CHAPTER EIGHTY EIGHT: DELAWARE CITY -- A FORT, A CANAL AND A WONDERFUL MARINA

CHAPTER EIGHTY EIGHT: DELAWARE CITY -- A FORT, A CANAL AND A WONDERFUL MARINA

On Wednesday, July 24, the day before my tour of the New Castle courthouse, I took a 10 minute ferry boat ride from Delaware City to Fort Delaware. I did not know anything about this place until I arrived and received some bits of history from the men and women, some in Civil War uniforms, who “command” the fort. After my visit, I started reading up on the granite and brick structure that dominates Pea Patch Island, and my research was supplemented by the knowledge that NC Courthouse docent “Bill” (Blog Chapter 87) shared with me. According to my reading, Fort Delaware has been called “Alcatraz Lite”, “Gitmo North”, and “Andersonville North.” The reference to Andersonville at least places Fort Delaware on the right time line in history. Both are notorious prisons set up for Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. Andersonville still conjures up privation and death. The historians have been kinder to Fort Delaware, or perhaps they have just ignored it until recently. In 1994, Fort Delaware’s role in housing thousands of confederate prisoners in extremely crowded barracks was exposed in a documentary entitled Civil War Journal, a production of the A & E network, which filmed part of its episode “War Crimes: The Death Camps” at Fort Delaware.

A lot of sources start the history of this fort just before the Civil War. But the history actually begins with a French military engineer, Pierre Charles L’Enfant in 1794, when he was looking for a site to build a fort to protect American commerce. He happened upon Pea Patch Island, which he butchered into “Pip Ash”. Dr. Henry Gale of New Jersey laid claim to the island as his private hunting grounds, and he refused $30,000 from the U.S. military to hunt somewhere else. Undaunted, the Delaware legislature seized “Pip Ash” on May 27, 1813. Prior to that, there were efforts to fortify the island to defend Philadelphia during the War of 1812. A seawall and dykes were built, but no fort went up. The first known fort was star-shared and was under construction in 1817, with sandstone as the main building material. This fort was completed still underway in 1821, as the Board of Engineers said that “the fort on the Pea Patch Island and one on the Delaware shore opposite, defend the water passage as far below Philadelphia as localities will permit.” However, there were huge construction problems with this fort, with improper pile placements and the cracking of bricks. The first commander of Fort Delaware took control in 1825. The second commander took the reins in 1829, a Major Benjamin Kendrick Pierce, Dartmouth graduate and older brother of President Pierce.

In 1831, when Lt. Stephen Tuttle was at the fort to assess foundation issues, a fire broke out and the soldiers stationed at Fort Delaware were sent to the federal arsenal in New Castle until the fort was repaired and able to be occupied again. The fort was torn down instead in 1833. What was left of this first fort was used to reinforce the seawall around Pea Patch Island. The next Fort Delaware was designed as a polygon and was to be built in masonry, not sandstone. Work began in 1836, but it was halted when Dr. Gale’s descendant, Joseph T. Hudson, laid claim to the island, and 10 years of legal battles over title to the island ensued. Hudson finally won, but for his efforts the court ordered the government to pay him $1005.00 for the island. What a rip-off! His predecessor should have taken the $30,000 offer.

Finally, with ownership clearly in the hands of the government, a major fortress was built out of granite, gneiss, cement and brick between 1848 and 1859. It was shaped in the form of a pentagon. Most of it was completed before the Civil War, but work continued until full completion in1868. It took years and a lot of experiments with pilings to figure out how to build a foundation in the marshy soil that would support a massive fort. The pile driving was finished in 1851, and then gneiss and granite were hauled from Maryland, Pennsylvania and Maine to build the tall, thick walls and the stairways. Two million bricks were brought from Wilmington and Philadelphia to build the living quarters, cisterns, casemates, magazines and inner wall. Construction continued through the 1850’s and in 1861, before the start of the Civil War, a small garrison of 20 regular army soldiers were stationed at the fort under the command of Captain Augustus A. Gibson. As the war began, the focus shifted from fort construction to arming the fort, and 20 columbiad guns (they look like cannons) were mounted on the fort ramparts.

Fort Delaware was never attacked during the entire Civil War. The guns that were installed had a range of 3 miles, while the guns on most ships at the time had a range of 1 mile. Even if the Confederacy had been able to muster a respectable navy, its few ships would not have tried to attack Fort Delaware. So this mighty granite and brick fortress, by its sheer presence, warded off any efforts to attack Philadelphia and Wilmington. All the work in building this large structure did not go to waste, as the Union Army started housing Confederate prisoners of war at Fort Delaware. Also imprisoned at Fort Delaware were convicted Union soldiers and “political prisoners” and privateers. At first the prisoners were housed inside the fort, but as their numbers grew – and grew – wooden barracks were built – 53 of them – outside the fort, which ended up housing 33,000 prisoners during the course of the Civil War. At the peak of the war, after the Battle of Gettysburg, there were 12,000 to 14,000 prisoners housed in barracks designed to hold 200 prisoners each – three tiers of wooden slats for beds. These barracks were too hot in the summer and way too cold in the winter. Nobody said it would be easy being a prisoner of war. The food was horrible. Prisoners were given two meager meals a day – watery soup, a piece of meat and a slice of stale bread. Records show that Fort Delaware received more care packages than any other prisoner of war camp in the United States. Hmm, wonder who really got the contents of those packages.

At least one Confederate prisoner made out pretty good, under the circumstances. According to “Bill”, my New Castle courthouse docent, his soldier alter ego is a Confederate soldier who was offered the opportunity to join Captain Ahl’s Battery, the famous battery comprised almost exclusively of Confederate war prisoners, who had to swear allegiance to the union. Once they became a part of Ahl’s Battery, they had the dubious distinction of guarding the other Confederate prisoners of war. They were mistrusted and hated by both Union and Confederate soldiers alike. They were a necessity, since there were very few Union soldiers stationed at Fort Delaware, and someone had to try to prevent the Confederate soldiers from escaping. Attempts at escape were numerous. Some prisoners swam to freedom; some drowned. One prisoner is reputed to have ice skated to freedom one winter when the Delaware River froze over. “Bill’s” Confederate turned Union soldier (he wears both uniforms in re-enactments) first left Fort Delaware as part of the Dix-Hill Cartel. This was an agreement signed on July 22, 1862 to handle the exchange of prisoners between the Union and the Confederacy. It took a long time to reach this agreement for a variety of reasons – most of them based on each side’s distrust of the other. But just six months later Jefferson Davis suspended the exchange in protest over the execution of a New Orleans resident, William Mumford, by Union General Benjamin F. Butler. In retaliation Secretary of War Stanton ordered a halt to the exchanges of commissioned officers. Then, of course, the Confederacy refused to parole or exchange any African-American soldiers. They were considered “runaways” by the revolting southerners, who returned them to their “owners.” Boo!

“Bill’s” soldier did not get caught up in the suspension/halt of exchanges. He was duly exchanged, and apparently he went right back to war for the Confederacy. His freedom was short-lived, as he was captured at Gettysburg and was returned to Fort Delaware for a second stint as a prisoner of war. That’s when he seized the opportunity to be a traitor to all by joining Ahl’s Battery of prisoner guards. He must have been reliable enough at that job, because he earned a weekend parole to leave Pea Patch Island, with the understanding he would return. He did not. He kept going straight back to Cincinnati, Ohio and resumed his civilian life as a house painter. He was successful enough to hire his father to help with the business. And the war raged on without him. Apparently, there was not a huge effort to find Confederate deserters in Cincinnati either during the war or after. “Bill” escaped further incarceration and punishment as he happily painted homes along the Ohio River. Thanks to my courthouse docent for telling me “Bill’s” story. He just wore both his uniforms recently at the July, 2013 re-enactment to commemorate the 150^th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. This type of up close and personal history was sorely lacking from my American history books. Imagine how many more school children would be conversant about the Civil War if “Bill” or other folks who become individual Civil War soldiers were to appear in their classrooms recounting their firsthand experiences in battle. Maybe American history is just too passé, and the future belongs to the high tech industries. After all, you can’t make a  living pretending to be a Confederate or a Union soldier.

As one who believes we have to learn from our mistakes from the past, I find American history extremely relevant. We would not have a prison in Guantanamo, if we had not had these huge prisoner of war enclaves in the Civil War. We have a history of taking lots of prisoners of war and keeping them for very long periods of time, preferably on isolated islands (Dry Tortugas, Pea Patch, Cuba), away from the public eye. And most of the time with these prisoners, it’s “out of sight, out of mind.” They’re captured, they’re imprisoned, and often they die in prison. The number of prisoner deaths at Fort Delaware is listed at about 2500, half of whom died in a smallpox epidemic in 1863. Other major causes of death were lung inflammations, diarrhea, typhoid and malaria. Smaller numbers of prisoners died of scurvy, pneumonia and erysipelas (St. Anthony’s Fire, an intense bacterial infection). Five prisoners drowned and only seven died from gunshot wounds. (Source: Wikipedia history of Fort Delaware). The Government will correctly point out that 2500 deaths is less than 10% of all the prisoners who were held at Fort Delaware during the Civil War and after. But cold statistics don’t change the impact of these 2500 deaths on the family members and friends who never saw these soldiers again. The big picture is that war itself is the problem, and the inhumane treatment of prisoners of war is just a part of the insanity of war, but a very significant part in my opinion. How we treat prisoners of war is always a test of our moral character, a test we often fail. There is a recent book entitled “The Immortal 600”, which is about the 600 Confederate prisoners of war taken from prison at Fort Delaware in 1864 and placed in front of Union forts on Morris Island, South Carolina, as Confederate and Union artillery rained down on them. They were in effect human shields for the Union soldiers. Those who survived the “human shield” experience were taken to Fort Pulaski near Savannah, Georgia, where they were subjected to severe food rationing. Enough already. Naturally, this inhumane use of Confederate prisoners of war was said to be in retaliation for a similar number of Union prisoners of war, who were placed in front of Union guns in Charleston to protect the rebel soldiers. “They did it first!” is always such a worthy justification.

All right. Let’s lighten up a little. But before we leave Fort Delaware, be aware that there are a number of “ghost tours” which introduce you to some of the tortured souls of prisoners of war who never left Pea Patch Island. Don’t let me discourage you from visiting Fort Delaware. The volunteers who do re-enactments at the Fort are worth the price of the admission ticket ($10). It’s not every day you see a blacksmith making tools or a group of union soldiers firing a columbiad. It looks like a cannon to me. Whether you’re a Civil War buff or not, the tours and lectures that are offered are all enlightening. For the birdwatchers among you, this is the place to go for egrets, ibises, herons and the occasional bald eagles. They have established a huge foothold on Pea Patch Island, and now this little island has more wading birds than anywhere else, except Florida.

Do you know what else of historical significance is in Delaware City? The beginning of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. Right now, Slow Motion is tied up in the original canal near the low-lying drawbridge, which no longer draws. The original canal had four locks, one in Delaware City, and it was dug up by 2600 workers, mostly Irish-American and African-American, paid seventy five cents ($.75) per day to dig a ditch 10 feet deep and 60 feet wide. That digging and excavating went on for five years, from 1824 to 1829. It was funded privately by the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company. Once the canal was opened in 1829, it reduced the sea travel distance from Philadelphia to Baltimore by 300 miles. Mule and horse teams were used to help pull the vessels through the locks. One lock still remains here in Delaware City. It is extremely narrow – 22 feet across – and it is just for show. The Army Corps of Engineers did major improvements to the canal, when the government bought it in 1919 for $2.5 million. By 1927 ACE had moved the entrance of the canal to Reedy Point, two miles south of Delaware City. The locks were eliminated. The waterway was widened and deepened considerably. As we traversed the Canal last week in Slow Motion, its dimensions were 14 miles long, 450 feet wide and 40 feet deep. ACE kept widening and deepening the Canal over the years, particularly in light of the fact that between 1938 and 1950 8 ships had collided with bridges along the Canal. And high-level, stronger bridges were built in 1960 (Summit Bridge) and 1968 (Reedy Point Bridge), as part of Congress’s 1954 law authorizing further improvements to the Canal. Our excursion through the Canal was uneventful. We saw a few large barges being pulled and pushed by tugboats, but no large commercial ships. For most of the 14 miles the Canal’s sides are lined with trees. There is a swift current, which can help or hurt your speed, depending on when and in what direction you’re traveling. At the Chesapeake end of the Canal there are two marinas not worth mentioning – too much noise and too much current. At the Delaware end of the Canal, there is the jewel known as the Delaware City Marina.

How can we do justice to the Delaware City Marina? The Admiral is going to send a complimentary write up to Active Captain. Bottom line: This marina is run right, from top to bottom. The owner knows what he’s doing, is hands on, and has a great sense of humor as well. He has a boatyard as part of the operation, and the boatyard repair persons also serve as dock hands. They know what they’re doing. There is a current where we are docked, and they are experts at turning our boat around in the current. They told us as we docked that if we need any part for our boat, they would order it and it would be here by 5 a.m. the next morning. As it turned out, we needed a part for our dinghy, the Boston Whaler, and they picked it up for us. That’s only part of the story. The Admiral has been trying to sell the Boston Whaler for some time, because it is way too heavy for Slow Motion. It was sitting on the roof of the sun deck during our entire 3500 mile journey, and its weight was pressing down on the sun deck roof, making an impression in it. We did not have any luck with our previous ads to sell the Whaler. The Delaware City Marina owner wrote up an ad and posted it. Within two days, the tender was sold, for the asking price. Now that’s service way above and beyond what we usually get at a marina. The office manager is sooo efficient. The dock hands/repairmen are skilled. Let’s hear it for the owner and staff of the Delaware City Marina. Hip, hip hooray!