Two fellow 55 State Parks hikers and I, along with Blizzard the intrepid hiking Lab from West Virginia, visited Fort Mott, Finn's Point and Hancock House this week. We visited all three on Thursday, then re-visited Fort Mott and Finn's Point Cemetery with another ADventure Passport pal on Friday.
In conversation with several people in between times, I was asked by a couple of people if it was true that there were Russians buried at Finn's Point.
I said, of course, that I wasn't abolutely certain, but I thought not. My research had shown a couple of thousand Confederate soldiers who died at Fort Delaware and a couple of hundred Union soldiers, also serving at the Fort Delaware prison camp.
After pondering the question, I checked on the internet again to see if I had missed something and did find out that WWII German POW's were buried there. While disussing this mystery with my sister, she solved the puzzle by telling me that sometimes people get Hessians and Russions mixed up. Maybe when they heard about Germans, they thought of Hessians and thus the confusion.
My sister and I are very interested in Hessians as we have ancestors who came here (later than the Revolution) from Hessa Kassel, Germany.
I'm sure she's right and the similar sounds and the double ss's must have confused people.
What beautiful days to visit this historic sites.
And on Saturday, we capped it off with a hike around Red Bank Battlefield to watch the sun go down over the vast and gorgeous Delaware River.
Happy Trails! Jo Ann
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