Fort Mifflin
PA - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
6400 Hog Island Rd, Philadelphia, PA 19153
MUSEUM
VISITOR INFORMATION
TICKET REQUIRED
Admission is $16 for adults, $14 for seniors, $12 for veterans, $10 for children 6-12, and free for children under 6 and active-duty military.
FREE PUBLIC PARKING
There is free on-site parking.
PUBLIC RESTROOMS
SITE FEATURES
Surviving Structures
Summer travel, holiday weekends and scheduled events may add demand (Mid-Atlantic regional inference). Site-specific peak unconfirmed.
May-June or September-October for fort and riverfront grounds in milder weather. Visit on a confirmed public-opening day; winter access is by appointment or special event.
HISTORIC SITES NEARBY
Nearby Historic Sites
miles
Landmark
WHO WAS HERE
3
Richard Howe
William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe
Samuel Smith
About Fort Mifflin
Fort Mifflin defended Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War; British forces bombarded and captured it in autumn 1777. The U.S. Army rebuilt and garrisoned the site from the 1790s into the nineteenth century. It held prisoners during the Civil War and continued in military use until the Army decommissioned it for active infantry and artillery duty in 1962.
The surviving Delaware River fort operates as a historic museum containing masonry walls, earthworks, casemates, barracks, magazines, artillery positions, and buildings from several periods. Restoration protects substantial eighteenth- and nineteenth-century fabric, with exhibits, tours, and events interpreting the active fortification complex.
History happened here at Fort Mifflin
The Philadelphia Committee of Public Safety soon restarted construction on the fort and finally completed it in 1776. After Washington's defeat at the Battle of Brandywine, the British took control of Philadelphia in September 1777 during their Philadelphia campaign. The British forces then laid siege to Fort Mifflin and Fort Mercer in early October 1777, unsuccessfully attacking the latter by land and river in the Battle of Red Bank on October 22.
The British Army intended the siege to open up its supply line via the Delaware River. Captain John Montresor, earlier designer and constructor of Fort Mifflin, planned and built the siege works used against Fort Mifflin. He then led the siege and destroyed much of the fort.
During the siege, four hundred American soldiers held off more than two thousand British troops and 250 ships until November 10, 1777, when the British intensified their assault, launching an incessant barrage of cannonballs into the fort. Among those stationed at the fort was private Joseph Plumb Martin, who later wrote an account of the battle.
PEOPLE WHO LIVED HERE
PEOPLE WHO DIED HERE
PEOPLE AT REST HERE
EXTERNAL LINKS
Fort Mifflin on the Delaware, history: https://www.fortmifflin.us/the-history/
Fort Mifflin on the Delaware, preservation mission: https://www.fortmifflin.us/about/
National Park Service, National Register documentation: https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/70000554.pdf
National Park Service, battlefield preservation: https://home.nps.gov/articles/000/a-vortex-of-artillery-mud-and-rain-working-to-preserve-fort-mifflin-and-its-defender-s-2-month-duel-with-the-royal-navy.htm
American Battlefield Trust, siege of Fort Mifflin: https://www.battlefields.org/learn/revolutionary-war/battles/siege-fort-mifflin