Fort Delaware

JohnHart · Mist Joined: 18 Mar 2008 Posts: 35

Fort Delaware

Location: Delaware City, Delaware

History: In 1794, Congress passed legislation providing for a permanent system of seacoast fortifications to defend the United States against foreign invasion. A French engineer, named Pierre Charles L'Enfant selected a small marshy island in the middle of the Delaware River as the perfect location of a defensive fortification. Unfortunately, Dr. Henry Gale was using the island as his private hunting grounds and refused to turn it over to the United States military. The Delaware State Legislature stepped in and turned the island over to the military. Construction of the first fort began in 1819, but it was destroyed by fire in 1831.

Plans for a new fort were put on hold when in 1838, a man named J.T. Hudson claimed ownership of the island. Dr. Gale had left the island to him in his will. Construction was held up for ten years, and then in 1848 the Supreme Court ordered the government to pay Hudson a sum of $1,000 for rights to the island. Construction of a new fort began in 1848 under the control of Brevet Major John Sanders. The amount of work and the early winter slowed the construction process.

At the beginning of the Civil War, the fort was converted to a military garrison. The first Confederate prisoners began to arrival at the fort in July 1861. The facility wasn't prepared to house the number of prisoners that were sent there. The prisoners were housed in barracks that provided inadequate shelter. The barracks were overcrowded and infested with lice, rats, and malaria-infected mosquitoes. Many of the prisoners contracted dysentery, small pox, and other diseases. A 600 bed hospital was built to provide care for the numerous sick prisoners.

After the battles of Vicksburg and Gettysburg, the prison population grew by more than 12,500. In three and a half years, more than 30,000 Confederate prisoners were held at Fort Delaware; more than 2,400 prisoners died while in custody. After the end of the Civil War, the prisoner barracks were torn down.

During World War II, troops were once stationed on the island, but they were gone by 1943. The fort was unused from 1947 to 1951, at which time it was handed over to the Delaware State Parks Commission.

Haunting: Workers and visitors have reported sounds of chains and moans coming from the old dungeon. Ghosts of fleeing Confederate soldiers have been seen on the parade grounds and under the ramparts.

The ghost of Confederate General James Archer is reported to haunt the area around the labyrinth of old gun emplacements deep inside the fortress.
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John Hart
Vintage Computer Collector