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Archiver > QUEBEC-RESEARCH > 2004-07 > 1090586135
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Subject: Excerpt Of History
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2004 08:35:35 EDT
"In the year of 1812, a war broke out between the United States of America
and its "Mother Country," Great Britain. In this time many battles were fought
in Halifax, Nova Scotia. There is nothing in remembrance of what went down on
Deadman's Island. Only a name that only produces sadness and horror. In fact it
is not even an island, its a spit of land jutting into Halifax Harbour's
North West Arm.
Beneath the soil of this unholy site of battle lie 188, of the United States
sailors and soldiers. They are unknown to most. But the families living on
Deadman's Island still believe that there are ghosts walking about the island,
and not just American soldiers. The remains of some 300 runaway slaves making
their way from the south to the north were found there as well. During the War
of 1812, Canada was still part of the British Empire, and Halifax served as the
Royal Navy's most important base in North America. According to Admiralty
records, more than 8,100 American prisoners of war were held at a military
detention camp on Melville Island which is just a few yards across the water from
Deadman's Island after being captured in sea engagements off New England or
ferocious land battles in the hinterlands of Upper Canada now known as Ontario.
The residents of the coast still wonder about the island. When plans for a
condo division were announced the workers doing jobs on the land began to see
grizzly clues of the lands past. Word of mouth tales of bones jutting out of
their shallow graves circulated alongside visions of soldiers forming at dusk."
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