Pennsylvania avenue between the white house and the capitol. We will develop a vision for this iconic street which is home 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 but his day job is associate director for lands, resources, and planning. Fort totten, fort reno, fort dupont. 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. The role of famous battlefields like gettysburg and antietam are 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. Were it not for the defenses built to protect washington, d. C. The battle of fort stevens, the city of washington, d. C. Could be in a different place today. Today we will learn about
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
Kind of oversaw the fortifications during most of the war, as they redid and reconstructed some of these forts, he decided new guns would go in and help cover this which it wasnt doing before. So your plans for the fortifications, the system of fortifications did change over the four years of the war. Coming back, i told you we would stop and i would show you what some of the 360degree angle guns look like. See, the carriage is a little bit different, but this shows you, and you notice the bottom, that gun could be turned 360 degrees so you can fire. Now, if the gun is mounted, basically youre probably only going to want about 180degree turn, but it could be fired the other way if needed. So that gives you a good idea. But you can see the abatee. Notice the abatee coming up, the pointed stakes that i mentioned on the outside. So its in the ditch on the outside to try to keep enemy from coming in. But you can see that it is clear field of fire in front. This is ft. Stevens which is one
Directed the American Heritage Rivers Initiative at the White House Council on environmental quality. Today miss newman will discuss the post war impact on the forts, on the surrounding neighborhoods in washington and their evolution into parks. And kim elder. Miss elder is the National Parks Services Program manager for civil war defenses of washington. She is responsible for the management, the Oversight Program development of 16 for 16 of the remaining forts and batteries opened and operated by the National Parks service. So today ms. Elder will highlight the parks today and provide us with a preview of this weekends activities at fort stevens. So let me begin now with dr. Cooling. [ applause ] good afternoon, folks. Pleasure to be back in this lovely facility even if every time i come here i go in the wrong entrance to the National Archives. As a researcher, i became very accustomed over 30 years or more of going in the other side. Well, you dont want to hear about that today. Ill
President will say, mary would not make a very good soldier, as she swooned. So while the president has been under fire, a man has been shot near him, and by 4 00, the 6th corps is ready to take the offensive. And they will move out from in front of fort stevens, moving across the ground that slopes down to where walter reid is now, beyond battleground cemetery, where 40odd men of the Union Soldiers who were killed here are buried and the union troops and the confederates pulled back. Lincoln will not take his eye off the big picture. Tuesday is the 12th. On the 14th, he is back out at the taking care of business. So he is going to do, and i want you to play another little tune there, because hes going to sign a bill calling for 500,000 more men. And theres one of the tunes in that, we are coming father abraham, 500,000 more. So hes showing his commitment to continuing the war. Hes also curtailed negotiations carried out through on the same day with mr. Blair, through frank blair, and