Qualla: Civil War Defenses of Washington

Civil War Defenses of Washington: Introduction

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ser_Amantio_di_Nicolao, CC BY-SA 3.0. On July 11, 1864, Confederate troops under Jubal Early appeared on the Seventh Street Road and skirmished at Fort Stevens, a Union earthwork on the northern edge of Washington. The following day, July 12, President Abraham Lincoln, in a stovepipe hat, watched the fight from the parapet - the only sitting U.S. president ever to come under enemy fire in combat. The Confederates pulled back that same day. The ring of forts had held. By the war's end the Union had built 68 enclosed forts around Washington, 93 prepared but unarmed batteries for field guns, seven blockhouses, 20 miles of rifle pits, and 30 miles of military roads connecting them. None was ever captured. Most were torn down within months of Appomattox. The earthworks that survive - softened by 160 years of grass and oak - form one of the densest concentrations of Civil War fortification anywhere in the country.

Image: Ser_Amantio_di_Nicolao | CC BY-SA 3.0

Civil War Defenses of Washington: Seized Ground

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown US Army engineer, Public domain. The forts were almost all built on private land taken by the Army at the start of the war. Most of the owners never recovered the income they lost during the four years of military occupation. Records from the building of Fort Slemmer note that the 24-acre plot belonged to Henry ...

Image: Unknown US Army engineer | Public domain

Civil War Defenses of Washington: Temporary by Design

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ser_Amantio_di_Nicolao, CC BY-SA 3.0. The forts were not meant to last. They were earthen embankments revetted with timber, surrounded by trenches, fronted by abatis - sharpened tree branches projecting outward as anti-personnel barriers. Only the largest had any masonry. The Army was clear from the start that the la...

Image: Ser_Amantio_di_Nicolao | CC BY-SA 3.0

Civil War Defenses of Washington: The Fort Drive That Wasn't

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Farragutful, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1898 someone proposed connecting the surviving fort sites by a parkway. The idea kept coming back. In 1919 the District Commissioners pushed Congress to consolidate the old forts into a Fort Circle - a green ring of parks outside the city, owned by the federal government and l...

Image: Farragutful | CC BY-SA 3.0

Civil War Defenses of Washington: What Survives Today

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit D Monack at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Today the forts are scattered across three National Park Service units. National Capital Parks-East administers Fort Foote, Fort Greble, Fort Stanton, Fort Ricketts, Fort Davis, Fort DuPont, Fort Chaplin, Fort Mahan, and Battery Carroll. Rock Creek Park administers Fort Bunker Hi...

Image: D Monack at English Wikipedia | Public domain

Civil War Defenses of Washington: Walking the Ring

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joseph L. Beegle, CC BY-SA 4.0. What you actually see at the surviving sites varies. At Fort Stevens, the parapet has been partially reconstructed and a marker indicates where Lincoln stood under fire. At Fort Reno, the highest natural point in Washington at about 409 feet, the earthworks are mostly gone but th...

Image: Joseph L. Beegle | CC BY-SA 4.0