American Prisoner of War Cemetery, Princetown

Historic England's register entry for the American Prisoner of War Cemetery at HM Prison Dartmoor (list entry 1427525, a registered park and garden) describes a burial ground laid out in 1866 to 1868 to commemorate the American prisoners of war who died at Dartmoor Prison during the Anglo-American War of 1812 to 1815. It is a rectangle of about 0.3 hectares just north of the prison, outside the prison wall, enclosed by a local granite retaining wall about a metre high. Farmland surrounds it with rugged moorland beyond to the north and east, and the French Prisoner of War Cemetery, laid out in 1866 to 1868 to a similar design, lies immediately to the west. It lies in the parish of Dartmoor Forest, about 0.9 km east of North Hessary Tor and 0.7 km north of Princetown.

A track along the outside of the prison wall leads to it from east or west. It can be entered from the south by small steps in the wall or by an opening further along that has had decorative cast-iron spear-headed gates, given by Dartmoor Prison, since 2002, and which lead by a gravel path to a commemorative obelisk in the middle. It can also be entered from the east through a granite memorial gate presented in 1928 by the United States Daughters of 1812, a copy of the main outer gate of Dartmoor Prison of about 1808. The ground is lawn with a perimeter walk, rising to a bank against the drystone wall, planted with a row of oaks. The obelisk commemorates the American prisoners of war who died at Dartmoor between 1812 and 1815. It was made by convicts of the then civilian Dartmoor Prison in about 1866 to 1868, and a photograph of about 1900 shows it standing on a granite rubble base planted as a fern rockery. It now has a circular stepped base added about 2002. Two black marble slabs flank it on the north, inscribed with the names of the 271 American soldiers who died at Dartmoor between 1812 and 1815. They were put up in 2010 after a campaign led by the US Daughters of 1812 that led to the naming of the 271 men. A flagpole 2 or 3 metres north-east of the obelisk was added at the same time.

Sources: Historic England list entry 1427525, which cites Joy, Dartmoor Prison: A Complete Illustrated History (2002), vol 1, page 99, and vol 2, pages 43 and 173, James, Prisoners of War at Dartmoor: American and French Soldiers and Sailors in an English Prison during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 (2013), the Ordnance Survey 1:2500 map of 1884 and Historic England Archive report HMP Dartmoor, building file 92318.

• Status: Listed building (Historic England list entry 1427525)
• Grid reference: SX 5882 7417 (approximate, from the listing's coordinates)