A Christmas reminder : being the names of about eight thousand persons, a small portion of the number confined on board the British prison ships during the war of the Revolution
Autographed by the author after his presentation of 25 September 2014.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents
Prologue : a community at war -- "A colony of aliens" : diversity, politics, and war in pre-revolutionary Lancaster, Pennsylvania -- "Divided we must inevitably fall" : war comes to Lancaster -- "A dangerous set of people" : British captives and the making of revolutionary identity -- "'Tis Britain alone that is our enemy" : German captives and the making of American identity -- "Enemies of our peace" : captives, the disaffected, and the refinement of American patriotism -- "The country is full of prisoners of war" : nationalism, resistance, and assimilation -- Epilogue : the empty barracks.
Summary
"As the Americans' principal site for incarcerating enemy prisoners of war, Lancaster stood at the nexus of two vastly different revolutionary worlds: one national, the other intensely local. Captives came under the control of local officials loosely supervised by state and national authorities. Concentrating the prisoners in the heart of their communities brought the revolutionaries' enemies to their doorstep, with residents now facing a daily war at home.Many prisoners openly defied their hosts, fleeing, plotting, and rebelling, often with the clandestine support of local loyalists... The challenge of creating an autonomous national identity in the newly emerging United States was nowhere more evident than in Lancaster, where the establishment of a detention camp served as a flashpoint for new conflict in a community already unsettled by stark ethnic, linguistic, and religious differences. Many Lancaster residents soon sympathized with the Hessians detained in their town while the loyalist population considered the British detainees to be the true patriots of the war. Miller demonstrates that in Lancaster, the notably local character of the war reinforced not only preoccupations with internal security but also novel commitments to cause and country." [from Amazon.com]
Introduction -- Background -- Captured at Trenton -- Imprisonment of the Hessians -- Employment of the prisoners -- Inducements to remain in America -- Location of employment sites -- Hessian prisoners associated with the Cornwall Iron Furnace -- The list of prisoners -- The list of employers -- Summary -- Prisoners belived to have stayed in America -- Endnotes -- Notes on prisoner documentation.
This essay provides contextual information concerning how the English actually hired the soldiers and why the German princes, and not other nations who were asked, were willing to sell their men to English. It also discusses how the English and German public reacted to the hiring of German soldiers.
"Reprinted from Notes and queries, Harrisburg daily telegraph."
"Rolls of prisoners": p. 14-20.
Bound with other pamphlets by the author: The Catholic Church at Lancaster, Penn'a (1894, 52 p.) -- Historical sketch of the ancient parish of St. Mary's, Lancaster, Pa. (n. d., 12 p) -- Additional historical notes in reference to St. Mary's at Lancaster (n. d., 5 p.) -- Some Lancaster Catholics, adn other historical notes (n.d ., 6 p.) -- Very Rev. Bernard Keenan, V. G. Sketch of one of the pioneer priest's [sic] of Pennsylvania (n. d. 10 p.) -- The Acadians in Lancaster County, Paper read before Lancaster County Historical Society, September 4, 1896 (1896, 8 p.) -- Simon S. Rathvon, Ph.D: Lancaster's oldest living devotee of science (n. d. 8 p.) -- Old time heroes of the War of the Revolution and War of 182-14 (1895, 11 p.) -- The Lancaster barracks where the British and Hesian prisoners were detained during the Revolution (1895, 20 p.
Johannes Schwalm the Hessian is a jouranl published by the Johannes Schwalm Historical Association.
Summary
The article discusses American privateers during the American Revolution and how a Letter of Marque was used to attack and plunder British ships. He writes specifically of those who worked out of Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey. There is also discussion of soldiers and passengers being detained or traded.
