-colonel to seventy-two, a colonel to one hundred, a brigadier-general to two hundred, a major-general to three hundred and seventy-two, a lieutenant-general to a thousand and fortyfour, an adjutant and quartermaster to six, each, a surgeon to six, a surgeon's mate to four, a surgeon of hospitals to sixteen, deputies and assistants to six, each, and all other officers in proportion, to be regulated by their rank in the line. From September 15, 1776, to November 25, 1783, nearly the entire period of the revolutionary war, New York remained in the hands of the British, and was made the head-quarters of the foulest tyranny over helpless prisoners ever known in the darkest ages of the world. The bastiles of Europe never furnished such a picture. Jerusalem within, besieged by the Romans without, never felt the horrors of the New York prisons; the fear of which stimulated the American nerve to fight with desperation, and die, if he could, rather than be doomed to this awful incarceration. The bones of the martyrs washed, naked and exposed, on the shores of the Wallabout, brought forth fruit unto liberty and constituted a prominent pillar in the glorious fabric of American freedom. These bones inspired the living patriot. Let a monument over them be erected to the skies! "The new jail," says Mr. Lossing in his Field Book, "was made a provost prison, where American officers, and the most eminent whigs, who fell into the hands of the British, were confined. Here was the theatre of Cunningham's brutal conduct towards the victims of his spite. The prisoners were formally introduced to him, and their name, age, size, and rank, were recorded. They were then confined in the gloomy cells, or to the equally loathsome upper chamber, where the highest officials in captivity were so closely crowded together, that when, at night, they laid down to sleep on the hard plank floor, they could change position only by all turning over at once, at the words, right-left. Their food was scanty and of the poorest kind, often that which Cunningham had exchanged at a profit for better food received from their friends or the commissariat. Little delicacies, brought by friends of the captives. seldom reached them; and the brutal Cunningham would some times devour or destroy such offerings of affection in the presence of his victims, to gratify his cruel propensities. "Thus for many months gentlemen of fortune and education, who had lived in the enjoyment of the luxuries and refined pleasures of elegant social life, were doomed to a miserable existence, embittered by the coarse insults of an ignorant, drunken Irish master. "The prison-ships were intended for seamen taken on the ocean, yet some soldiers were confined in them. These lay in Gravesend Bay, and there many of the prisoners taken in the battle near Brooklyn were confined until the British took possession of New York, when they were removed to prisons in the city. In 1778 the hulks of decaying ships were moored in the Wallabout, a sheltered bay on Long Island shore, where the present Navy-yard is. There, in succession, the Whitby, Good Hope, Scorpion, Prince of Wales, Falmouth, Hunter, Stromboli, and half a dozen of less note were moored, and contained hundreds of American seamen captured on the high seas. The sufferings of these captives were intense, and at the close of 1779 they set fire to two of them, hoping to secure either liberty or death. "In 1780 the Jersey was placed in the Wallabout, and used as a prison-ship till the close of the war, when she was left to decay on the spot where her victims suffered. "The name and character of each prisoner were registered when he first came on board. He was then placed in the hold, frequently with a thousand others, a large portion of them covered with filthy ags, often swarming with vermin. Every morning the prisoners brought up their bedding to be aired, and, after washing the decks, they were allowed to remain above till sunset, when they were ordered below with imprecations, and the savage cry, 'Down, rebels, down! The hatches were then closed, and in serried ranks they lay down to sleep, if possible, in the putrid air and stifling heat, amid the sighs of the acutely distressed and the groans of the dying. Each morning the harsh order came below, 'Rebels, turn out your dead.' The dead were selected from the living; each sewed in his blanket, if he had one, and thus conveyed in a boat to the shore by his companions, under guard, and hastily buried. "So shallow were the graves of the dead on the shores of the Wallabout, that while the ships were yet sending forth their victims, the action of the waves and the drifting of the loose sand often exposed the bones of those previously buried. Year after year this revolting exhibition might be seen, and yet no steps were taken to preserve the remains of the martyred patriots until 1803, when Samuel L. Mitchell presented a memorial to Congress, in behalf of the Tammany Society of New York, soliciting a tomb for the martyrs. The prayer of the petitioners was not granted, and no further legislative action was had." At the second session of the twenty-seventh Congress, in 1842, as shown by Report No. 1026, the Common Council of the city of Brooklyn again took this subject in hand, and petitioned the National Legislature to bury, and erect a monument over, the bones of the revolutionary patriots who perished in the British prisons and prison-ships in New York. The bones are now deposited in the ground owned in 1842 by Benjamin Romaine, Esq., on Long Island. The committee of Congress to whom this petition was referred, made an adverse report, for fear of establishing a precedent for other similar petitions! Will not this rich, powerful, and independent nation, even at the sacrifice of her last dollar, reconsider the matter, grant the petition, and erect the monument? The imprisoned, emaciated, and dying patriots, in the dark hours of 1780, when nearly all hope of independence had fled forever, and when the deserter, tory, and traitor stalked over the land in fearful combination, reached forth their skeleton hands, wrote, and bequeathed this task to their countrymen in their dying hours: "If you are victorious, and our country emerges free and independent from the contest in which she is now engaged, but the end of which we are not permitted to see, bury us in her soil, and engrave our names on the monument you shall erect over our bones, as victims who willingly surrendered their lives as a portion of the price paid for your liberties, and our departed spirits will never murmur, or regret the sacrifice we made to obtain for you the blessings you enjoy." The following is a List of the Principal American Commissaries of Prisoners, with a List of Captured and Imprisoned Officers. ELIAS BOUDINOT, Commissary-general of Prisoners, appointed in 1776. JOHN BEATTY, Commissary-general of Prisoners. JOHN BROOKS, Assist. Com. of Issues. THOMAS BRADFORD, Com. of Prisoners. LEWIS PINTARD, Agent for the prisoners at New York. CHARLES LEE, MAJOR-GENERAL, Second in command to the Commander-in-Chief, was captured at Baskinridge, N. J., in December, 1776, by Colonel Harcourt, of the British dragoons. A tory had visited the quarters of General Lee, to complain of the loss of a horse taken by his army, and on learning the whereabouts of the particular quarters of General Lee, the tory rode eighteen miles in the night to inform the British. Lee's quarters were three miles from the encampment of his army. At the time of his capture his guards had stacked arms, and were sunning themselves by the south side of the house, when the British dragoons galloped up, scattered the guards, took Lee, without hat, and in his slippers and blanket-coat, and triumphantly clattering off to the British camp at Brunswick, delivered up their queer-looking specimen of a prisoner. He was exchanged for General Prescott, on the 6th of May, 1778. MAJ. GEN. LORD STIRLING Was taken prisoner at the battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776, by the Hessians, under General De Heister, and was confined on board the British ship “Eagle” for about one month, when he was exchanged for Governor Brown, of Providence Island, who had been captured by Commodore Hopkins. MAJ. GEN. JOHN SULLIVAN Was also captured at the battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776, by the Hessians, under the immediate command of Count Donop, and confined in the "Eagle," with Lord Stirling; but was paroled by Lord Howe, and sent by him to the Continental Congress with a verbal message, desiring a conference with a committee of that body. He remained a prisoner on parole for about three months, and was exchanged for General Prescott. MAJ. GEN. BENJAMIN LINCOLN Surrendered himself a prisoner of war to Sir Henry Clinton, at the fall of Charleston, May 12, 1780. He remained a prisoner on parole until November of the same year, when he was exchanged, and in the spring of 1781 joined General Washington. MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM MOULTRIE Was the second in command at the siege and fall of Charleston. He was, with General Lincoln, taken prisoner May 12, 1780, at the surrender of Charleston. He remained a prisoner on parole for about eighteen months, and returned to Charleston in 1782. COL. ETHAN ALLEN Was captured in his attack on Montreal, Sept. 25, 1775, and carried to General Prescott, the commandant of the British post at that place. General Prescott asked him if he was that same Allen who captured Ticonderoga. On being told he was the very man, Prescott shook his cane over his head, put himself in a great rage, called him a rebel, and threatened his neck with a halter. He was exchanged May 6, 1778, as before observed. BRIG. GEN. JAMES IRVINE, Of the Pennsylvania militia, was captured in his attack on the British camp on Chestnut-Hill, near White Marsh, on the 5th of December, 1777. After a short skirmish, all his men fled, and left him wounded on the field. General Irvine was sent to Philadel |