Fort Delaware is a harbor defense facility built in 1859 on
Pea Patch IslandPea Patch Island is a small island, approximately 1 mi long, in the U.S. state of Delaware, located in the mid channel of the Delaware River near its entrance into Delaware Bay. It is a low, marshy island, located in New Castle County, facing Delaware City on the Delaware shore, and Finns Point on...
in the
Delaware RiverThe Delaware River is a major river on the Atlantic coast of the United States.The Delaware was explored by Adriaen Block as part of the New Netherlands Colony, and was named the South River to mark the southernmost reach of that colony....
. During the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
, the
UnionThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
used Fort Delaware as a
prisonA prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Other terms are penitentiary, correctional facility, and jail , although in the United States "jail" and "prison" refer to different subtypes of correctional facility...
for
ConfederateThe Confederate States of America was a separatist political entity existing between 1861 to 1865, established by eleven southern slave states of the United States of America, each of which had previously declared their secession from the United States...
prisoners of warA prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a combatant who is held in continuing custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
. The fort and the island currently belong to the
Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental ControlThe Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control of the state of Delaware is the primary body concerned with the governance of public land, natural resources, and environmental regulations for the state. DNREC is composed of several Divisions that have correlates in other U.S...
and encompasses a
living historyLiving history is an activity that incorporates historical tools, activities and dress into an interactive presentation that seeks to give observers and participants a sense of stepping back in time. Although it does not necessarily seek to reenact a specific event in history, living history is...
museumA museum is a building or institution which houses a collection of artifacts.Museums collect and care for objects of scientific, artistic, or historical importance and make them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary...
, located in
Fort Delaware State ParkFort Delaware State Park is a Delaware state park on Pea Patch Island in New Castle County, Delaware, in the United States. A fortress was built on Pea Patch Island by the United States Army in 1815, near the conclusion of the War of 1812, to protect the harbors of Wilmington, Delaware and...
.
In 1794, the
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
military engineerA military engineer is primarily responsible for the design and construction of offensive, defensive, and logistical structures for warfare. Other duties include the layout, placement, maintenance and dismantling of defensive minefields and the clearing of enemy minefields and the construction...
Pierre Charles L’Enfant was surveying for defensive sites. He identified an island that he called
Pip Ash "as an ideal site for the defense of the prize of American commerce and culture".
The island that L'Enfant called Pip Ash was locally known as Pea Patch island.
Fort Delaware is a harbor defense facility built in 1859 on
Pea Patch IslandPea Patch Island is a small island, approximately 1 mi long, in the U.S. state of Delaware, located in the mid channel of the Delaware River near its entrance into Delaware Bay. It is a low, marshy island, located in New Castle County, facing Delaware City on the Delaware shore, and Finns Point on...
in the
Delaware RiverThe Delaware River is a major river on the Atlantic coast of the United States.The Delaware was explored by Adriaen Block as part of the New Netherlands Colony, and was named the South River to mark the southernmost reach of that colony....
. During the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
, the
UnionThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
used Fort Delaware as a
prisonA prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Other terms are penitentiary, correctional facility, and jail , although in the United States "jail" and "prison" refer to different subtypes of correctional facility...
for
ConfederateThe Confederate States of America was a separatist political entity existing between 1861 to 1865, established by eleven southern slave states of the United States of America, each of which had previously declared their secession from the United States...
prisoners of warA prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a combatant who is held in continuing custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
. The fort and the island currently belong to the
Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental ControlThe Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control of the state of Delaware is the primary body concerned with the governance of public land, natural resources, and environmental regulations for the state. DNREC is composed of several Divisions that have correlates in other U.S...
and encompasses a
living historyLiving history is an activity that incorporates historical tools, activities and dress into an interactive presentation that seeks to give observers and participants a sense of stepping back in time. Although it does not necessarily seek to reenact a specific event in history, living history is...
museumA museum is a building or institution which houses a collection of artifacts.Museums collect and care for objects of scientific, artistic, or historical importance and make them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary...
, located in
Fort Delaware State ParkFort Delaware State Park is a Delaware state park on Pea Patch Island in New Castle County, Delaware, in the United States. A fortress was built on Pea Patch Island by the United States Army in 1815, near the conclusion of the War of 1812, to protect the harbors of Wilmington, Delaware and...
.
History
In 1794, the
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
military engineerA military engineer is primarily responsible for the design and construction of offensive, defensive, and logistical structures for warfare. Other duties include the layout, placement, maintenance and dismantling of defensive minefields and the clearing of enemy minefields and the construction...
Pierre Charles L’Enfant was surveying for defensive sites. He identified an island that he called
Pip Ash "as an ideal site for the defense of the prize of American commerce and culture".
The island that L'Enfant called Pip Ash was locally known as Pea Patch island. This island was mostly unaffected by humanity with one exception. Dr. Henry Gale, a
New JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, and to the east by the Hudson River, Upper New York Bay, the Kill Van Kull, Newark Bay, the Arthur Kill, Raritan Bay, Sandy Hook Bay, Westchester County, New York City, Long Island, and...
resident, used Pea Patch as a private hunting ground. Gale was offered $30,000 for the island by the US military, but he refused. The military was determined to get the island, so they appealed to the Delaware state legislature, which seized the island from Dr. Gale on May 27, 1813.
Construction of the fort and the Civil War
Construction of a fort on Pea Patch island began sometime before Dec 8, 1817. Chief Engineer Joseph Gardner Swift mentions a fort on the "Pea Patch in Delaware river" among forts that are progressing nicely. A fire destroyed much of the work in 1831.
Major Richard DelafieldRichard Delafield served as superintendent of the United States Military Academy, was Chief of Engineers, and was a major general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.-Biography:...
asked for $10,000 to tear down the remaining structure the following year. The structure was torn down in 1833.
Major Delafield desired to "erect a marvel of military architecture on Pea Patch." The present structure was erected between 1848 and 1859, becoming the largest fort in the United States at the time.
During the
Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
, beginning in 1862, the island became a prison for captured Confederates and local Southern sympathizers. They were housed not in the fort itself but in wooden barracks that soon covered much of the island. Most of the Confederates captured at
GettysburgThe Battle of Gettysburg , fought in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, as part of the Gettysburg Campaign, was the battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War and is often described as the war's turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of...
were imprisoned there. By August 1863, there were 12,500 prisoners on the island; by war’s end, it had held some 40,000 men. The conditions were predictably notorious, and about 2,900 prisoners died at Fort Delaware.
The fort was also used to organize and muster troops from the first state.
Ahl's Heavy Artillery CompanyAhl's Independent Company, Heavy Artillery was an heavy artillery battery that served in the Union army in the American Civil War...
was organized there for garrison duty and served there during its entire service.
The Fort today
Delaware acquired the fort from the United States government in 1947 after
the PentagonThe Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself....
declared it a "surplus site". Today,
Fort Delaware State ParkFort Delaware State Park is a Delaware state park on Pea Patch Island in New Castle County, Delaware, in the United States. A fortress was built on Pea Patch Island by the United States Army in 1815, near the conclusion of the War of 1812, to protect the harbors of Wilmington, Delaware and...
encompasses all of Pea Patch Island, including the Fort. Transportation to the island is provided via
ferryA ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
. Once at the island, visitors are brought to the fort on a
jitneyA share taxi is a mode of transport that falls between private transport and conventional bus transport, often with a fixed or semi-fixed route, but with the added convenience of stopping anywhere to pick up or drop off passengers and not having fixed time schedules...
. Tours and special programs are available to visitors. For example, visitors may see one of the fort's
cannonA cannon is any tubular piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellants to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
s fired. There are workers who interpret the roles of people who were at the Fort during the American Civil War.
Beach erosionCoastal erosion is the wearing away of land or the removal of beach or dune sediments by wave action, tidal currents, wave currents, or drainage...
affecting Pea Patch Island was recognized as a potential threat to the Fort in 1999. The
United States Army Corps of EngineersThe United States Army Corps of Engineers is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 34,600 civilian and 650 military personnel, making it the world's largest public engineering, design and construction management agency...
erected a 3,500-foot-long
seawallA seawall is a form of hard and strong coastal defense constructed on the inland part of a coast to reduce the effects of strong waves.In the UK, sea wall also refers to an earthen bank used to create a polder, or a dike...
during the Winter of 2005-2006 which now protects the historical fort site and a
migratory birdBird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. These however are usually irregular or in only one direction and are termed variously as nomadism, invasions,...
rookeryA rookery is a colony of breeding animals. The term Rookery has also been used as a name for dense slum housing in nineteenth-century cities, and especially London....
, considered to be the largest such habitat north of
FloridaFlorida is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the north. It was the 27th state admitted to the United States...
.
Each year in the second week of June, there is an "Escape from Fort Delaware" triathlon, where entrants follow in the footsteps of the 52 escapees from the Civil War prison. A boat shuttles the athletes out to Fort Delaware, a Civil War historical interpreter fires a musket to start the race, the swimmers jump into the Delaware River, and swim back to land and then do the bike and run events, finishing on the town green in
Delaware City, DelawareDelaware City is a city in New Castle County, Delaware, United States. The population was 1,453 at the 2000 census. It is a small port town on the eastern terminus of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and is the location of the ferry to Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island.-Geography:Delaware City is...
.
Fort Delaware has its share of ghost stories and has recently been under investigation for paranormal activity. The
Sci-Fi ChannelSyfy is an American cable television channel launched on September 24, 1992, that specializes in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and paranormal programming. It is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBC Universal...
investigation series
Ghost HuntersGhost Hunters is an American paranormal reality television series that premiered on October 6, 2004 on the SciFi Channel . The program features paranormal investigators Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson who investigate places that are reported to be haunted. The two originally worked as plumbers for...
conducted two cases there including a live televised investigation on Halloween in 2008.
The British series
Most HauntedMost Haunted is a British paranormal documentary reality television series that premiered on May 25, 2002 on Living. The programme is based on investigating purported paranormal activity. It is shown on the satellite and cable channels Living, Living2 and Virgin 1 , primarily for the UK market...
also did an investigation of the fort in their 11th series of the show.
Books
Bruce MowdayBruce E. Mowday is an author and Republican political activist who lives in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He specializes in books about local history.- Books :...
and Dale Fetzer wrote
Unlikely Allies: Fort Delaware's Prison Community in the Civil War in 2000. It is published by Stackpole Books.
External links