Fort Mifflin

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The Commandant's House at Fort Mifflin, built in the 1790s to serve as a citadel or 'fort within a fort' -- the place of last
retreat. Save America's Treasures funding was used to stabilize the walls and install new rafters, roof, and cupola.
Photo courtesy of Fort Mifflin on the Delaware.

Fort Mifflin

Fort Mifflin and Hog Island Roads

Philadelphia, PA

Website:  Fort Mifflin

The Treasure:  Fort Mifflin became known as the “Valiant Defender of the Delaware” because of the courageous stand made here by a relatively small force of Pennsylvania militiamen in the fall of 1777.

Accessibility:  Fort Mifflin is open to the public Wednesday through Sunday from 10 to 4 from March 1 through mid-December.  Check the website for an extensive calendar of public living history events.

An 18th century Hessian map showing
Mud Island and Fort Mercer in 1777.
From the collection
of the Marburg State Library.
Source:  Wikimedia Commons

Background:  Once located on Mud Island, near the confluence of the Delaware and the Schuylkill Rivers, Fort Mifflin is part of the mainland today. Hog Island Road can take you to Fort Mifflin, but Hog Island is part of the mainland, too. Over the past two centuries, this portion of the Delaware River has been filled in, primarily now serving as home to Philadelphia International Airport. But despite the presence of planes flying low overhead, Fort Mifflin exerts its own strong presence today, evoking the feel of military life in the 18th and 19th centuries.

For its critical role in the Revolutionary War, Fort Mifflin deserves its own version of Rudyard Kipling’s “Charge of the Light Brigade.” Honoring heroism in the face of certain defeat, Kipling’s poem even has appropriate imagery to describe the siege of Fort Mifflin: “Cannon to right of them, / Cannon to left of them, / Cannon behind them / Volley’d & thunder’d.”

When the British troops under General William Howe occupied Philadelphia in September 1777, the General’s attention focused upon George Washington and his Continental Army located a short distance west of the city. Howe believed that he could defeat Washington if he could provide his own troops with appropriate supplies. But the supplies would have to be brought in by ships sailing up the Delaware River, passing Mud Island—and its Mud Island Fort (named Fort Mifflin two decades later)—en route.

The Pennsylvania militiamen at Fort Mifflin were determined to keep the supplies from General Howe and his troops. They set up an underwater line of chevaux-de-frise, logs tipped with fierce iron spikes, capable of ripping lethal gouges into the hulls of passing ships. The British fought back with cannon bombardments of the Mud Island Fort, but the rebels showed themselves capable of withstanding the punishment. At night, they repaired any damage inflicted to the walls of the fort.

A Revolutionary War reenactment at Fort Mifflin.
Photo courtesy of Fort Mifflin on the Delaware.

After a month-and-a-half-long stalemate, the British massed their full strength against the fort. On November 15, 1777, they brought in more than 200 additional cannons, dramatically increasing the fury of the assault. Spectacularly outnumbered, the fort on Mud Island had about a tenth that number of cannons with which to respond. By the end of a day of massive bombardment, approximately 250 Colonial soldiers lay dead or wounded. That night, the survivors set fire to the fort and retreated across the Delaware River to their allies at Fort Mercer in Red Bank, New Jersey.

By holding out for so long against the British, the militiamen at the Mud Island Fort bought George Washington needed time to establish winter quarters for his troops at Valley Forge. The fort itself, largely destroyed by fire and cannon, passed into legend as the “Valiant Defender of the Delaware.”

The fort was rebuilt in the 1790s, at which time it was officially named after Thomas Mifflin. Its long-standing military history subsequently encompasses service in the War of 1812, the Civil War, and World War II. Today, it continues to serve as an active base for the United States Army Corps of Engineers—making it the only currently active base that dates back to before the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Overhead view of Fort Mifflin.
Photo courtesy of Fort Mifflin on the Delaware.

Notes from the Editor:  Not every one comes to Fort Mifflin for the history. Some come for the ghosts.

Other Recommended Sites:  Across the river in New Jersey, you can visit Red Bank Battlefield Park, the site of Fort Mercer, where the Pennsylvania militiamen retreated after the siege of Fort Mifflin. At Red Bank, the 18th century James and Ann Whitall House is sometimes open for tours (and the parkland along the Delaware is a wonderful place to fly a kite).

Sunset at Fort Mifflin.
Photo courtesy of Fort Mifflin on the Delaware.

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© 2013 Lee Price