158 years ago today in 1864, Abraham Lincoln becomes the second sitting U.S. President to be in the vicinity of enemy combatant gunfire during the Battle of Fort Stevens.
After years of setbacks since the war began in 1861, 1864 was an election year for Abraham Lincoln. His opponent was outspoken general George McClellan, who was very critical of the war and possibly open into starting peace talks. The Confederate capital Richmond, 100 miles from Washington D.C., defiantly avoided occupation for years. With the upcoming election in November, Lincoln appointed a new Federal commander to try and capture the rebel capital. Ulysses S Grant earned his new position for his successful handling of the Western Theater of the war in Tennessee and Mississippi. He would now be the 6th commanding general in the Eastern Theater to face Virginia’s Robert E Lee.
The numbers and supplies would be in Grant’s favor, but Lee had a hardened veteran army defending territory they were familiar with. From the start of May till the end of June 1864, Grant continually moved his army and engaged Lee in multiple battles known as the “Overland Campaign”. Towards the end of the campaign Grant had sustained over 50,000 casualties just from battle. And every day more Federal troops would be dying of disease. U.S. Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs began to turn Lee’s estate Arlington into what eventually would become Arlington National Cemetery.
Grant maneuvered for the town of Petersburg, but his army was too exhausted after the Overland Campaign and was caught in a siege. Lee had a reputation of gambling with his smaller army by splitting it up. Just as he had used Stonewall Jackson earlier in the war. He found another diehard Confederate general named Jubal Early to lead the mission. With barely 15,000 men, Lee ordered Jubal Early to head through the Shenandoah Valley and invade Maryland as fast as possible. If this was successful, they would then try to attack the Federal capital of Washington D.C.. Lee’s hope was that threatening the capital would unnerve the D.C. political class and divert manpower from Virginia to garrison the large city.
Early’s force arrived in Maryland on July 5th and Ulysses Grant dispatched reinforcements to arrive in D.C. by steamboat to intercept them. A small Federal force commanded by diehard Union veteran Lew Wallace was hastily put together, mostly compromising of green and inexperienced state-militia units. On July 9th, 35 miles away from D.C., this small Federal force would heroically deploy against 2 to 1 numbers. The rebels they stood against contained some of Lee’s most experienced veterans who fought in multiple campaigns since 1862. Less than 6,000 strong, Wallace’s men held up Early’s force all day in fighting until forced to retreat. They suffered over 1,200 casualties and inflicted near 1,000 on the Southerners.
In his personal memoirs, Grant gives credit to Lew Wallace for one of the most important actions of the entire war. His delaying action bought valuable time in delaying Early. On July 11th the rebels arrived at the edge of Washington D.C. near the lightly garrisoned Fort Stevens but were exhausted. Through his looking-glass, General Early could see the dome of the U.S. Capitol and decided to give his men a night to rest and engage the fortifications the next morning on July 12th.
Throughout the night and day reinforcements arrived to the garrisons around D.C.. Both sides were skirmishing with each other as Lincoln was near and on the entrenchments of Fort Stevens. In one account, a Union officer berated Lincoln for being so careless. But the battle was not intense, and the Confederates decided to fall back and begin another campaign in the Shenandoah Valley.
Early’s attack on D.C. was a tactical success for the Confederacy as it diverted men from the siege of Petersburg. In combination with the campaign around Richmond stalling, it also provided political capital to the anti-war movement in the North. Union victories for Lincoln’s re-election would have to come from the Western theater. And they would be provided by General William Sherman during the Atlanta Campaign.
[Online References]
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https://www.historyonthenet.com/history-civil-war-10-battles-part-18-overland-campaign )
(
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-arlington-national-cemetery-came-to-be-145147007/ )
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https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/the-battle-in-our-backyard-remembering-fort-stevens-1693525/ )
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/when-the-civil-war-came-to-washington-reliving-the-battle-of-fort-stevens/2014/07/10/86aa5b94-02f1-11e4-8fd0-3a663dfa68ac_story.html )
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https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/washingtons-civil-war-defenses-and-battle-fort-stevens )
Authored by R.E. Foy
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