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Brubaker’s Petition
Daniel Brubaker, a citizen of Lancaster County, owned the land on which the camp was situated.
In December 1781, four months after the arrival of the first prisoners, he sent a petition to
Benjamin Lincoln, General in the Continental Army and member of the Supreme Executive Council
of Pennsylvania, setting forth certain grievances regarding damages due to the construction
of the camp. He stated that he owned 280 acres of land near York, for which he had paid 1,200
pound specie. This land had been selected for the prisoner of war camp. One hundred acres of
land had been cleared, he complained, the persons employed by the government had cleared an
additional thirty acres for timber, for which he received no pay. The guards had also used all
the fall rails, which had enclosed his land. This had deprived his tenant of the Indian corn on
the land and the use of his pasture. He further stated that he did not want to say anything
against Colonel Wood, but regretted the condition to which his land had been subjected. Brubaker
acknowledged that the prisoners could not be removed due to inclement weather, but requested that
no further damage be done to his property.
According to Gibson (1886), about twenty acres of his land was cleared for the placement of the
prison. The remaining hundred acres was used for the planting of provisions to feed the
prisoners. The prison was surrounded by a picket fence, 15 feet high, of timbers closely
fitted together, and sharpened on the tops. Inside the picket was a round stockade of similar
construction, in which was built small fieldstone huts for the prisoners to live. Outside of the
stockade, a second village of fieldstone huts was constructed to house the women and children.
This second camp came to be known as Camp Indulgence.
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