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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.
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