Fort Duffield defense role remembered
at November commemoration event

Union Civil War Fort Duffield, built in 1861 to protect a Union supply depot at Elizabethtown, was commemorated with a living history program Nov. 2.

The earthen fortification, located at West Point in North Hardin County, experienced a number of events, including a memorial service honoring West Point resident Malvina Hall, who helped nurse sick soldiers.

In addition to skirmish demonstrations, presentations from President and Mrs. Abraham Lincoln and Gov. and Mrs. John LaRue Helm were conducted. A Civil War music concert and sing-a-long by the Kentucky Home Guard Band followed.

The event was hosted by the Fort Duffield Heritage Committee, Friends of Fort Duffield support group and the 9th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Re-enactors.

Fort Duffield was established through the orders of Gen. William T. Sherman. The fortification would help secure the Federal supply line at Elizabethtown and Union soldiers would have a defensible position to fall back upon in case of a military setback. The Union garrison at Elizabethtown was astride the L&N railroad, the main north-south rail link for both the Union army at Louisville and Albert Sidney Johnston’s Confederates at Bowling Green. The soldiers at this Hardin County post were assigned to protect the vital rail link and be prepared to move south to meet any Confederate threat.

Most of the soldiers died of sickness and disease at West Point and were reinterred shortly after the end of the war. Each Memorial Day, the Fort Duffield Heritage Committee and Fort Duffield Camp #1, Department of Kentucky, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War remember the sacrifice made by the fort’s Michigan soldiers.

Fort Duffield, identified as the Gibraltar of the Ohio, is on the National Register of Historic Places and the Civil War Trust’s Civil War Discovery Trail.