Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past rediscovered.

Here's a statistic about the revolutionary war that'll probably stun you.

More patriots died as prisoners of war in or around New York City than died in combat.

You heard that right. New York City, then died in combat. You heard that right.

New York City.

Those POWs are memorialized in Brooklyn at Fort Green Park.

At the park, there is a little-known crypt containing the remains of an estimated 11,500

prisoners of war from the American Revolution.

It's called the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument.

According to the daughters of the American Revolution,

it's the largest single revolutionary war grave in the country.

This is its story. During the American Revolution, the British created makeshift

prisons throughout New York City to hold American soldiers, sailors, patriotic non-combatants,

and unlucky bystanders who were taken prisoner by the British.

About 30,000 prisoners altogether were held in a variety of grim buildings.

Some of them were packed inside churches scattered around the tip of Manhattan.

Others were stuffed inside a leaky sugar refinery.

Others were thrown in a former city jail.

But the worst conditions, where disease and malnutrition were most rampant,

were a handful of decrepit ships moored near what is now called Brooklyn Navy Yard.

British forces had beaten the Patriots in the Battle of Brooklyn. George Washington was able to evacuate his army to Manhattan and then further north, saving the bulk of his force.

But he lost several thousand men as prisoners, which was more than the British knew what to do with.

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