Tomb of the Martyrs

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Hudson Avenue at the end of Front Street in Vinegar Hill, 1839. Modern tinting.

The precursor to the magnificent granite staircase and 149-foot Doric column crowning the high-point of Fort Greene Park was this modest memorial, located for much of the 19th century in the Vinegar Hill neighborhood just outside to the Navy Yard. Erected to commemorate the remains of the Prison Ship Martyrs, it was a reminder of the greatest suffering endured in the cause of American liberty. Estimates of the dead from the prison ships exceeded 11,000 — nearly triple the 4,400 Americans who died in all the battles of the revolution.

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