Small Lock-n-Lock container carefully hidden to avoid detection of
Geo-Muggles and those still working to clean up after the
devastation left behind by Hurricane Juan. Filled with lots of
lapel pins from around the world. Please trade only lapel pins.
Please trade only lapel pins.
The History of Deadman's Island,
Except for the name, for nearly two centuries, there was nothing
to suggest the sad history of Deadman's Island. No plaques, no
crosses, no mounds. Just 2.5 acres of forlorn bog land surmounted
by a spruce knoll. The site isn't even a true island but a spit of
land jutting into Halifax Harbor's Northwest Arm. But in this
unhallowed ground, forgotten by the country that sent them off to
fight, lie the bodies of nearly 200 American sailors and soldiers
taken prisoner by British Regulars and Canadian Colonial Forces
during the War of 1812.
Records show the bulk of the burials were during the War of 1812
when U.S. soldiers were brought to Halifax as prisoners and at
least 195 died and were interred on Deadman’s Island. As well,some
66 French troops and 9 Spanish soldiers who fought Britain during
the Napoleonic Wars were already buried there, later joined by at
least 107 escaped slaves and black refugees who had been
temporarily housed on nearby Melville Island. In the 1840s, the
bodies of 30 Irish immigrants who died of typhus or smallpox while
quarantined at Melville Island are also resting in this burial
ground.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has commissioned a
bronze and granite monument inscribed with the names of the buried
soldiers that was placed at Deadman’s Island. It is a memorial that
is the result of years of research by a handful of Halifax
residents who joined forces to prevent the construction of a
condominium on the island. They discovered records of the
historical burials and began petitioning for protection and
commemoration. The monument was placed but on the U.S. Memorial Day
in May 2005.
Recently additional information plaques have been placed on the
island to inform visitors of the history of this site.
To add little more history about the island the prisoners buried
came from Melville Island Prison,which is now The Armdale Yacht
Club. The prison main building was destroyed by fire in 1936,only
one building remains there. You can go over to the Armdale yacht
club on Melville Island and check it out,just ask first be for
going into the building. Thanks to RFR for this little extra tidbit
of info.
