Finding Aid on Prisoners of War
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David Library of the American Revolution Finding Aid on Prisoners of War including the Peter Force Collection: Prisoner-of-War Papers (William Augustus Atlee Papers; Lancaster Committee of Safety Papers and Minutes Transcripts; Lists of Prisoners) Johannes Schwalm Historical Association Collection: (Prisoner-of-War Papers from Thomas Bradford Papers and Elias Boudinot Papers) Elias Boudinot Letterbook 1777-1778 Horatio Gates Papers: Prisoner-of-War Returns Prepared by David Swain, Volunteer Researcher, December 2016 Table of Contents Manuscript Sources—Prisoner-of-War Papers 1 Peter Force Collection (Library of Congress) 1 Johannes Schwalm Historical Association Collection (Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Library of Congress) 2 Elias Boudinot Letterbook (State Historical Society 3 of Wisconsin) Horatio Gates Papers (New York Historical Society) 4 General Index 5 Introduction 13 Overview 13 Untangling the Categories of Manuscripts from their 15 Interrelated Sources People Involved in Prisoner-of-War Matters 18 Key People 19 Elias Boudinot 20 Thomas Bradford 24 William Augustus Atlee 28 Friendships and Relationships 31 American Prisoner-of-War Network and System 32 Lancaster Committee of Safety Papers and Minutes 33 Prisoner-of-War Lists 34 References 37 Annotated Lists of Contents: 41 Selected Prisoner-of-War Documents William Augustus Atlee Papers 1758-1791 41 (Peter Force Collection, Series 9, Library of Congress) LancasterCommittee of safety Papers 1775-1777 97 (Peter Force Collection, Series 9, Library of Congress) Transcripts of Lancaster Committee of Safety Records 136 1774-1776 (Peter Force Collection, Series 7E, Item 68, Library of Congress) i Lancaster Prisoner-of-War Lists 1776-1782 151 (Peter Force Collection, Series 9, Library of Congress) British, Hessian, and Waldeck Prisoner-of-War Lists; 177 Provision Returns; Parole Security Statements and Forms; Correspondence 1776-1783 (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Schwalm Collection) Elias Boudinot Incoming Correspondence 1777-1781 190 (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Schwalm Collection) Provision Returns for British Prisoners of War 1778-1782; 227 text of an exchange cartel 1781 (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Schwalm Collection) Lists of British Army and Navy Prisoners of War 1777-1782 234 (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Schwalm Collection) Parole Security Statements and Forms for British Prisoners 260 of War Captured at Sea 1778-1782 (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Schwalm Collection) Thomas Bradford Correspondence 1777-1783 302 (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Schwalm Collection) Elias Boudinot Incoming Correspondence 1776-1782 410 (Library of Congress, Schwalm Collection) Elias Boudinot Letterbook of Outgoing Correspondence 436 1777-1778 (State Historical Society of Wisconsin) Horatio Gates Papers—Prisoner-of-War Returns 1777-1780 465 (New York Historical Society) ii Manuscript Sources Peter Force Collection: Prisoner-of-War Papers (William Augustus Atlee Papers, Lancaster Committee of Safety Papers and Minutes Transcripts, and Lists of Prisoners) The extensive and highly organized Peter Force Collection is held by the Library of Congress (LC). Peter Force (1790-1868) was a prominent American politician, newspaper editor, and architect. Beyond that, he was a historian and extraordinary collector and editor of historical manuscripts and other documents. His focus was on the documentation of American history. But within this focus, his range of interests was broad. His efforts to organize historical documents were cut short by his death, but what has been preserved in the Library of Congress is an eclectic and voluminous treasure trove. The extant Peter Force Collection is contained in 10 “Series” of documents out of what he initially envisioned as 18 series. The David Library of the American Revolution (DLAR) owns 14 reels of microfilm—13 reels containing a large portion of Series 9, entitled “Miscellaneous Manuscripts, 1501-1866” and 1 reel containing all of Series 7E, entitled “Miscellaneous Transcripts.” The Miscellaneous Manuscripts include, scattered through them, many documents pertaining to prisoners of war, especially at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, including especially papers of William Augustus Atlee, papers of the Lancaster Committee of Safety, and Lists of Prisoners of War. Item 68 in the Miscellaneous Transcripts contains transcripts of Lancaster Committee of Safety meetings dated between June 15, 1774 and June 28, 1777. (Note that Series 8D Item 86 is also relevant to this Finding Aid, containing original minutes of Lancaster Committee meetings dated between June 15, 1774 and June 28, 1777. DLAR does not own this microfilmed reel, which is Reel 49 in the microfilmed LC Peter Force Collection). Series 9 of the Peter Force Collection includes 17 microfilm reels that LC has numbered Reels 96 through 112. Of these, DLAR owns microfilm copies of Reels 96 and 98 through 109, which it has catalogued as Reels 1 through 13 in Microfilm Set 664. Series 7E’s single reel, numbered Reel 16 by LC, is Reel 1 in DLAR’s Microfilm Set 559. 1 Johannes Schwalm Historical Association Collection: Prisoner-of-War Papers (Thomas Bradford Papers and Elias Boudinot Papers) The Johannes Schwalm Historical Association (JSHA) Collection at the DLAR includes 7 reels of microfilm with documents relating to the history of prisoners of war, both Geman and British, during the American Revolutionary War. In documents pertaining to exchanges, information is also found on American prisoners of war held by the British. The sources of the original manuscript documents include the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) (6 reels) and the Library of Congress (1 reel). The Johannes Schwalm Historical Association is a nonprofit organization dedicated to researching the “German Auxiliary Troops” and the heritage of many of them who remained after the war as citizens of the U.S. Johannes Schwalm was a German soldier in William von Knyphausen’s Regiment, captured at Trenton. (These soldiers have been collectively referred to by Americans as “Hessians.” This is inaccurate, since the German troops were serving in the armies of six different German principalities, only two of which were a part of Hesse. Therefore, in this Finding Aid, these soldiers are refered to collectively as “German” troops.) In 2000, the JSHA purchased from the HSP three reels (DLAR Reels 4, 5, and 6) of selected microfilmed documents, most of which relate to prisoner-of-war matters. Separately, a JSHA staff member microfilmed small numbers of documents from HSP (DLAR Reels 1, 2, and 3). Twenty-six of the 63 documents microfilmed in Reels 1, 2, and 3 also are found in Reel 4, 5, or 6. In 2010, the JSHS “permanently loaned” all six of these reels to the DLAR for preservation and use. The DLAR has catalogued them as Microfilm Set 733. They contain Thomas Bradford papers and, Elias Boudinot papers, plus a variety of prisoner-of-war lists, provisions returns, and parole documents. In addition, the JSHA permanently loaned a separate, single reel of additional Elias Boudinot papers held by the Library of Congress. The DLAR has catalogued this reel as Microfilm Set 732. See the note in this Finding Aid after document 144, the last document included from this reel, identifying additional documents of note on subjects not directly related to prisoners of war, which may, nevertheless, be of interest. When the JSHA purchased reels of microfilmed documents from the HSP, neither of them documented in detail the sources of these documents within the HSP. A perusal of the Guide to the Manuscript Collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (1991), and a separate HSP document on the Collection 1676, Bradford Family Papers 1620-1906 (2006) suggests possible duplicate recording of at least some of the Thomas Bradford Papers relating to prisoners of war. 2 The Guidebook lists, as Collection 71, Thomas Bradford papers relating to his service as Deputy Commissary of Prisoners (and, after October 1780, Deputy Commissary General of Prisoners) at Philadelphia, including correspondence, lists, provision returns, and parole documents for both army and naval prisoners, all of which can be found in the JSHA microfilmed reels. Another entry in the Guidebook, identified as Collection 1676, includes Bradford Family papers from 1747 and 1847, without reference to papers relating specifically to Thomas Bradford or to prisoner-of-war matters. However, the more recent and more detailed HSP document on Collection 1676 itemizes its contents more specifically to include in “Series III” Thomas Bradford papers of a) Naval Prisoners (1777-1783) and b) Army prisoners (1776-1881). This document’s more detailed content description of these two sub-collections references all the kinds of papers identified as being in Collection 71, except that “bonds of French and Hessian prisoners” mentioned here are not mentioned in the Collection 71 description and are not clearly identifiable in the JSHA microfilmed reels. Whether or not HSP’s Collection 71 and Collection 1676 record the same papers in two collections cannot be accurately determined without perusal of the original documents. Researchers seeking a comprehensive understanding of all of Thomas Bradford’s prisoner-of-war papers will therefore need to look into both collections and not rely alone on the JSHA microfilmed reels housed at DLAR. HSP’s Collection 1036 (Thomas Bradford records 1778-1782) might—or might not—be another source of some of the documents