Flying Into Fort Mifflin
While most people are flying into Philadelphia International Airport today, they forget to look down. If they did, they would spot this 42-acre Fort That Saved America. This was the scene of a horrific six-week engagement that the history textbooks forgot about.
Built on Mudd Island, the grounds here are notorious for their soft ground, muddy conditions, and flooding. At times, even to this day, when it rains hard enough, the mud is so thick it will suck the shoes right off of you. That is the reason there were never any horses here. Their hooves would simply sink in the mud and render them useless. Joseph Plum Martin (1760-1850) noted in his journal about the terrain amid his hellish experience here during the conflict.
"...the ground was soft mud. I have seen the enemy's shells fall upon it an sink so low that their report could not be heard when they burst, and I could only feel a tremulous motion of the earth at the time. At other time, when they burst near the surface of the proud, they would throw the mud fifty feet in the air."
~ Pvt Joseph Plumb Martin
on the conditions at Fort Mifflin
http://www.ushistory.org/march/other/martindiary.htm
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Photographer's Guide (EXIF):
Camera: Canon Rebel T-6
Aperture: F11
Shutter Speed: 1/1000
ISO: 400
Exposure Bias: 0
Focal Length: 18mm
Mode: Aperture Priority
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All content by
Keith J. Fisher
©2019
Grazie Santangelo.
All Rights Reserved.
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