Facts and Figures of the Battle of Fort Stevens

ECW is pleased to welcome back guest author Bryan Cheeseboro. Bryan, who works as a ranger at Fort Stevens, part of the Civil War Defenses of Washington in Rock Creek Park, offers some tales and trivia about the action that took place there in July 1864.

Item #1: The battle of Fort Stevens was fought July 11-12, 1864, in Washington, D.C. It is the only battle of the Civil War to take place in the District of Columbia. Many people today remember the battle as being fought “near Washington, D.C.” or “outside Washington, D.C.,” when, in fact, it took place within the borders of the District.

Confusion on this likely comes from the fact that during the Civil War, D.C. was actually three separate entities: Washington City, where most of the people in D.C. lived; the town of Georgetown, established in Maryland in the 1750s before it became part of D.C.; and Washington County. The latter area was the rural, farmland part of the District. The sparsely populated countryside of Washington County was where most of the Civil War Defenses of Washington forts north of the Potomac River were built, including Fort Stevens. In 1871, the three entities of D.C. were consolidated as Washington, D.C.; Georgetown became a neighborhood, and Washington County ceased to exist, its farmland would lost to the city’s growth in the 20^th Century.

But because the battle of Fort Stevens took place outside of Washington City, D.C., it is sometimes remembered today as “outside of D.C. entirely” today. (To be fair, the battle also spilled over into the neighboring Maryland suburban counties of Montgomery and Prince George’s).

Item #2: The most well-known resident of Washington County, D.C., was an African American woman named Elizabeth Proctor Thomas. She was born free in Charles County, Maryland, about 1820. By the time of the Civil War, she lived in D.C., and the war came to her doorstep with the building of Fort Massachusetts. By 1863, the fort was enlarged, and its name was changed to Fort Stevens to honor Maj. Gen. Isaac Ingalls Stevens, killed at the battle of Chantilly, September 1, 1862. The expansion necessitated the destruction of Elizabeth Thomas’s house. As her home was being demolished, the legend is that she sat under a tree, weeping and holding her baby. She said that “a tall, slender man dressed in black” man came along to comfort her and said, “it is hard, but you shall reap a great reward.” The man was President Abraham Lincoln.[1] Though nothing has been found to corroborate Elizabeth Thomas’s story about her encounter with the president, it is a fact that she lived where Fort Stevens was built and that she was present for the dedication of the “Lincoln Under Fire” boulder at Fort Stevens in 1911. She died six years later, in 1917.

Item #3: It is frequently mentioned that President Abraham Lincoln’s presence in the battle of Fort Stevens is the only time a sitting president witnessed a battle. This may not be true, as President James Madison may have witnessed action during the War of 1812. Whatever the case, Fort Stevens is the only time a sitting First Lady—Mary Lincoln—witnessed a battle.

Besides the Lincolns, former Vice President John C. Breckenridge (who served under prewar President James Buchanan) was also there, but he served as a Confederate general commanding one of the two corps that made up the Army of the Valley District. Breckenridge was one of the highest-ranking former U.S. officials to side with the Confederacy (John Tyler, President from 1841 to 1845, was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives, but died before he could take office).

Another former member of an executive branch at the battle was Col. William Lowther Jackson (Davidson’s Brigade, Ransom’s Division). Before the war, Jackson served as Lieutenant Governor of Virginia from December 7, 1857–January 1, 1860. The battle of Fort Stevens undoubtedly holds the record in American history of having the most former and active members of executive offices present during a battle.[2]

Item #4: The most well-known Confederate casualties from the battle are the 17 unknown dead who were laid to rest in the graveyard at Grace Episcopal Church in Silver Spring, Maryland. The area was known as Woodside back then. However, an account by an anonymous soldier in the 25th New York Cavalry appeared in the New York Sunday Mercury newspaper claimed burial of “about two hundred.” And battlefield sketch artist Edward F. Mullen said he counted “the burial to-day of about 250 . . . with 59 desperately wounded.” It remains unknown what happened to the bodies of more than 180 Confederates buried after the battle.[3]

Item #5: The commanding officer of the 98th Pennsylvania Infantry, 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, VI Corps at Fort Stevens was Col. John F. Ballier, who was wounded in the battle. On July 1, 1862, while fighting in the battle of Malvern Hill, Ballier’s men found themselves out of water and were also dealing with ineffective rounds for their rifles. As his men could not fight, Ballier tried to remove them from the battle line but was accused of retreating by Brig. Gen. Phil Kearny. The general ordered Ballier not only to be arrested but bucked and gagged, as well. Ballier was court-martialed for “misbehavior before the enemy” but was acquitted of the charge against him. If the discipline Kearny ordered actually happened, it means that Colonel Ballier is the highest-ranking soldier in the U.S. Army to be bucked and gagged as a punishment.[4]

Ballier returned to the Fort Stevens battlefield in 1891, with the dedication of the 98th Pennsylvania monument at Battleground National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. The east side of the monument bears his name as one of the men wounded in battle of the regiment. He died three years later in 1894.

Item #6: Sergeant William Wray was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions at Fort Stevens. Wray enlisted—at age 16—in the 23rd Pennsylvania Infantry. He was shot in the right eye at the battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862. By summer 1863, he was still in a hospital in York, Pennsylvania. During the Gettysburg Campaign, Wray and about 100 other invalid soldiers volunteered to defend the Wrightsville-Columbia bridge, which came under attack by Jubal Early. By the time Wray encountered Early again, he had transferred to the 1st Veteran Reserve Corps (VRC).

The citation of his Medal of Honor reads that he “Rallied the company at a critical moment during a change of position under fire.” He was awarded the medal in 1892.[5]

Item #7: Private William Lattimore served in Company G of the 77th New York Infantry. He was wounded in the battle, but later recovered to serve with his regiment and mustered out in June 1865. Private Lattimore was unique in that he was a Black man serving in a White regiment. Both of his parents were Biracial, and his grandfather served in the army in the American Revolution. Despite the Militia Act of 1792, which barred Black men from serving in the Army, Lattimore enlisted in September 1861 and fought at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and the Wilderness Campaign. After the war, he was very active in the Grand Army of the Republic veteran’s organization.[6]

Item #8: On July 10, 1st Lieutenant Robert F. Park, Company F, 12th Alabama Infantry, Battle’s Brigade, Rodes’ Division, Army of the Valley, wrote this entry in his diary:[7]

Near Rockville, Maryland (12 miles from Washington, D.C.)

“My negro cook, Charles, left me; I sent him off to cook a chicken and some biscuits, and he failed to put in an appearance anymore. My opinion is that he was enticed away or forcibly detained by some negro worshipper…as he has always been faithful and seemed much attached to me.”^[8]

It is unknown if Charles or Lieutenant Park were aware of it, but on June 28, 1864, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was repealed by the Congress of the United States. At this point in the war, Charles could simply walk away from Robert to gain his freedom, and not much could be done legally to stop him (of course, Park had his hands full with the battle of Fort Stevens). On the other hand, Charles may have been aware that slavery was abolished in D.C. two years prior, in April 1862, and may have escaped for the protection of the city.

It is unknown what happened to Charles, but he very wisely picked the best time and the best place to escape from slavery. As for Park, he was wounded and captured at the battle of Third Winchester, September 19, 1864. He took the oath of Allegiance to the U.S. at Fort Delaware on June 14, 1865.[9]

Item #9: The commanding officer of the VI Army Corps—the soldiers who arrived to from the front in Virginia to stop Early’s attack and save the day—was Maj. Gen. Horatio Gouverneur Wright. By the time the V Corps was ordered to Washington, Wright had only been in command of the unit for 63 days, after Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick had been killed instantly on May 9 by a Confederate sharpshooter. During the battle, Wright claimed to be the person who ordered President Lincoln to come down from the parapet, where standing exposed the commander-in-chief’s tall frame to enemy fire.

After Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Wright commanded the Department of Texas, which included the soldiers of the XXV Corps, which was made up entirely of regiments of the United States Colored Troops. Following service in Texas, he returned to engineering, the specialty where he began his military career after graduation from West Point. He was involved in construction of the Brooklyn Bridge and completion of the Washington Monument. He retired from the Army in 1884, spent the rest of his life living in Washington, D.C. He died in 1899.[10]

Item #10: By July 1864, when the battle of Fort Stevens occurred, many leading Confederate generals had been killed or were out of action. Stonewall Jackson died in May 1863, and Jeb Stuart was killed 12 months later. James Longstreet was severely wounded in the battle of the Wilderness and would not return to duty until November 1864. The Confederacy would fight on, but with lesser lights.

One of the Confederate commanders at Fort Stevens included Major General John B. Gordon. After surviving being wounded at Antietam in September 1862, Gordon rose to the rank of major general in time to command a division of Maj. Gen. Breckenridge’s Army Corps at Fort Stevens. After the war, he was elected to the United States Senate in 1872, and again in 1890. He served as governor of Georgia between the two senate terms. And some believe, based on his White Supremacist views and fierce opposition to Reconstruction, that he was more than likely a member of the original Ku Klux Klan. Gordon also wrote Reminiscences of the Civil War, a memoir of his experiences during the conflict. Writing about the battle of Fort Stevens, he said that

“It has been claimed that at the time we reached these outer works they were fully manned by troops. This is a mistake. I myself rode to a point on those breastworks at which there was no force whatever. The unprotected space was broad enough for the easy passage of Early’s army without resistance. Undoubtedly, we could have marched into Washington; but in the council of war called by General Early there was not a dissenting opinion as to the impolicy of entering the city. While General Early and his division commanders were considering, in a jocular vein, the propriety of putting General John C. Breckinridge at the head of the column and of escorting him to the Senate chamber and seating him again in the Vice-President’s chair, the sore-footed men in gray were lazily lounging about the cool waters of Silver Spring, [Maryland,] picking blackberries . . . and merrily estimating the amount of gold and greenbacks that would come into our possession when we should seize the vaults of the United States Treasury.”[11]

But ultimately, Confederates began to question the wisdom in actually taking Washington and wondered exactly what they would do with the city once they captured it.

Anyway, Gordon went on to write that “While we debated [capturing Washington], the Federal troops were arriving from Grant’s army and entering the city on the opposite side.” From that point the battle would continue, but the capture of Washington would not happen.

————

[1] Cooling, Benjamin F. Symbol, Sword & Shield: Defending Washington During the Civil War (White Mane Publishing Inc., 1991), 80.

[2] Sibley, F. Ray, Jr. The Confederate Order of Battle: The Army of Northern Virginia, Volume I (White Mane Publishing Company Inc., 1996); 88.

[3] Styple, William B., ed. Writing & Fighting the Civil War: Soldiers Letters from the Battlefront; 271. Katz, Harry L. Civil War Sketch Book: Drawings from the Battlefront; 183.

[4] Lowry, Thomas P. Tarnished Eagles: The Courts-Martial of Fifty Union Colonels and Lieutenant Colonels (Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 1997), 17-20.

[5] The biography of Sergeant William J. Wray is found at https://www.angelfire.com/pa5/gettysburgpa/23rdpawilliamjwray.html. Visited June 3, 2024.

[6] Compiled Military Service Record, William Lattimore, Private, Companies G & B, 77^th New York Infantry. Carded Records Showing Military Service of Soldiers Who Fought in Volunteer Organizations During the American Civil War, compiled 1890–1912, documenting the period 1861–1866, Record Group 94; National Archives, Washington, D.C.; Additional biographical information on William Lattimore is found online at “Friends of Albany History Telling the stories of Albany NY.” https://friendsofalbanyhistory.wordpress.com/. Visited June 3, 2024.

[7] Sibley, 87.

[8] Captain Robert Park’s diary, July 11, 1864, as quoted in No Soap, No Pay, Diarrhea, Dysentery & Desertion: A Composite Diary of the Last 16 Months of the Confederacy from 1864 to 1865 As Seen by the Soldiers, Farmers, Clerks, Nurses, Sailors, Farm Girls, Merchants, Nuns, Surgeons, Chaplains, and Wives. ed. Jeff Toalson (New York: iUniverse, Inc., 2006) 170.

[9] Busey, John W., and Travis W. Busey. Confederate Casualties at Gettysburg, Volume 1 (McFarland Publications, Jefferson, North Carolina, 2017), 130.

[10] Faust, Drew Gilpin, ed. Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War (Harper Perennial, 1991), 844.

[11] Gordon, John B. Reminiscences of the Civil War (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1903), 314-315.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. https://www.angelfire.com/pa5/gettysburgpa/23rdpawilliamjwray.html
2. https://friendsofalbanyhistory.wordpress.com/
3. Compiled Military Service Record, William Lattimore, Private, Companies G & B, 77th New York Infantry. Carded Records Showing Military Service of Soldiers Who Fought in Volunteer Organizations During the American Civil War, compiled 1890–1912, documenting the period 1861–1866, Record Group 94, National Archives, Washington, D.C.
4. Busey, John W., and Travis W. Busey. Confederate Casualties at Gettysburg, Volume 1 (McFarland Publications, Jefferson, North Carolina, 2017).
5. Cooling, Benjamin F. Symbol, Sword & Shield: Defending Washington During the Civil War (White Mane Publishing Inc., 1991).
6. Faust, Drew Gilpin, ed. Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War (Harper Perennial, 1991).
7. Gordon, John B. Reminiscences of the Civil War (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1903).
8. Katz, Harry L.; and Vincent Virga. The Civil War Sketch Book: Drawings from the Battlefront (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2012).
9. Lowry, Thomas P. Tarnished Eagles: The Courts-Martial of Fifty Union Colonels and Lieutenant Colonels (Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 1997).
10. Sibley, F. Ray, Jr. The Confederate Order of Battle: The Army of Northern Virginia, Volume I (White Mane Publishing Company Inc., 1996).
11. Styple, William B., ed. Writing & Fighting the Civil War: Soldiers Letters from the Battlefront (Bell Grove Publishing Company, Kearny, New Jersey, 2004).
12. Toalson, Jeff, ed. No Soap, No Pay, Diarrhea, Dysentery & Desertion: A Composite Diary of the Last 16 Months of the Confederacy from 1864 to 1865 As Seen by the Soldiers, Farmers, Clerks, Nurses, Sailors, Farm Girls, Merchants, Nuns, Surgeons, Chaplains, and Wives (New York: iUniverse, Inc., 2006).