Letters

American prisoners of war in the War of 1812 wrote letters home from depots such as Dartmoor in Devon and Melville Island at Halifax, and from parole towns where officers were quartered. Their correspondence, together with prison diaries and postwar memoirs, documents captivity under a system of inspection, exchange negotiations, and slow communications. This article explains what those letters contain, how they reached their destinations, and how historians weigh their evidence.

Thomas Jefferson’s wartime correspondence from 1812 to 1815 offers a revealing view of American political attitudes, strategic expectations, and the moral debates surrounding the conflict. His letters to Madison, Kosciusko, Maury, and Cooper blend patriotic confidence with proposals for retaliation and economic independence.