Fort Stevens has recently been in the news because it was said it was going to absorbed by a nearby church’s expansion. Of course, this turned out to be false. This got me thinking about the various forts around the city and I realized that I do not know much about them except that they were built during the Civil War to protect Washington DC. I decided to learn about the various forts and I started with Fort Stevens.
Fort Stevens is located at 13th and Quackenbos Streets, NW, near Georgia Avenue in the Brightwood neighborhood. The fort is located not too far from Rockcreek Park and Military Road, NW.
The original name for this fort was Fort Massachusetts because soldiers from Massachusetts erected the fort in 1861. This Fort was very important because 7th Street Pike (now Georgia Avenue) was the main road into the city from the north. The fort was renamed “Fort Stevens” after Brig. General Isaac Ingalls Stevens who was killed at the Battle of Chantilly, VA on Sept. 1, 1862. Civil War defenses were usually named after well known Union officers.
July 11th & 12th, 1864 marks the date of the most famous attack at Fort Stevens. The Army of Northern Virginia was doing very poorly at Richmond. General Robert E. Lee decided to invade the North for the 3rd time. A 20,000 man unit of Confederate forces under Major General Jubal Early attacked the fort and tried to capture Washington. The Union repelled the Confederate advance into the city. President Lincoln visited the fort on both days to observe the attack and assist in its defense. Some historians believe that if the South had taken Fort Stevens, the city of Washington may have fallen. If the South had been successful, the final outcome of the war may have been different.
The 41 Union Soldiers who died in the Battle of Fort Stevens are buried on the grounds of a nearby Battleground National Cemetery. The Battleground National Cemetery is also located in the Brightwood neighborhood along Georgia Avenue, NW.
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