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This fort in the Delaware River near Delaware City, Del. was one of the prisons used to house
CSA POW's. My first cousin three times removed,
2nd Lt. Samuel Horace Hawes, Richmond Howitzers/Williamsburg Arty./Orange Arty. Captured Spotsylvania C.H. "The Bloody Angle", May 1864, was one of the unfortunate Immortal 600, transferred from here to a position in front of friendly fire (read human shields) in Charleston Harbor, SC supposedly for retaliation purposes...he survived this use of Human Shields (none were killed by cannonading from Ft. Sumter)....he was eventually returned to Ft. Del. and was released near June 1, 1865. A great grand-uncle Sgt. Hugh Davis Smith (Crenshaw Artillery/Ellets/Walkers/Pegrams Battal.), briefly passed through Ft. Del. on his way to Point Lookout POW Camp in Maryland. He was exchanged Feb., 1865. He had been captured as part of a horse foraging party several days before Gettysburg along with his Captain, Ham Chamberlayne. Another great-granduncle, Clinton Drury Smith, (HDS's bro.)survived Gettysburg but was severely wounded at Jones House as part of Pegrams Battalion in the Petersburg/Appomattox Campaign. Another 2nd cousin 3 times removed, Major Jas. Horace Lacy, CSA of Chatham (now Fredericksburg/Spotsylvania NBP/NPS Headquarters) was imprisoned here briefly. Oddly enough I grew up less than ten miles from Ft. Del. as a child and knew nothing of the significance of this island to my family history. Also, I was born in Fredericksburg, Va and knew nothing of the significance of Chatham and Ellwood to my family story and relationship with the Lacy family that owned both of these during the WBTS.
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