History of Redcoat PoWs in USA threatened by housing

[maximus otter]

Relics of British military history buried at America's last prison camp for Redcoats is at risk from a proposed housing development.

Pottery, glassware, remnants of uniform, regimental buttons and coins, some bearing the heads of George II and George III, have been found at the Pennsylvanian site during a brief dig.

The artefacts confirmed the presence of the 9th, 20th and 33rd Regiments of Foot, all of which surrendered at Saratoga in 1777 after one of Britain's key defeats in the War of Independence and archaeologists want to carry out further excavations.

Camp Security held up to 2,000 British troops and Canadian militiamen taken prisoner after Saratoga and the Battle of Yorktown four years later.

Campaigners say there is also a lost graveyard for hundreds of soldiers somewhere beneath the rolling countryside.

Many of the troops' wives and children, held in a neighbouring prisoner-of- war camp called Indulgence, were among the victims of an epidemic of typhus, or camp fever, that struck in the final winter of the war.

America's National Trust regards the area as so important that this year it elevated Camp Security to its list of the 10 most endangered historic sites in the country.

"We want to shine a national spotlight on this place," said Adrian Scott Fine, a spokesman for the trust. "We are trying to reach an agreement with the developer."

Tom Schaefer, of the Friends of Camp Security, said: "This is sacred soil. It would be great if it could become a sort of reunion site for people from America, Canada and the UK."

The campaigners believe they can raise the £1.15 million they estimate they will need to buy the site but so far the owner, Timothy Pasch, is refusing to negotiate.

Mr Schaefer said that many of the findings contradicted the traditional American understanding of the war: doughty colonists fighting unloved Redcoats.

The presence among the British of a large number of women, many of them Americans, hints at a more complicated story. The guards also allowed the prisoners from Saratoga to move from Camp Security to Indulgence.

To the grizzled veteran, Sgt Roger Lamb, a Dubliner captured after Gen Charles Cornwallis's defeat at Yorktown, the attitude of the Saratoga men was a disgrace.

"I perceived that they had lost the animation which ought to possess the breast of the soldier," he wrote. "I strove by every argument to rouse them from their lethargy.

"I offered to head any number of them and make a noble effort to escape into New York and join our comrades in arms; but all my efforts proved ineffectual."

Carol Tanzola, the head of the Friends of Camp Security, said she had been fighting for five years to save the site and joked that the struggle could outlast the eight-year revolutionary war.

"I hope it does not go on that long but we can't give up," she said. "How can you turn your back on a piece of American history?"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...st16.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/07/16/ixworld.html

maximus otter

 

[Gollnick]

Bulldoze it.

You have to understand a fundamental difference between American and European thinking. Albert Einstein (a European who came to America) summarized it best, "The American lives for the future; life for him is always becoming... never being."

There is something historic about every bit of land and every building. But we can't preserve it all. We can't allow the past to stop time, or to prevent the future.

 

[MikeH]

I agree, Chuck. If local governments can take one's property and turn it over to a developer at will in order to increase the tax base, then don't let the meddellers tell another that he can't develop his property. Good for the tax base, you know.

 

[textoothpk]

Bulldoze it? Naw, I respectfully disagree. Enshrine the area, rever it, study it. Preserve it especially if it holds a cemetary where fighting men and their families are buried.

Very intriguing post, Maximus, thank you for it.

 

[CapCase]

I am very interested in history and historical sites. But not every historical site can or should be preserved. I enjoy visiting the Vicksburg Battlefield Park and I believe it should be preserved. But some folk moan about important parts of the battle having occurred in areas outside the park and those areas having been developed. I don't see what the problem is. If you preserved the entire battlefield then Vicksburg and the surrounding area would be all a museum. Great for historians, maybe, but it is not realistic to keep that large an area in a timewarp. The battle should be remembered and some areas of many historical sites should be set aside for memorials and parks. But not all. The past is important. But so is the future. I visited Shiloh Battlefield Park a few years ago and during a tour the guide had to get us to imagine what the area we were in was like during the battle. Not because development had changed it. The area was developed at the time of the battle and now it is a wooded area. That is okay with me, I like the woods. But it is not historically accurate in the preservation. Besides, at both battlefields, I don't believe the armies had to maneuver around all the monuments that are all over the place. I do like monuments. And I love history. I believe historical events and the people involved in those events should be remembered and memorialized when possible. I also feel that some areas should be set aside. But not all. Cemeteries should not be disturbed.

That said, I do believe everything built in Boston since 1776 should be bulldozed and the city made into a historical park. Just 'cause I want to pick on the people in Massachusetts.