Tag: Jersey prison ship

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What Killed Prisoners of War?—A Medical Investigation

Editor’s Note: This article contains graphic medical descriptions. Throughout the Revolutionary War, prisoners learned that dysentery accompanied starvation. Confined to the prison ship Jersey in 1781, Christopher Hawkins described rations “not sufficient to satisfy the calls of hunger.” In the next two sentences, Hawkins mentioned that “the bloody flux or dyssenterry” prevailed on the Jersey, from […]

by Brian Patrick O'Malley
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James McCubbin Lingan, an American Story

Of the thousands of men and women who contributed to the Patriot cause during the American Revolution, James McCubbin Lingan (1751–1812) stands out with an important story to tell.[1] A recent visit to Washington D.C. included a leisurely walk through Arlington National Cemetery. As one reads the many monuments honoring military personnel resting in Arlington’s historic […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
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This Week on Dispatches: Katie Turner Getty and the Notorious Prison Ship Jersey

In this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor and editorial board member Katie Turner Getty about a dark side of the American Revolution, the notorious prison hulk, HMS Jersey. Thousands of American prisoners—some as young as twelve—died daily aboard British prison ships, mostly from disease. Fortunately for historians, a number of survivors wrote […]

by Editors
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Death Had Almost Lost Its Sting: Disease on the Prison Ship Jersey

“There, rebels, there is a cage for you.”[1] Forced to row under guard of British marines, a boatload of captured American sailors approached the forbidding black hulk of the old British warship, HMS Jersey. Nicknamed “The Hell Afloat,”[2] the Jersey and other decommissioned British warships were moored in Wallabout Bay, just off Brooklyn, New York, where […]

by Katie Turner Getty
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10 Facts About Prisoners of War

Co-authored with Don N. Hagist An inevitable facet of warfare is prisoners. During the American Revolution, thousands of soldiers and sailors were captured by each side and the prisoners suffered in many ways. The impact of these captures extended far beyond immediate manpower concerns, compelling each side to confront unwanted, huge logistical considerations concerning their […]

by Gary Shattuck