A Memorial Day nearly 200 Years in the making

[RACooper]

Monument created for Nova Scotia burial ground of U.S. PoWs from War of 1812
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/20050...NlYwMlJVRPUCUl

MICHAEL TUTTON

HALIFAX (CP) - Canadians and Americans joined in a ceremony of reconciliation Monday, dedicating a monument to 195 U.S. PoWs who died in a miserable Nova Scotia prison camp during the War of 1812.

On grass made brilliant green by weeks of heavy rain, a gleaming bronze plaque with the names of those who died was unveiled at the site on Deadman's Island.

The wooded knoll where 182 of the men were buried is now a municipal park overlooking a narrow inlet on the west side of Halifax harbour.

Most of the prisoners were privateers - sailors from privately owned warships - as well as U.S. soldiers, some of whom were marched across New Brunswick after their regiments were defeated in battles in what was then Upper Canada.

A few, as noted on the plaque, were passengers aboard American vessels captured by the British and taken to Halifax.

Local residents who've read the diaries of the jailed men say the prisoners felt mistreated by the British and forgotten by their families.

Michele Raymond, one of those who fought to preserve the site, discovered the names of the ill-fated prisoners in the Nova Scotia public archives almost eight years ago.

"Those records tell you they were young men, 21, 22, 23 years old. Most sailed as privateers out of Salem and Gloucester and Essex in New England," she said in an interview following the ceremony.

"They died of typhoid, dysentery, and other communicable diseases."

Pointing at a nearby island, surrounded by yachts, Raymond said it once was the location for the infamous Melville Island prison.

Up to 1,200 prisoners were crowded into a area less than a kilometre square.

When prisoners died, they were wrapped in shrouds and rowed across to Deadman's Island where they were buried in shallow, unmarked graves.

"There are diaries of American prisoners (showing) the bitterness that existed between the two countries not much more than a generation after the American revolution," said Raymond.

During the dedication, a U.S. embassy official expressed gratitude to the City of Halifax, which paid $200,000 to purchase the land.

He said the actions of municipal officials and local residents show how two countries have replaced a deadly rivalry with warm friendship.

"The soldiers of 1812 would no doubt shake their heads in wonder and disbelief at the idea that Americans and Canadians . . . would today stand side-by-side in collaboration to dedicate this monument to American war dead," said John Dickson, the acting U.S. charge d'affaires.

"As we look across at Melville Island, there is an important lesson to be learned: Even the bitterest enmity can be overcome," he said.

Nearby, a bagpiper played a haunting melody as dozens of small American flags fluttered in the bleeze.

During the ceremony, Cmdr. Bradley Renner, a U.S. navy officer based in Halifax, watched as sailors from the U.S.S. Constitution - a replica of an 1812 era U.S. ship that battled the British - presented Halifax politicians with a U.S. flag.

He asked Halifax city council to display it prominently, so that visiting Americans would know the site had been safeguarded "from now to eternity."

Meanwhile, a local committee has been seeking local, provincial and international historic site status for the area.

Deadman's Island is also the burial ground for 100 slaves. They followed the British back to Nova Scotia after they burned Washington, D.C., in 1812.

The tiny island is also the final resting place of several dozen French and Spanish sailors from the Napoleonic Wars and about 37 Irish immigrants.