UXO Site selected: Fort Delaware, DE
General Area: Pea Patch Island, DE

Site Type/Program: FUDS

Location: Fort Delaware is on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River, about 12 miles south of Wilmington, Delaware. Fort Delaware and Pea Patch Island consists of approximately 178 acres in New Castle County. Military use began in 1814 when the War Department took possession of the island and began to construct a fort for coastal defense. The original fort burned in 1831 but the Army rebuilt another and completed it in 1862. During the Civil War, the site was an infamous Confederate prison housing as many as 12,595 prisoners. After 1870, the fort essentially remained either under recurring modernization, in caretaker status or garrisoned briefly during times of war. The ordnance and explosives related features included the use of various types of coastal defense weaponry from the 1820s to 1940s, assistance in mining the Delaware River channel during the Spanish American War and World War II, as well as small arms. The War Department declared the site surplus to the needs of the Army on 1 October 1944.

Brief History: On 21 October 1940, the Army authorized removal of the guns at Battery Torbert, which was completed by November. The three guns were shipped to Watervliet Arsenal. In January 1941, they modernized the 3-inch rapid fire guns at Battery Hentig with a wraparound shield and manned it the following June. They added a 60-inch searchlight on a 65 foot disappearing tower at the southwest bank of Pea Patch Island that same year. In January 1942 the Army began mining the Delaware Bay channels and sent troops to Fort Delaware to assist the main mine facilities at Fort Miles. By 9 January 1942 the mine facilities at Fort Miles were completed. The mine facilities included a wharf and boat house, two mine loading rooms, a mine storehouse, two small magazines and four earth covered magazines. Construction of Fort Miles at Cape Henlopen at the mouth of Delaware Bay began in 1938. Along with the Cape May Reservation on the New Jersey shore, they guarded the mouth of Delaware Bay rendering the interior coastal defenses obsolete once operational. On 7 June 1942 the Army removed the 3-inch guns from Battery Hentig, leaving only a small caretaker detachment at Fort Delaware. On 1 October 1943 the War Department eliminated Fort Delaware from the Harbor Defenses of Delaware and categorized it as surplus a year later. In 1947 the State of Delaware acquired the fort and surrounding island and turned it into a State Park.
Range / Site Description:

Associated Munitions:

Activities Completed: This Archives Search Report (ASR) was completed by Rock Island District in July 1997.

Issues: Huntsville Safety disagreed with the Risk Assessment Code (RAC) score of 2 and recommended a RAC 5 NOFA based on there being nothing but anecdotal information alluding to the finding of OE in or on Fort Delaware.

Other Information: EE/CA
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