“Rescue from Oblivion”: Lewis Cass White, Fort Stevens, and Fort Ward

ECW welcomes back guest author Paula Tarnapol Whitacre.

Lewis Cass White, an eighteen-year-old school teacher, enlisted in the 102nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry from his home town in western Pennsylvania in August 1861. Among the twenty-four battles in which he fought alongside his comrades, he served as color sergeant at the battle of Fort Stevens in the District of Columbia on July 11-12, 1864.

Those two days shaped the rest of his life.

As he wrote afterwards, he was inspired to “rescue from oblivion the only battlefield inside the District of Columbia, in sight of the dome of the United States Capitol, and the only battle of the Civil War in which the president of the United States took part of in which he was present when the engagement occurred.”^[1]

White also supported veterans as an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) and an employee in the Pension Bureau. But it was the battle of Fort Stevens, which he called a “small event with large consequences,” to which he devoted his heart and soul.

Two Rescues

It turns out that two “rescues from oblivion” took place. The first is the more well-known: the preservation of Fort Stevens. As detailed in a National Park Service series of articles, it was at Fort Stevens that the Confederates under Gen. Jubal Early came closest to breaching Washington. Drawn to witness the battle for himself, President Abraham Lincoln was famously exposed to potential enemy fire while standing on a parapet until he was warned to get down. (Versions of the story have varied over time.) As it did with most of the 164 forts and batteries built to protect Washington during the Civil War, the War Department salvaged what it could from Fort Stevens and abandoned the site after the conflict ended. The site reverted to its owner, an African American woman named Elizabeth Proctor Thomas.

White became taken—one might say, a bit obsessed—with the battle, including the “what-if” counterfactual had the president been shot. He compiled eyewitness accounts of the battle that he used to raise money and lobby Congress. He co-founded the Fort Stevens Lincoln Memorial Association, a predecessor to the multitude of battlefield restoration groups today.

He even brought his mission home—literally. He built a house within sight of the battleground. At one of the many reunions he organized, he offered his home “two squares beyond the fort” where he could “welcome every comrade.”^[2]

By the time he died in 1916, he had successfully led an effort to place a huge stone marker (a five-foot boulder retrieved from a stream on the site) where the president stood and was on the way to securing funds for a bas-relief plaque to affix to it. The plaque was finally completed and unveiled in 1920.

The second rescue from oblivion: White’s pivotal role in remembering Fort Stevens, and more broadly, the civil defenses of Washington.

Found in the Proverbial Basement

In 2011, Washington-area residents Joseph and Sharon Scopin found a neglected bag of documents and memorabilia when helping to clean out a relative’s basement. It turned out to be White’s diaries, correspondence, ribbons, newspaper clippings, and more, from 1861 through his death. The Scopins spent several years conserving and researching the context of what they salvaged, which they shared in a self-published 2014 book, As I Remember: A Civil War Veteran Reflects on the War and Its Aftermath. Benjamin Franklin Cooling, a noted historian of the Civil War Defenses of Washington, assisted the Scopins and contributed the book’s foreword.

The Scopins decided to find an institution to house the collection and selected Fort Ward Museum in Alexandria, which is operated by the City’s Office of Historic Alexandria (OHA). Fort Ward, built in 1861, is one of the best preserved of the fort system and is the only one with a museum to house a collection of this nature.

“Lewis Cass White had an archivist’s mindset toward saving everything from the war and afterwards,” said Susan Cumbey, director of OHA’s Division of Collections & Exhibitions. “The whole cause of helping to memorialize and preserve Fort Stevens dominated his post-war career.”[3]

Crafting a Collection

Upon receiving the collection in 2014, museum staff accessioned and catalogued its 170 items. An exhibit opened in 2024 in conjunction with the 160th anniversary of the battle of Fort Stevens. It consists of a large portion of the collection, borrowed items from White’s family (particularly photographs), and relevant artifacts from the museum.

In guiding me through the exhibit, Cumbey pointed to one of her favorite items—and one of the most significant discoveries for historians. Assistant Surgeon Dr. Cornelius Crawford, who was standing near President Lincoln during the battle, drew a map when White requested Crawford’s version of the events. The map slightly changes where historians traditionally believed Lincoln was standing, according to Cumbey. In a several-page account, Crawford wrote that he was wounded in the leg, perhaps with the “large canonical ball” that could have otherwise struck the President. Crawford recalled that “its dangerously close proximity impelled the President to involuntarily diminish the height of his personage, which he did by suddenly crooking his knees.”^[4]

Another of Cumbey’s favorites is the collective power of White’s various medals and ribbons from years of attendance at veterans’ reunions and other gatherings. Taken as a whole, “they show how proud he was of his service. They may seem repetitive but, to me, they show how every year, he valued being part of memorial services. He was someone who was aware of history and recorded his part in it from the very beginning,” she said.

What to See Now

We benefit today from the efforts of Lewis Cass White, whom Cumbey characterized as “a mobilizer and one of the first preservationists of the Defenses of Washington.”

Fort Stevens is a four-acre site amidst residential and commercial development in northwest Washington, DC. In addition to the boulder commemorating President Lincoln championed by White, visitors can see reproduction cannons and parapets, historical markers, and the Battleground National Cemetery a half-mile to the north. On July 12, 2025, the National Park Service and the nonprofit Alliance to Preserve the Civil War Defenses of Washington are co-sponsoring Fort Stevens Day to mark the 161st anniversary of the battle of Fort Stevens.

The exhibit Lewis Cass White: Preserving the Legacy of Fort Stevens will continue at Fort Ward through 2026, with the entire collection also viewable online. The museum is open Thursday through Sunday; the grounds are open every day with interpretative waysides that explain the property’s use as a fort during the Civil War and as a post-war African American community known as The Fort.

Lewis Cass White was wounded several times during the war, most seriously at the battle of Cedar Creek several months after Fort Stevens. He and his wife Susan are buried at Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, across from the Lincoln Cottage.

 

Paula Tarnapol Whitacre has written a book about Alexandria during the Civil War and Reconstruction under contract with Georgetown University Press, with expected publication in 2026. She previously published a biography of abolitionist Julia Wilbur titled A Civil Life in an Uncivil Time: Julia Wilbur’s Struggle for Purpose (Potomac Books, 2017). Her website is at www.paulawhitacre.com

 

Endnotes:

[1] “Dear Comrade,” August 10, 1900, Lewis Cass White Collection, Fort Ward Museum, City of Alexandria.

[2] “Dear Col. McElvoy,” July 17, 1915, Lewis Cass White Collection, Fort Ward Museum, City of Alexandria.

[3] Personal interview with Susan Cumbey.

[4] “My Dear Sir and Comrade,” September 17, 1900, Lewis Cass White Collection, Fort Ward Museum, City of Alexandria.