As the defeated Union Army retreated from Manassas, everyone knew there would now be no quick victory, and this would be a long and costly war. President Lincoln ended the 100-day enlistments and asked Congress to set the term for the next 500,000 volunteers at three years instead, and to authorize $250 million in loans and bonds for the war.
Meanwhile, the War Department realized that Washington DC itself was vulnerable. The White House was only a few days' march away from the Confederate capitol at Richmond, and the only defensive position that stood in the way was the old brick fortress at Fort Washington, which had served in the War of 1812 and had failed to stop the British when they burned the city in 1814. Although the Confederacy did not have either the desire or the means to actually march on the North and conquer it, nobody wanted a repeat of that debacle. A Confederate capture of Washington DC, even temporarily, would make it politically impossible for the North to continue the war, and would very likely lead to a negotiated peace which granted independence to the South. So, for Lincoln, defending the capitol city was absolutely vital.
During the summer of 1861, therefore, a large labor force consisting of both military engineers and civilians, under the direction of General John Barnard, was set to work constructing a series of forts that would completely surround Washington DC and parts of Union-occupied Alexandria. They became known as the “Ring of Forts”. These were simple earthen-walled enclosures that could be thrown up quickly, with bank-and-ditch barricades, timber palisade fences, and a line of rifle pits. The initial strongholds were placed on commanding high ground at crossroads, rivers, and other potential invasion pathways, and a continuous line of trenches then interconnected them all. Within a year, a total of 48 forts had been built, garrisoned by 20,000 Federal troops.
Over the next year, however, as the fighting in Virginia became more and more fierce, the Union Army found itself in need of trained manpower, particularly artillerists, and troops were gradually transferred from the Washington garrison and sent to join the Army of the Potomac. They were replaced in the forts by those soldiers who were considered too old or unfit for frontline duty or who had been wounded in action and invalided out of their units.
Then, in late 1862, General Robert E Lee made a thrust towards the North. Although stopped at Antietam, the move scared both Lincoln and Congress, and frantic efforts were made to further strengthen Washington DC’s defenses. The effort was expanded again when the Confederates passed nearby on their way to Gettysburg PA, and by the end of 1863 there were 68 forts, 93 cannon batteries (most of these were empty, it being planned that the guns would be rushed into position from elsewhere if they were needed) and 25,000 troops in the ring of forts. Washington DC had become one of the most heavily-protected cities in the world.
In the end, only one of the forts around DC ever saw enemy action. In 1863, after the battle at Monocacy, a Confederate force under General Jubal Early briefly engaged the Union garrison at Fort Stevens before withdrawing back to Virginia.
At the end of the war, all of the ring forts were abandoned, and those which had been built on confiscated private land were returned to their former owners. The rest were left to erode and crumble away. In 1925, the municipal government of Washington DC decided to appropriate money in order to purchase the abandoned forts and turn them into a series of city parks, but this effort lagged until after the Second World War, when the National Park Service took over. Today, most of the former forts are gone, and only about 20 remain in various states of preservation. The National Park Service runs most of these sites as part of the “Defenses of Washington” National Park, and the remaining few are owned by Arlington County or the City of Alexandria.
The best-preserved of the remaining sites is Fort Ward, in Alexandria VA. Finished in September 1861 after Federal troops occupied the Confederate city, it was one of the first to be built. Originally, the fort measured 540 yards around and contained 24 guns; in the aftermath of Antietam and Gettysburg it was expanded to 818 yards and 36 guns.
Today Fort Ward is the only remaining site that has an interpretive Visitors Center and a Museum, and nearly all of the original earthen walls are still present, though badly eroded in places. In 1961, the area was archaeologically excavated, and the Northwest Bastion was then restored to its 1864 appearance using period materials. The Fort is also surrounded by a city park, in which traces of rifle pits can still be seen. One of the Officer's Cabins has been reconstructed as well as the Entrance Gate. A walkway allows visitors to see the original earthen walls, the berms where the two bombproof shelters were located, and the reconstructed bastion and outside ditches. The Museum exhibits a collection of Civil War objects as well as artifacts from the archaeological excavation.
Some photos from a visit to Fort Ward.
For those who don't know, I live in a converted campervan and am traveling around the country, posting photo diaries of places that I have visited. :)
