<DIV>Between 1775 and 1783, some 200,000 Americans took up arms against the British Crown?of them about 25,000 became prisoners of war. In the British prison ships of New York, captives were chronically underfed, while multitudes died of disease in fetid, cramped cells. The exact death toll cannot be known, but the evidence suggests that as many as 18,000 Americans died while incarcerated?more than twice as many as died on the battlefield.<p>Drawing on a vast array of diaries, personal narratives, and private correspondence, Pulitzer Prize?winning historian Edwin G. Burrows offers in <i>Forgotten Patriots</i> the first complete history of this ghastly and unacknowledged tragedy of the American Revolution.</DIV>