Who writes his memoir 40 years after the fact, writes it in a flowery 19th century flowery style. When wallace says they arrived here in the morning and lit their camp fires, hell Say Something like, you know, the ste ste steely ska gave way to the orange sun and which was great. You have to balance what wallace says in his memoir with his telegrams from the battlefield. His after reaction report two weeks later because wallace had a way of making himself sound really good. And, you know, he did a very brave thing here. Cant get away from that. And as i say in the book, i believe and i think the judgment of history is that what wallace did here did safe washington, d. C. So this battle took place on july 9th, 1864 and right now its november 2nd, 2007. Its a beautiful day. But one thing to keep in mind about this battle is it was very, very hot. They didnt have thermometers, at least no one referred to a thermometer in their memoirs, but it had to have been in the upper 90s and very, ve
150th anniversary of the battle of fort stevens. The battle took place july 11th and 12th in 1864 when Confederate Forces probed washington, d. C. s defenses before turning back. Speakers discuss the battles significance and contributions by africanamerican troops. This is just over an hour. Good morning, and welcome to fort stevens. My name is kim elder and im the Program Manager for the National Park service for the civil war defenses of washington. Id like to welcome and thank each of you all for joining us this morning for the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the battle of fort stevens. Ladies and gentlemen, please stand for the presentation of colors and the singing of the National Anthem by anita frasier. O say, can you see by the dawns early light what so proudly we hailed at the twilights last gleaming . Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight oer the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming . And the rockets red glare the bombs bursting
Fort stephens. The first time in 150 years a canon will be fired in a d. C. Fort. Youve got to come out and share with that. As i mentioned on sunday, well have the Memorial Program at the Battleground National Cemetery where we will pay respect to the 38 soldiers who are buried there and the others who have given their sacrifice for this country. We didnt have a lot of time but i do encourage you all to tell your friends about it. Visit us on our website at www dot nps. Gov. Again, thank you all so very much. [ applause ] i think we have time for just one or two questions. If people would like to come to either of the microphones if folks have questions. We will go ahead and take them in turn. Hi, david, thank you for all three of you for your presentations. Id like to ask a little bit more about the legislation. You alluded to it but i wonder if you could get into it a little bit deeper and maybe focus on how local owned virginia forts will be incorporated into that plan. Thanks is t
At this point in the war, he was the commander of the unions middle atlantic department, which was basically his job was he was military governor of baltimore. It wasnt a very plum assignment. Well, reading the same intelligence that the union high command got and didnt do anything about, wallace did something. The other thing that helped him here was that the head of the b. N. O. Railroad, a man named john garrett, he had his network of intelligence who were the station masters all along the b. O. Railroad. They are heading your way. So wallace picked up on this and on his own, dont forget he was in hot water with grant and halllock, no orders, he gathered up 2800 men, about all he could get, and came down to the western most point of his jurisdiction, which was right here, and he set up on the eastern bank on the monacacy river. Lou wallace, after the war, became a novelist and he wrote the second most popular novel of the 19th century, which was benhur and also wrote an 800page memo
You can read faster than i can talk so i wont read the slides. I want you to see beautiful places i love. They are history and parks and recreation and National Resources and frankly the lungs of the city are largely these forts and the parks. So there we start. As frank said the city was unprotected down below. This is Fort Washington. If you havent been there, you should go. Its quite different from the forts that were built during the civil war. After bull run, lincoln knew the city was vulnerable. Thats when he ordered director Major General john g. Barnard to design forts around the city to protect it. Here they are. These are the ones available there. It was quite an amazing feat to build all those. It was just tremendous. Here they are there. Ive circled them here on this old map, the ones that are under government ownership today. The park service owns all the ones in washington, d. C. And one in maryland and one in virginia. The ones in virginia are owned by local governments.