{"id":1945,"date":"2015-01-08T08:46:48","date_gmt":"2015-01-08T13:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/?p=1945"},"modified":"2024-06-28T12:43:55","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T16:43:55","slug":"pows-bravely-waved-american-flags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/pows-bravely-waved-american-flags\/","title":{"rendered":"POWs bravely waved American flags in prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dartmoor<\/a>The 100th anniversary of World War I<\/a> is being observed in Europe, as is the 75th anniversary of the first full year of the Second World War. For Americans, 2015 brings the bicentennial of the end of the War of 1812<\/a>, a good time to recall how U.S. prisoners proudly waved American flags<\/a> in a British jail.<\/p>\n

The story is told in \u201cThe Prisoner\u2019s Memoirs, or Dartmoor Prison\u201d by Charles Andrews, an American who was locked up there after being captured by English sailors. Years later, he wrote down the story of how he and others cheekily marked Independence Day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fourth of July\u2026had now arrived,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe American prisoners, feeling that fire of patriotism, and that just pride and honour, which fills the bosom of every American, when that great day of jubilee arrives, roused all their drooping spirits, and prepared to celebrate it in a manner becoming their situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Somehow, the American prisoners had sneaked two U.S. flags into the prison. \u201cBeing upward of six hundred in number,\u201d Andrews said, \u201cwe divided into two columns, and displayed our flag at each end of the prison\u2026.We were\u2026resolved to defend them till the last moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Some<\/a>
Some time after the flag incident, guards fired on prisoners<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Objecting to the display, of course, was Captain Isaac Cotgrave, the British officer overseeing the inmates. \u201cEither from a determination to depress our spirits as much as possible, that we might the more readily be induced to enter the service of the king, or that an enemy’s flag should not be hoisted in their country,\u201d Andrews recounted, Cotgrave \u201cordered the turnkeys to\u2026take the colours from us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"U.S.<\/a>
U.S. flag during War of 1812<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Americans, Andrews said, resisted because \u201cthe day was the birth-day of freedom, and the anniversary of our nation.\u201d The POWs requested \u201cthat [Cotgrave] would confer on us a particular favour, if he would permit us to enjoy it with a decorum and propriety suited to our situation as prisoners of war. We added this arrogant condition: that if he should persist in attempting to take that flag\u2026he must abide by the consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cotgrave ordered guards to snatch the flags from the prisoners. One star-spangled banner<\/a> (the anthem<\/a> had been written less than a year earlier) was captured, but the American POWs raced off with the other.<\/p>\n

After \u201cthe disturbance on the evening of the fourth,\u201d Andrews wrote, \u201cnothing remarkable took place, the prisoners being generally tolerable quiet and peaceable.\u201d<\/p>\n

And patriotic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 100th anniversary of World War I is being observed in Europe, as is the 75th anniversary of the first full year of the Second World War. For Americans, 2015 brings the bicentennial of the end of the War of 1812, a good time to recall how U.S. prisoners proudly waved American flags in a… continue<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5,10,255,19,257,256,103],"class_list":["post-1945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-lessons","tag-american","tag-american-flag","tag-independence-day","tag-patriotism","tag-pow","tag-prisoners","tag-star-spangled-banner"],"yoast_head":"\nPOWs bravely waved American flags in prison<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"2015 brings the bicentennial of the end of the War of 1812, a good time to recall how U.S. prisoners proudly waved American flags in a British jail.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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