Forgotten Patriots: The Untold Story of American Prisoners During the Revolutionary War
Basic Books, 2008. First edition. Hardcover. Fine in fine dust jacket. First edition, first printing. Hardcover. 364 pp. with bibliography, index. During the Revolutionary War, some 200,000 Americans took up arms against the British Crown; just over 6,800 of those men died in battle but more than four times that number---as many as 32,000 soldiers, seamen and civilians---became prisoners of war. As the principal base of Britain's military operations, New York City became the jailhouse of the American Revolution. This work tells the story of the American captives stuffed into a hasty assemblage of public buildings, sugar houses, and priosn ships where the priosners were shockingly overcrowded and underfed---some so hungry they ate their own clothes and shoes. The POWs perished by the thousands. Pulitzer prize-winning author Edwin Burrowsshows that as many as 18,000 Americans may have died as prisoners, the vast majority in New York. Fine / fine. Item #E31397
ISBN: 9780465008353
Price: $23.50