The generalng with Services Administration and the National Park service to study the near and longterm need for pennsylvania avenue between the white house and the capitol. We will develop a vision for which is homereet to so Many National treasures, including this building. I want to send a thanks to the National Parks service and recognize peter may. He is a fellow ncpc commissioner bud his day job is associate director for lands, resources, and planning. Locals may recognize these names as parks, neighborhoods, even metro stations but many are surprised to learn about their civil war history. The civil war was a milestone in the nations history. Arerole of gettysburg wellknown to all of us. Today we are going to learn about another important albeit less wellknown battle that took place not far from where we are today. Defense is for the built to protect washington,. C. The battle of fort stevens the city of washington, d. C. Could be in a different place today. Today we will learn about the development of the civil war for us, their role in the war, and their insulin transformation into public parks that today we know as the fort circle parks. Let me begin by introducing you to our terrific group of presenters. Is a. Franklin cooling wellregarded military and naval historian and a professor at the university ofse resource strategy. He has written extensively on the region, tennessee and kentucky and the roles they played in the civil war. He will discuss the development of the civil war defenses, washington, and their impact on the war. Is the cofounder and Vice President of the alliance to preserve the civil war defenses of washington. Handling National Parks and Historic Preservation legislation and she also direct to the American HeritageRivers Initiative on environmental quality. Today she will discuss the ontwar impact on the forts the surrounding neighborhoods and their evolution. The Program Manager for civil war defenses of washington. She is responsible for the management and overs i of 16 of andremaining forts batteries owned and operated by the National Park service. Said today she will highlight and provide ay preview of the weekends activities at fort stevens. Let me begin now with dr. Cooling. [applause] good afternoon. It is a pleasure to be back in this facility even if every time i go into the wrong entrance. As a researcher i became accustomed over 30 years of going in the other side. You dont want to hear about that today. I will mention the archives in just a second in a different context. I am happy to say for quach are days i have listened to the National Park service and the city and Frederick County regale savedh how the battle washington from confederate capture. , and abeen privy developer in this legend with a couple of books, i fear i am part of the problem. Today i want to tell you the real battle is saved to the city of washington is what were going to talk about in some degree. We are going to talk about fortress washington, abe and the fort stevens, battle that really saved the union on the 11th and 12th of july 1864. It is ironic not 50 years plus one month before, 50 years and a 49th before, i guess that is thes and 11 months, anyway, british captured washington and burned the public buildings. Setting a day in infamy that was or 1941. 50 years later, an enemy almost did it again. Even though they were fellow americans, the enemy of the state, the enemy of the United States, the confederacy. 1864, despite a linkage between then and now through the commemoration of the and thentennial commemoration of the bicentennial. Let me say this, without the National Archives, and this is without theg, National Capital finding commission and the Parks Service, the task of andmbrance, preservation, public use, public recognition would be infinitely harder. Public records and planning and foresight links together then with now and into the future. Were not there yet, the future. Believe me. What we have is using the laboratory of historical site officialt, the records and private, the awareness, the education, the furthering of agendas is what the sesquicentennial must be about. President of the the Civil War Trust yesterday and hehe opening address pointed to the fact that preservation of land will outlive all of us, including of course machinereadable and print readable records. Surprisingly to say. 1814. Villageon was a small that purported to be the capital of a new nation. It was the seat of government. By 1864, washington is much more than that. It is the fortress of washington. A fortified city. Forts, 93 batteries, entrenchments, infrastructure for logistics, hospitals, as well as the Political Capital of the nation, the United States. 1814, thereeen for would not have been the parttion paid by 1864 in to protecting the city. Through the intervening years, there had been did in the area of the most possible threat, the river, fort washington. Neglect did and of no use whatsoever in the war of the civil war especially was fivefact, maryland miles away from us, surrounding the capital of the union. Or the old the United States. 1864, there is a ring the fortification around the city, parklands. Ly are they are preserved. We have something that the and suggest it is still it is being employed usefully for the city and the population today. And thely, locally, residents of the district of columbia. These were earthen fortifications. These were field fortifications thrown up by artilleryman, hired labor, private contractors even back then. Maybe halliburton did not have anything to do with it, but it is interesting to think about. A Communication System of signals, roads, parks, store houses, arsenals. Why do we consider this symbol, sword and shield, symbol of the union, the shield that protected the fortification and the city and the sword, the union armies that were supposed to Work Together as important in our particular story . Forts and the ,eavy armament at fort foot which you must visit because it is superb, restored and preserved, by 1864, we have an is, if the duke of wellington had been here, he would have said it was a damn close run thing. Despite all of these fortifications, despite the thousands of public dollars expended on this system, it was the critical summer of 1864, a critical month of july. 10 critical days of which right now if we had been in the city i have not gotten there yet. Give me a chance. [laughter] been there on july 10, 1864, we would be panicked, in the streets, without air conditioning or refrigeration because the rebels were close enough to be in rockville, gaithersburg, and on up. We are here today. This was the third confederate invasion of Northern Territory in the stalemated war. It was a critical reelection summer for the president of the United States and Abraham Lincoln was a man with the same problems as president obama has, a not so loyal opposition of his called the radicals that had sent to him a drastic reconstruction bill that would have been punitive and ofalatable to his scheme reconstruction. The wade davis bill. Was the risktaking attempt by robert e lee to change the strategic balance in the war in the east. Politically,d although militarily robert e. Lee wanted to break the stranglehold of ulysses s. Grant, and others. And of course you may recall in the west, the Atlanta Campaign had become bogged down. On the coast, wilmington, North Carolina and other places had not been blockaded by the union. Of 1864,in this summer everything was at a standstill. The war had not been one after gettysburg. Forget gettysburg. Forget emancipation. It all hung in the balance on an afternoon here at fort stevens when a confederate general, had children out of wedlock, spit ofacco, lees bad old man, which i have a biography, pointing out many of his foibles. He was a fighter. He was the last thing robert e. Lee had as an instrument for changing the war and he came with 8000 men, atul hardened coming again was change or in the east. The timeline, the citizen soldier, the lawyer, who opposed the succession, but went with the state, never understood that because he was a west pointer. After the war, he used to look across and complain about the olebara p barber ple flag, the american flag. He swore allegiance to it. So i dont have much for his comment on the american flag. How close . It is all a matter of speed. The delays begin for this previous week starting with the fourth of july when his men enjoyed the repass set out by the Union Soldiers and he loses three days. He loses another day at frederick. A battle that cost him the services of one of his best visions, but he has become the offederate incarnate hardware. Great extortionist of the civil war. To extort capital from all of these Northern Maryland cities like hagerstown and middletown in frederick and he waste a lot of time when his mission is to get to washington, change the scope of the war, capture the city, dispersed the lincoln but he istion, extracting 200 grand from frederick. Priorities. Nature, the second factor. On july 10, the thermometer in georgetown in maryland stood in the mid90s. The drought had been in the region for weeks on end. Supply andn short the marching callings went. Hrough six inch on the highway, not what we have with i270. Probably took them just as long. [laughter] just about as unpleasant too. All of these delays due to our main point about the battle of fort stevens, and i dont want to go on too long because we have other things to talk about this afternoon. Fort stevens had been set up as here insachusetts washington as early as 1861. After the previous invasion, they expanded fort massachusetts, who had been built by volunteers into fort stevens. You can still see, and well talk about the restored parapet. Otherwise everyone says, where is the fort . Thinking theyre going to find a stockade or like fort mchenry. Fort stevens was an expanded earthen fort with a stockaded backside to it. Had 19 guns. Time by band by this 150 day men out of i ohio who as cannono be shipped fire for the battles of virginia. Wereestingly, these men the equal to the heavy artillery because the remaining garrisons had trained these people. Let me tell you, one moment in upe before i wrap this thing. Afternoon of july 11, monday afternoon. The moment when the two forces will meet at fort stevens. There is earlys men coming in from frederick and reinforcements finally coming up from the petersburg lines by boat. They are down at the docks at this very moment. Down georgiaides avenue, 7th street, and at the walter reed is situated on what is going to become a battlefield. The only battlefield in the district of columbia. Jubal early, hunched over from out hiss, pulls binoculars and looks down at the union lines from his left. He peers and he senses the moment of opportunity to change the course of the war, my career, American History, and the future of the confederacy. Can you imagine that Career Opportunity for any of us . Not robert e lee, ulysses s. Grant. Jubal early. Never heard of him. Soldiers know him. The enemy was going to know about him. He turns to bring up his army and there is no army because of the heat and the dust and they to straggling all the way gaithersburg. Would we have pressed that issue . All of you folks who are leaders, here is your moment. Would you have pushed the momentum and found something more than a corporals guard to go through . Jubal early does not. Maybe he was tired. He hated the yankees. He could not push forward. What does he do . What most of us would have done. He retires to silver spring, a rum cellar, and he loses the initiative. Here at fort stevens. Abraham lincoln, he sees what is going on. Also wants if you think lincoln was not a politician, you might be too idealistic. He comes out on july 11. Second day he comes up to the wright, theratio commander who has brought his president iays, mr. Am happy to see you. Would you like to see a battle . Realizes than that, he good heavens, the president goes up on the ramparts and is shot. Who becomes Vice President . Never heard of hannibal hamlin. What happens to the nation and the city . All kinds of things can happen. Abe nearly gets shot. Where the boulder is, the great whatifs of history based on the records and legend and myth and storytelling, like i am telling stories today. History never repeats itself. Historians repeat each other. [laughter] in any case, lincoln is almost shot. A surgeon is cut down nearby. Again a missed opportunity for the confederacy. Nearly shot. Was early realized he could not reach the defenses because w right and his troops had come in and of course this episode , or does nothing much for lincolns reelection chances that summer. He probably had in his mind de davis bille wa more than anything else. And the political chances of reelection, remember the blind memorandum in the deadly summer of near defeat, largely because of early before washington. Cabinetident gets his to sign on the back of a promisesm saying he everybody well a bite of the succession that will come when he thinks he is not going to get will abide by tha the succession that will come when he thinks he is not going to get reelected. Conspiracy theory. A scathing criticism of a war entirely. Sherman is going nowhere. The navy is going nowhere. Only the confederate seem to be going somewhere. But they escaped. They escaped. So a change of command will occur in august that brings that Team Together of grant, sheraton, and earlys demise. Linespulling out of the turns to his staff and goes well, gentlemen, i guess we scared abe lincoln like hell. Douglas, to his aid, who represents most of the confederate force is picked off because he did not get into washington. He turns to his superior and says on the afternoon of the 12th, you can see these couple of red gate came against us in a counter assault. There was somebody else who was scared like hell, i suspect. Bal utters a couple more profanities and says, yeah, i guess so. Aint going to make it into the history books. It has. Even if not by official records. Out theirs, which fill official records and in fact i ventured to tell you there are probably more records in the National Archives now that are not in the official records of the war published by the War Department in the navy the benefit of the veterans after the war. Although the military also used it in war planning. There is probably more that can be found. Let me suggest this, grants may have declared earlys lost opportunity changed his summer plans. If only to finally force granted to seal the achilles heel of the Shenandoah Valley and approach washington. Forsoldiers in these forts, days after early was long gone, were cleaning up. Not the battlefield, cleaning up the fortifications. Kind of locking the barn door after the horse had been stolen. A number of these veterans, the watermark of the confederacy was it was asburg, tollhouse. ,t the corner of Georgia Avenue that was the fullest extent of the Confederate Forces on the 12 tooon of july 11 and capture washington, changing the course of the war and the course of us today. Quite frankly. Have eroded. We dont know where lincoln stood. I think he stood all over the place. He never stood still. Down, he was was at fort stevens. But we really dont know for sure, despite the lovely stone out there. The veterans remembered seeing him there. I am 75 years of age, i remember it differently than when i was fighting, or Something Like that at 20, 18. So who knows . Been mistaken that they wanted to mark that spot and they got the stone and brought it up there and put the bar relief on there and that is their monument. Tot is their monument lincoln under enemy fire. We dont know that the justice of the Supreme Court really uttered one of those words, gets that damn fool down. Five or sixsuggest other people, veterans and the owner of the property also shouted get that fold down dow did that fool down. He told him he could not protect him. Mr. President , i cant guarantee your protection. So finally lincoln gets down off his perch. Urbanized washington took over. Yetl washington forts are another of washingtons many monuments that have transitioned in purpose. To survival of the unification, particularly for stevens, they want recognition, appreciation, commemoration for lostthey did and probably over 1000 people and casualties, some of whom are buried in the cemetery and the confederate cemetery out in silver spring. Become andhey have what they rot 150 years ago certainly werent sour gratitude today and a recognition warra nts our gratitude today and our recognition. The general officers and the enlisted personnel, the veterans war, theback after the most immediate great entitlement program, build a house, and help is goingwhat loretta to tell you about right now. Pink you. Thank you. [applause] he is amazing. Everything i am going to show you i have learned from him and a few others like him. But mainly from frank. For the civil war defense of washington. Lincolns bible, mr. Forts. That is the books to read. I wish i had brought it with me. I encourage you to get that oak. Im going to get that book. The nice thing about youtube is you can watch it later and pause and look at these at your leisure. And you can read faster than i can talk. Just want you to see these beautiful places that i love, their history, and as parks and recreation and resources. The lu