Trivia #5 Fort Delaware (11/5/2014)

[Trivia Master]

Tonight's Civil War Trivia Question Value: 10 points.
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This question will be open until Friday at about 9:30am EDT
New Questions are Posted Every Night at 9:30pm EDT
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Please do not post your answers anywhere but in this forum! This includes you FACEBOOK users!
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How many prisoners died at Fort Delaware during the Civil War?
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Post your answers BELOW. Good Luck!
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If you have a Civil War book, or perhaps some other interesting Civil War product you'd like to promote by giving it away as a trivia prize, contact the Webmaster, Mike Kendra

 

[chellers]

"nearly 2,500"

http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/national_cemeteries/New_Jersey/Finns_Point_National_Cemetery.html

 

[hoosier]

2,500

 

[ErnieMac]

2926 Confederates prisoners of war and 39 civilian detainees died.

 

[Billy_Mojo]

most will find "approximately 2400" but a marker is inscribed --

"To Mark the Burial Place of 2456 Confederate Soldiers who died at Fort Delaware while Prisoners of War and whose graves cannot now be individually identified"

but this will not count prisoners other than Confederate Soldiers who died there...

but my answer will be


2456.

 

[BrrrBRRRR]

About 2500

 

[Albert Sailhorst]

The website http://www.civilwaralbum.com/misc/ftdelaware1.htm states: "2,436 Southerners died while interred at Fort Delaware."
Another website http://www.fortwiki.com/Fort_Delaware states: "As many as 331 prisoners died of cholera in a single month and by war's end over 2,900 Confederate prisoners had died on the island. New research by Fort Delaware Society archivist Jocelyn P. Jamison compiled the names of 2,925 Confederate prisoners of war using the fort's record books from NARA."
An National Park Service website, specific to Finn's Point National Cemetary (http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/national_cemeteries/New_Jersey/Finns_Point_National_Cemetery.html ) in regards to Ft. Deleware states: "Malnutrition and disease were commonplace in Civil War-era prisoner of war camps, and nearly 2,500 prisoners died while held captive at Fort Delaware."

I am sure I could find more examples with conflicting numbers, so I am not sure what number you are looking for as an answer. Therefore, my answer will be: Between 2,436 and 2,925 prisoners died at Fort Delaware during the Civil War.
I hope my answer falls within the parameters of being correct!
Thanks!

 

[E_just_E]

That is an well contested question. Here is what I would likely think the best source for an answer is:

Our Society publication entitled "They Died at Fort Delaware: Union, Confederate, and Civilian" (Fort Delaware Society, June 1997) contains the names of 2,926 Confederate prisoners of war, 39 civilian detainees, and 109 names of Union soldiers who died at Fort Delaware during the war.

I'd take that 2926 plus 39 = 2965.

 

[adisciu9]

Sources vary between approx. 2500 (Fort Delaware - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Prisoner & Garrison Queries - Fort Delaware Societyen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Delaware) and 2926(www.fortdelaware.org/prisoner%20&%20garrison%20queries.htm)

 

[DickWilliams]

Wikipedia says "about 2500" Confederates died there. According to Census Diggins.com "about 2700" died there and that 2436 of them were buried at Finn's Point. The Encyclopedia of the American Civil War says "about 2400" of the dead were ferried to Finn's Point National Cemetery in New Jersey and buried there and that an undetermined number were buried on Pea Island or were shipped south for burial. The 2436 figure is as precise as it gets, but it is not the total number. Final answer: at least 2436 and another group of unknown size who were buried elsewhere.

 

[AUG]

2,500

 

[Eagle eye]

According to NPS.gov nearly 2500 prisoners died at Ft Deleware.

 

[Northern Light]

About 2500 or 7.6% of the entire population.

 

[C.S.M 1861]

There are multiple numbers answers on this question because of how vauge it is worded: "How many prisoners died at Fort Delaware during the Civil War?"

The Fort Delaware Heritage Society cites a higher number of 3074 total prisoner deaths (including 39 civilian prisoner and 109 Union military prisoner deaths):

"More than 40,000 Confederate POWs, plus hundreds of civilian detainees, and hundreds of Union army prisoners under sentence of military courts-martial were held prisoner at Fort Delaware during the American Civil War. The Fort Delaware Society maintains the most complete index of these men available. Our data base includes information gleaned from microfilmed records pertaining to Fort Delaware purchased from the National Archives, plus information gathered from correspondents and other published sources.

Our Society publication entitled "They Died at Fort Delaware: Union, Confederate, and Civilian" (Fort Delaware Society, June 1997) contains the names of 2,926 Confederate prisoners of war, 39 civilian detainees, and 109 names of Union soldiers who died at Fort Delaware during the war. This represents some 500 more Confederate dead than are named on the Confederate monument at Finns Point National Cemetery, and identifies 4 of the 30 unknown Union dead. It should be noted that these 500 additional Confederate names have yet to be confirmed by obtaining Compiled Military Services Records."
http://www.fortdelaware.org/Prisoner & Garrison Queries.htm


According to the National Park Service website the number is 2,436 who died at the Fort. But that number is incomplete for the Confederates, the Union prisoners, and because there were also civilian political prisoners who were held, and died at the fort during the war. They are not listed on the NPS site, or on the Finns Point Confederate Monument.

"The Federal Government erected the Confederate Monument in 1910 to memorialize the 2,436 Confederate prisoners who died at Fort Delaware. The 85-foot-tall granite obelisk sits on a low mound and features a bronze dedication plaque and panels listing the names of the prisoners. More bronze panels are set into the earthen mound on all four sides. The Confederate Monument is similar to ones erected at North Alton, Illinois, and Point Lookout, Maryland, sites of other prisoner of war camps."
http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/national_cemeteries/New_Jersey/Finns_Point_National_Cemetery.html

Edit - Even though you included an answer that is outside the range of 2,400 to 3,000, you cited an authoritative source, so I will count your answer correct.

Hoosier

 

[Copperhead-mi]

It appears that there are conflicting numbers according to different legitimate sources. Lonnie R. Speer notes on pg. 325 of his book Portals to Hell, Military Prisons of the Civil War, that 2,460 prisoners died at Fort Delaware while the Fort Delaware Society states that "2,926 Confederate prisoners of war" and "39 civilian detainees" died for a total of 2,965 prisoners. At Finn's Point National Cemetery where the Fort Delaware prisoners are buried, its website states that an "estimated 2,502 men died while imprisoned at Fort Delaware."

 

[Brenal]

2,700

 

[Seduzal]

Between 2500 - 2700 prisoners died. According to My sources.

 

[blwhite]

2700

 

[Stony]

2,436.
www.nps.gov/.../Finns_Point_National_Cemet..

 

[loppde]

About 2700