Customer Reviews

Forgotten Patriots: The Untold Story of American Prisoners During the Revolutionary War

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This is a book displaying the best in American historical scholarship! Frankly I have been put off lately by political tomes revising American history to support some agenda -- usually Marxist -- and "proving" that the United States is not the shining light among nations that so many of us believe it is. Yes, our history is studded with evil acts and misguided policies, but eventually the will of a free and democratic people re-asserts itself time and time again in the face of specious propaganda, feckless politicians, and unbridled greed. But I digress.... (I read another book touted by Eric Foner this week.)

Author Burrows deserves the highest praise for this book. Most often the Revolutionary War is dismissed as one with relatively few casualties since the "official" killed in action number is only 4,435, a number that woefully understates the sacrifice in the war. Burrows gives 6,824 based on recent scholarship, but that number still misses the some forty percent of the wounded that later died from their wounds. The official number for wounded is 6,188, but since the wounded to killed ratio was likely around five to one, the wounded was more likely 20,000 of whom probably 8,000 died of their wounds and were permanently lost to the Continental Army and patriot cause.

The author estimates that up to 32,000 American prisoners were held around New York at some point during the war of which up to 18,000 died in captivity. But those released or exchanged were greatly enfeebled and often died within a few months after release. Combining these estimates with those deaths in captivity elsewhere by the British and adding the deaths from sickness while in service estimated at 10,000, and one arrives at deaths from all causes to be over 40,000. Out of a white male population over sixteen estimated at 551,000 of which somewhat more than a third were patriots (say 200,000), then approximately one in five patriots gave his life for his country. Wow, and double wow!

If those numbers seem high, then read Burrow's book. In any case, rebellion was truly a serious business. Most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were improverished or worse as a result of their actions and the war, and the ordinary patriots also paid a very high price for independence. (I need not even think about the willingness of Americans today to make such sacrifices.) In my Great-great-great-grandfather's company that went with Arnold to Quebec in 1775, only 37% returned, and some of those were enfeebled for life (notably John Joseph Henry.)

Getting into the meat of the author's work, he focuses on the imprisonment of thousands of patriots in and around New York City, in the Sugar House on Manhattan, and in the prison hulks of the Royal Navy. He makes supurb use of contemporaneous sources and accounts, mostly highly credible and descriptive. These accounts have been submerged on purpose by politicians who sought a rapprochement with Great Britain and academic historians attempting to downplay the revolution and the sacrifice of patriots lest such knowledge enhance patriotism in a population they wish to move into a global community governed in a large part by foreigners and foreign interests.

Author Burrows makes use of many ancedotal accounts to illustrate the horrors of British captivity. The activities of David Sproat as commissary for naval prisoners comes in for particular condemnation, and although he favored treating prisoners especially brutally, most of the deaths under his watch were due to simple indifference to their plight. He did not even ease up on the prisoners after Yorktown.

The patriot efforts to bring relief to the captives were ineffective, too little and too late. In 1782, long after Yorktown, the British captured 57 men from the American privateer, "The Chance", and within weeks, "seventeen lay dead and three others were dying..." Of the twenty-five eventually released, one died immediately, and three others could not walk unaided. Even for the survivors, they faced a long and uncertain path to normalcy.

There is so much good in this book that I could write volumes just to make sure that everyone knows what seminal accounts are there. The author even refutes "Cunningham's Confession", proves the best rations the captives were alloted would reduce them to skeletons over time, and discusses events in the 20th century to downplay this story for political purposes. One is struck by the comparison between the Jersey or Good Hope and Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo Bay. Our wartime prisons today are accommodations in the Ritz Carleton in comparison with those experienced in the Revolutionary War yet ignite storms of protests and anti-American feeling. Obviously, we have short memories. They are jolted extremely well by author Burrows, and New York City should be ashamed of itself for forgetting its history.

Purchase and read this book!

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. Firstly let me say that it is well written and very readable. The chapter "Dead Reckoning" is well reasoned and very compelling- worth getting the book for that alone.

However my real issue is personal- I wanted a more comprehensive look at the POW issue. I realize that most of the POWs were in NY but this book really ONLY covers NY. It mentions the POW issue elsewhere but doesn't really cover them in any detail. Also, For a 250 pg book the final 2 chapters are on the historiography of POWs not about the actual POWs themselves.

His source criticism is great and as I said it was very readable. It was maybe a bit to narrative and anecdotal for my tastes. When I first read on a new aspect of the Revolution I just want a nice dry tome giving me all the facts in detail. I know that puts me in the minority.

Forgotten Patriots is not a mass market, popular history book and certainly not hard academic text. I'd call it an accessible almost scholarly narrative.

The last line was terrible and annoying and almost undid the prior 247 pgs. It was like what they tell you to do in a grammar school essay: relate your topic to the present. That alone is enough to cost in ½ star in my book. Combined with the narrative feature and scant coverage of non-NY POWs is what keeps this book from rising to the level of a being a 4-5 star book.

I'm only aware of one other book that's treated the issue of Patriot POWs -- "American Prisoners of the Revolution" by Danske Dandridge (1910). Dandridge's book is fine for a general audience, but it's somewhat sensationalistic and spends much time transcribing and summarizing primary narrative without adding critical analysis. A number of specific assertions have been disproven by later scholarship.

Burrows relies much more on reasoned discussion to cull through the lore, pointing out what could not, and what must, be true. He also supplies much-appreciated background discussion of relevant issues, when such wouldn't necessarily be otherwise understood by a general audience.

Considering that the prisoner issue was such a large portion of the total American sacrifice, it's a wonder that the issue has been left on the back burner for so long. As a descendant of a Continental officer who spent most of the war as a paroled POW on Long Island, it's an issue of particular interest for me.

I'll point out one fault: I believe that the Continental Army's failure to exchange its captured officers was less attributable to the reasons suggested by Burrows, and more to do with a problem universal to wars of all time -- a tendency to blame the vanquished. The few officers captured at Ft Washington (for example) who were quickly released or exchanged, largely found themselves frozen out of further assignments in the Continental Army. I believe the many who languished for years as POWs, did so as scapegoats for the defeats they suffered. I would have welcomed a discussion of this issue by Burrows.

I have had the pleasure of taking Professor Burrows classes at Brooklyn College so I went into this reading expecting not only his great story-telling but a book of thorough research and high calibre and I was not disappointed.

As a historian (and veteran) I had some knowledge of the subject but once I read this book I realized how much more there was to learn.

The treatment that our prisoners received was nothing short of attrocious--there truly are no words to describe it--and I am suprised that we don't make the British continue to pay for the atrocities. That aside, today's youth would learn a very valuable lesson about how prisoners are treated in comparison to the current Iraq/Afghanistan situation. It may make many people realized that we treat prisoners of war as if they are living in high-class hotels with every amenity.

Congratulations to Professor Burrows. Another great book.

Excellent, excellent, excellent. This will change the perception of the American Revolution for the uninitiated reader as well as opening the eyes of many a historian who delights in this war. While it does focus on prisoners kept in New York, this gets the pojnt across without pulling back to give the broader vista of all sites of American prisoners containment. Being a historian of the early Federal period, it seems that the NY prison ships and sugar houses left the greatest impact on short term American memory, and the book explains why that memory faded so quickly from there. This book, I feel, was well researched, certainly well written and presented, and aimed for the general reading public as all good history books should.

The audiobook version I also recommend, having just finished it. If you have any interest in the RevWar, this book will make it more personal than most tomes aimed for a higher peer group and is more serious than the light-hearted white-washing books available on the period. It will leave you with a greater sense of the motivation of those who served the American Cause of this war.

Whoa. When I started reading the first chapter of this book, I started crying for the following reasons: Reason one because I did not know the full story of the suffering of these brave patriots that gave their lives in a prison cell in the name of freedom and independence. Two, because I was ashamed at myself as an American for letting them lie forgotten and unwept in a unmarked grave. Many people are unaware of the fact that when they walk around New York City, they are walking around on what should be sacred ground. The other thing that made me think was the speculating of the human toll of the American Revolution, the thought that over 40, 000 Americans lost their lives in the American Revolution, and most of them in a prison cell; caught my heart. This book brings to life a ugly story that should be known, yet it is not known, and Edwin G. Burrows masterfully showed how and why people try to forget this horrendous crime against humanity. I know now why some historians and teachers want this story to be forgotten. It is because it is a story of ultimate patriotism. Pick up this book if you want to gain an understanding of the sacrifice that it took to earn our freedom, and to appreciate the freedom we have in America. It certainly did not come free.

This is an exceptionally researched book covering all aspects of POWs during the American War for Independence (AWI). While I was aware that many more people died as POWs during the AWI, I really had no foundation to the extent of the suffering or of the particulars. While it may sound like a morbid or depressing subject, the author makes it fascinating and quite readable. The only caveat I might have, is that a drill-down on this focused a subject is probably best for individuals who are serious AWI and/or history buffs. I could see how people with just a passing interest in history might be overwhelmed by the focus on a singular subject here, but for those with a thirst for knowledge of history, that narrow scope is EXACTLY what makes this a great read.

The Forgotten Patriots I believe was written at a time when America was being awakened to the horrible fact that American forces engaged in an unlawful war were torturing Afghan "terrorists" in CIA-controlled prisons. I truly wish to thank Doctor Burrows for his scholarly research into the plight of those Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice and who were considered traitors to the British Crown. I also beleive the underlying lesson of what goes around does come around is a very important theme our government officials can learn from.

This monograph was well researched and written for the most part until page 204 when the author tries to compare the total Revolution deaths and suffering with other conflicts and comes up with the astonishing claim that the Revolution caused more suffering proportionately than the Civil War. After citing the fact that Revolutionary military deaths were less proportionately than those in the Civil War (1.5% to 2.0%) he then launches into a nonsensical comparison of the two conflicts in terms of "suffering" in which he doesn't define his parameters. He includes the emigres from the Revolution in his comparison and adds this to the battle/prison deaths to get 3.6% and then concludes that the conflict "entailed proportionally more suffering than any other in its history." For any amateur or professional historian the alarm bells are ringing by this point in the narrative. Nowhere is there a citation or comparison of civilian casualties or "suffering" in the Civil War which was extensive throughout the South. We probably will never know how many civilans died or were forced from their homes during the Civil War, but historians can estimate and when those estimates are added to the Civil War military deaths they would surely overmatch the estimated numbers cited by Burrows. Burrows in general has a well-written narrative but he strays off message badly at a couple of points. (Allusions to Abu Grahib, Guantanomo in the preface are another example one could cite). One should always be careful as a historian in comparing different time periods and conflicts and I think Burrows could have used more care in his narrative. Overall I think the book is a serviceable study of an interesting subject. I would recommend it for the general public and possibly a graduate course for outside reading and review (but not for seminar discussion).

I rated this book with three stars because it was an unedited edition, this copy had a lot of spelling errors, no page numbers, no index, hard to understand some words, however, the story itself was very interesting, and had a lot of facts that are not widely known. The setting is in New York, New Jersey, and Philidephia.

I would recommend this book but in a better version.