A Look at Fort Stevens
Written by DCist contributor Andrew Wiseman.
Today, Northwest D.C. is the scene of battles over gentrification and parking. In 1864, however, it was the scene of another kind of battle: an invasion by Southern troops.
Fort Stevens, hidden on Quackenbos Street NW between 13th and Georgia, is a pretty unremarkable place. A few steps from the Georgia Avenue Thrift Store and a 70 bus stop, it’s basically a strangely-shaped hill (the fort’s earthworks) with a few cannons overlooking a couple of modern houses. Besides some broken beer bottles, there’s also a flagpole and a few plaques, one stating that the battle was the only time a sitting President came under enemy fire.
The fort was part of the Civil War “Fort Circle” defenses of Washington, where the Union surrounded the Distict with fortifications. Some of these forts exist in varying states today, and some are still well known, like Fort Reno, Fort Totten, Fort Stanton, and Fort Dupont. All of the forts were well outside the built-up area of the city, which ended roughly at Florida Avenue (which used to be called Boundary Street).
In 1864, the war was not going well for the Confederates. They had lost at Gettysburg and were being chased throughout Virginia by Ulysses S. Grant, who eventually trapped Robert E. Lee’s army in Petersburg, near the Southern capital of Richmond. Knowing that Grant had taken some of the troops defending Washington with him on his campaign into Virginia, Lee decided to distract the Union and capture Washington. He sent General Jubal A. Early and 15,000-20,000 troops through the Shenandoah Valley to attack the federal city. Around 9,000 troops were defending Washington, less than half the usual amount, and many of those were clerks or recovering from injuries. There were only 2,300 more troops under General Lew Wallace (who would later write the book Ben-Hur) headquartered in Baltimore. It is not believed that there were any chariots or elephants under Wallace’s command.
Learning of Early’s movements on July 6th, Grant sent 5,000 troops from the Richmond area north towards Washington and sent a much larger force a few days later. Meanwhile, Early’s men had crossed the Potomac and arrived at Frederick, Maryland, where he demanded $200,000 or his army would destroy the city. The townspeople handed the money over and the troops kept up their end of the bargain, sparing the town.
On July 9th, some of the Union troops Grant sent north met up with Wallace’s troops from Baltimore. The combined force, numbering about 5,800, lined up south of Frederick. Early’s army attacked. While outnumbered about three to one, the Union troops held their ground for much of the day before finally retreating. The battle, called the Battle of Monocacy Junction (or just Monocacy) saved Washington, as it tired Early’s troops and gave Union reinforcements enough time to arrive in the capital.
In the next few days, more and more Union troops arrived in Washington from Richmond and Hampton Roads. Early’s men camped in Rockville on July 10th then entered Washington on the 11th, stopping in front of Fort Stevens at about noon.
President Abraham Lincoln rode out to the fort to witness the battle from the parapet. A probably apocryphal story says Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., (the son of the writer, who later became a Supreme Court Justice), told Lincoln to move, saying, “Get down, you damn fool, before you get shot!” before realizing it was Lincoln. After a few small attacks, Early realized the city was defended by a large amount of veteran troops and decided to pull back. Early was purported to have said, “Major, we haven't taken Washington, but we scared Abe Lincoln like hell.” With that, the last invasion of Washington was over.
Some of the Union casualties were buried along Georgia Avenue a few blocks north of the fort at what is now Battleground National Cemetery, one of the smallest national cemeteries in the country. Besides the gravestones, the cemetery also has some monuments and statues for units that fought at the battle, including a regiment made up of German immigrants, as well as a few small cannons, plaques displaying a poem, and an empty temple. While the cemetery feels out of place stuck between row houses and apartment buildings right on Georgia Avenue, it was oddly quiet when we visited. The cemetery is located at 6625 Georgia Avenue NW, about a 10-minute walk north of the fort.
Both the fort and the cemetery are accessible by WMATA’s 70 bus.
More on the battle:
http://www.nps.gov/rocr/ftcircle/stevens.htm
http://americancivilwar.com/statepic/dc/dc001.html
http://www.cr.nps.gov/hps/abpp/battles/dc001.htm
http://www.exploredc.org/index.php?id=148
Photos by Andrew Wiseman.