Fort Stevens

Maureen Dowd has a column today about Fort Stevens, the remains of which are a park in Washington. Fort Stevens was at the center of the fighting that took place when Jubal Early's Confederate force approached the city from the north in July, 1864. This bold raid was intended to distract Grant from his march on Richmond. It turned out that Grant was not distractable, and Lincoln had to order him to send men back to defend the capital from Early's 12,000-man force. Until Grant's veterans arrives, the capital's defenses were manned by a motley assortment of second-line troops -- heavy artillerymen who had never seen combat, wounded soldiers summoned from the hospitals, and the Veterans' Reserve, a force of War Department clerks who had not seen action since the Mexican War. The two divisions of veterans summoned from Petersburg arrived just in time, their steamers tying up downtown just as Early was scanning Fort Stevens through his binoculars. This did not keep the wounded men and war clerks from doing their part, though, and one of the day's minor actions was a charge by two companies of the Veterans' Reserve against a house that was being used by Confederate snipers.

I know a lot about this because I have done archaeological and historical work for the National Park Service related to this battle, and some day soon the brochure I wrote about the battle and its remains should be available to the public. And maybe that will eventually lead to better interpretation of this battle, which I think is a great Washington story.