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The War in America: Fort Lafayette, the Federal Bastille for political prisoners, 1862. 'The traveller to America who enters the beautiful harbour of New York...will observe, on the right hand in passing the channel known as "The Narrows," a solitary fort on an island at some distance from the shore...Our Engraving is taken from the water, near Staten Island...For the last fifteen months Fort Lafayette (like its sister forts in the harbours of Boston and Baltimore) [had] been filled with political prisoners...On the 27th of November, little more than three weeks after the triumphs of the Democrats in New York, it took the opportunity of "Thanksgiving," which is annually celebrated throughout the North on that day...to order the liberation of all political prisoners in Forts Lafayette, Warren, MacHenry, and Delaware. On that morning the gloomy gates wore opened and the prisoners were set free without stipulation or condition. Fort Lafayette at present contains only its customary garrison for the defence of the channel, and it is to be hoped will never again be employed for any less legitimate purpose...The fort is not of great value as a means of defence, having been almost superseded in utility by Fort Hamilton...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862. The War in America: Fort Lafayette, the Federal Bastille for political prisoners, 1862. Creator: Smyth. (KEYSTONE/HERITAGE IMAGES/THE PRINT COLLECTOR)