D. C. Next, marc leepson takes us on a tour of battlefields to tell the story of the battle of monocacy, where the confederates were delayed by union forces in their approach to the capital, and the battle of fort stevens, where general early probed the defenses of the heavily fortified city before deciding to turn back. After will list wilderness, you had petersburg surrounded. His idea, his plan was to choke robert e lee and force them to come out and fight what he thought would be the battle that would end the war. We knew this as well. Lee came up with a plan of his own witches he took an entire core of troops and he took them outside the defenses of washington on a bold plan, a fourpart plan that he hoped would mess up general grants grand plan to end the war. The first plan with the kick the forces out of the shenandoah valley. Lees biggest problem was supplied, including food and most of the food came from the shenandoah valley. These forces under general hunter had taken over j
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.
For years nobody believed it. The confederate soldiers themselves claimed to see the dome of the capital. Thats hock um. Theres nowhere to see the dome of the capital. You can see its below where visual would have gotten it out in Silver Spring. Probably saw the lights of georgetown. But mccauslin had gotten up there. Theres claims to ride up in broad daylight. No substantiating that. Old soldiers have vivid memories. One little comment, not a question. I was a surveyor in washington, d. C. For 42 years. In our office we had 1880 i think u. S. Gs topographic maps. First put out by the city and government and fortifications still on there. Cool set of maps. If you havent seen them, library of congress i think has them. Thanks. With that id like to again thank the National Archives for hosting this really wonderful event. Our speakers, please join me one last time in a round of applause for them. Union forces tried to create a gap in the forces but the attack failed. Here is a preview. O
Under the command of general early nearly invaded washington, d. C. Next, marc leepson takes us on a tour of battlefields to tell the story of the battle of monocacy, where the confederates were delayed by union forces in their approach to the capital, and the battle of fort stevens, where general early probed the defenses of the heavily fortified city before deciding to turn back. , the Bigger Picture of what the war. This was just after the bloodiest six weeks of the civil war. The battle of the wilderness. The spotsylvania courthouse. Union casualties, about 40,000. There was war especially in the north. But general grant was in charge now and had been in charge since february and was determined that this was his grand plan to end the war. After wilderness, he had petersburg surrounded. His idea, his plan was to choke robert e lee and force them to come out and fight what he thought would be the battle that would end the war. We knew this as well. Lee came up with a plan of his own
Battle of fort stevens, where general early probed the defenses of the heavily fortified city before deciding to turn back. After will list wilderness, you had petersburg surrounded. His idea, his plan was to choke robert e lee and force them to come out and fight what he thought would be the battle that would end the war. We knew this as well. Lee came up with a plan of his own witches he took an entire and he took them outside the defenses of washington on a bold plan, a fourpart plan that he hoped would mess up general grants grand plan to end the war. The first plan with the kick the forces out of the shenandoah valley. Lees biggest problem was supplied, including food and most of the food came from the shenandoah valley. These forces under general hunter had taken over just about the entire shenandoah valley. The second part of the plan was to threaten washington, d. C. The third part of the plan was the free confederate prisoners at the lookout prison camp was which was on the ve