When I want to walk around a place with open space, vistas, and history, I go over to Fort Mott and Finns Point National Cemetery, about 8 miles from my home. A trail system winds through and ties together the two parks.
Fort Mott is one of three forts that guarded the Delaware River starting in the early nineteenth century, and is on the New Jersey coast in Salem County. Fort Delaware sits on an island in the middle of the river, and Fort du Pont is on the Delaware coast. A ferry connects the three forts, all state parks, for tourists during the summer.
Military activity began in 1863 with a Confederate POW cemetery which later became Finns Point National Cemetery. The POW camp was at Fort Delaware, which earned the nickname "Andersonville of the North" (Andersonville was the infamous southern prison camp of the American Civil War).
A monument offers tribute to the 2,400 Confederate soldiers who suffered and died at Fort Delaware as prisoners of war. Bronze plaques for each southern state at the base of the monument list every soldier's name.
Fort Delaware stands on Pea Patch Island, here seen from Fort Mott. On the far side is the state of Delaware, which owns the island.
At Fort Mott, the built landscape consists of several batteries with concrete gun emplacements in earthen berms concealing brick and concrete magazines and commander stations, as well as steel observation towers, brick and wooden buildings for offices, storage, and housing, and parade grounds.
In 1872 two batteries and five magazines were built as "Finns Point Battery," but most of the Fort today reflects the period of Spanish-American War defenses beginning in 1897.
The two mounds are the remaining 1872 magazines and battery with the 1902 observation tower.
1872 gun emplacement on the battery, minus the gun.
This Battery Edwards casemate was reconstructed from a 1872 magazine.
Battery Gregg was built 1901-1910. Inside the earth mound is a concrete magazine. On top are a gun emplacement and an observation post. Battery Gregg was restored in the 1990s (I worked on this one as a Watson & Henry designer).
The observation tower built in 1903 and fort headquarters were both restored in recent years under New Jersey's Historic Preservation Trust Fund.
There are no remaining guns at Fort Mott. Three guns were sold to Canada in 1941. Two are exhibited at Fort Cape Spear in Newfoundland. The other went to Fort Prével in Québec.
