Fort Mifflin
Encyclopedia
Fort Mifflin, originally called Fort Island Battery and also known as Mud Island Fort, was commissioned in 1771 and sits on Mud Island (or Deep Water Island) on the Delaware River
below Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
near Philadelphia International Airport
. During the American Revolutionary War
, the British Army bombarded and captured the fort as part of their conquest of Philadelphia in autumn 1777. The United States Army began to rebuild the fort in 1794 and continued to garrison and build on the site through the 19th century. It housed prisoners during the American Civil War. The Army decommissioned Fort Mifflin in 1962 and returned it to the City of Philadelphia. Historic preservationists have restored the fort.
and Schuylkill River
as strategically important for the defense of the settlement. William Penn
, a Quaker with religious objections to military life, however, left Philadelphia undefended. Whenever European colonists established permanent settlements, fortifications in or near those settlements commonly provided protection. Quakers founded the only significant European settlements without fortification. As the Quakers rejected the military, they sought to make peace with the Native Americans in the area to avoid the need for fortifications. While other colonies suffered from conflict and warfare, Philadelphia prospered.
By the 1740s, it ranked as the richest British port in the New World. French and Spanish privateer
s then entered the Delaware River, threatening the city. During King George's War
(1744–1748), Benjamin Franklin
raised a militia, because the legislators of the city decided to take no action to defend Philadelphia "either by erecting fortifications or buildings Ships of War". He raised money to create earthwork defenses and to buy artillery. At the end of the war, commanders disbanded the militia and left derelict the defenses of the city. With renewed colonial warfare in the 1750s, people drew up plans for a fort on Mudd Island but did not implement any such plan. Only in the 1770s did the city acquire permanent fortifications.
By 1771, Philadelphia ranked as the largest British port and dockyard in North America. Locals then rose in protest against British economic policies and imports. In response to complaints by the Secretary of State for the Colonies
, Philadelphia Governor John Penn asked General Thomas Gage
to send someone capable of designing defenses for the city. He intended a fort on Mudd Island to help to regulate traffic entering and exiting the port. Gage assigned Engineering Captain John Montresor
to the task. Montresor presented six designs to Penn and the Board of Commissioners; the board proposed constructing a fort on Mud Island (also known as Deep Water Island).
The Commissioners reviewed the plans, found all too expensive, and insisted on economy despite protestations of Montresor about budget. Montresor stated that his preferred plan cost about £40,000 and that he intended to mount "32 pieces of cannon, 4 mortars and 4 royal howitzers ... which at 6 men each make 240 men required, 160 musketry, in all 400 garrison." The colonial General Assembly passed a bill releasing £15,000 for the construction of the fort and the purchase of Mud Island from Joseph Galloway, the Speaker of the House. The board instructed Montresor to begin construction but failed to provide him with the funds that he considered necessary to do so properly. The rooms in the farthest interior of "casemate #11" probably date from the original construction in 1771. On 4 June 1772, Montresor left the head workman in charge of the construction project and returned to New York disgruntled. The project floundered onward for about a year, when it stopped for lack of guidance and funding. The crews completed only the south walls, built in stone.
headed a committee to provide for the defense of Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Committee of Public Safety quickly thereafter restarted construction on the fort and finally completed it in 1776. The committee simultaneously also constructed Fort Mercer
, New Jersey, on the eastern bank of the Delaware River across from Fort Mifflin. The Americans intended to use Fort Mifflin and Fort Mercer to control the activity of the British Navy on the Delaware River.
Defenders of Philadelphia assembled "chevaux de frise," obstacles placed in "tiers" spanning the width of the Delaware between Forts Mercer and Mifflin. These defenses comprised wooden-framed "boxes", 30 feet square, constructed of huge timbers and lined with pine planks. Defenders lowered these frames onto the riverbed and filled each with 20 to 40 tons of stone to anchor it in place. They placed two or three large timbers tipped with iron spikes into each frame, set underwater and facing obliquely downstream. They then chained the boxes together to maintain continuity. The chevaux de frise presented a formidable obstacle that could impale unwitting ships. The system design contained gaps to allow passage of friendly shipping. Only a select few patriot navigators knew the locations of safe passage through this barrier. Soldiers at Forts Mercer and Mifflin could fire at anyone attempting to dismantle these obstacles.
After the defeat of Washington at the Battle of Brandywine
, the British took control of Philadelphia in September 1777. The British forces then laid siege to Fort Mifflin
and Fort Mercer in early October 1777. The British Army intended the siege to open up its supply line. Captain John Montresor
, earlier designer and constructor of early Fort Mifflin, planned and built the siege works used against Fort Mifflin. He then led the siege and destroyed much of Fort Mifflin. During the siege, four hundred American soldiers held off more than two thousand British troops and 250 ships until 10 November 1777, when the British intensified their assault, launching an incessant barrage of cannonballs into the fort. On 15 November 1777, the American troops evacuated the fort. Their stand effectively denied the British Navy free use of the Delaware River and allowed the successful repositioning of the Continental Army
for the Battle of White Marsh
and subsequent withdrawal to Valley Forge
. Fort Mifflin experienced the heaviest bombardment of the American Revolutionary War. The siege left 250 of the 406 to 450 men garrisoned at the Fort Mifflin killed or wounded. Comrades-in-arms ferried these dead and wounded to the mainland before the final evacuation. Fort Mifflin never again saw military action.
Of the original Fort Mifflin, only the white stone walls of the fort still survive today. The pockmarks in these stone walls evidence the intensity of the British bombardment of 1777. Local residents know this siege and massive bombardment as The Battle of Mud Island.
The ruins of Fort Mifflin lay derelict until 1793. Pierre L'Enfant, also responsible for planning Washington, D.C.
, supervised the reconstruction and designed the rebuild in 1794 under President John Adams
. Reconstruction work began on the fort in 1795 under the auspices of Louis de Tousard
, who from 1795 to 1800 traveled along the coast between Massachusetts and the Carolinas working on coastal defenses. The Army probably built the outer room of "casemate #11" during the reconstruction of the fort from 1794–1798 and used it as a "proof room" to make cannon charges. The buildings at Fort Mifflin included barracks for soldiers in the 1790s, measuring 117 feet (35.7 m) by 28 feet (8.5 m) and consisting of two stories. The original barracks contained 7 rooms, 5 of them each designed to house 25 men. The Army officially named the fort after Thomas Mifflin
in 1795.
Over a cross-shaped hole in the ground previously designated as a last-ditch defensive area near the center of the fort, the Army built the extant citadel structure to house the commandant in 1796. Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Rochefontaine
replaced Pierre Charles L'Enfant as chief engineer at Fort Mifflin in 1798 and completed the citadel structure to house the commandant. Lieutenant Colonel Rochfontaine used but improved original designs of L'Enfant. The commandants house exemplifies Greek Revival architecture
, rare on Army installations in the United States. The Army also built the six cavelike casemates as defensive structures in the case of an enemy siege during the reconstruction of 1798-1801. Soldiers used a "bake oven" just outside the main gate and the entrance to the bomb-proof casemate for baking bread, as a chapel, and as a mess hall. The Army designed the largest casemate (#1) as a barracks. The Army used three smaller casemates for storage. The architects intended casemate #5, about half the size of casemate #1, as the headquarters of Fort Mifflin in the time of attack.
The Army built blacksmith shop before 1802, probably the oldest surviving complete structure at Fort Mifflin. (RG77 NAB)
The Army built a two-story officers quarters, measuring 96 feet (29.3 m) by 28 feet (8.5 m), in 1814 (#475, RG 77, NAB).
After the construction of Fort Delaware
in 1820, Fort Mifflin was relegated to secondary status. During the 19th century the area around the fort was drained and filled until Mud Island connected with the western bank of the Delaware River. Nevertheless, the building and garrisoning of Fort Mifflin continued. In the early 1820's, the Army began meteorological observations at the fort.
The soldiers barracks building was extensively renovated by the Army in 1836, along with the officers quarters. At a later date the soldiers barracks was again renovated, at which time the roofline was changed to add the second floor. (HABS # PA-1225E). In 1837 the hospital and mess hall building was converted to a meetinghouse (ASP 7:632) and an artillery shed, for the storage and protection of cannon, was built on an interior raised platform.
By 1839, the Army designated the one-story brick guardhouse-prison as an arsenal. (Historic American Building Survey (HABS) #PA1225.) On December 27, 1842 the Army completed a brick, one-story sutler building/storehouse measuring 55 feet (16.8 m) by 20 feet (6,096 mm) (Tompkins to Jessup, Consolidated Correspondence, Box 662, RG 92 NAB). In the 1840's a two-story kitchen wing was added to the officers quarters building .
and civilians accused of breaking the law. Numerous Confederate prisoners occupied Fort Mifflin from 1863 to 1865 and were housed in the largest casemate, designated #1. The Union Army used three smaller casemates to hold political prisoners during the same period. Various people wrote graffiti inside the cell doors and on the inner walls of "casement #11" during the 1860's. They also left a wine token and penny, both dated 1864 and in remarkable condition.
The Union Army accused William H Howe, one of its soldiers, of desertion, found him guilty of murder, and imprisoned him famously at Fort Mifflin from January 1864. Howe led an attempted escape of two hundred prisoners from casemate #5 in February 1864. Afterwards, Howe was housed in a solitary confinement cell in casemate #11, where he left his signature. Despite his illiterate reputation, Howe twice wrote letters (filled with bad grammar and run-on sentences) to President Abraham Lincoln
asking for clemency, signing them with his own hand. In April 1864 Howe was transferred to Eastern State Penitentiary
then, on 26 August of the same year, was transferred back to Fort Mifflin. The condemned prisoner was briefly held in the fort's wooden guardhouse, prior to his execution on the gallows, which were steps away from the guardhouse. Howe's hanging was before an audience of persons who paid for tickets to watch the execution. Of the three other men executed at Fort Mifflin, none had a paid public audience.
The Army proposed adding a sallyport on the west side in 1864.
On 24 November 1864, the Union Army sent Lieutenant Colonel Seth Eastman, also a great American Western frontier painter, to Fort Mifflin to supervise the discharge of all civilian and military prisoners, then numbering more than two hundred. On 2 January 1865, Eastman reported that his garrison consisted of B Company, 186th Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment, a detachment of recruits, and the hospital staff.
Between 1866 and 1876, the Corps of Engineers intermittently repaired and modernized Fort Mifflin and upgraded its armament. The Army constructed the detached high battery south of the fort from 1870 to 1875 but never finished it.
The Army built torpedo casement in 1874/1875; its entrance sealed off access to the unused magazine, "casement #11," preserving a trove of historical artifacts from the light of day. These artifacts include pottery, a tin cup, a tin chamber pot, period buttons, dozens of animal bones. The 1875 Annual Report "The construction of the torpedo casemate has commenced" notes east magazine torpedo casemate. The Army constructed this casemate
in 1876.
From 1876 to 1884, the Philadelphia District Office of the Corps of Engineers took custodial responsibility of Fort Mifflin. East magazine (torpedo casemate) first appears on a map in 1886. (RG77, NAB)
The Army removed the two story kitchen wings from the officers quarters building before the 1920s (HABS #PA-1225F).
In 1923 the Marine Barracks held the first recorded USMC Birthday dance.
. Marine Corps units from Philadelphia Naval Shipyard guarded Naval Ammunition Storage Depot at the northern end of the former Mud and Cabin Islands, while the Army assigned regular troops to the historic fort proper. By 24 April 1942, the Army stationed Battery "H" of the 76th Coast Artillery Regiment, the first Negro Coast Artillery unit in United States history, at the fort. By summer 1942, the Army stationed the 601st Coast Artillery at Fort Mifflin.
In 1954, the fort fell from use as a military post. Several documents reference "old magazine entrance " in the location of "casement #11," and the number 11 comes from a map legend, dated 1954 and associated with "old magazine entrance," but the only evidence extant appeared as nothing more than the cap of a chimney. Fort Mifflin closed, ranking among the oldest fort in continuous use in the country. G.E. Brumbaugh renovated interior of sutler storehouse in 1960; Harold Finigan, then executive director of the fort, renovated its exterior.
After a fire in 1983, people partially restored the commandants house, a rare Greek revival structure on an Army installation in the United States. ASP 1:11 Architect J. Dickey re-roofed restored artillery shed in the early 1980s. Harold Finigan, then executive director of the fort, restored artillery shed and hospital. He also in the 1980s did major restoration of quarters for officers and restored kitchen wings.
Harold Finigan restored arsenal in the early 1990s. He also in 1990s restored barracks of soldiers and sea wall.
Wayne Irby in 2006 rediscovered and unearthed the recently named "casemate #11" at Fort Mifflin. Doctor Don Johnson and a small group of volunteers in August 2006 uncovered and discovered the complexity of the inner rooms and the trove of historical artifacts inside "casemate #11."
and its follow up Ghost Hunters Academy
, have declared Fort Mifflin haunted.
Delaware River
The Delaware River is a major river on the Atlantic coast of the United States.A Dutch expedition led by Henry Hudson in 1609 first mapped the river. The river was christened the South River in the New Netherland colony that followed, in contrast to the North River, as the Hudson River was then...
below Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
near Philadelphia International Airport
Philadelphia International Airport
Philadelphia International Airport is a major airport in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, and is the largest airport in the Delaware Valley region and in Pennsylvania...
. During the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
, the British Army bombarded and captured the fort as part of their conquest of Philadelphia in autumn 1777. The United States Army began to rebuild the fort in 1794 and continued to garrison and build on the site through the 19th century. It housed prisoners during the American Civil War. The Army decommissioned Fort Mifflin in 1962 and returned it to the City of Philadelphia. Historic preservationists have restored the fort.
Colonial defenses of Philadelphia
Upon foundation of Philadelphia in 1681, people recognized Mudd Island near the confluence of the Delaware RiverDelaware River
The Delaware River is a major river on the Atlantic coast of the United States.A Dutch expedition led by Henry Hudson in 1609 first mapped the river. The river was christened the South River in the New Netherland colony that followed, in contrast to the North River, as the Hudson River was then...
and Schuylkill River
Schuylkill River
The Schuylkill River is a river in Pennsylvania. It is a designated Pennsylvania Scenic River.The river is about long. Its watershed of about lies entirely within the state of Pennsylvania. The source of its eastern branch is in the Appalachian Mountains at Tuscarora Springs, near Tamaqua in...
as strategically important for the defense of the settlement. William Penn
William Penn
William Penn was an English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was an early champion of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful...
, a Quaker with religious objections to military life, however, left Philadelphia undefended. Whenever European colonists established permanent settlements, fortifications in or near those settlements commonly provided protection. Quakers founded the only significant European settlements without fortification. As the Quakers rejected the military, they sought to make peace with the Native Americans in the area to avoid the need for fortifications. While other colonies suffered from conflict and warfare, Philadelphia prospered.
By the 1740s, it ranked as the richest British port in the New World. French and Spanish privateer
Privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...
s then entered the Delaware River, threatening the city. During King George's War
King George's War
King George's War is the name given to the operations in North America that formed part of the War of the Austrian Succession . It was the third of the four French and Indian Wars. It took place primarily in the British provinces of New York, Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, and Nova Scotia...
(1744–1748), Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
raised a militia, because the legislators of the city decided to take no action to defend Philadelphia "either by erecting fortifications or buildings Ships of War". He raised money to create earthwork defenses and to buy artillery. At the end of the war, commanders disbanded the militia and left derelict the defenses of the city. With renewed colonial warfare in the 1750s, people drew up plans for a fort on Mudd Island but did not implement any such plan. Only in the 1770s did the city acquire permanent fortifications.
By 1771, Philadelphia ranked as the largest British port and dockyard in North America. Locals then rose in protest against British economic policies and imports. In response to complaints by the Secretary of State for the Colonies
Secretary of State for the Colonies
The Secretary of State for the Colonies or Colonial Secretary was the British Cabinet minister in charge of managing the United Kingdom's various colonial dependencies....
, Philadelphia Governor John Penn asked General Thomas Gage
Thomas Gage
Thomas Gage was a British general, best known for his many years of service in North America, including his role as military commander in the early days of the American War of Independence....
to send someone capable of designing defenses for the city. He intended a fort on Mudd Island to help to regulate traffic entering and exiting the port. Gage assigned Engineering Captain John Montresor
John Montresor
Captain John Montresor was a British military engineer in North America.-Early life:Born in Gibraltar 22 April 1736 to British military engineer James Gabriel Montresor and his first wife, Mary Haswell, John Montresor spent his early life there...
to the task. Montresor presented six designs to Penn and the Board of Commissioners; the board proposed constructing a fort on Mud Island (also known as Deep Water Island).
The Commissioners reviewed the plans, found all too expensive, and insisted on economy despite protestations of Montresor about budget. Montresor stated that his preferred plan cost about £40,000 and that he intended to mount "32 pieces of cannon, 4 mortars and 4 royal howitzers ... which at 6 men each make 240 men required, 160 musketry, in all 400 garrison." The colonial General Assembly passed a bill releasing £15,000 for the construction of the fort and the purchase of Mud Island from Joseph Galloway, the Speaker of the House. The board instructed Montresor to begin construction but failed to provide him with the funds that he considered necessary to do so properly. The rooms in the farthest interior of "casemate #11" probably date from the original construction in 1771. On 4 June 1772, Montresor left the head workman in charge of the construction project and returned to New York disgruntled. The project floundered onward for about a year, when it stopped for lack of guidance and funding. The crews completed only the south walls, built in stone.
American Revolutionary War
Following the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin FranklinBenjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
headed a committee to provide for the defense of Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Committee of Public Safety quickly thereafter restarted construction on the fort and finally completed it in 1776. The committee simultaneously also constructed Fort Mercer
Fort Mercer
Fort Mercer was one of two forts constructed in 1777 on the Delaware River during the American Revolutionary War, by the Continental Army, under the command of George Washington, to block the approach to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Fort Mifflin, on the Pennsylvania side, and Fort Mercer, on the New...
, New Jersey, on the eastern bank of the Delaware River across from Fort Mifflin. The Americans intended to use Fort Mifflin and Fort Mercer to control the activity of the British Navy on the Delaware River.
Defenders of Philadelphia assembled "chevaux de frise," obstacles placed in "tiers" spanning the width of the Delaware between Forts Mercer and Mifflin. These defenses comprised wooden-framed "boxes", 30 feet square, constructed of huge timbers and lined with pine planks. Defenders lowered these frames onto the riverbed and filled each with 20 to 40 tons of stone to anchor it in place. They placed two or three large timbers tipped with iron spikes into each frame, set underwater and facing obliquely downstream. They then chained the boxes together to maintain continuity. The chevaux de frise presented a formidable obstacle that could impale unwitting ships. The system design contained gaps to allow passage of friendly shipping. Only a select few patriot navigators knew the locations of safe passage through this barrier. Soldiers at Forts Mercer and Mifflin could fire at anyone attempting to dismantle these obstacles.
Battle of Brandywine
The Battle of Brandywine, also known as the Battle of the Brandywine or the Battle of Brandywine Creek, was fought between the American army of Major General George Washington and the British-Hessian army of General Sir William Howe on September 11, 1777. The British defeated the Americans and...
, the British took control of Philadelphia in September 1777. The British forces then laid siege to Fort Mifflin
Siege of Fort Mifflin
The Siege of Fort Mifflin or Siege of Mud Island Fort from September 26 to November 16, 1777 saw British land batteries commanded by Captain John Montresor and a British naval squadron under Vice Admiral Lord Richard Howe attempt to capture an American fort in the Delaware River commanded by...
and Fort Mercer in early October 1777. The British Army intended the siege to open up its supply line. Captain John Montresor
John Montresor
Captain John Montresor was a British military engineer in North America.-Early life:Born in Gibraltar 22 April 1736 to British military engineer James Gabriel Montresor and his first wife, Mary Haswell, John Montresor spent his early life there...
, earlier designer and constructor of early Fort Mifflin, planned and built the siege works used against Fort Mifflin. He then led the siege and destroyed much of Fort Mifflin. During the siege, four hundred American soldiers held off more than two thousand British troops and 250 ships until 10 November 1777, when the British intensified their assault, launching an incessant barrage of cannonballs into the fort. On 15 November 1777, the American troops evacuated the fort. Their stand effectively denied the British Navy free use of the Delaware River and allowed the successful repositioning of the Continental Army
Continental Army
The Continental Army was formed after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War by the colonies that became the United States of America. Established by a resolution of the Continental Congress on June 14, 1775, it was created to coordinate the military efforts of the Thirteen Colonies in...
for the Battle of White Marsh
Battle of White Marsh
The Battle of White Marsh or Battle of Edge Hill was a battle of the Philadelphia campaign of the American Revolutionary War fought December 5–8, 1777, in the area surrounding Whitemarsh Township, Pennsylvania...
and subsequent withdrawal to Valley Forge
Valley Forge
Valley Forge in Pennsylvania was the site of the military camp of the American Continental Army over the winter of 1777–1778 in the American Revolutionary War.-History:...
. Fort Mifflin experienced the heaviest bombardment of the American Revolutionary War. The siege left 250 of the 406 to 450 men garrisoned at the Fort Mifflin killed or wounded. Comrades-in-arms ferried these dead and wounded to the mainland before the final evacuation. Fort Mifflin never again saw military action.
Of the original Fort Mifflin, only the white stone walls of the fort still survive today. The pockmarks in these stone walls evidence the intensity of the British bombardment of 1777. Local residents know this siege and massive bombardment as The Battle of Mud Island.
Reconstruction through War of 1812
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, supervised the reconstruction and designed the rebuild in 1794 under President John Adams
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...
. Reconstruction work began on the fort in 1795 under the auspices of Louis de Tousard
Louis de Tousard
Louis de Tousard was a French artillerist who served in the American Continental Army under La Fayette, and later was given a US commission...
, who from 1795 to 1800 traveled along the coast between Massachusetts and the Carolinas working on coastal defenses. The Army probably built the outer room of "casemate #11" during the reconstruction of the fort from 1794–1798 and used it as a "proof room" to make cannon charges. The buildings at Fort Mifflin included barracks for soldiers in the 1790s, measuring 117 feet (35.7 m) by 28 feet (8.5 m) and consisting of two stories. The original barracks contained 7 rooms, 5 of them each designed to house 25 men. The Army officially named the fort after Thomas Mifflin
Thomas Mifflin
Thomas Mifflin was an American merchant and politician from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, a member of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly, a Continental Congressman from Pennsylvania, President of the Continental...
in 1795.
Stephen Rochefontaine
Stephen Rochefontaine was a French-born military engineer who served as such in the Continental Army, during the American Revolutionary War, and later as the Chief of Engineers of the United States Army Corps of Engineers...
replaced Pierre Charles L'Enfant as chief engineer at Fort Mifflin in 1798 and completed the citadel structure to house the commandant. Lieutenant Colonel Rochfontaine used but improved original designs of L'Enfant. The commandants house exemplifies Greek Revival architecture
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
, rare on Army installations in the United States. The Army also built the six cavelike casemates as defensive structures in the case of an enemy siege during the reconstruction of 1798-1801. Soldiers used a "bake oven" just outside the main gate and the entrance to the bomb-proof casemate for baking bread, as a chapel, and as a mess hall. The Army designed the largest casemate (#1) as a barracks. The Army used three smaller casemates for storage. The architects intended casemate #5, about half the size of casemate #1, as the headquarters of Fort Mifflin in the time of attack.
The Army built blacksmith shop before 1802, probably the oldest surviving complete structure at Fort Mifflin. (RG77 NAB)
The Army built a two-story officers quarters, measuring 96 feet (29.3 m) by 28 feet (8.5 m), in 1814 (#475, RG 77, NAB).
Pre-Civil War period
The Army built a one-story brick structure 24 feet (7.3 m) by 44 feet (13.4 m) in 1815–1816 as a guardhouse and prison. Around 1819, north of the walls of the fort, the Army also built a hospital and mess hall.Fort Delaware
Fort Delaware is a 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...
in 1820, Fort Mifflin was relegated to secondary status. During the 19th century the area around the fort was drained and filled until Mud Island connected with the western bank of the Delaware River. Nevertheless, the building and garrisoning of Fort Mifflin continued. In the early 1820's, the Army began meteorological observations at the fort.
The soldiers barracks building was extensively renovated by the Army in 1836, along with the officers quarters. At a later date the soldiers barracks was again renovated, at which time the roofline was changed to add the second floor. (HABS # PA-1225E). In 1837 the hospital and mess hall building was converted to a meetinghouse (ASP 7:632) and an artillery shed, for the storage and protection of cannon, was built on an interior raised platform.
American Civil War
During the Civil War the Union used Fort Mifflin to house Confederate prisoners of war, as well as Union soldiersUnion (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...
and civilians accused of breaking the law. Numerous Confederate prisoners occupied Fort Mifflin from 1863 to 1865 and were housed in the largest casemate, designated #1. The Union Army used three smaller casemates to hold political prisoners during the same period. Various people wrote graffiti inside the cell doors and on the inner walls of "casement #11" during the 1860's. They also left a wine token and penny, both dated 1864 and in remarkable condition.
The Union Army accused William H Howe, one of its soldiers, of desertion, found him guilty of murder, and imprisoned him famously at Fort Mifflin from January 1864. Howe led an attempted escape of two hundred prisoners from casemate #5 in February 1864. Afterwards, Howe was housed in a solitary confinement cell in casemate #11, where he left his signature. Despite his illiterate reputation, Howe twice wrote letters (filled with bad grammar and run-on sentences) to President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
asking for clemency, signing them with his own hand. In April 1864 Howe was transferred to Eastern State Penitentiary
Eastern State Penitentiary
The Eastern State Penitentiary is a former American prison in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is located on 2027 Fairmount Avenue between Corinthian Avenue and North 22nd Street in the Fairmount section of Philadelphia and was operational from 1829 until 1971...
then, on 26 August of the same year, was transferred back to Fort Mifflin. The condemned prisoner was briefly held in the fort's wooden guardhouse, prior to his execution on the gallows, which were steps away from the guardhouse. Howe's hanging was before an audience of persons who paid for tickets to watch the execution. Of the three other men executed at Fort Mifflin, none had a paid public audience.
The Army proposed adding a sallyport on the west side in 1864.
On 24 November 1864, the Union Army sent Lieutenant Colonel Seth Eastman, also a great American Western frontier painter, to Fort Mifflin to supervise the discharge of all civilian and military prisoners, then numbering more than two hundred. On 2 January 1865, Eastman reported that his garrison consisted of B Company, 186th Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment, a detachment of recruits, and the hospital staff.
After the Civil War
On 20 August 1865, Captain Thomas E. Merritt with A Company, 7th United States Veteran volunteers, relieved Lieutenant Colonel Eastman. The Army completed west sallyport by 1866 (B-566, RG 77, NAB). In 1866, A Company, 7th United States Veteran volunteers, vacated the fort, and the District Engineer Office, Corps of Engineers, replaced the company. The Army discontinued the fort as an active post.Between 1866 and 1876, the Corps of Engineers intermittently repaired and modernized Fort Mifflin and upgraded its armament. The Army constructed the detached high battery south of the fort from 1870 to 1875 but never finished it.
The Army built torpedo casement in 1874/1875; its entrance sealed off access to the unused magazine, "casement #11," preserving a trove of historical artifacts from the light of day. These artifacts include pottery, a tin cup, a tin chamber pot, period buttons, dozens of animal bones. The 1875 Annual Report "The construction of the torpedo casemate has commenced" notes east magazine torpedo casemate. The Army constructed this casemate
Casemate
A casemate, sometimes rendered casement, is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired. originally a vaulted chamber in a fortress.-Origin of the term:...
in 1876.
From 1876 to 1884, the Philadelphia District Office of the Corps of Engineers took custodial responsibility of Fort Mifflin. East magazine (torpedo casemate) first appears on a map in 1886. (RG77, NAB)
The Army removed the two story kitchen wings from the officers quarters building before the 1920s (HABS #PA-1225F).
In 1923 the Marine Barracks held the first recorded USMC Birthday dance.
Second World War
During the Second World War, the Army stationed anti-aircraft guns at old Fort Mifflin to defend the nearby Fort Mifflin Naval Ammunition Storage Depot (NASD) and the United States Philadelphia Naval ShipyardPhiladelphia Naval Shipyard
The Philadelphia Naval Business Center, formerly known as the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and Philadelphia Navy Yard, was the first naval shipyard of the United States. The U.S. Navy reduced its activities there in the 1990s, and ended most of them on September 30, 1995...
. Marine Corps units from Philadelphia Naval Shipyard guarded Naval Ammunition Storage Depot at the northern end of the former Mud and Cabin Islands, while the Army assigned regular troops to the historic fort proper. By 24 April 1942, the Army stationed Battery "H" of the 76th Coast Artillery Regiment, the first Negro Coast Artillery unit in United States history, at the fort. By summer 1942, the Army stationed the 601st Coast Artillery at Fort Mifflin.
In 1954, the fort fell from use as a military post. Several documents reference "old magazine entrance " in the location of "casement #11," and the number 11 comes from a map legend, dated 1954 and associated with "old magazine entrance," but the only evidence extant appeared as nothing more than the cap of a chimney. Fort Mifflin closed, ranking among the oldest fort in continuous use in the country. G.E. Brumbaugh renovated interior of sutler storehouse in 1960; Harold Finigan, then executive director of the fort, renovated its exterior.
Decommissioning and restoration
In 1962, the federal government deeded Fort Mifflin back to the City of Philadelphia. John Dickey restored interior of blacksmith shop in 1969; Harold Finigan, then executive director of the fort, restored exterior.After a fire in 1983, people partially restored the commandants house, a rare Greek revival structure on an Army installation in the United States. ASP 1:11 Architect J. Dickey re-roofed restored artillery shed in the early 1980s. Harold Finigan, then executive director of the fort, restored artillery shed and hospital. He also in the 1980s did major restoration of quarters for officers and restored kitchen wings.
Harold Finigan restored arsenal in the early 1990s. He also in 1990s restored barracks of soldiers and sea wall.
Wayne Irby in 2006 rediscovered and unearthed the recently named "casemate #11" at Fort Mifflin. Doctor Don Johnson and a small group of volunteers in August 2006 uncovered and discovered the complexity of the inner rooms and the trove of historical artifacts inside "casemate #11."
Standing buildings
- Arsenal
- Artillery Shed
- Blacksmith Shop
- Sutler Building/Storehouse
- Soldiers' Barracks
- Officers Quarters
- Commandant's House
- Hospital/Messhall
- West Sallyport
- Casemates
- East Magazine
- Casemate 11
Haunted buildings
Apparently, Casemate 11 seems to be the main source of where paranormal activity inside the fort occurs, as well as the Officers' Quarters and the Blacksmith shop. Many famous ghost hunters have been there, such as Dave Juliano and TAPS from the Syfy show Ghost HuntersGhost Hunters
Ghost Hunters is an American paranormal reality television series that premiered on October 6, 2004, on Syfy . 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 Roto-Rooter as...
and its follow up Ghost Hunters Academy
Ghost Hunters Academy
Ghost Hunters Academy is a paranormal reality television series that premiered on November 11, 2009 on the Syfy channel. The program is the third spin-off series based on Ghost Hunters...
, have declared Fort Mifflin haunted.
See also
- EastwickEastwick, Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaEastwick is a neighborhood in the Southwest section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the southwesternmost neighborhood in the city, bordering Philadelphia International Airport and the city line with Delaware County, Pennsylvania at Cobbs Creek and Darby Creek. The Elmwood Park...
- List of forts
- Philadelphia International AirportPhiladelphia International AirportPhiladelphia International Airport is a major airport in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, and is the largest airport in the Delaware Valley region and in Pennsylvania...
- Philadelphia LazarettoPhiladelphia LazarettoThe Philadelphia Lazaretto was the first quarantine hospital in the United States, built in 1799, in Tinicum Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The site was originally inhabited by the Lenni Lenape, and then the first Swedish settlers in America...
- Schuylkill Arsenal
- Frankford ArsenalFrankford ArsenalThe Frankford Arsenal was a United States Army ammunition plant located adjacent to the Bridesburg neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, north of the original course of Frankford Creek.-History:...
Further reading
- Alotta, Robert I, “Old Fort Mifflin: The Chain of Command” Shackamaxon Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America 1977, 20 pages
- Alotta, Robert I, “The Spirit of the Men of Mifflin” Shackamaxon Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America 1971,
- Alotta, Robert I, “The Men of Mifflin” Shackamaxon Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America 1971
- Alotta, Robert I, “Old Fort Mifflin (1772-77 to 1972-77) Living History: A Meaningful Bicentennial” Shackamaxon Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America 1972 10 pages
- Alotta, Robert I, “Old Fort Mifflin: The Defenders” Shackamaxon Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America 1973
- Alotta, Robert I, “Old Fort Mifflin: The Buildings and Structures” Shackamaxon Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America 1973 36 pages
- Alotta, Robert I, “Historic Old Fort Mifflin” Shackamaxon Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America 1973
- Alotta, Robert I, “A Glossary of Fortification Terms as they relate to Old Fort Mifflin” Shackamaxon Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America 1972 12 pages
- Alotta, Robert I, “A Fort Mifflin Diary” Shackamaxon Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America 1973 36 pages
- Hardway, Ronald V., Benjamin Lemasters of Nicholas County, West Virginia : his ancestry, his war record, his descendants
- Jackson, John, The Pennsylvania Navy, 1775-1781 Rutgers University Press
- Martin, Joseph Plum, Private Yankee Doodle Western Acorn Press, 1962
- McGuire, Thomas J., The Philadelphia Campaign, Vol. II: Germantown and the Roads to Valley Forge, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 2006. ISBN 978-0-8117-0206-5, pages 181 to 222.
- Selletti, Anthony L, Fort Mifflin: A Paranormal History, Selletti Press, Chester, Pa, 19013 October 2008, ISBN 061522847X, 9780615228471 248 pages