The Royal Army in America During the Revolutionary War: The American Prisoner Records
Abstract
The following work is an attempt to collect together a wide variety of records relating to the Royal prisoners during the Amen can War for Independence. A number of books are available which provide the records of the American armies during this period, but little work has been done to collect the records of the opposing Army. The British Army during the Revolutionary War was composed of a number of differing regiments, containing British, German, Canadian and Loyalist troops. As with any conflict, some of the troops were killed, injured or captured during military engagements. Absent spending months or years in the British records transcribing the original muster rolls, the prisoner records provide the only good source for the identification of not only the officers in the British Army, but the non-commissioned troops as well. This book is composed of three major sources of information. The first source is the United States Library of Congress. The records of the Continental Army, and the personal papers of men like George Washington, provide a number of accounts of the British army. The second source is the records of the Pennsylvania State Archives. Although not a comprehensive source, a large majority of the imprisoned troops were held in Pennsylvania, for reasons described below. The third collection of useful records are those of the Hospital Corps of the Continental Army, which detailed the names, ranks, and medical situations of many of the British prisoners during this period. These records are preserved in the collected papers of Lieutenant General Gates, a copy of which are available at the David Library in Washington's Crossing, Pennsylvania. All together, these sources provide the names and often the regiment and ranks of more than 10,000 individuals, a nearly complete record of the Royal prisoners-of-war.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA491107
Entities
People
- Kenneth Baumgardt
Organizations
- United States Army Corps of Engineers