Whereas: Stories from the People’s House

The Continental Congress and the Problem of Prisoners

On May 21, 1776, the Continental Congress passed a resolution to deal with an issue Delegates expected would soon be a problem. Although the colonies would not officially declare independence until July, Congress deemed it worthwhile to stipulate how the “Thirteen United Colonies” would handle British prisoners captured during what they anticipated would be a costly war.

The bill required British prisoners of war to be treated with “humanity, and be allowed the same rations as the troops in the service of the United Colonies.” British officers taken captive were to be treated more generously and would “supply themselves and be allowed to draw bills to pay for their substance and clothing.” The Continental Congress also provided for a process in which captured individuals could be paroled if they swore an oath “on my word and honour, and on the faith of a gentleman” and agreed to not “directly or indirectly, give any intelligence whatsoever to the enemies of the United Colonies, or do or say any thing in opposition to, or in prejudice of the measures and proceedings of any Congress for the said Colonies, during the present troubles, or until I am duly exchanged.” If a prisoner refused parole, he would be committed to prison.

But what of American troops captured by the British? At the time, Delegates believed that prisoners from either country would be treated humanely and that few men would languish in prison. But neither side anticipated the eventual course of the conflict. Historians estimate that during the Revolution, the British took between 10,000 and 20,000 Americans prisoner. Nearly half of those men died in captivity.

Although Congress had regulated how America would treat captured British soldiers, the question of how to reclaim American troops imprisoned by the British evolved into one of the thorniest problems of the war.

“The Carnage of a Field of Battle”

When the war began in earnest after the Declaration of Independence, Congress quickly shifted its focus to securing the return of American POWs. On August 23, 1776, British and American forces clashed in Brooklyn, New York. General George Washington lost the field and soon withdrew his troops to Manhattan. An estimated 300 Americans died, and British officers claimed that they held over 1,500 prisoners.

General Washington soon left Manhattan, leaving 3,000 men to garrison Fort Washington situated along the Hudson River. On November 16, 1776, the British attacked and the Americans were forced to lay down their arms. Over the course of a single day, 2,837 men had become prisoners of war.

The British were unprepared to feed and clothe their prisoners. Stuffed into overcrowded ships, sugar houses, churches, and barns, the prisoners suffered through the winter. One man captured at Fort Washington later recalled that the prisoners “were confined two weeks in a church, where they suffered greatly from cold, not being allowed any fire.” They were later “carried on board a ship, where 500 were confined below decks.”

Within months, reports circulated that the British were mistreating their prisoners. In 1777, James McHenry, who served as a surgeon during the war and had been taken prisoner at Fort Washington on his twenty-third birthday, wrote to General Washington about the conditions in British prisons. “The groans of the dying—the looks of the dead that lay mixed with the living—and the insufferable impurity of the house, made up altogether a scene more affecting and horrid than the carnage of a field of battle wherein no quarter is given,” he observed.

The Continental Congress Investigates

A month and a half after the defeat at Fort Washington, the Continental Congress sprang into action amid a rumor that one of their own had been captured. In late 1776, British forces captured New Jersey Delegate Richard Stockton, a signer of the Declaration. Lawmakers called upon General Washington in early January 1777 to determine whether Stockton had been “ignominiously thrown into a common gaol, and there detained.” If so, the Delegates urged General Washington to inquire with British General William Howe “whether he chuses that this shall be the future rule for treating all such, on both sides, as the fortune of war may place in the hands of either party.”

Stockton wasn’t the only one whose case captured the attention of lawmakers. During this early period of the conflict, Congress even sought to compensate certain Americans held in British captivity. On January 13, 1777, for example, Delegates ordered that “100 dollars be paid to Walter Cruise, and 100 dollars to Richard Carpenter, who have been long detained prisoners by the enemy, and cruelly treated.”

It quickly became apparent that America’s prisoner problem could not be dealt with at an individual, case-by-case level. On January 16, 1777, Delegates passed a resolution creating the position of commissary general. The resolution empowered General Washington to “appoint a suitable person” to provide American prisoners of war with “such necessaries as they may want.” Washington selected Elias Boudinot, who received a commission from the Continental Congress in early June 1777.

As the Continental Congress waited for Boudinot to start, Delegates took additional measures. On April 18, a special committee created to “enquire into the conduct of the enemy” released a report that found that American POWs had been “treated with the greatest barbarity.” “Multitudes died in prison,” the report stated. “When they were sent out, several died in the boats, while carrying ashore, or, upon the road, attempting to go home.” To ensure the American public knew about these atrocities, the Continental Congress arranged for the report to be reprinted in newspapers.

“They Had Received the Most Cruel Treatment”

The report did little to convince Great Britain to soften its stance on prisoners of war. This was partly because England refused to recognize the United States as an independent nation. Britain’s High Treason Act empowered military leaders to treat captured Americans as rebels and traitors, not as legitimate belligerents who were entitled to different treatment.

At first, Elias Boudinot hesitated to take General Washington’s offer to become commissary general. But Washington implored Boudinot to help in “the salvation of his Country.” General Washington, Boudinot said, believed that “if men of character and influence would not come forward and join him in his exertions, all would be lost.” The mistreatment of prisoners of war was also a personal matter to Boudinot: his brother-in-law was New Jersey Delegate Richard Stockton, who had been held aboard a British ship for several weeks in the winter of 1776.

Over the next two years, Boudinot became the foremost American authority on prisoners of war. Soon after he took the position, he was approached by an American officer who had been captured and paroled who informed him of the harsh conditions of New York prisons. The unnamed officer told Boudinot that the American prisoners were “daily insulted with being deserted by their General, the Congress and all those who have first brought them into the scrape.”

Eventually, British officials permitted Boudinot to visit prisons in New York. Despite British assurances that the American POWs had been treated well, Boudinot discovered grisly conditions. After speaking with one prisoner, he learned that American prisoners “had received the most cruel treatment from the Provost Marshal, being locked up in the Dungeon on the most trifling Pretence, such as asking for more Water for Drink on a hotter Day than usual.” Prisoners often received no medical care for their battle wounds and were often subjected to the elements. Cold winters and blistering summers led to rampant disease outbreaks.

Boudinot’s experience as commissary general illustrated the difficulties that the Continental Congress faced in aiding captured Americans. Over the course of the war, the British did agree to several prisoner exchanges, but Congress could do little to improve conditions for those still in British custody. Only an American victory could secure the release of each remaining POW.

Influence of Prisoners of War in Congress

The Revolutionary War not only secured independence, it left an indelible imprint on those who fought for the United States of America, including those held captive during their military service. As part of the nation’s America250 commemoration, the Office of the House Historian compiled a list of the estimated 400 Revolutionary War veterans who served in the Continental Congresses, the Confederation Congress, and the U.S. House of Representatives. Of these veterans, at least 23 experienced captivity. Many former prisoners of war rose to leadership positions in the new government. James McHenry, the Continental surgeon captured early in the war, served as a Delegate to the Confederation Congress from Maryland. He later signed the U.S. Constitution.

Henry Dearborn of Massachusetts, whose story the Office of the Historian recounted in 2025, was taken prisoner in Quebec and later served in the House and as U.S. Secretary of War. Another former POW, Daniel Waldo, was elected Chaplain of the House in 1856, and lived long enough to be considered one of the oldest veterans of the Revolution before he died in 1864.

Other former prisoners of war served in a variety of roles in Congress. Robert Brown, who had been captured at Fort Washington and placed aboard a prison ship, had a lengthy career in the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, serving from 1797 to 1815. Perhaps the most famous former prisoner was Jonathan Dayton. After the war, New Jersey sent Dayton to Congress, where he served as the third Speaker of the House.

Not all of those who were captured during the war ended up with the opportunity to see the emergence of the United States as a sovereign nation or play a role in its governance. Upwards of 8,000 men died in British prisons, including Cornelius Harnett. Harnett had served as a Delegate to the Continental Congress from North Carolina and returned to his home as the war continued to rage. Harnett was captured, imprisoned, and died in captivity in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1781. Two years later, in 1783, America and England signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the conflict and recognizing the United States as a sovereign and free nation, cementing the cause for which Harnett and thousands of others had sacrificed everything.

Sources: Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, vol. 4 (21 May 1776): 370–371; Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, vol. 7 (3 January 1777): 12–13; Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, vol. 7 (13 January 1777): 32; Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, vol. 7 (16 January 1777): 41; Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, vol. 7 (18 April 1777): 277; Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, vol. 8 (6 June 1777): 422; James McHenry to George Washington, 21 June 1777, Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-10-02-0096; The Life, Public Services, Addresses and Letters of Elias Boudinot, LL.D. President of the Continental Congress (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1896); Edwin G. Burrows, Forgotten Patriots: The Untold Story of American Prisoners During the Revolutionary War (New York: Basic Books, 2008); Danske Danskridge, American Prisoners of the Revolution (Charlottesville: Michie Company, 1911); T. Cole Jones, Captives of Liberty: Prisoners of War and the Politics of Vengeance in the American Revolution (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020); T. Cole Jones, “‘The Dreadful Effects of British Cruilty’: The Treatment of British Maritime Prisoners and the Radicalization of the Revolutionary War at Sea,” Journal of the Early Republic 36, no. 3 (Fall 2016); David T. Morgan, “Cornelius Harnett: Revolutionary Leader and Delegate to the Continental Congress,” North Carolina Historical Review 49, no. 3 (July 1972); Bernard C. Steiner, The Life and Correspondence of James McHenry, Secretary of War Under Washington and Adams (Cleveland: The Burrows Brothers Company, 1907).