Notes

Microfiche of original published: New York : Privately reprinted, 1865. 246 p.

Title of original publication: An account of the interment of the remains of 11,500 American seamen, soldiers and citizens who fell victims to the cruelties of the British, on board their prison ships at the Wallabout, during the American Revolution, with a particular description of the grand & solemn funeral procession, which took place on the 26 May, 1808. and an oration, delivered at the tomb of the patriots / by Benjamin De Witt / compiled by the Wallabout Committee.

"Suffice it to state merely, that during the Revolution, the British had stationed at the Wallabout, Long Island, nearly opposite the city of New York, a number of Prison Ships, on board of which it was the fate of those Americans, who had become prisoners of war, to be placed. The principal of these were the Jersey, the remains of whose hulk are still to be seen on the Long Island shore; the John, the Scorpion, the Strombolo, and the Hunter. From these floating dungeons, the hearts of whose keepers must indeed have delighted in the 'luxury of woe,' the bodies of our countrymen, having gone through the preparatory stages of suffering and death, were taken on shore at the Wallabout, and thrown scarcely beneath the surface"--Page 5.