American Prisoners of the Revolution | Page 9

and almost illegible in
places, is headed, "An ABSTRACT of the Pay due the Officers and
Privates of the Company of Riflemen belonging to Captain Abraham
Shepherd, being part of a Battalion raised by Colonel Hugh Stevenson,
deceased, and afterwards commanded by Lieut Colonel Moses
Rawlings, in the Continental Service from July 1st, 1776, to October
1st, 1778." The paper gives the dates of enlistment; those who were
killed; those who died; those who deserted; those who were discharged;
drafted; made prisoners; "dates until when pay is charged;" "pay per
month;" "amount in Dollars," and "amount in lawful Money, Pounds,
Shillings and pence." From this account much information can be
gleaned concerning the members of the company, but we will, for the
present, content ourselves with giving the muster roll of the company.
MUSTER ROLL OF CAPTAIN ABRAHAM SHEPHERD'S
COMPANY OF RIFLEMEN RAISED IN JULY, 1776

Captain Abraham Shepherd. First Lieutenant, Samuel Finley. Second
Lieutenant, William Kelly. Third Lieutenant, Henry Bedinger. First
Sergeant, John Crawford. Second Sergeant, John Kerney. Third
Sergeant, Robert Howard. Fourth Sergeant, Dennis Bush. First
Corporal, John Seaburn. Second Corporal, Evert Hoglant. Third
Corporal, Thomas Knox. Fourth Corporal, Jonathan Gibbons.
Drummer, Stephen Vardine. Fifer, Thomas Cook. Armourer, James
Roberts.
Privates, William Anderson, Jacob Wine, Richard Neal, Peter Hill,
William Waller, Adam Sheetz, James Hamilton, George Taylor, Adam
Rider, Patrick Vaughan, Peter Hanes, John Malcher, Peter Snyder,
Daniel Bedinger, John Barger, William Hickman, Thomas Pollock,
Bryan Timmons, Thomas Mitchell, Conrad Rush, David Harman,
James Aitken, William Wilson, John Wilson, Moses McComesky,
Thomas Beatty, John Gray, Valentine Fritz, Zechariah Bull, William
Moredock, Charles Collins, Samuel Davis, Conrad Cabbage, John
Cummins, Gabriel Stevens, Michael Wolf, John Lewis, William
Donnelly, David Gilmore, John Cassody, Samuel Blount, Peter Good,
George Helm, William Bogle (or Boyle), John Nixon, Anthony
Blackhead, Christian Peninger, Charles Jones, William Case, Casper
Myre, George Brown, Benjamin McKnight, Anthony Larkin, William
Seaman, Charles Snowden, John Boulden, John Blake, Nicholas
Russell, Benjamin Hughes, James Brown, James Fox, William Hicks,
Patrick Connell, John Holmes, John McSwaine, James Griffith, Patrick
Murphy, James Aitken.
Besides the names of this company we can give a few privates of the
Pennsylvania Flying Camp who are mentioned by Saffel. He adds that,
as far as is known, all of these perished in prison, after inscribing their
names high up upon the walls.
SOME PRIVATES OF THE PENNSYLVANIA FLYING CAMP
WHO PERISHED IN PRISON IN 1776-7
"Charles Fleming, John Wright, James McKinney, Ebenezer Stille,
Jacob Leinhart, Abraham Van Gordon, Peter D'Aubert, William
Carbury, John McDowell, Wm. McKague, Henry Parker, James Burns,

Henry Yepler, Baltus Weigh, Charles Beason, Leonard Huber, John
McCarroll, Jacob Guiger, John May, Daniel Adams, George
McCormick, Jacob Kettle, Jacob Miller, George Mason, James
Kearney, David Sutor, Adam Bridel, Christian Mull, Daniel McKnight,
Cornelius Westbrook, Luke Murphy, Joseph Conklin, Adam Dennis,
Edward Ogden, Wm. Scoonover, James Rosencrants."
The names of the officers who were prisoners in New York after the
battle of Long Island and the surrender of Fort Washington, can easily
be obtained. But it is not with these, at present, that we have to do. We
have already seen how much better was their treatment than that
accorded to the hapless privates. It is chiefly to commemmorate the
sufferings of the private soldier and seaman in the British prisons that
this account has been written.

CHAPTER IV
THE PRISONS OF NEW YORK--JONATHAN GILLETT
We will now endeavor to describe the principal places of confinement
used by the British in New York during the early years of the war.
Lossing, in his Field Book of the Revolution, thus speaks of these dens
of misery: "At the fight around Fort Washington," he says, "only one
hundred Americans were killed, while the British loss was one
thousand, chiefly Hessians, But the British took a most cruel revenge.
Out of over 2600 prisoners taken on that day, in two months & four
days 1900 were killed in the infamous sugar houses and other prisons
in the city.
"Association of intense horror are linked with the records of the prisons
and prison ships of New York. Thousands of captives perished
miserably of hunger, cold, infection, and in some cases, actual poison.
"All the prisoners taken in the battle near Brooklyn in August, 1776
and at Fort Washington in November of the same year, were confined
in New York, nearly 4000 in all. The New Jail and the New Bridewell

were the only prisons. The former is the present Hall of Records. Three
sugar houses, some dissenting churches, Columbia College, and the
Hospital were all used as prisons. The great fire in September; the
scarcity of provisions; and the cruel conduct of the Provost Marshal all
combined to produce intense sufferings among the men, most of whom
entered into captivity, strong, healthy, young, able-bodied, the flower
of the American youth of