An eagle-eyed Defense Tech reader pointed out in an email to editors that the post put up yesterday on July 4 factoids had been partially debunked by the internet investigators over at Snopes.com.
Never shy of embracing information contrary to our posts, the editorial board of Defense Tech made the decision to pass along the mitigating data provided by res1huzn even though it was a bit of a stick in the eye for us.
Five signers were captured by the British as traitors and tortured before they died.
It is true that five signers of the Declaration of Independence were captured by the British during the course of the Revolutionary War. However, none of them died while a prisoner, and four of them were taken into custody not because they were considered “traitors” due to their status as signatories to that document, but because they were captured as prisoners of war while actively engaged in military operations against the British: George Walton was captured after being wounded while commanding militia at the Battle of Savannah in December 1778, and Thomas Heyward, Jr., Arthur Middleton, and Edward Rutledge (three of the four Declaration of Independence signers from South Carolina) were taken prisoner at the Siege of Charleston in May in 1780.
Although they endured the ill treatment typically afforded to prisoners of war during their captivity (prison conditions were quite deplorable at the time), they were not tortured, nor is there evidence that they were treated more harshly than other wartime prisoners who were not also signatories to the Declaration. Moreover, all four men were eventually exchanged or released; had they been considered traitors by the British, they would have been hanged.
Richard Stockton of New Jersey was the only signer taken prisoner specifically because of his status as a signatory to the Declaration, “dragged from his bed by night” by local Tories after he had evacuated his family from New Jersey, and imprisoned in New York City’s infamous Provost Jail like a common criminal. However, Stockton was also the only one of the fifty-six signers who violated the pledge to support the Declaration of Independence and each other with “our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor,” securing a pardon and his release from imprisonment by recanting his signature on the Declaration and signing an oath swearing his allegiance to George III.
So, for all you smarty pants out there, consider this one a July 4th myth shattered for all of us. But dont even think about telling us in December that theres no Santa Clause.
“Never shy of embracing information contrary to our posts”, but apparently shy of even so much as googling random unsubstantiated factoids forwarded around prior to posting them as truth.
Yeah, the soldier-level tech stuff is still quite good (though I think I’ve heard enough Inside Baseball on Dragon Skin) but Christian has an unfortunate habit of picking up whatever the latest administration trial balloon is. Single-sourced, DoD-origin story on Iranian support for (insert enemy here)? Human-interest story slamming California liberals? DT is all over it. Latest missive from the Kagan clan on how great the surge is? It’s here. I’m surprised Christian hasn’t found a ‘defense’ angle on Gore’s pothead son yet.
I mean, yeah, bias is a fact of all media but this is DefenseTECH and a lot of the stuff that’s come up since Noah left is definitely not tech… it’s kind of getting like CQ or Michelle Malkin around here, but not funny.
Axe’s new blog is pretty lame, too. The guy manages to have all these excellent experiences, but seems to lack the insight to do anything except narrate them, and he’s not a good enough writer to make the narrative interesting.
“dragged from his bed by night” by local Tories -
Well, that’s just the Tories all over, some things never change. Maybe Cameron will start suggesting that revolutionaries should be huhhed rather than hanged…
I honestly wonder what it says about a country when once a year it trots out these semi-fictional versions of a particular period of history.
These “factoids” aren’t just mistakes. They are a motivated and lovingly crafted misrepresentation of history. And Defense Tech is hardly the only place in the US where they get ceremoniously presented every Fourth.
The US used to mock the USSR for its politically correct versions of history. A mirror might be handy.
Santa Clause?
When it pours it rains huh? AFAIK the movie still exists.
jon livesey: you’re a moron who sees what you want to see. Within a few minutes of posting this error, a bunch of us were all over it, and Christian corrected it just as quickly. No government peddled this story; no one enforced its alleged truth. Yes, thousands of low-level “patriots” (and apparently one journalist) probably believed it without checking it. But you’re worse than them: that suspicious story erroneously confirms their patriotism, but you take readily available facts (widespread freedom of media and political/philosophical debate in the U.S.) and ignore them to cling to your dumb-ass conclusion that the U.S. is exactly like the U.S.S.R.
But — but they were insurgents! Shouldn’t they have been tortured? After all, they certainly hadn’t signed the Geneva Convention!
You do know Noah has a new blog, right?
http://blog.wired.com/defense/
P.S. It was a cherry tree…
Vital to post this for US History to clarify this issue.
Must post to History.com
History Channel.com
Thanks.
Makes July 4th Mean something now.
Let the Public Know.
Change our History books.