No. XVII
We, the undersigned, being each severally sworn on the holy evangelists of Almighty God, for the investigation of the circumstances attending the late horrid massacre, and having heard the depositions of a great number of witnesses, from our own personal knowledge, and from the depositions given in as aforesaid,
REPORT AS FOLLOWS:
That on the 6th of April, about six o'clock in the evening, when the prisoners were all quiet in their respective yards, it being about the usual time of turning in for night, and the greater part of the prisoners being then in the prisons, the alarm bell was rung, and many of the prisoners ran up to the market square to learn the occasion of the alarm. There were then drawn up in the square several hundred soldiers, with Capt. Shortland (the agent) at their head; it was likewise observed at the same time, that additional numbers of soldiers were posting themselves on the walls round the prison yards. One of them observed to the prisoners, that they had better go into the prisons, for they would be charged upon directly. This, of course, occasioned considerable alarm among them. In this moment of uncertainty, they were running in different directions, enquiring the cause of the alarm; some toward their respective prisons, and some toward the market square. When about one hundred were collected in the square, Capt. Shortland ordered the soldiers to charge upon them, which order the soldiers were reluctant in obeying, as the prisoners were using no violence; but on the order being repeated, they made a charge, and the prisoners retreated out of the square, into their prison yards, and shut the gate after them. Capt. Shortland, himself, opened the gates, and ordered the soldiers to fire in among the prisoners, who were all retreating in different directions towards their respective prisons. It appears there was some hesitation in the minds of the officers, whether or not it was proper to fire upon the prisoners in that situation; on which Shortland seized a musket out of the hands of a soldier, which he fired. Immediately after the fire became general, and many of the prisoners were either killed or wounded. The remainder were endeavoring to get into the prisons; when going towards the lower doors, the soldiers on the walls commenced firing on them from that quarter, which killed some and wounded others. After much difficulty, (all the doors being closed in the entrance, but one in each prison) the survivors succeeded in gaining the prisons; immediately after which, parties of soldiers came to the doors of Nos. 8 and 4 prisons, and fired several vollies into them through the windows and doors, which killed one man in each prison, and severely wounded others.
It likewise appears, that the preceding butchery was followed up with a disposition of peculiar inveteracy and barbarity.
One man who was severely wounded in No. 7 prison yard, and being unable to make his way to the prison, was come up with by the soldiers, whom he implored for mercy, but in vain; five of the hardened wretches immediately levelled their pieces at him, and shot him dead on the spot. The soldiers who were on the walls, manifested equal cruelty, by keeping up a constant fire on every prisoner they could see in the yards endeavoring to get into the prisons, when their numbers were very few, and when not the least shadow of resistance could be made or expected. Several of them had got into No. 3 prison cook house, which was pointed out by the soldiers on the walls, to those who were marching in from the square. They immediately went up and fired into the same, which wounded several. One of the prisoners ran out, with the intention of gaining his prison, but was killed before he reached the door.
On an impartial consideration of all circumstances of the case, we are induced to believe that it was a premeditated scheme in the mind of Capt. Shortland, for reasons which we will now proceed to give.—As an illucidation of its origin, we will recur back to an event which happened some days previous. Captain Shortland was at the time, absent at Plymouth; but before going, he ordered the contractor, or his clerk, to serve out one pound of indifferent, hard bread, instead of one pound and a half of soft bread, their usual allowance. This the prisoners refused to receive. They waited all day in expectation of their usual allowance being served out; but at sun-set, finding this would not be the case, burst open the lower gates, and went up to the store, demanding to have their bread.
The officers of the garrison, on being alarmed, and informed of these proceedings, observed that it was no more than right the prisoners should have their usual allowance, and strongly reprobated Captain Shortland, in withholding it from them. They were accordingly served with their bread, and quietly returned to their prison. This circumstance, with the censures that were thrown on his conduct, reached the ears of Shortland, on his return home, and he must then have determined on the diabolical plan of seizing the first slight pretext to turn in the military, to butcher the prisoners for the gratification of his malice and revenge. It unfortunately happened, that in the afternoon of the 6th of April, some boys who were playing ball in No. 7 yard, knocked their ball over into the barrack yard, and on the sentry in that yard refusing to throw it back to them, they picked a hole in the wall, to get in after it.
This afforded Shortland his wished for pretext, and he took his measures accordingly. He had all the garrison drawn up in the military walk, additional numbers posted on the walls, and every thing prepared, before the alarm bell was rung; this he naturally concluded would draw the attention of a great number of prisoners towards the gates, to learn the cause of the alarm, while the turnkeys were dispatched into the yards to lock all the doors but one, of each prison, to prevent the prisoners retreating out of the way, before he had sufficiently wreaked his vengeance.
What adds peculiar weight to the belief of its being a premeditated, determined massacre, are,
First—The sanguinary disposition manifested on every occasion by Shortland, he having prior to this time, ordered the soldiers to fire into the prisons, through the prison windows, upon unarmed prisoners asleep in their hammocks, on account of a light being seen in the prisons; which barbarous act was repeated several nights successively. That murder was not then committed, was owing to an overruling Providence alone; for the balls were picked up in the prisons, where they passed through the hammocks of men then asleep in them. He having also ordered the soldiers to fire upon the prisoners in the yard of No. 7 prison, because they would not deliver up to him a man who had escaped from his cachot, which order the commanding officer of the soldiers refused to obey; and generally, he having seized on every slight pretext to injure the prisoners, by stopping their marketing for ten days repeatedly, and once, a third part of their provisions for the same length of time.
Secondly—He having been heard to say, when the boys had picked the hole in the wall, and some time before the alarm bell was rung, while all the prisoners were quiet as usual in their respective yards—"I'll fix the damn'd rascals directly."
Thirdly—His having all the soldiers on their posts, and the garrison fully prepared before the alarm bell rang. It could not then, of course, be rung to assemble the soldiers, but to alarm the prisoners, and create confusion among them.
Fourthly—The soldiers upon the wall, previous to the alarm bell being rung, informing the prisoners that they would be charged upon directly.
Fifthly—The turnkeys going into the yard and closing all the doors but one, in each prison, while the attention of the prisoners was attracted by the alarm bell. This was done about fifteen minutes sooner than usual, and without informing the prisoners it was time to shut up. It was ever the invariable practice of the turnkeys, from which they never deviated before that night, when coming into the yard to shut up, to halloo to the prisoners, so loud as to be heard throughout the yard, "turn in, turn in!" while on that night it was done so secretly, that not one man in a hundred knew they were shut; and in particular, their shutting the door of No. 7, prisoners usually go in and out at, and which was formerly always closed last, and leaving one open in the other end of the prison, which was exposed to a cross fire from the soldiers on the walls, and which the prisoners had to pass in gaining the prisons.
It appears to us that the foregoing reasons sufficiently warrant the conclusion we have drawn therefrom.
We likewise believe, from the depositions of men who were eye witnesses of a part of Shortland's conduct, on the evening of the 6th of April, that he was intoxicated with liquor at the time; from his brutality in beating a prisoner then supporting another severely wounded, from the blackguard and abusive language he made use of, and from his frequently having been seen in the same state. His being drunk was, of course, the means of inflaming his bitter enmity against the prisoners, and no doubt was the cause of the indiscriminate butchery, and of no quarter being given.
We here solemnly aver, that there was no pre-concerted plan to attempt a breaking out. There cannot be produced the least shadow of a reason or inducement for that intention, because the prisoners were daily expecting to be released, and to embark on board cartels for their native country. And we likewise solemnly assert, that there was no intention of resisting, in any manner, the authority of this depot.
N. B. Seven were killed, thirty dangerously wounded, and thirty slightly do. Total, sixty-seven killed and wounded.
| Signed, | Wm. B. Orne, | Wm. Hobart, | Committee. | ||
| James Boggs, | James Adams, | ||||
| J. F. Trowbridge, | Francis Joseph, | ||||
| John Rust, | Henry Allen, | ||||
| Walter Colton, | Thomas B. Mott, |