Thread: nice Sunday cruise and I learn some Civil War history

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Sunday was sunny and clear so I decided to go on a nice little cruise in my ’32 roadster. When my wife texted me saying something like “…where are you? you’ve been out for five hours!!!...” I figured it’s time to head home. I also reminded me that even long drives are proving my bomber seats with the new upholstery are very comfortable I invited wifey to come along as usual, but she declined. Sometimes I just like to drive and explore even with no destination in mind but she wasn't thinking that way this time.

Before I head out I sometimes look at a map to see if there’s anything new and interesting in the general direction I’m heading so I did that and found a couple potentially interesting sites along the New Jersey shore of the Delaware River just north of where it opens into Delaware Bay. So I headed off in that direction and left my turns to last second impulse, just trying to stay right along the river as much as possible.

At one point I was actually listening to Willie Nelson singing "Graceland": "... I am following the river down the highway through the cradle of the Civil War..." though I realize this isn't exactly the cradle of the Civil War that he was singing about (or Paul Simon wrote in that song).

What I came across was interesting and beautiful, but also sad and solemn in other ways. Even though I lived in this area for 60 years I never heard of Fort Mott State Park, or Fort Delaware, or Finn’s Point National Cemetery.

I almost didn't even find the cemetery. After stumbling on Fort Mott State Park along the river and looking around, I decided to try to head closer to the river on a road heading east since I knew the river was very close by. I started driving down this road but came upon many deep ditches filled with water and mud so I figured this couldn't possibly be the road to a National Cemetery and I turned back. After further looking around at the Park near the cannons I saw a sign pointing down that road and saying the cemetery was 1/2 mile. So I decided to give it another try and went back down the road, being careful not to get too deep or too funky. I started seeing a clearing ahead and then the road turned paved and clean again for about the last 100 yards and I came out on Finn's Point National Cemetery. It was very peaceful and serene and the entire hour or so I was there not one other person was around...probably due to the condition of that road! So here's some pictures I took, plus a couple that I obviously didn't take since the '32 can "fly" but not above ground level and it's not a time machine.









It turns out that many Confederate soldiers captured during the Civil War were imprisoned and died at Fort Delaware. Looking at the names on the plaques at Finn's Point Cemetery and where the soldiers came from made me think that some families lost father and several brothers to this place. Fort Delaware sounds like it was gruesome (from Wikipedia):

Originally purchased by the federal government to build a battery to protect the port of Philadelphia, the land became a cemetery by 1863 for Confederate prisoners of war who died while in captivity at Fort Delaware. One hundred and thirty five Union soldiers who died while serving as guards at the prison camp are also buried here. The death toll among prisoners of war and the guards was high, especially in the latter part of 1863 and throughout 1864. By July 1863, there were 12,595 prisoners on the island at nearby Fort Delaware which was only about 75 acres in size. Disease was rampant and nearly 2,700 prisoners died from malnutrition or neglect. Confederate prisoners interred at the cemetery totaled 2,436 and all are in general unmarked graves.

Officially made a National Cemetery on October 3, 1875 by request of Virginia Governor James L. Kemper, who criticized the poor maintenance of the Confederate grave sites.
Finn's Point National Cemetery is south of Supawna Meadows National Wildlife Refuge near Fort Mott State Park in Pennsville. The cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

a photo of Fort Delaware Confederate soldier prisoners by Elbert Free of Eastland County Texas


The Confederate Monument, an 85-foot (26 m) tall granite obelisk, erected in 1910 by the federal government in memory of the 2,436 Confederate prisoners of war who died at Fort Delaware. Their names are inscribed on the monument.





The Union Monument, dedicated in 1879 to 135 Union soldiers who died while on duty at Fort Delaware.


I don’t know who thought of putting German prisoner soldiers remains here but it strikes me as inappropriate for this place so imbedded with Civil War history:

In the northwest corner, 13 white marble headstones mark the burial place of German prisoners of World War II who died while in custody at nearby Fort Dix, New Jersey.



Some cool cannons at Fort Mott:

It's always good to see that those who died fighting for a cause they believed in are not forgotten.

But you're always reminded of the awful waste of so many young lives, and the heartache of those they left behind.
Parents, siblings, wives, sweethearts, and children.
Each and every one of those men had someone who loved him.
Tragic.

It's a sad fact that war never decides who's right.
Only who's left.

Thanks for that glimpse from the past.

Thanks for posting this.. Looks like they also take care of the place like it should be.. looked like a great day for a topless ride...

That was an awesome discovery Nick. Thanks for sharing it with us.

I'm surprised that you found the cemetery open since it's a National Cemetery administered by the VA, considering the shutdown of all federal facilities that might be of interest to the general public. We just returned from two weeks in Massachusetts and Maine, with a focus on hiking & driving Acadia National Park, and we found barricades and closed gates at each and every entrance to the park, even small parking lots at hiking trail heads which simply pushed the parked vehicles out to the shoulder of the road which was far more dangerous for pedestrians and drivers.

Did you go down to the Finns Point Lighthouse?

finnspointRear.JPG

Roger,

I guess I was lucky since the road and entrance way to Finn's Point National Cemetery doesn't have any gates to close, at least none I saw. On the other hand, Fort Mott State Park was closed to the extent that the drop-down barriers were blocking the entrance to the parking areas. As I walked around and climbed up on the gun emplacements and the mortar battery I saw a park ranger following a couple cars out that snuck into the parking lot around the barriers. One road in had no gate and that's the one I entered after finding the other paths closed and that's also the road that ended up going to the cemetery. You can see my car parked on the outside of a fence in the third photo from the bottom.

I did see the lighthouse you posted in the picture. I love lighthouses so it caught my eye. But I didn't get close to it since it looked like the road in to it was private with what looked like a private house near it (a much newer house than in your pic above). The lighthouse is actually quite a way inland from the State Park area and cemetery. This satellite view shows "A" where the lighthouse is and you can see it's on the road inland from the other areas. Maybe many years ago the typical Delaware River flood plain was inland some of the time so they built the lighthouse 3/4 mile inland? Or it could have been moved, not sure but I'll research that point. I know some other lighthouses I've visited in the NJ-Del-Mar-Va area have been moved for various reasons.



Another oddity I was reminded of as I did "post visit research" was the Delaware - New Jersey state border line. You can see part of it marked on the pic above north of the cemetery. I think in most cases I've seen, when a river is the dividing line between two states, the border line (another Willie Nelson reminder!) is down the center of the river. But the story I recall here is that back in the earliest formative years of the Union, the soon-to-be State of Delaware negotiated to have the entire Delaware River between this part of Delaware and NJ to be within Delaware, up to the high tide line on that side of the river. Strangely enough to me, it now seems there is a strip of Delaware along the river on the New Jersey side. This came up again a couple years ago when Delaware and New Jersey were arguing about the finer points of dredging the river and then Delaware pulled this ace out of their sleeve and advised the less-knowledgeable politicians and Delaware River Commission that they had sole rights to call the shots since it was all intra-state.