In our attempts to find the "Swamp Angel" before we had a GPS gadget for the car in 2007, we spun around Trenton, NJ and located a very interesting alternative when the search for the famous 200 pounder Parrott failed. We located what is known as "The Old Barracks" at Lafayette and Barrack streets in south west Trenton near the Delaware River and adjacent to the Capitol Complex. There is a guard shack at the Trentorn Visitors Center across Barrack street from the Old Barracks where you buy your tickets to enter the Old Barracks grounds. The site is very informative and is here:
http://www.barracks.org/about/the-history.html There were 4 or 5 cannon of different types in the firewood enclosure on the ground level under the barracks in 2007.
Only about two to three miles west on West State street you come to Washington's Crossing and the east edge of Cadwalader Park where the "Swamp Angel" is located. We will never let you forget it if we find out you did not make this pilgrimage. Unbelievably, the site where this gun was used in 1863 on the west side of Morris Island near Ft. Sumter, SC is almost perfectly preserved today and you can spot it easily with a Google Maps satellite view of the area.
Good stuff downriver too. Just follow the Delaware south to Philly and visit the neatest Protected Cruiser we have ever found, the Olympia. This is contrasted with the Maine, which was a heavier, Armored Cruiser.
Continue on downriver until you come to Fort Delaware on Peapatch Island in the middle of the river across from Delaware City, Delaware. A short ferry ride adds to the experience and once on the island you will have a wonderful opportunity to explore a very unique, Third System, Civil War Fort. If you get there on a weekend day, you can witness the firing of an 8" Columbiad M1844 from the Northwest Bastion. The guides are dressed in authentic CW uniforms and are very knowledgeable. Some might even challenge you and explain that they are always looking for spys. Mike and I were detained briefly, but then again, "We looked like Spys!".
Anyway, have a good trip and take plenty of pics!
Mike & Tracy
