Maybe I’m missing something here, but I don’t recall learning of any attacks on D.C. I can only assume that D.C. was heavily occupied by Union troops. But, couldn’t D.C. have been heavily pounded from either ships on the Potomac or from the VA hills on the riverbanks? For example, Robert E. Lee’s house had a great vantage point!
Shouldn’t the bloodiest battle have been fought to take hold of D.C.?
“They’re coming to take me away ha-ha, ho-ho, hee-hee, to the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time… :)” - Napoleon IV
I believe Bull Run isn’t far from Washington DC. Also two of the bloodiest battles (Anteitam and Gettysberg) were the result of attempts by the rebels to lay seige to or cut off the Union capital. Except for some far flung commerce raiders the CSA Navy wasn’t much of a factor, certainly not up to evading the huge Union blockade and bombarding Washington (which I believe is quite a ways up the Potomic.)
I’m pretty sure the fortifications for DC were on the other side of the Potomac in what was Virginia. The U.S. army may have made some poor decisions in the early days, but they knew enough to grab enough land to form a buffer zone around the city.
Lee’s property was turned into Arlington National Cemetary, so the Union had to have held that area.
“What we have here is failure to communicate.” – Strother Martin, anticipating the Internet.
DC itself was never attacked but on one occasion a task force under General A.P.Hill closed within 10 miles of the Capitol, causing great distress in the streets.
There were not many direct attacks, but there was one very close call.
I am not as interested in the earlier stages of the war, so I can’t speak expertly concerning 1861, but by 1862, Washington was ringed by heavy fortifications on all sides. That said, Lee often played on Lincoln’s fear regarding the capitol.
Ursa pointed out the normal Confederate strategy for disrupting the Union campaigns in VA, which for the most part involved crossing the Potomac above DC, pulling the Army of the Potomac in it’s wake. Stonewall Jackson also did something similar to McClellen using the Shenandoah.
However, in 1864, Jubal Early led a reconstituted Army of the Valley into Silver Spring, and probably within 24 hours of a fight for the city. Lee at that point was already under seige at Petersburg & Richmond, and in an attempt to both salvage the resources availible in the valley for his army (the shenendoah was a MAJOR source of the confederate commisary, esp. for the army of northern virginia) as well as to force Grant into a precipate attack or a withdrawal, sent one of his Army corps under Early to the valley, with orders to raid MD.
Early defeated several sets of Union forces in the valley, and then proceeded to cross the Potomac around Harper’s Ferry, turned south near Frederick with his eye on the big prize. Lew Wallace forced him to fight a delaying action, was defeated & driven off, but gained about 24 hours. This proved critical, as Grant did send 2 Army corps to reinforce DC. Early occupied Silver Spring, made preparations to assult the capitol, but his intelligence discovered the arrival of union troops which left him severely out numbered. He at that point retreated, eventually returning to the valley. With the exception of another raid into Pennsylvania, which was designed entirely to go after food & not DC, this was the last confederate incursion north of the Potomac, but certainly came the closest to achieving what Lincoln feared most.
Hope that was of use. I can provide dates & stuff if you’re interested, but I’m too lazy to get up & grab the book at the moment.
[ul][li]The Bull Run battles were about 28 miles west of DC, on the western side of what is now Manassas, VA.[/li][li]On his way to Antietam, Lee went by Fairfax, VA, about 15 miles west of DC.[/li][li]A large circle of “forts” (mostly simple bunkers) ringed DC through what is now Arlington, Alexandria, and the Maryland suburbs.[/li][li]Lee’s mansion and land were seized early in the war. It was given back to him after the war, but he didn’t want it then since the Union had buried 200,000 bodies on the land (my great-great-grandfather included). So the US reimbursed him for it, and it became Arlington Nat’l Cemetery.[/ul][/li]
Wrong thinking is punished, right thinking is just as swiftly rewarded. You’ll find it an effective combination.
AWB, my Civil War buff friends tell me that it is NOT correct that D.C. extended into VA during the Civil War. Although proposed, the VA land was never incorporated into D.C.
Also, the Lee family was NOT reimbursed by the US Gov. for the taking of their land. It was a taken as a “spoils of war”, so to speak.
“They’re coming to take me away ha-ha, ho-ho, hee-hee, to the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time… :)” - Napoleon IV
My apologies, AWB! The statement was by RealityChuck saying “in what was VA” which leads me to believe there is a suggestion that D.C. might have extended across the Potomac as once proposed. Regarding VA land immediately bordering D.C. to the south: Whatever “what was VA” still is and always was VA!
…unless he somehow refers to WVa?
“They’re coming to take me away ha-ha, ho-ho, hee-hee, to the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time… :)” - Napoleon IV
Travelling up the Potomac near DC on the MD side is Fort Washington - the location of which was chosen by the George Washington (it’s nearly diagonally across the river from Mt Vernon) abandoned in the War of 1812 (severe care of frights) and manned in the Civil War. I don’t know that it ever fired a shot in anger, but it is still a magnificent stone structure.
Almost directly across the river from Ft Washington is a small earthen (?) fort and I can’t remember the name. I think it was once part of the circle of forts supposed to protect DC. It certainly is/was in VA, maybe Fairfax, and is now a play ground or park.
At this remove the exact location of all the “forts” may be in debate. Several or most were of the earthen type and leveled later to make way for building city structures.
At Quantico VA, small sites are still being examined near the river (Quantico being south of the above mentioned Ft Washington) were Civil War detritis is still being found. More Northern activity than Southern, IIRC. Tiny bits, no forts, probably temporary, used when need seemed greatest.
So, at whatever level of readiness prevailed, the Potomac was fortified.
Are you driving with your eyes open or are you using The Force? - A. Foley
Hey, quit dissing Arlington! Alexandria is a mere fraction of the land that once belonged to the Federal District.
It is correct that the area of VA now known as Arlington County had undergone retrocession in 1847 not because the government decided they didn’t want it, but that the Arlingtonians decided they didn’t want to be part of DC.
I think what really prevented any attack on the Union capital is the severe compromises Lincoln and the Federal Government went through to keep Maryland on the Union side. IIRC, MD was a slaveholding state and DC had to bend over backwards to keep them from seceding. If they’d failed I’m sure there would have been a Battle of Washington, certainly prolonging the war.
R. E. Lee’s place was not taken as a “spoils of war” it was taken by government trickery! It was confiscated for BACK TAXES! When Lee left for the war effort his wife remained on the property. She even attempted to pay the taxes as they were due. BUT, the government wanted to get their hands on R. E. so they refused her payments and stated that the taxes had to be PAID IN PERSON! (but only for R.E. Lee, others were allowed to pay by other means!) R.E. lost his place for a whopping total of $63.00 in back taxes! The government put a VERY hostile union general in charge of determining where a national cemetery should be erected, and upon looking through lists of available discovered Lee’s place was confiscated and as a PERSONAL INSULT and out of VENGANCE selected R. E.'s place. After the war, it reverted back to the Lee’s by court order when the Lee’s filed suit on the governments phony “back taxes” bullsh!#. The cost of exhuming the bodies was cost prohibited, so the Lee’s sued again for “inverse condemnation” (the government made the land unusable, so they have to pay fair market value for it). The land was purchased for a meager sum to be sure, but it was finally settled.
So, as I grew up in Arlington in the 1950’s, we were always told that they(Union) took up the planks of Chain Bridge every night in fear that Mosby or whomever might attack Washington. Did they lie to me?
Here is a description of the only battle I could find that involved an exchange of fire between Confederate troops and Federal troops whe were located with DC. It is unclear whether the Confederates actually crossed the line from MD to DC, but they clearly fired into it.
Reveille in Washington, 1860 - 1865, by Margaret Leech is one of the great books of American history. Yes, it is hardly new - it won the 1942 Pulitzer Prize - but it remains an American classic. It details all the fears for the security of DC in the early days of the war, the staging of troops within the city, and the Confederate attacks on the city, along with a novelist’s-eye view of life in the city during the four years of the war.
Cheap used copies are readily available. This book should be on any short list of the 100 best works of US history.
