Dungeon of Death

Romantic that I am, last week I took my wife for her birthday to a dungeon. 

Astride a tiny island in the Delaware River, Fort Delaware is a tragedy-lover's must-see.

Built in 1859, it was one of 42 coastal citadels commissioned by the US government in the wake of the War of 1812, when the British torched Washington, DC. 

The fort was, in fact, the largest of the 42 built—and the largest fort in America at its completion.

Like most of those forts, Fort Delaware was never used to repel an invader. 

But during the Civil War it was used as an enormous prison, housing "at the urgent invitation of Mr. Lincoln" over 33,000 Rebel captives.

To get a sense of prison life at Fort Delaware in 1863, you only have to hear the nickname of the fort's fearsome commander.

Austrian Army-trained, General Albin Schoepf—known to his enemies as "General Terror"—helped cement Fort Delaware's grisly reputation.

Throughout the South, it was referred to as "Hell on Earth" and the American version of the "Black Hole of Calcutta."

General Schoeph had a good reason to act terribly: his garrison of 250 troops, detailed as guards, was vastly outnumbered. 

To keep the Rebel prisoners in line, the general used cruelty—and permitted his soldiers to use it as well. 

Hanging a prisoner by his thumbs, even for a minor infraction, was a particularly popular technique among the Union guards. 

"I cannot comprehend that species which makes use of authority to torture helpless prisoners of war," one Confederate prisoner wrote of General Schoepf at the time.

Cruelty was by no means proprietary to Schoepf and his men. 

Retaliatory maltreatment of Rebel prisoners was favored by the majority of Northern citizens, and was practiced in other prisoner-of-war camps, such as Camp Douglas in Chicago. 

One historian has attributed Northerners' attitude to "war psychosis."

Far more terrible than General Schoepf, however, was Mother Nature. 

She killed 3,000 of the fort's inhabitants. 

Her favorite techniques were smallpox, measles, tuberculosis, dysentery, diarrhea, typhoid, malaria, scurvy, pneumonia, and erysipelas, a torturous skin infection.

In a show of humanity, General Schoepf was always quick to remove the dead from the prison population. 

He buried all 3,000 of the dead on the shore opposite Fort Delaware, in a New Jersey marshland.

It wouldn't be the last time a New Jersey marsh would be used for that purpose. 

But that's another story.

Above: Vaulted Ceilings, Fort Delaware. Photo by Robert Francis James, 2021. Interior of Fort Delaware. Photo by John L. Gihon, 1868.