Fort Mifflin

Fort Mifflin
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Soldiers' Barracks
Location	Fort Mifflin Road Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Architect	[[John Montresor] [Pierre Charles L'Efant] [Louis de Tousard]]
NRHP reference No.	70000554
Added to NRHP	August 29, 1970

Fort Mifflin, originally called Fort Island Battery, and also known as Mud Island Fort, was commissioned in 1771 and sits on Mud or Deepwater Island on the Delaware River in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (the island's back channel has since filled in, and the Fort is reachable by auto). During the American Revolutionary War, the fort was a centerpiece of the British conquest of Philadelphia. The name "Fort Mifflin" became official in 1795. The fort was rebuilt in beginning in 1794 during the presidency of John Adams according to Pierre L'Enfant's design, and added to in the 19th century.

History

Construction

File:FortMifflin Philadelphia.JPG

Artillery Shed

Mifflin Hospital

In 1771, Gov. John Penn recognizing the vulnerability of the port of Philadelphia to invasion; requested of Mass. Gov. Thomas Gage; someone who could design defenses for the City. General Gage assigned Engineering Captain John Montresor to the task. Although Montresor came up with six alternate designs for the Fort; he submitted his preferred design to Penn & the Board of Commissioners for approval. (PA Colonial records 10:146-7) The details for the six alternate designes can be found at the David Library; "Montresor Papers" cataloged by Harold Finigan.

• JM: Design elevation of Fort on Mud Island
  JM: Design elevation of Fort on Mud Island
• 
  JM: Survey of Mud Island, 1771
• JM: Design #1, Proposed Fort on Mud Island
  JM: Design #1, Proposed Fort on Mud Island
• 
  JM: Instructions for driving piles at Mud Island, PA

When the Commissioners reviewed the plans, they thought the Fort as designed too expensive. Despite Montresors pleadings, they instructed the engineer to begin construction but failed to provide him with the funds he deemed necessary to properly do the job. On June 4, 1772, he left a foreman in charge of the construction project and disgruntled, returned to New York. The project floundered on for about a year, when it stopped for lack of guidance and funding. (Scull: "The Montresor Journals" p.414)

Montresor stated 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." (Scull: Montresor Journals, P. 416-7)

Following the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin headed a committee to provide for the defense of Philadelphia. At that time workmen had only completed the granite southern and eastern walls of Fort Mifflin. Another fort, known as Fort Mercer, was constructed across the Delaware River from Fort Mifflin.

Obstacles called "Chevaux de frise" were assembled and placed in 'tiers', spanning the width of the Delaware river. They were wooden framed "boxes", 30 feet square, constructed of huge timbers and lined with pine planks. When lowered onto the riverbed, the frames were filled with 20 to 40 tons of stone to anchor them in place. Two or three large timbers tipped with iron spikes were placed in each frame set obliquely facing downstream. The boxes were then chained together to maintain continuity. The Chevaux de frise presented a formidable obstacle impale unwitting ships. The system was designed with "gaps" to allow passage of friendly shipping. Only a select few knew the location of this safe passage through this barrier. The functions of Forts Mercer & Mifflin were to fire at anyone attempting to dismantle these obstacles.

The buildings standing today from the post-1795 construction. The white stone walls of the Fort are the only survivor of the pre-revolutionary war British construction. Evidence of the 1777 British bombardment, the greatest bombardment of the American Revolution, can be seen by the pockmarks in these stone walls. This massive bombardment is also known as The Battle of Mud Island to local residents living near Fort Mifflin.

After the construction of Fort Delaware in 1820, Fort Mifflin was relegated to secondary status.

Buildings (existance)

Aresnal: One story brick structure 24 X 44' long. Built 1815-6 initially as a guardhouse & prison; by 1839 it was designated as an arsenal. (Historic American Building Survey (HABS) #PA1225. Restored in the early 1990's by Harold Finigan.

Artillery Shed: Built in 1837 for the storage & protection of cannon on an interior raised platform. (As cited in a report from the Engineers Dept, 28 Nov 1837; American State Papers 7:580)) Re-roofed in the early 1980's by J. Dickey, Architect.

Blacksmith Shop Built before 1802 It is probably the oldest structure in the Fort. (RG77 NAB) Restored by John Dickey, 1969.

Sutler Building/Storehouse: This brick, one story, 55' x 20' deep building was completed 27 December 1842 (Tompkins to Jessup, Consolidated Correspondance, Box 662, RG 92 NAB). Renovated by G.E. Brumbaugh, 1960.

Soldiers Barracks Built in the 1790's, this 117' x 28' ft two-story building originally had 7 rooms, of which 5 were designed to house 25 men each. The building was extensively renovated in 1836, and again later when the roofline was changed to add the second floor. (HABS # PA-1225E) The building was restored in the 1990's by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Officers Quarters This two story 96' x 28' building was built in 1814. (#475, RG 77, NAB). Renovated in 1836, the building had a 2 two story kitchen wing added in the 1840's. These wings were removed before the 1920's (HABS #PA-1225F). The building had a major restoration by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the 1980's, and the kitchen wings were restored.

Commandant's House (Citadel): Originally a cross shaped hole in the ground in the center of the Fort and designed as a last ditch defensive area, the presnt structure was built in 1796. This structure was completed by LTCOL Stephen Rochefontaine, who replaced Pierre Charles L'Enfant as chief Engineer at Ft Mifflin in 1798. Rochfontaine used L'Enfant's original designs and improved on them. Today, the Commandants House is partly restored after a 1983 fire and is one of the only Greek Revival structures of its kind situated on a Army installation in the United States. ASP 1:11

Hospital/Messhall Built about 1819 north of the Fort walls, this building was converted to a messhouse in 1837. (ASP 7:632) Restored by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the early 1980's

West Sallyport: Proposed in 1864, completed by 1866. (B-566, RG 77, NAB).

Casemates Built as defensive structures in the case of an enemy siege, the six cavelike structures were built in the reconstruction of 1798-1801. A "BAke Oven" just outside the Main Gate and the entrance to the Casemate or Bombproofs was used for baking bread and as a, chapel and mess hall. Casemate 31, the largest of the rooms was designed as a barracks and was used by the numerous Confederate prisoners that occupied the Fort from 1863 to 1865. There are three smaller casemates that were used as storage areas and held political prisoners during the Civil War and Casemate #5, about half the size of Casemate #1 would have been utilized as the headquarters in the time of attack.

East Magazine: (Torpedo casemate) Noted in the 1875 Annual Report "The construction of the torpedo casemate has commenced", it first appears on a map in 1886. (RG77, NAB)

Recently, Casemate #11 was unearthed at Fort Mifflin. The rooms in the farthest interior are of the original construction in 1771, with the outer room built during the post Revolutionary war reconstruction of the fort (1794-98) and used as a "Proof Room", a room to make cannon charges. When the rooms became obselete they were changed into the Nusiance Lab for Solitary Confinement around 1863 and abandoned in 1867 and covered over when the additional gun placements were built along the wall. It was then completely obscured and forgotten when the nearby Torpedo Casement was built in 1874-75. There are several references to "Casemate #11" in this location, but the only evidence known was the cap of what was believed to be a chimney and nothing more. It was not until the rooms were uncovered in August of 2006 was the complexity of the inner rooms was discovered, along with the trove of historical artifacts inside that had not seen the light of day in 139 years. Claims of the discovery being a hoax or "planted" are unfounded and numerous historical documents and eyewitness accounts bear that out.

Casemate #11 housed Fort Mifflin's most famous prisoner, William H Howe. Howe was a Union soldier accused of desertion and murder. Howe was held at Fort Mifflin from March 1864 until April 1864 when he was transferred to Eastern State Penitentiary, after attempting to escape his solitary confinement cell in Casemate #11 and transferred back to Fort Mifflin on the day of his execution on August 26, 1864 and held in the Fort's Wooden Guard House, just steps from the gallows where he would be hung. He has the distinction of being the only person ever executed by the Army where tickets to the execution were sold to the public. Inside the Casemate the signature of William H. Howe can be clearly seen. Prior reports of Howe being illerate are completely false. Howe wrote to President Lincoln twice in his own hand asking for clemecy. The letter is filled with bad grammar and run on sentences, but it is clearly in Howe's hand and the sugnature found in the cell is a perfect match to the two letters to Lincoln. Other artifacts found in the casemate included pottery, a tin cup, the cell doors with numerous grafahtii written on the inside by various people in the 1860's, a tin chamber pot, period buttons from the Civil War, an 1864 wine token, a penny dated 1864 in remarkable condition and dozens of animal bones. Various graffiti of the Civil War period also grace the interior walls.

Siege of Forts Mifflin and Mercer during the American Revolutionary War

Hessian map showing campaign against Fort Mifflin and Fort Mercer (Redbank) in 1777.

After the defeat of Washington at the Battle of Brandywine, the British took control of Philadelphia in September of 1777. The British forces then laid siege to Fort Mifflin and Fort Mercer in early October, 1777. The British engineer John Montresor, who both designed and initially oversaw construction of the fort, was assigned to besiege the fort in 1777. The siege, which lasted until the middle of November, destroyed much of Fort Mifflin. During the siege, 400 soldiers held off over 2,000 British troops and 250 ships until November 10, when the British intensified their assault, launching an incessant barrage of cannonballs into the fort. On November 15, 1777, the American troops were forced out. Their stand, which denied the British Navy free use of the Delaware River, allowed the successful repositioning of the Continental Army for the Battle of White Marsh and subsequent withdrawal to Valley Forge.

Usage during American Civil War

During the Civil War, Fort Mifflin was used to house Confederate prisoners of war, as well as Union soldiers and civilians accused of breaking the law. On November 24, 1864, LTC Seth Eastman, the great American Western frontier painter, was sent to Ft. Mifflin to supervise the discharge all of the over 200 civilian & military prisoners. On 2 Jan 1865, Eastman reported his garrison consisted of B Company, 186th PA Vol, a detachment of recruits and the hospital staff.

20 August 1865, Eastman was relieved by CPT Thomas E. Merritt, with A Company, 7th US Veteran volunteers.

Uses after the Civil War

The fort was a U.S. military post until the 1954. When it closed, Fort Mifflin was the oldest fort in continuous use in the nation (1771 to 1954). In 1962, Fort Mifflin was deeded back to the City of Philadelphia.

1866 = A Company, 7th US Veteran Volunteers departs; replaced by the District Engineer Office, Corps of Engineers; fort discontinued as an active post. 1866 - 1876: Intermittent repair, armament upgrade and moderinization by the Corps of Engineers 1870 - 1875: Construction of the detached High battery (south of the Fort proper); this was never finished. 1876 = Torpedo Casemate constructed 1876-1884 = Custodial responsibility of the Philadelphia District Office of the Corps of Engineers

During WW2; AA guns were stationed at Ft. Mifflin, to defend the nearby Ft. Mifflin Naval Ammunition Storage Depot & The US Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Marine Corps units out of the PNSY guarded the NASD, at the northern end of what was Mud & Cabin Islands; while regular Army troops were assigned to the historic fort proper.

Specifically, by 24 April 1942, Battery "H" of the 76th Coast Artillery Regiment was stationed at the Fort. This unit is remarkable in that it was the fist Negro CA unit in US history. The oral history of one of these soldiers, Mr. Issac Wright; has been preserved in the RALPH J. BUNCHE ORAL HISTORY COLLECTION (RJB #665) at Howard University. By the summer of 1942, the 601st CA (unit motto: Clip their wings) was on site.

Further reading

• Dorwart, Jeffrey M., "Fort Mifflin of Philadelphia: An Illustrated History," University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, May 1998, ISBN 978-0-8122-1644-8, 264-pages
• Hardway, Ronald V., "Benjamin Lemasters of Nicholas County, West Virginia : his ancestry, his war record, his descendants"
• Jackson, John, "Fort Mifflin: Valiant Defender of the Delaware" James & Sons, Norristown, PA; 1986, 206 pages
• 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.
• Scull, G.D., "The Montresor Journals" New York Historical Society, 1881

See also

• Philadelphia International Airport
• Eastwick
• Schuylkill Arsenal
• Philadelphia Lazaretto

External links

• Fort Mifflin
• American History Fort Mifflin
• Historical Fort Mifflin
• Fort Mifflin History
• FortMifflin.com
• Attack on Fort Mifflin
• Documentary History
• Template:Geolinks-US-buildingscale