The Highest Ranking Jewish Officer of the American Revolution, Colonel Mordecai Sheftall, Struggles to Practice Judaism as a Prisoner of War, In Spite of Persecution by the British

Along with an extraordinarily rare letter of Sheftall, providing horrifying details of his treatment in captivity, and his extraordinary attempt to defy his captors and give the drowned Allen a proper burial

Both of these precious documents were acquired by us directly from the Allen heirs. They have never before been offered for sale.

Allen’s diary on Sheftall’s persecution and inspirational patriotism: “Pork for dinner. The Jews Mr. Sheftall & son refused to eat their pieces, & their knives & forks were ordered to be greased with it…It is a happiness that Mr. Sheftall is a fellow sufferer. He bears it with such fortitude as is an example to me.”

Sheftall’s letter on his and Allen’s plight as POWs: “Humanity must shudder at the thought of what immediately presented itself to our view, which was nothing less than one of our poor countrymen, stretched out on the deck of the ship, in the agonies of death…The hell- borne monster [Captain Tate], in order as I have supposed to show us what we had to expect from his clemency, kept taunting the poor fellow…in the following manner – ‘Why now, you are mighty bad. I am glad of it. I wish there was ten thousand of you in the same way etc; your d….d Rebel Congress too.”

Sheftall offers to give the captain nearly all his money on hand for boards to properly bury his dead friend Rev. Allen: “Some few days after he was picked up… I offered him [the captain] two half Johanneses out of three that I had for as many boards as would make a coffin for the poor parson… yet this fellow refused to let me have the boards, saying Rebels had no business with coffins.”

Documents relating to American Jews in the Revolutionary War, and particularly showing them practicing their religion in the 18th century, are incredible rarities; we found no other such document having reached the public venue. This is also the only letter of Sheftall we can find ever having reached the market, let one of such power

Allen’s diary also includes news of the fall of Savannah to the British: “A Battle at Savannah & the town taken by ye English. Number lost not known. 30th Between three & four hundred prisoners shut up in ye State house. 31st. Citizens & soldiers drove into a prison ship, no distinction between ye Gentlemen of property, & a rascal at the stews.”

These remarkable artifacts have never been offered for sale before. They were acquired directly from the Allen heirs.

Moses Allen, Reverend from Massachusetts, came from a family of religious patriots. He and his brother, Rev. Thomas Allen, also dubbed the “fighting parson,” were active in patriotic circles and both joined pro-revolutionary military forces. Thomas was active in the Minutemen and earned fame as the hero of the Battle of Bennington. Moses studied at what is now Princeton, and was ordained in 1775 by, among others, William Tennent, Jr., a famous early religious leader whose father was a friend to William Penn. Allen then went South to Charleston, South Carolina to Christ Church to preach and was installed by Tennent at an independent church in Wappetaw in that colony. Here, he fell in love with Elizabeth Odingsell, whose family hailed from Georgia and he went even further south, to Midway Church in Georgia. It was there that he joined the Georgia Brigade of Patriots, to fight for the American cause in the battle of independence from Britain. In December 1778, General Prevost burned his house of worship, took him prisoner and confined him to the notorious prison ship, “The Nancy.”

He was supposed to have been given better quarters because of his stature as Chaplain but his reputation for patriotic speeches at the pulpit made him a target. He was treated poorly.

Just five years into his marriage with his young bride, he determined to rejoin her and make an attempt to escape from captivity, by jumping overboard and swimming to the shore along with two French prisoners-of-war. Twenty yards from the shore, he was afflicted with a cramp, and drowned, on February 8, 1779. His wife was twenty years of age when he died. He was denied the right to a proper burial by the British authorities, but his body did eventually make it back to his family in the north. In 1801, 12 years after his death, his brother, Rev. Thomas Allen, gave his eulogy.

Mordecai Sheftall was a devoted and observant Jew who settled in Savannah when that city had only six Jewish families. In 1771 Mordecai found a Jewish bride, Frances “Fannie” Hart, whom he “imported” from Charleston, South Carolina. Mordecai became a founding subscriber to Congregation Mickve Israel in Savannah, one of the oldest synagogues in the country, and provided the community with land for its first Jewish cemetery.

Like a majority of his co-religionists, Mordecai Sheftall cast his lot with the rebellious Americans against British rule. In time he became the highest ranking Jewish officer on the colonies’ side of the American Revolution. In 1776, Sheftall was elected chairman of the Revolutionary committee that assumed control of local government in Savannah. In 1777, he was appointed Commissary General of Purchases and Issues to the Georgia militia and was thus responsible for supplying the colony’s soldiers with food, clothing and materiel. Sheftall often reached into his own pocket to purchase supplies for the volunteers. In this sense he acted as did Robert Morris, whose personal funds helped finance the Revolution.

In 1778, having proven his skill and selflessness as Commissary General of Georgia, General Robert Howe appointed Sheftall to the post of Deputy Commissary General to the federal troops stationed in Georgia and South Carolina. Before Congress could confirm his role, however, he was captured in December 1778, along with his fifteen-year-old son, Sheftall Sheftall, in the battle to prevent Savannah from falling to British troops. Some of the outnumbered patriots escaped by swimming across the Savannah River, but the younger Sheftall could not swim. His father would not abandon him. With 185 other Americans, they were captured and imprisoned.

The British interrogated the Sheftalls under great duress, depriving them of food for two days. At one point, they were almost bayoneted by a drunken British soldier. Still refusing to provide information about the American’s sources of supplies and refusing to renounce the Patriot cause, father and son were transferred to the dank prison ship “Nancy,” where the British deliberately offered Mordecai no meat other than pork, which he refused. After several months, the elder Sheftall was paroled to the town of Sunbury, Georgia, where he was kept under close British surveillance; his son remained on the “Nancy.”

Moses kept a diary during his captivity on the Nancy. And two sheets, comprising 4 pages, were found on his drowned body and sent back to Thomas, his brother. They record his own treatment on the prison ship, but, remarkably, point out the treatment given to his friend, Mordecai Sheftall. He records the efforts of Sheftall to keep kosher and the anti-Semitic attention aimed in particular at Sheftall.

The diary pages of Moses Allen

“29th December, 1778. Tuesday.

A Battle at Savannah & the town taken by ye English. Number lost not known.

30th Between three & four hundred prisoners shut up in ye State house.

31st. Citizens & soldiers drove into a prison ship, no distinction between ye Gentlemen of property, & a rascal at the stews.

Jan y.1st. Officers allowed their Parole, Chaplain excepted. Parole signed by all except the chaplain, & he ordered to the common jail.

2d. Ordered on board ye Ship Nancy a prison ship. It is a happiness that Mr. Sheftall is a fellow sufferer. He bears it with such fortitude as is an example to me. His case is peculiarly hard & his son suffers with him. The Cap’n seems willing to serve us gives us A room between the Cabin & ye steerage. We are thankful for the distinction made between us & ___.

3rd. Sunday
Our allowance, three gills of rice & eleven ounzes of beef per four & twenty hours. Some officers on board spoke ill natured things of Mr. Sheftall the Cap’n ordered us out of the steerage into ye holde with ye common prisoners. A man dead on board the Chaplain not allowed to bury him.

4th. Nothing in particular. I pity Mr. Bryan

5th. Cap’n of transport called to Agent _____.

The question asked of the Capn of the Nancy Tate by ye Agent Noles. Have you a Parson Allen on board? Yes. Take care of him he’s ye damnedest rebel upon the continent. Poor consolation for a man in distress & denied a hearing.

6th Ordered to Cockspurn. A man dead on board. The Lieut. Of ye Vigilant forbid ye Chaplain’s burying him.

7th Head wind – move but little to-day. Got down to tybe – buried another.

There is a break between the 7th and the 29th, with the interim days likely lost to sea.

“…Jail six days for saying that Parson Allen was used very ill at the time of captivity.

29th (Jan.) A corps buried. Seven dead since we went on board.

Went on board ye Whitby.

30th A Bit of pork for dinner. The Jews Mr. Sheftall & son refused to eat their pieces, & their knives & forks were ordered to be greased with it.

31st. Sergt. Bond came aboard. They have lost five men belonging to the Vigilant.

___ News by a Woman that Col. Brown is not killed, but his arm wounded & cut off. 17 men of his killed in the action at the time he was wounded –that the enemies Light Infantry were all killed & taken on Sunday last at Briar Creek, &c. The Eleanora an Hospital Ship came down took 70 sick.”

2 weeks later, these pages were taken from his drowned body by friends.

Eleven years later, Sheftall heard that the captain of that ship, Tate, had been permitted to stay in the United States and was living in New Hampshire. This enraged Sheftall, who excoriated him in this letter, in which he stuck up for Allen and described trying to give him a proper burial. The letter is missing the final third of the final page but retains the franking sheet in his hand. It comes with a copy of the complete letter in the hand of William Allen, Thomas’s son.

Autograph letter, February 24, 1790, to Capt. Joseph McLellan, on the sloop Falmouth of Portland.

“Sir, The other evening, entering into conversation with you respecting a man, whom I had known during the late war on board the prison ship Nancy, commanded by one Samuel Tate, heavens, what was my astonishment to find, that miscreant was now living in the town of Portland (Falmouth) in the state of New Hampshire (Mass.) Surely the good people of that place cannot be acquainted with the character of the man, or tis impossible that he should be permitted to reside amongst Americans, much less allowed to carry on trade, as I suppose that to be the case. I take the liberty of giving you a short detail of that man’s conduct towards the poor prisoners, that were put on board his ship.

“I was sent on board his ship on the 2nd day of January, 1779, with the Rev. Moses Allen, also a son of mine; several other gentlemen. Humanity must shudder at the thought of what immediately presented itself to our view, which was nothing less than one of our poor countrymen, stretched out on the deck of the ship, in the agonies of death, without the least medical assistance, or even the smallest nourishment, when the hell dash borne monster, in order as I have supposed to show us what we had to expect from his clemency, kept taunting the poor fellow, (who retained his senses to the last), in the following manner – “Why now, you are mighty bad. I am glad of it. I wish there was ten thousand of you in the same way etc; your d….d rebel congress too.” The next thing, which I took notice of, that I took notice of, was the scanty allowance of provisions with which we were served, which was two pints and a half; half a gill of rice, served out to each mess, together with 7 ounces of beef for each man 24 hours. Judge you what an allowance this – not quite half a pound of rice, a man for 24 hours; that not half boiled. This lasted for 12 days when captain Henry of the Foie man of war, who then acted as commodore, Capt. Hyde Parker being at that time in Savannah, assisting in the regulating their police, permitted us to write to town (as we then lay at Cockspur) for assistance to my friends which I did; in a very pointed manner described the situation of the poor prisoners, well knowing that my letter would be read by the commander in chief who was Col.

“Campbell, who was a man of humanity and a gentleman although an enemy. My letter had the desired the effect, and orders were given to serve out 4 quarts of rice to each mess consisting of 6 men. This was some relief to us poor prisoners, though it served our monster of a captain also, for he was steward or commissary, and he took care, that if we were benefitted by the late order, he would be profited by it, for his gallant pot, which we were served out of, only held 5 pints per gill. This evil, although often complained off, was never remedied, and this son of malice permitted to enrich his coffers at the expense and blood of numbers of our worthy citizens, for from the scanty allowance of provisions the poor fellows were induced to take large draughts of water, and that frequently brackish, which brought on dysenteries; occasioned the death of many much better men, than the wretch I am writing about.

“Before taking my leave of this citizen (or alien) I must mention two or three acts of his, one, that I have seen him take a bottle of fresh water from one of our soldiers, who was carrying it between decks to his companion, who the soldier said was very ill, but this brute, divested of every feeling of humanity through the bottle overboard; told the soldier, if his companion wanted water, he must come and fetch it. The poor man was accordingly brought up by two of his companions when I held the cann to his mouth, and the poor creature drank I suppose a quart of the water. The next morning the poor man was brought up dead from between decks.

“The next thing I would wish to remind him of is, that the Rev. Moses Allen, brother to (Colonel) Rev. Thomas Allen of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, being tired; fretted almost to death (being a man of high spirits) at the treatment he received from this hero of a captain, had endeavoured to make his escape from the ship by swimming, in which attempt he was unfortunately drowned. Some few days after he was picked up, and though there was a quantity of boards on board the ship, which this man caused his boats to pick up; bring on board, and I offered him two half Johanneses out of three, that I had, for as many boards, as would make a coffin for the poor parson; some of the soldiers offered to make the coffin; yet this fellow refused to let me have the boards, saying Rebels had no business with coffins.

“To enumerate all that I know of this said Capt. Samuel Tate, late master of the prison ship Nancy, in the service of the British Tyrant, would take more of my time, than I wish to [take]. Therefore I shall conclude with offering you, that you have my liberty to show this to any body you please and to publish it in the newspaper of Portland or any other place that you like. I wish you a good voyage and happy sight of your friends and family.”

Reinforced at the folds, which were separated.  The signature and approximately 1/5 of the final page are no longer present. With a copy of the full letter entirely in the hand of the Fighting Parson, Thomas Allen.

Only three documents of Sheftall appear in public sale records in the last 100 years, the last more than 20 years ago. This is the only letter we can find having reached the market.

These remarkable artifacts have never been offered for sale before. They were acquired directly from the Allen heirs.