Soldiers Monument - NYC, NY
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 40° 42.508 W 074° 00.695
18T E 583493 N 4506864
This monument is located in the Trinity Church Cemetery in downtown manhattan.
Waymark Code: WMHQZ0
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 08/06/2013
Views: 20
Surprisingly, not much information can be found about this Monument on the internet. However, a placard at the Church makes a reference to it..and this website (
visit link) has several additional photos and informs us:
"New York City was the main POW (prisoner-of-war) camp during the Revolutionary War because New York was the only city to be held by the British for the length of the war. American patriots were imprisoned at various sites around the city and in prison ships in New York Harbor.
This monument honors the thousands of unknown American soldiers and sailors of the Revolutionary War who were imprisoned, died and buried in unmarked graves during New York's British occupation.
The worst prison was thought to be the Sugar House — likely the Livingston family sugarhouse on Liberty Street. It was famous for overcrowding, disease, and dank air.
Sugarhouses were large commercial buildings then, and along with churches, were landmarks and prominent on 18th-century maps. Sugarhouses represented prosperity and attracted rural tourists who had never seen such large buildings. Churches, stables, and public buildings were also converted to prisons. Conditions in all prisons for enlisted men were abominable. Officers could buy their way out.
The plaque on the monument reads:
"At a meeting of Citizens held at the City Hall of the City of New York June 8, 1852: It was resolved That the Erection of a becoming Monument with appropriate inscriptions by Trinity Church to the Memory of those great and good Men who died whilst in Captivity in the old Sugar House and were interred in Trinity Church Yard in this City will be an act gratifying not only to the attendant of this Meeting but to Every American Citizen.'"