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This interesting article appeared in the Sunday edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer. To see some photos related to the article, please go here (Macromedia Flash 8 required): http://inquirer.philly.com/slideshow...0827ftmifflin/
Posted on Sun, Aug. 27, 2006
Caretaker trips over history
By Edward Colimore
Inquirer Staff Writer
Caretaker Wayne Irby was mowing the grass at Fort Mifflin this month when he was literally swallowed up by the history of the place - up to his knees.
Irby "turned the mower loose" just as the ground collapsed beneath him.
Curious, he shoveled aside a few feet of earth over the next couple of days and made a stunning discovery: a tunnel and a two-room jail cell recalling the sad tale of a decorated Civil War soldier, a murder, clemency pleas to President Lincoln, and the only execution at the fort.
The barred cell at casemate No. 11 once belonged to convicted killer William H. Howe before he was hanged Aug. 26, 1864.
One hundred forty-two years later - almost to the day of Howe's hanging - Irby pointed a flashlight above a doorway and eyed, with surprise, a name, both handwritten and printed: W.H. Howe.
On a door nearby was another message: Shun this place, oh man, whom soever thou art.
"Finding the rooms was very exciting," said Irby, 55, who on Friday stood in the cell littered with bottles, a tin cup, a plate, a chamber pot, a cannon vent pick, and many other artifacts.
"But the name identified the rooms with a function and personality. It gave them a story and took it from a great thing to a fantastic thing."
Historians and fort officials were thrilled.
The site, where a few hundred patriots braved a British bombardment during the Revolution and where Civil War deserters were held, is off the beaten path for tourists, next to Philadelphia International Airport - and now hopes to capitalize on Irby's propitious accident.
William Mifflin, a descendant of the fort's 18th-century commandant Thomas Mifflin and member of the board of directors of Fort Mifflin on the Delaware, called the find remarkable, "another significant chapter in the fort's long history."
"It not only gives us one more educational and interpretive opportunity - but it's entertaining," he said before ducking down a small, muddy hole that opened into the tunnel.
Jim Mosetter, former president of the Fort Mifflin Historical Society, who thought he had seen everything after more than three decades of volunteering there, said he hoped more visitors would now be drawn to the site. "This is colossal," he said. "Why it wasn't discovered or researched before, I don't know."
Historian and author Andy Waskie, a Temple University professor who teaches Civil War history and languages, provided some perspective on the nature of the discovery:
"Of all the thousands of prisoners - Union and Confederate - held at Fort Mifflin, to have a direct connection to one individual, who was under sentence of death, is astounding."
Howe, a Union soldier of German descent, had distinguished himself during the Battle of Fredericksburg on Dec. 13, 1862.
"He was a war hero," said Lee Anderson, director of public programming at the fort. "He picked up the standard and went forward; he rallied the troops, and they followed him."
Wounded in the fight, suffering from severe dysentery and depressed by the loss of friends and separation from his wife in Perkiomenville, Montgomery County, Howe later deserted and returned home to recuperate.
An enrolling officer, Abraham Bertolet, and two provost marshals later went to Howe's house to arrest him, and a gun battle ensued. Witnesses said Howe fired a rifle from an upper window of the house, killing Bertolet.
The soldier surrendered, was convicted of murder and was sentenced to death by hanging. He was held at Fort Mifflin and escaped, possibly from the newly discovered cell.
On Friday, Irby, the fort's projects manager, pointed out a window, with a wire-mesh screen and bars removed, allowing access to a large ventilation shaft that could have provided the escape route. "The bars are still lying there," he said.
Howe was recaptured, then transferred to the more secure Moyamensing Prison on 11th Street in South Philadelphia.
His former commanding officer, Gen. St. Clair A. Mulholland, a Medal of Honor recipient, wrote to President Lincoln, seeking clemency for the soldier.
Howe also wrote to Lincoln, trying to put the best face on the desertion and shooting incident. The President declined to pardon him, and Howe was hanged at the fort between the arsenal and the sutler building (where civilians sold goods to troops), which still stand.
"They were making an example of him and wanted everyone to have the optimal view," said Anderson, who also explored the cell, located next to an 1875 powder magazine once used for early torpedo research.
Howe's wife wanted to bury her husband at Keelor's Church in Obelisk, Pa., but the elders declined to have a deserter buried in sanctified ground. He was interred near a stone fence at his house.
To see the cell where Howe was held, fort officials literally crawled through a small hole and passed through two doorways in the tunnel that led to a doorway of the cell. The casemate was built in 1798 to store military supplies but was later used to jail deserters.
One of the 19th-century messages written on doors in the tunnel said To be good is to be happy. Another was partly indecipherable: The appointed time of my sojourn will be... my release from March 1, 1864.
William Mifflin said he had contacted city and state officials as well as the University of Pennsylvania to report the find and seek advice and help in preserving the site and its artifacts. "The fort is one of Philadelphia's important historic assets and should be preserved," he said.
Meanwhile, Irby, a former Natchez, Miss., resident whose misstep put him in the spotlight, has been getting both congratulations and kidding. Already called Mr. Fort Mifflin, he's now taken on a new moniker with friends and colleagues: Indiana Jones.
Posted on Sun, Aug. 27, 2006
Caretaker trips over history
By Edward Colimore
Inquirer Staff Writer
Caretaker Wayne Irby was mowing the grass at Fort Mifflin this month when he was literally swallowed up by the history of the place - up to his knees.
Irby "turned the mower loose" just as the ground collapsed beneath him.
Curious, he shoveled aside a few feet of earth over the next couple of days and made a stunning discovery: a tunnel and a two-room jail cell recalling the sad tale of a decorated Civil War soldier, a murder, clemency pleas to President Lincoln, and the only execution at the fort.
The barred cell at casemate No. 11 once belonged to convicted killer William H. Howe before he was hanged Aug. 26, 1864.
One hundred forty-two years later - almost to the day of Howe's hanging - Irby pointed a flashlight above a doorway and eyed, with surprise, a name, both handwritten and printed: W.H. Howe.
On a door nearby was another message: Shun this place, oh man, whom soever thou art.
"Finding the rooms was very exciting," said Irby, 55, who on Friday stood in the cell littered with bottles, a tin cup, a plate, a chamber pot, a cannon vent pick, and many other artifacts.
"But the name identified the rooms with a function and personality. It gave them a story and took it from a great thing to a fantastic thing."
Historians and fort officials were thrilled.
The site, where a few hundred patriots braved a British bombardment during the Revolution and where Civil War deserters were held, is off the beaten path for tourists, next to Philadelphia International Airport - and now hopes to capitalize on Irby's propitious accident.
William Mifflin, a descendant of the fort's 18th-century commandant Thomas Mifflin and member of the board of directors of Fort Mifflin on the Delaware, called the find remarkable, "another significant chapter in the fort's long history."
"It not only gives us one more educational and interpretive opportunity - but it's entertaining," he said before ducking down a small, muddy hole that opened into the tunnel.
Jim Mosetter, former president of the Fort Mifflin Historical Society, who thought he had seen everything after more than three decades of volunteering there, said he hoped more visitors would now be drawn to the site. "This is colossal," he said. "Why it wasn't discovered or researched before, I don't know."
Historian and author Andy Waskie, a Temple University professor who teaches Civil War history and languages, provided some perspective on the nature of the discovery:
"Of all the thousands of prisoners - Union and Confederate - held at Fort Mifflin, to have a direct connection to one individual, who was under sentence of death, is astounding."
Howe, a Union soldier of German descent, had distinguished himself during the Battle of Fredericksburg on Dec. 13, 1862.
"He was a war hero," said Lee Anderson, director of public programming at the fort. "He picked up the standard and went forward; he rallied the troops, and they followed him."
Wounded in the fight, suffering from severe dysentery and depressed by the loss of friends and separation from his wife in Perkiomenville, Montgomery County, Howe later deserted and returned home to recuperate.
An enrolling officer, Abraham Bertolet, and two provost marshals later went to Howe's house to arrest him, and a gun battle ensued. Witnesses said Howe fired a rifle from an upper window of the house, killing Bertolet.
The soldier surrendered, was convicted of murder and was sentenced to death by hanging. He was held at Fort Mifflin and escaped, possibly from the newly discovered cell.
On Friday, Irby, the fort's projects manager, pointed out a window, with a wire-mesh screen and bars removed, allowing access to a large ventilation shaft that could have provided the escape route. "The bars are still lying there," he said.
Howe was recaptured, then transferred to the more secure Moyamensing Prison on 11th Street in South Philadelphia.
His former commanding officer, Gen. St. Clair A. Mulholland, a Medal of Honor recipient, wrote to President Lincoln, seeking clemency for the soldier.
Howe also wrote to Lincoln, trying to put the best face on the desertion and shooting incident. The President declined to pardon him, and Howe was hanged at the fort between the arsenal and the sutler building (where civilians sold goods to troops), which still stand.
"They were making an example of him and wanted everyone to have the optimal view," said Anderson, who also explored the cell, located next to an 1875 powder magazine once used for early torpedo research.
Howe's wife wanted to bury her husband at Keelor's Church in Obelisk, Pa., but the elders declined to have a deserter buried in sanctified ground. He was interred near a stone fence at his house.
To see the cell where Howe was held, fort officials literally crawled through a small hole and passed through two doorways in the tunnel that led to a doorway of the cell. The casemate was built in 1798 to store military supplies but was later used to jail deserters.
One of the 19th-century messages written on doors in the tunnel said To be good is to be happy. Another was partly indecipherable: The appointed time of my sojourn will be... my release from March 1, 1864.
William Mifflin said he had contacted city and state officials as well as the University of Pennsylvania to report the find and seek advice and help in preserving the site and its artifacts. "The fort is one of Philadelphia's important historic assets and should be preserved," he said.
Meanwhile, Irby, a former Natchez, Miss., resident whose misstep put him in the spotlight, has been getting both congratulations and kidding. Already called Mr. Fort Mifflin, he's now taken on a new moniker with friends and colleagues: Indiana Jones.
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