Signer of the U.S. Constitution. Captain Joshua Huddy, an artillery officer in the New Jersey militia, was captured on 24 March 1782, at Tom's River, New Jersey by Loyalists and held on a prison ship in waters off New York City. Sir Henry Clinton turned him over to Loyalists, ostensibly for a prisoner exchange. The Loyalists hung Huddy in retaliation for the death of a Loyalist called Philip White. Washington decrees that a British officer meet the same fate and 17-year-old Captain Charles Asgill, who surrendered at Yorktown, is selected. Asgill's mother travels to Paris and speaks with Charles Vergennes, the French Foreign Minister, who informs his king and queen. They write Washington, who turns the letter over to Congress. Congress votes to release the unfortunate Asgill, and Washington happily complies with the directive. Published in Syrett, Harold C. The Papers of Alexander Hamilton. (New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1962), Vol. III: 1782 - 1786, p.91.
Collection: The Henry Knox Papers.
Electronic reproduction. Marlborough, Wiltshire : AM, 2014. Digitized from a copy held by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History