THE CIVIL WAR: THE TRUE STORY BOOK 1

Fort Delaware

Fort Delaware is a former harbor defense facility, designed by chief engineer Joseph Gilbert Totten and located on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River.

During the American Civil War, the Union used Fort Delaware as a prison for Confederate prisoners of war, political prisoners, federal convicts, and privateer officers. A three-gun concrete battery of 12-inch guns, later named Battery Torbert, was designed by Maj. Charles W. Raymond and built inside the fort in the 1890s.

By 1900, the fort was part of a three fort concept, the first forts of the Coast Defenses of the Delaware, working closely with Fort Mott in Pennsville, New Jersey, and Fort DuPont in Delaware City, Delaware. The fort and the island currently belong to the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) and encompass a living history museum, located in Fort Delaware State Park.

During the Civil War, Fort Delaware went from protector to prison; a prisoner-of-war camp was established to house captured Confederates, convicted federal soldiers, and local political prisoners as well as privateers. The first prisoners were housed inside the fort in sealed off casemates, empty powder magazines, and two small rooms inside the sally port. In those small rooms, names of Confederates can still be seen carved into the brick. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the island "contained an average population of southern tourists, who came at the urgent invitation of Mr. Lincoln". The first Confederate general to be housed at the fort was Brig. Gen. Johnston Pettigrew. During the war, a total of about a dozen generals were held within the fort as prisoners-of-war.

In 1862 and 1863, two separate phases of construction took place, building a "barracks for enlisted prisoners of war" that was known as the "bull pen," said Pvt. Henry Robinson Berkeley a Confederate prisoner. Most of the Confederates captured at Gettysburg were imprisoned here. An L-shaped barracks building, using similar plans, was constructed for Union soldiers assigned as guards. A 600-bed hospital was also built around the same time and was designed by architect John McArthur Jr. of Philadelphia. "These Barracks [sic] were common wooden sheds, affording accommodation for about ten thousand persons," wrote Lt. Francis W. Dawson, a Confederate POW captured in August 1862. "The bunks were arranged in tiers of three, and into one of these I crawled. The next morning I was told that these Barracks were the quarters for the privates and non-commissioned officers, and that, by requesting it, I could be removed to the quarters for the officers, which were inside the Fort."

The first Confederate prisoner to die at Fort Delaware was Captain L. P. Halloway of the 27th Virginia Infantry. He was captured at Winchester, Va. on March 23, 1862, dying on April 9.[30] Captain Halloway, a Freemason, was given a full Masonic funeral by Jackson Lodge in Delaware City. The funeral procession was led by fort's commander, Captain Augustus A. Gibson, from the town's lock on Clinton Street, and ended in the cemetery on Jefferson Street. According to church records, Halloway's body was reclaimed by his family after the war.

By August 1863, there were more than 11,000 prisoners on the island; by war's end, it had held almost 33,000 men. The conditions were relatively decent, but about 2,500 prisoners died on Pea Patch Island. Statistically, the overall death rate for prisoners was about 7.6 percent. Half of the total number of deaths occurred during a smallpox epidemic in 1863. Inflammation of the lungs (243 deaths), various forms of diarrhea (315 deaths) and smallpox (272 deaths) were the leading killers amongst the prison population. About 215 prisoners died as a result of typhoid and/or malaria, according to records in the National Archives.  Other causes of death include scurvy (70 deaths), pneumonia (61 deaths) and erysipelas (47 deaths). Five prisoners drowned, and seven died from gunshot wounds. During the war, 109 Union soldiers and about 40 civilians died on the island as well.

Many of the Confederate prisoners and Union guards who died at the fort are buried in the nearby Finn's Point National Cemetery in Pennsville, New Jersey.