said to
be confined, officers and men, in prison-ships which, from their
loathsome condition and the horrors and sufferings of all kinds
experienced on board of them, had acquired the appellation of
_floating hells_. Those who had been in the land service were crowded
into jails and dungeons like the vilest malefactors; and were
represented as pining in cold, in filth, in hunger and nakedness. [In
the correspondence between Lord Howe and Washington on this subject,
the British commander denied the charges of undue severity in the
treatment of prisoners, and pronounced the tales current on the
subject as idle and unnatural reports. But the evidence of the truth
of that statement is too complete to admit of doubt.] The _Jersey
Prison-ship_ is proverbial in our revolutionary history; and the bones
of the unfortunate patriots who perished on board, form a monument on
the Long Island shore. The horrors of the _Sugar House_, converted
into a prison, are traditional in New York; and the brutal tyranny of
Cunningham, the provost marshal, over men of worth confined in the
common jail for the sin of patriotism, has been handed down from
generation to generation. That Lord Howe and Sir William were ignorant
of the extent of these atrocities we really believe, but it was their
duty to be well informed.

The difficulties arising out of the case of General Lee interrupted
the operations with regard to the exchange of prisoners; and gallant
men, on both sides, suffered prolonged detention in consequence; and
among the number the brave, but ill-starred Ethan Allen.

The early part of the year brought the annual embarrassments caused by
short enlistments. The brief terms of service for which the
Continental soldiery had enlisted, a few months perhaps, at most a
year, were expiring, and the men, glad to be released from camp duty,
were hastening to their rustic homes. Militia had to be the dependence
until a new army could be raised and organized, and Washington called
on the council of safety of Pennsylvania speedily to furnish temporary
reinforcements of the kind. All his officers that could be spared were
ordered away, some to recruit, some to collect the scattered men of
the different regiments, who were dispersed, he said, almost over the
continent. General Knox was sent off to Massachusetts to expedite the
raising of a battalion of artillery. Different States were urged to
levy and equip their quotas for the Continental army.