A privateer’s life in a French prison

1948 book

His record of this time The Life of Alexander Stewart, Prisoner of Napoleon and Preacher of the Gospel was published by a descendant in 1948. It contains a description of the town and the prison, a map of the location, plus a number of mentions of Channel Islanders whom he met during his time as a prisoner of war.

Naval vessels and privateers captured in the Channel by the French were often taken to St Malo and prisoners were marched overland to Sarrelibre, on the French/German border.

Many prisoners were forced to march in chains from town jail to town jail, whatever the weather, or the state of their shoes and with total disregard for their state of health. Some were left by the roadside to die.

"We marched generally about 25 miles a day, lodging in jail every night with such French criminals that might be there. We had each, during the march, one pound and a half of coarse brown bread and three and a half pence in money, (given to us by the French authorities) with which we purchased onions and apples to eat with our bread. Part of the way a drummer marched at the head of the column beating time,” Stewart wrote.

Several thousand British prisoners of war were held at Sarrelibre, formerly Sarrelouis, in an old condemned hospital and deserted barracks built into the town walls. Some of these were open barracks and younger prisoners had free run of the town, as long as they reported once a day at the Town Hall to write their names in a book. Others were mustered every day for a head count, but otherwise seem to have been left to their own devices.

Interpreters

Stewart noted in his book that there were Channel Islanders there who managed to gain reasonable treatment by their captors as they spoke both English and French and were able to act as interpreters.

One Jerseyman earned a few pence giving French lessons to those who could pay. Stewart attempted to join his class, washing clothes for other prisoners and selling part of his bread, but was unable to raise the funds.

Accommodation

Later in the book he describes his accommodation:

”The prison, in which we were put, had been a hospital, and was situated just outside the walls of the town, but given up for years in consequence of its unhealthiness. The building formed a square, and had some out-ground attached and inclosed with fencing, that we might have some place to walk in, as the ground within the square was too small for that purpose, Most of the rooms were very large, holding from 50 to 100. One of the largest was filled with Italians, another with Irish, while the rest of the prisoners mingled together without national distinction. Most, but not all, had bedsteads with straw matresses, and one blanket for the bedstead. Others, through deficiency of bedsteads, had their matresses and blankets on the ground.'

Food

Stewart also described the food he and his fellow prisoners were meant to survive on:

"Here we had 1lb of brown bread per day, a little meat, nominally half a pound, but really not half that weight, for all the heads, legs, livers and other offal were counted in the weight. Though the liver and lights were often putrid and full of bladders, yet so great was our hunger that we could eat almost anything. We were allowed also a few French beans per week, with five farthings in money, but a great part of this was deducted, under pretence of paying for damages done, as well as to buy brooms to sweep the place, tubs for washing and coffins for those that died, for French feeling contained no such sympathy for the English dead, as would meet such a case.

"With our pence, most of us purchased potatoes, onions, turnips, milk and cheese. Some these we had with our meat, others with our French beans, to give them at least some taste. Others either gambled or spent their pence in drink. We clubbed together and formed messes, and had our food boiled in a large copper, each mess having a separate net, with a talley on it, hearing the number of the mess, for its portion of meat, potatoes etc. When the net was brought to the mess it was laid on a large table, and then cut up in lots, according to the number in the mess.

"The process of dividing was an unceremonious as you can well conceive. The carver took hold of the meat with one hand and cut it up with a pocket knife, which he held in the other. This process over, while he points to the lots in succession, calling out, 'who shall have this?' Each one then took his portion in his hands, placed the meat on a piece of bread, cut it with his knife, if fortunately he happened to have one, and thus dined. Most, however, being without the luxury of a knife, employed his teeth as a substitute. As to forks and plates, they were entirely out of the question. We never saw such things."

Barracks

Stewart went on to describe the barracks:

"The unhealthiness of this place at last caused our removal to another within the walls of the town. In Sarrelibre, as generally in all fortified towns, there are long lines of barracks, running parallel with the inside of the rampart elevations, on whose top the guns are worked in times of siege. One of these barracks was fitted up for us. It was enclosed at each end of the building, to and over the rampart, up to the parapet wall, over which the mouths of the cannon project. These boards were at least 20 feet high. On the top of the parapet ran a strong pailing fence, about six feet high, along the inside of which pailing the sentinels continually walked, expect in very bad weather, when they retreated to their centry hut, three of which stood on the parapet wall. The top of the ramparts within these enclosures were allowed us during the day for walking and other recreation, as also a space between the barracks and the rise to ascend the ramparts about sufficient to draw up all the horses Immediately in front of their stable doors, when occupied by cavalry.

"There were ten corridors, five on each of a large gateway which led to the town. In each corridor there were six rooms, that is including the stables, whose racks were removed for our accommodation. Each of these rooms contained seven bedsteads, with straw matresses and a blanket, as in the hospital prison. We were thus 14 in each room. The entrance door of the corridor was locked up every night and on special occasions for punishment when the rooms were severally locked."

By 1814 Stewart had been moved, and was marched back overland to St Malo where he boarded a ship which dropped off Channel Islanders on its way to Portsmouth.