That same year, in September , the fort faced its greatest challenge. At this time, the British occupied Philadelphia. With winter approaching, the British Navy desperately needed to bring supplies — food, clothing, weapons and gunpowder —up the Delaware River to its troops in order to sustain their pursuit of General George Washington.
In , the Pennsylvania Board of Commissioners had determined to build a fort on Mud Island, which interestingly had been purchased from the Speaker of the Provincial Assembly Joseph Galloway, whose legal title may have been somewhat shaky.
Montresor, who had been dispatched to Philadelphia by Gen. He would exact his revenge. But by the end of the siege, little more than the east-facing original granite blocks would remain. A Prussian adventurer and reputed fortifications expert, Col. Simeon Thayer was thereupon dispatched by fellow Rhode Islander and fellow survivor of the assault on Quebec Colonel Greene from Fort Mercer to assume command at Mifflin.
Thayer proved highly resilient, although he, like Smith, had disputes with the irascible and scrappy Commodore Hazelwood, who would take directions from no one. James Varnum to coordinate the overall defense of the Delaware and settle disputes which also included serious tensions within the leadership of New Jersey militia helping defend the east bank.
I thank you for your endeavours to restore confidence between the Comr. I find something of the same kind existing between Smith and Monsr. Fleury, who I consider as a very valuable Officer. How strange it is that Men, engaged in the same Important Service, should be eternally bickering, instead of giving mutual aid! All our actions should be regulated by one uniform Plan, and that Plan should have one object only in view, to wit, the good of the Service.
Vigilant , having been converted to shallow-draft in part by ditching some of her armaments, nevertheless still bristled with sixteen guns and carried a complement of soldiers and marines, who once next to the fort and within pistol range riddled the beleaguered garrison with gunfire and with grenades lobbed down from the tops and rigging.
A sketch of the profile and plan of the Chevaux-de-frise is at the bottom right. Library of Congress Silenced and soon deserted, but technically not surrendered. If ever destruction was complete it was here. A more dismal Picture of Ruin can scarce be conceived. But if we had not taken it; it is said, we could not have been supported in Philadelphia. After the British bombardment, Fort Mifflin was left in ruins until when the planner of Washington D. Rochefontaine completed the construction of Fort Mifflin in , marking the end of the most expensive expenditure for fortifying ports and harbors of the past five years.
Secretary of State Alexander Hamilton had big plans for the fort and wanted to expand and solidify its defenses before Thomas Jefferson was elected president in Hamilton believed that Fort Mifflin was the most strategic military base and pushed for development, no matter the cost. As a precautionary protection measure for Philadelphia in the War of , Fort Mifflin was once again actively manned. Captain James Nelson Barker was appointed commander of the fort on July 16, Although the fort was prepared to defend Philadelphia, it saw no action during the War of Although the U.
Army abandoned the fort in , the U. Navy began using it for the storage of cannon shells and gun powder two years later. During the spring of , several local volunteer units manned Fort Mifflin in order to defend Philadelphia from Confederate invasion.
By the end of the Civil War, Fort Mifflin had not shot one cannon at the enemy, but instead served as prison for Confederate and Union solders beginning in July Fort Mifflin held Confederate soldiers captured at the Battle of Gettysburg, Union draft dodgers, and Union military criminals. In , 70 percent of the prisoners held at Fort Mifflin were civilians, and only half were draft dodgers.
Though President Abraham Lincoln often discouraged the death penalty, he wanted to make an example of Private William Howe, a wanted killer and deserter from the Union Army.
Howe was hanged at Fort Mifflin in front of the other deserters on August 26, , to show that Lincoln and the Union Army would not tolerate cowards. In , the fort was closed and no longer used as a military post. When Fort Mifflin closed, it was the oldest fort in continuous use in the United States, having served from to
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