No official Prisoner list for Georgia Prison ships are known to exist. So many individuals died, possibly an average of 4+- a day, that it is very difficult for us to get a clear picture of such a dismal picture. The lack of records on the British part might have even been intentional or not considered necessary. Even though, after viewing some records, like the Georgia Governor and Council Journals of 1778-1779, I now believe that a reasonable list can be built from the scraps of notes that do exist. This covers a fair number of the prisoners from the early months of the British Invasion. I feel at the very least we can rebuild the list from Brier Creek to be almost 50-60% complete. For all the Ga. prison ships we might get near 60-70% complied. This will take some dedicated work. Pension statements can help as well as such things as a trial of one of the doctors on the prison ship, accused of adding ground glass to the medicines meant to be taken by American prisoners. Many good names are mentioned. Some captured American soldiers were coerced to serve for with British Provincial regiments after almost being starved and near dead. Looking at the % of Americans that switched sides could also help us understand some of the dynamics of this subject. An entire list 100 prisoners captured at Ft. Morris exist ---so this helps. Medical records might also be available from the British side not found or examined as of yet. A British master list might one day be found but it is look less likely.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Jun 2013 21:41:37 +0000
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