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The Civil War Defenses of Washington, D.C.
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With the outbreak of the American Civil War, Washington, DC turned into
the training ground, arsenal, supply depot, and nerve center for the Union
cause. Newly formed regiments encamped in every quarter, and streets reverberated
under the wheels of cannons. Cattle for meat grazed on the National Mall;
sacks of flour, stacked against siege, surrounded the U.S. Treasury. To
protect the city and vital supply routes from enemy hands, Union armies
built a ring of earthen fortifications.
Capital Without Defenses
In the spring of 1861 the city lay open to attack by states that withdrew
from the Union. Virginia, just across the Potomac, seceded in April. Maryland,
a slave state, had many southern sympathizers. They answered President
Lincoln's call for volunteers by burning bridges and tearing tracks to
prevent Union soldiers from reaching the capital. In spite of hostile
acts, enough regiments arrived to seize and fortify footholds across the
river in Virginia, occupying points from below Alexandria to hills above
Chain Bridge, including the Arlington
plantation of the Robert E. Lee family. This move placed offices of the
federal government beyond the reach of Confederate cannons.
When the Civil War began, only one fortification existed for the capital's
defense: Outmoded Fort Washington, nearly 12 miles down the Potomac, built
to guard against enemy ships following the War of 1812. It took the rout
of federal forces at Manassas in
July 1861 to reveal how truly vulnerable the city was. Taking command
of and reorganizing the Army of the Potomac, Major General George B. McClellan
appointed Major (later brevet major general) John G. Barnard of the Corps
of Engineers to build many new forts.
Selecting sites a few miles outside the city limits, Barnard's engineers
picked high points that overlooked major turnpikes, railroads, and shipping
lanes. Natural fords upriver from the city, allowing the enemy to cross
the Potomac during low water, spurred the building of more forts and batteries.
Rifle pits filled the gaps. By spring 1865, the defense system totaled
68 forts and 93 batteries with 807 cannons and 98 mortars in place. Twenty
miles of rifle trenches flanked the bristling strongholds, joined by more
than 30 miles of military roads over which companies of solders and guns
could move as reinforcements. Washington had become the most heavily fortified
city in the world.
From Fields to Forts
Fort construction plans followed the standard treatise on field fortifications,
though no two forts were exactly alike. Laborers piled up earthworks so
that parapets 12 to 18-feet thick faced exposed fronts. Within the ramparts,
field and siege guns were mounted on platforms to lay down a wide angle
of fire. Outside the earthworks, a steep slope led down to a dry moat.
Beyond this ditch, felled trees in front with sharpened branches pointing
outward (called an abatis) ringed the fort. Work parties cleared all brush
and trees in front of the fort for up to two miles, leaving no cover.
Inside the fort a rounded structure of heavy timbers heaped with 10 or
more feet of rammed earth formed the magazine for storing ammunition and
kegs of gunpowder. The bombproof, a longer mound, sheltered gun crews
and officers. Often the bombproof's dirt covering was notched to make
a bench from which rifleman could fire. Every fort had a well or spring
for clean water and a flagstaff to fly the Union colors. The entrance
was called the sally port.
The effort to protect the capital continued throughout the war. At first,
companies of soldiers worked on the defenses before being called to drill
and prepare for battle. Later hired laborers--carpenters, teamsters, blacksmiths,
and others-made up the work crews. Of the thousands of contrabands--fugitives
from slavery--that took refuge in the city, hundreds labored on fortifications
and served the garrisons. "None need be idle," reported the Anglo-African
newspaper.
Life for enlisted men in the forts began at dawn. Drill, repairs, duties,
parades, and inspection consumed the day. "The time passed pleasantly
enough," wrote one solder, spared from hardships in the field.
Defenses Challenged
http://www.nps.gov/rocr/ftcircle/index.html
last update: 8/12/01
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