Alarmed about draft resistance, the federal government deployed 800 troops to the Fishing Creek Valley in August 1864 to suppress the opposition. Peace Democrats suspected of Confederate sympathies were questioned at the Christian church near this site; 44 were arrested and imprisoned at Ft. Mifflin without access to civil courts. While most supported the Union, they disagreed with Pres. Lincoln’s wartime policies. In 1866, the US Supreme Court declared military arrest & trial of civilians unconstitutional.