Foul Dungeons, Floating Prisons, and Forced Marches: Prisoners of War in Connecticut During the American Revolution
In November 1778, a strange procession wound its way through the sparsely populated hills and valleys of northern Connecticut: thousands of British and German prisoners of war captured at Saratoga, marching under guard from their former quarters in Cambridge all the way to the near-wilderness of Charlottesville, Virginia. The so-called “Convention Army” was an extreme example of a thorny problem faced by both sides: what to do with all the prisoners of war they had captured? Connecticut’s leaders had a wide variety of answers; some genteel and humane, others cruel and downright barbaric. Discover the little-known stories of prisoners of war held in Connecticut during the American Revolution, from German officers throwing dance parties in every little village they passed through, to miserable captives stuck in the bottom of a deep, dark copper mine, to British sailors who staged a daring escape from a prison ship in New London harbor! Join Connecticut State Library employee Susan Bigelow as she shares her historical research, including many resources from the State Library’s own extensive collection.
“Foul Dungeons, Floating Prisons, and Forced Marches: Prisoners of War in Connecticut During the American Revolution” is free and open to the public. Registration is requested for this in-person event at https://forms.office.com/g/AFncyq5eJJ. For those unable to attend in-person, the presentation will be live-streamed on the Connecticut State Library’s YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/@CTStateLibrary)
Wednesday, March 25, 2026
Museum of CT History at the CT State Library
231 Capitol Ave.
Hartford, CT 06106
