The New International Encyclopædia/Dartmoor Massacre, The

DARTMOOR MASSACRE, The. The killing (April 6, 1815) by a company of English soldiers of some American prisoners, who, together with 6000 others, had been confined in the Dartmoor (England) prison for several months after the close of the War of 1812 between England and the United States. To quell what they regarded as a mutiny and to thwart an apparent effort at escape, the prison guard, probably under orders from Capt. T. G. Shortland, their commanding officer, fired upon the prisoners, killing seven and wounding about sixty—thirty of them dangerously. The Americans at the time regarded this as an act of wanton murder, but it was pronounced justifiable by a joint commission, which, however, acquitted the prisoners of the charge of organizing a mutiny or of planning an escape. The British Government soon afterwards promoted Shortland, but made liberal provision for the families of those who had been killed or permanently disabled. Consult: Andrews, The Prisoners' Memoirs: or, Dartmoor Prison (New York, 1852); and Cobb, A Green Hand's First Cruise, Together with Five Months in Dartmoor (Boston. 1841).