The Ghosts of Fort Delaware

Fort Delaware sits on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River, near Delaware City, and can be reached only by ferry. The massive stone fort was built mainly between 1848 and 1860 to guard the river approaches to Wilmington and Philadelphia, but it is remembered above all as a Civil War prison. From 1862, captured Confederate soldiers, along with Southern sympathizers and other prisoners, were held on the island; most of the Confederates captured at Gettysburg were sent here. In all, about 33,000 men passed through, and by August 1863 more than 11,000 were crowded onto the island at once.

Conditions were harsh. An estimated 2,500 prisoners died, roughly half of them in a smallpox epidemic in 1863, and many Confederate dead and Union guards were buried across the river at Finn’s Point in New Jersey. Those facts are well documented. They are also the backdrop for the ghost stories that visitors and guides now tell: of moaning heard from the barracks and basement areas, of the sound of soldiers running along the ramparts as if still trying to escape, of laughing children, of objects that move, and of cannon fire with no cannon.

The best-known apparition is a woman associated with the officers’ kitchen, whose identity is unknown. A 2009 WHYY report described a figure said to have been caught on camera walking through a wall, and said she is believed to call visitors by name and tell them to get out. The fort has also been visited by television ghost-hunting crews: the paranormal group TAPS filmed a Halloween special for Ghost Hunters there in 2008, and the fort has been featured on Ghost Hunters Academy and the British series Most Haunted. Delaware State Parks offers fall paranormal tours.

None of this has been proved, and the stories deserve to be taken as legend. But they sit on real history: thousands of men suffered and died at Fort Delaware, which is why the place is often treated with solemn respect as well as spooky curiosity. The fort is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is now part of Fort Delaware State Park.

Reported phenomena include moaning, footsteps and running along the ramparts, glimpses of Confederate-uniformed figures, a woman near the officers’ kitchen who speaks to visitors, children’s laughter, objects moving, and the sound of cannon fire.

The prison barracks and basement, the ramparts and the officers’ kitchen at Fort Delaware, a seasonal ferry ride from Delaware City.

Fort Delaware is one of Delaware’s best-known haunted places. Besides the television coverage, it is the setting for seasonal paranormal programs run by the state park, and it is also a living-history site that brings the Civil War years to life for visitors.