Fort Delaware

By Laura M. Lee and Brendan Mackie

Located on Pea Patch Island, Fort Delaware was erected to defend local ports from enemy attack but never received or fired a shot in anger. The first earthen-work version, constructed during the War of 1812, was followed by a second 1820s plan incorporating a masonry star design with a network of drainage ditches. Engineering issues and a low-lying site doomed the structure; in 1831, it was irreparably damaged by fire. A new plan created a more substantial fortification still standing to this day. Fort Delaware evolved into a well-established community that transformed from protector to notorious Civil War prison camp. Most widely known as a prison, it subsequently served in lesser roles through three more conflicts. Images of America: Fort Delaware unifies an amazing pictorial record of Fort Delaware s historical timeline. The story is not only of active duty but its rescue from abandonment and subsequent successful preservation work.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Aug 2, 2010
• ISBN: 9781439626238

Laura M. Lee

Laura M. Lee is interpretive program manager and historian at Fort Delaware State Park. Brendan Mackie is a member of the Delaware Army National Guard and the Fort Delaware Society. The images within the book have been graciously shared by the Fort Delaware Society, Delaware Public Archives, and private collections.

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INTRODUCTION

Pea Patch Island, home to Fort Delaware, did not begin as an island. The site appeared as a shoal on both 1756 and 1779 river charts; it was not until 1801 that it was referred to in print as an island. Formation probably had more to do with settlement of river sediment than the legendary ship spilling its cargo of peas, as commonly mentioned in histories of the island. The island’s military potential was first cited in a 1794 letter to the secretary of war from Maj. Pierre L’Enfant, a French engineer working in the service of the United States. L’Enfant recommended the Delaware River island as an ideal location for coastal defense, saying that a fort on the Pip Ash would bring perfect security to the river and harbor towns. The first effort to erect fortifications on the island began in 1813, when Capt. Thomas Clark was sent with 100 soldiers and 40 laborers. His orders were to erect a work, of earth (or more durable materials, if found advisable). Plans for this square fort with four rounded bastions included armament of 32 twenty-four-pounder guns. Clark oversaw construction of an embankment wall in 1814 that prevented the island from being covered at high water level and also sunk chevaux-de-fris for channel defense. His work on this earthen defense included a wharf and tide bank surrounding roughly 70 acres of the island.

Capt. Samuel Babcock led the construction on a more permanent work that began in earnest in 1815. The first use of the name Fort Delaware appeared in an overly optimistic 1821 report, which claimed that the installation is about five-sixths finished and will be completed in the course of a year. However, problems had developed as a result of the island’s low-lying land. An uneven settling of the masonry on the marshy piece of ground, combined with rampant illness among the construction workers (Babcock included) resulted in continued delays. Among other problems, the embankment walls were damaged by an 1823 storm, necessitating replacement. Babcock too, was replaced a year later, when he was court-martialed on charges including neglect of duty, disobedience of orders and conduct unbecoming of an officer and gentleman. Though acquitted of guilt for mismanagement of the project, Babcock did not return to Fort Delaware. Repairs on the cracked and settling walls continued until the sandstone fort’s completion in 1827. The post was armed with 234 guns, 28 carronades, 10 howitzers, and never more than 100 members of the garrison. Total cost to the United States was over $480,000. The post’s enemies, however, did not include invaders, but flooding, storms, and disease. Amid all these challenges, on February 8, 1831, a devastating fire broke out. Caused by a spark from a chimney, the inferno destroyed woodwork and roofing, essentially gutting the structure. The same year, Fort Delaware was declared a total loss.

The work on the new and larger Fort Delaware began in 1833 under the supervision of Capt. Richard Delafield but was halted due to a dispute over ownership of the island. Once settled, Delafield was no longer at the post, and construction began again in earnest under Brevet Maj. John Sanders. This new version was designed with a radically improved foundation of pilings and grillage timber. But Sanders would not live to see the fort finished; he passed away on the island in 1858. Capt. John Newton oversaw completion of the project; Fort Delaware was essentially functional by 1860, with additional work such as hanging windows and doors taking place throughout the following four years. The fortification took nearly 12 years to build, at a cost of more than $1.305 million.

The largest and arguably most impressive fortification in the United States at the time, its construction and operation turned sleepy Delaware City into a bustling town providing work and enhancing commerce for many. Fort Delaware eventually was to be part of a three-point system of defense, which would later include Fort Mott in New Jersey and Fort Reynolds on the Delaware side (also known as Ten Gun Battery, and later Fort DuPont). The fortification never fired a shot in anger nor was fired upon, not counting a test fire aimed at the building in December 1868. The outbreak of the Civil War altered the post’s destiny dramatically, from that of protector to prison.

As the war progressed, Fort Delaware’s artillery batteries drilled in preparation for an attack that would never happen. Union victories in the war produced an increasing number of prisoners, rapidly filling already existing prison camps. Initially prisoner exchange between the North and South created a revolving door of sorts, but exchanges stalled. The South’s refusal to treat captured black Union troops as soldiers, combined with the North’s realization that they were fighting the same men over and over, created a backlog of prisoners for the Federal government.

The decision to transform the fort into a prison camp was not well received by its staff. Pea Patch was an ideal location not only because of its island status but also because it was an easily accessible site for prisoner exchanges. Surely the Union soldiers stationed at Fort Delaware were not particularly pleased about the addition of prison guard duties. The first prisoners to arrive at Fort Delaware, 250 men captured at the Battle of Kernstown, were housed within the fort’s walls. Temporary barracks were hastily erected outside Fort Delaware not long after. By June of the same year, there was room for some 2,000 prisoners, with more barracks in the works for another 3,000. Brig. Gen. Albin Schoepf supervised construction of a prison compound on the western side of the island, thus creating accommodations for some 10,000 prisoners. The island’s capacity was more than maxed out after Gettysburg and Vicksburg, when approximately 12,000 prisoners filled the barracks, while close to 13,000 total people resided on the island. In fact, a party held by Schoepf to celebrate completion of the barracks was interrupted by the arrival of 1,000 more rebels.

Fort Delaware was different from most other prison camps, housing enlisted men, officers, and political prisoners. Generally high-ranking officers and political prisoners resided in the interior of the fort, within the brick barracks rooms originally intended for the garrison. On rare occasions, Confederate officers attempted to hide their identity in an effort to stay with their men,