BGuthrie Photos: KY -- West Point -- Fort Duffield

KY -- West Point -- Fort Duffield:

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[1] FTDUFF_081008_005.JPG	[2] FTDUFF_081008_008.JPG	[3] FTDUFF_081008_011.JPG	[4] FTDUFF_081008_015.JPG
[5] FTDUFF_081008_022.JPG	[6] FTDUFF_081008_023.JPG	[7] FTDUFF_081008_033.JPG	[8] FTDUFF_081008_036.JPG
[9] FTDUFF_081008_043.JPG	[10] FTDUFF_081008_047.JPG	[11] FTDUFF_081008_055.JPG	[12] FTDUFF_081008_057.JPG
[13] FTDUFF_081008_061.JPG	[14] FTDUFF_081008_066.JPG	[15] FTDUFF_081008_070.JPG	[16] FTDUFF_081008_077.JPG
[17] FTDUFF_081008_079.JPG	[18] FTDUFF_081008_085.JPG	[19] FTDUFF_081008_089.JPG	[20] FTDUFF_081008_091.JPG
[21] FTDUFF_081008_096.JPG	[22] FTDUFF_081008_100.JPG	[23] FTDUFF_081008_107.JPG	[24] FTDUFF_081008_110.JPG
[25] FTDUFF_081008_113.JPG	[26] FTDUFF_081008_116.JPG	[27] FTDUFF_081008_128.JPG	[28] FTDUFF_081008_136.JPG
[29] FTDUFF_081008_139.JPG	[30] FTDUFF_081008_143.JPG	[31] FTDUFF_081008_149.JPG	[32] FTDUFF_081008_158.JPG
[33] FTDUFF_081008_162.JPG	[34] FTDUFF_081008_168.JPG	[35] FTDUFF_081008_180.JPG	[36] FTDUFF_081008_181.JPG
[37] FTDUFF_081008_185.JPG	[38] FTDUFF_081008_189.JPG	[39] FTDUFF_081008_193.JPG	[40] FTDUFF_081008_195.JPG
[41] FTDUFF_081008_203.JPG	[42] FTDUFF_081008_208.JPG	[43] FTDUFF_081008_216.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. FTDUFF_081008_005.JPG: Welcome to Kentucky's largest and best preserved earthern [sic] Civil War Fort
2. FTDUFF_081008_011.JPG: Civil War Fort Duffield: Union stronghold at the mouth of Salt River: Before you are the remains of Kentucky's oldest and best-preserved earthen fortification. The earthen walls were designed to stop cannon balls unlike wooden stockade fortifications of earlier periods. The fort was built at this site to protect Union army supply base in West Point and to protect the city of Louisville from attack via the Louisville-Nashville Turnpike and Ohio River.
3. FTDUFF_081008_022.JPG: Fort Duffield: Work on the fort began in the Fall of 1861 by the 9th Michigan Infantry Regiment commanded by Colonel William W. Duffield and the 37th Indiana Infantry Regiment commanded by Colonel George W. Hazzard. The bulk of the work and garrison duty fell upon the 9th Michigan, the first Michigan Regiment to report for duty in the western theater. Other units known to have occupied the area were Lanphere's Coldwater (Michigan) battery, 1st and 18th Ohio, 1st Wisconsin, and the 16th and 28th Kentucky Infantry Regiments. This was an earthen fort designed to stop cannonballs and was protected by cannon mounted on pedestals for easy turning at each of the ten angles. The cannon protected the defenders not from the direction of the river, but rather from the direction of the many back roads coming into the area from the south. Most of these stone roads and bridges can still be seen today. The completion of this massive earthen structure, timber gates, trenches, cabins and campsites for 1,000 men, took one and one half months. Stone hearth and chimney ruins can be identified along with the many log cabin depressions that dot the inner area of the fort. The green troops who worked with pick-ax and shovel suffered under the hard labor, exposure and poor living conditions. Many were stricken with sickness and 61 died and were buried on the hill to the west of the fort. This impregnable fortress was never challenged. Native son of Kentucky, born in Hodgenville, President Abraham Lincoln said, "I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game." General William Tecumseh Sherman, Commander of the Army of the Cumberland headquartered at Louisville, ordered the construction of a fort at this site to protect his and the Ohio River supply base in West Point and the city of Louisville via the Louisville-Nashville turnpike. Colonel William W. Duffield, Commander of the 9th Michigan Infantry Regiment, named the fort after his father, Reverend George Duffield, prominent clergyman of Detroit, Michigan. Capt. Charles V Deland, Commander of Co. C of 9th Michigan, summed it up best in his letter home... "We feel as secure in our new fort as a nest of young eagles."
4. FTDUFF_081008_033.JPG: Confederate Homestead: The cabin and out buildings [sic] here are representative of the many small farms that dotted the area during the Civil War. The sentiments of many locals were with the Southern cause. They provided aid to family members and neighbors away fighting and to the many gorilla units that played havoc on the occupying Union Army here at West Point.
5. FTDUFF_081008_036.JPG: Confederate homestead
6. FTDUFF_081008_061.JPG: Prepared and canned under contract to the United States Army by the Gilbert Van Camp Company, Inidanapolis [sic], Indiana. Contents not for resale. Gilbert Van Camp Company Est. 1861
7. FTDUFF_081008_066.JPG: Net weight of contents 1 pound Pork & Beans with Tomatoe [sic] Sauce Ration Gilbert Van Camp Company Indianapolis, Ind. USA For US Army
8. FTDUFF_081008_089.JPG: In 1895, Louisville Kentucky hosted its largest ever convention for the Grand Army of the Republic. Special trains for the veterans came to West Point for appreciation functions held in the largest and best preserved earthen fortification of the Civil War. Enjoy and help preserve this national treasure.
9. FTDUFF_081008_096.JPG: Overlapping History of the Fort: 1861-1865 Civil War 1895 GAR Reunion 1895-1907 Chautauqua 1907-1918 Hunt club 1918-1977 Fort Knox Reservation
10. FTDUFF_081008_139.JPG: One of the lookout sites above the Ohio River
11. FTDUFF_081008_158.JPG: Spring. Somewhat dried out. Note the dead creature in the middle.. Spring. Dug out by soldiers in 1861. Note the importance of having fresh water at this elevation. Flows all year. Untested water... do not drink. Johnson Spring: Named after the only Indiana Soldier to die at the fort.
12. FTDUFF_081008_162.JPG: What the heck is this animal?
13. FTDUFF_081008_180.JPG: The Union cemetery. 61 soldiers died working on and in the fort.
14. FTDUFF_081008_181.JPG: Fort Duffield 1861 - 1865 In Memory of our Civil War Dead Dedicated May 29, 1993
15. FTDUFF_081008_216.JPG: An old train signal station
Wikipedia Description: Fort Duffield
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fort Duffield is an American Civil War fort located outside West Point, Kentucky. It saw use in 1862, and was abandoned when it appeared that the War would never come near the fort. Ironically, John Hunt Morgan would in 1863 lead his Raiders right past the fort and could have been stopped had the fort not been abandoned.

William Tecumseh Sherman was concerned with the Confederate positions in Bowling Green and Columbus, and sent the 37th Indiana and the 9th Michigan regiments to West Point. The plan was to use West Point as a base to supply Union forces in Elizabethtown. Sherman ordered the fort to be built on Pearman Hill to protect the town. Construction began on November 3, 1861 and was finished by the first of the year. The fort was named for the Reverend George Duffield of Detroit, whose son, Colonel William W. Duffield, led the 9th Michigan Infantry . There were 950 troops stationed there, but they were soon sent to the frontlines and the fort was mostly unused in 1862, seeing its last use in the Fall of 1862.

The fort is mostly a serpentine wall, unlike the typical star-shaped Civil War forts in Kentucky. The earthworks of the fort are well-preserved. Originally there was a one mile clearing between the fort and any trees, but since the fort's abandonment the forest has grown back around the fort. A spring was inside the fort, providing fresh water directly to the fort. Visitors to the fort should be aware that the hike up the hill to visit the fort is steep from the main parking lot, as the small parking lot by the fort is exclusive to handicap parking.
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