Foul Dungeons, Floating Prisons, and Forced Marches: Prisoners of War in Connecticut During the American Revolution
The Museum of Connecticut History at the Connecticut State Library invites the public to a presentation about Revolutionary War prisoners in Connecticut on Wednesday, March 25, 2026, at 12:00 p.m. Connecticut State Library employee Susan Bigelow will share “Foul Dungeons, Floating Prisons, and Forced Marches,” based on historical research she has conducted, including many resources from the State Library’s own extensive collection.
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!
Susan Bigelow is a librarian and recovering political writer with a deep love of local history. She is a member of the History & Genealogy staff at the Connecticut State Library and serves on the board of directors of the Enfield Historical Society.
“Foul Dungeons, Floating Prisons, and Forced Marches,” will take place on Wednesday, March 25, 2026 from 12-1:00 p.m. in the Museum of Connecticut History at the Connecticut State Library, 231 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, CT 06106. Admission is free and open to the public. Registration is requested: https://forms.office.com/g/AFncyq5eJJ. The event will also be livestreamed on the CT State Library’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@CTStateLibrary.
For more information, please contact the Museum of Connecticut History at [email protected] or (860) 757-6535. Directions and parking information are available at https://portal.ct.gov/csl/about/hours-and-locations.
This presentation is part of a Connecticut 250 series planned by the Connecticut State Library’s Semiquincentennial Committee. In addition to advising on the Museum of Connecticut History’s upcoming Connecticut’s Revolution exhibit (opening in July 2026), the Committee has curated a selection of Revolutionary War resources from the Connecticut State Library's vast collection, available here: https://libguides.ctstatelibrary.org/america250.
