>> good afternoon. and thank you, archivist furio for hosting us as we take this fascinating look into washington civil war history. i'd like to thank everyone in attendance and in watching online. the central planning agency, washington, d.c. and in the suburbs of virginia and maryland, we seek to protect and enhance the capital city's rich, historic and cultural resources, which include ft. circle parks. national planning commission, we recently celebrated 90 years since our organization was charted by congress.

an interesting historical note is that one of the properties that has become four circles parts. >> we will begin to study the near and long term needs for pennsylvania avenue between the white house and the capital. we will develop a new vision for this iconic street, which is home to so many national treasures, including this bui building, the national archives. i want to extend a special thanks to the national park service which is the steward for four circle parks and especially peter may. he is a commissioner, but his day job is associate regional director for planning in the

national capital region. locals may recognize these names as parks, neighborhoods and everyone metro stations. but many are surprised to learn about their civil war history. the civil war was a milestone in our nation's history. today, we're going to learn about another important, al bee it less-known battle. the city of washington, d.c. could very well be a different place today. today, we'll learn about their

ensuing conservation today known as the four circle parks. he has written extensively on the national capital region, tennessee and kentucky and the roles these regions played in the civil war. today, dr. cooling will discuss the development of washington and their impakts on the war. >> lorretta newman, the co-founder of the alliance to preserve in washington. she worked for the committee where she handled historic preservation legislation. and do you remembering the clinton administration, she also directed the american heritage river's initiative.

today, ms. newman will discuss the post-war impact on the forts, the surrounding neighborhoods and evolution into parks chl and kim elder. ms. ed ser the national parks services program manager for civil war defenses of washington. she is responsible for the management and oversight program development for 16 of the remaining forts and batteries owned and operated by the national park service. today, ms. elder will provide us with a preview of this weekend's activities. let me begin now with dr. cooling. >> good afternoon, folks.

you don't want to hear about that today. i'll mention the national archives in just a second. in a dincht context. to say that for four days now, i have listened to the national park service now, having been privy to the developer with a couple of blooks, i fear that i am also part of the problem. but, today, i want to tell you that the real battle that saved the city of washington is what we're going to talk about, to some degree. we're going to talk with you this afternoon about fortress, washington. able lincoln. fort stevens and the battle that really saved the union on the 11th and 12th of july, 1864.

it's ironic that not 50 years plus a month before, 50 years and a month before, anyway, the british, you recall, captured washington and burned the public building. setting a day in infamy that was not 9/11 and it was not 7 december 1941. 50 years later, an enemy almost did it again. an enemy, even though they were former americans was the enemy of the state, the enemy of the united states. the confederacy. we forget 1814 and 1864, despite an inextricable linkage between then and now through the commemoration of a ses kwee centennial and, next month, the commemoration of a bicentennial. now, let me say this.

without the national archives, and this is not pandering to the united states, without the national archives, without the national planning commission, it would be harder. it links together then with now and into the future. and we're not there yet, believe me. what we have is an historical site and event. the records, official and private, or unofficial. the awareness, the furthering of agendas is what the ses quill centennial must be about.

i listened yesterday to the oeching address, including machine-readable and print-readable records, surprisingly to say. go back to 1814. washington was a small, insignificant village that reported to be the capital of a new nation. was the seat of government. by 1864, washington, of course, is much more than that. >> it is the fortress of washington. a fortified mr. lincoln's city. 60 odd, or more, forts. infrafra structure for logistics, hospitals as well as the political capital of the

nation. the united states. had it not been for the battle, there would not have been the protecting of the city. through the intervening years, there had been constructed and the area of the most possible threat to the capital that is to say the river approach, ft. washington. by 18 6 1, it was completely neglected where, especially, a southern state was five miles away from us right here surrounding the capital of the union. or the old united states. by 1864, there's a ringaround the city which, hoply today, are parkland. we have something we can point to from the civil war and

suggest it's still using -- still being employed usefully for the city and the population today. nationally, locally and these were field fortifications thrown up by infantry men. an interwelcoming communication system of telegraphs, roads, parks, storehouses, arsenals, where i work at national defense university was an old arsenal that figured prominently in this story. but why did we consider the symbol, sort and shield, symbol of the union, washington, d.c.,

the shield that protected the field as important in our particular story? by 1864, these forts and the heavy armament that you must visit because it's restored and preserved with a heavy ord fans of the period. by 1864, we have an episode that is, as the duke of wellington would have declared if he had been here instead of about waterloo, he would have said about ft. stevens, it was a damn close run thing.

december pielt the lessons learned, it was a krits kal month of july. right now, if we had been in the city at this particular time. -- i haven't gotten there yet. give me a chance, huh? if we would have been here july 16th, 1864, the rebels would have been kroes enough to be on up the line. but we're here today. it was a pre-election summer for the president of the united states. abraham lincoln was a men beset with the same kind of problems

as president obama has. a not-so loyal opposition of his own party. they sent to him a drastic recondition instruction bill. the wade davis bill. this period of time was the storied risk-taking attempt by robert e. lee to change the stla strategic balance of the war in the east. he wanted to break the strangle hold. on the coastlines, mobile bay

and wilmingtowilmington, north and other places had not been effectively blockaded. in fact, in this critical election summer of 1864, everything was kind of at a standstill. the war had not been won on the battle of gettysburg. my favorite confederate general, hard-swearing, had children out of wedlock, spit tobacco, lee's bad ole man of which i have a big ra fi biography coming out. he was the last thing lee had for changing the war and he appeared here at ft. stevens by noon on june 1 th, the day, would have been tomorrow, with about 8-10, maybe 12,000 men.

and was becoming the game-changer here on this war in the he's. how close this invasion, the timeline, the citizen soldier, the lawyer, in uniform, jubile spes ea early who opposed secession. after the war in canada, he swore allegiance to it when he graduated wegs point. i don't have much in the truck for his early comments on the american flag. how close? it's all a matter of speed. all a matter of delays. the delays begin for this previous week starting with the fourth of july.

he loses three days. he loses another day at frederick. he's decided he's going to extort capital. he wastes a lot of time when his primary mission is to capture the city, dispurse the lincoln administration. everybody is bowing around in frederick extracting 200 grand from him. okay. priorities. the folks of nature, a second factor on july 10th, the

marching columns stood in 6-inch dust. certainly not like with what we have now with i-270. probably took him just as long with the dust as we do getting up 270. just about as unplez sant, too. ft. stevens had been up here in the brightwood section of washington. as early as 1861. and after the previous invasion of maryland in 1862, they expanded ft. massachusetts who,

obviously, had been built by massachusetts soldiers volunteers, in part, into ft. stevens. ft. stevens was an expanded fort. had 19 guns. it was manned bring 150 day men out of ohio. who had come to enable the article till risk-takings to be shipped to grant as cannon fire. the remaining garcons had

trained these 150 day people. let me tell you just one moment in time before i kind of wrap this thing up. it's early afternoon, july 11th. the moment when the two forces will meet. ft. stevens. there's early men coming in from frederick. at this very moment, he rides down the seventh street road.

walter reid is set on the only battlefield in which would he peers through the binoculars and he senses the moment of opportunity to change the course of the war, my career, american history and the future of the confederacy who beckons right then and there. and he turns to bring up his army and there's no army that he can bring up because of the heat and the dust and they're straggling all the way to get back up, almost to the

monokasie. would we have press ds that issue? would we have pushed the momentum through those thinly-heads lines at the time? he hated the yankees by this stage. he couldn't push forward. what does he do? next best. what most of us have done. he retires back to the silver mansion of preston blare and the rum sell lar and he calls command confidence to weight developments. the next day, a man who dunts lose initiative, not that he's necessarily my hero, but abraham lincoln.

he comes out to ft. stevens to see what's going on. he also wants to come out to ft. stevens to be with his boy. he comes out and he's there on the first day. horatio writes mr. president, i'm so happy to see you here, would you like to see a battle? no sooner, the words are out of his mout and he realizes, oops, that could be his career. good heavens, a president goes up on those ramparts, gets shot. think about it. who becomes vice president? never heard of hanible hanlan.

>> zempbly does nothing much for that summer. he probably had the way davis

reconstruction bill more than anything else. the fate of his secretary of state's one son who had nearly captured it and was wounded. the political chances of re-election. the president gets his cabinet to sign on the back of the memorandum. he promises that everybody will abide by the secession that will come when he thinks he's not going to get re-elected. conspiracy theory. only the con fed rats seem to go

somewhere and they blinked before washington. a change of command that brings that team together. on the 12th, head turns to his staff and says well, gentleman, i guess we scared able lincoln. he's ticked off because they didn't get into washington and they didn't capture aid. he turns to his spear here and says on the afternoon of the 12th, when this -- and you can see on the map here, these couple of brigades came out against us in a counter assault.

there was somebody else who was scared. and he spits out of the side of his mouth, utters a couple more profanities and says yeah, i guess so, but it ain't going to make it into the history books. well, it has. i venture to tell you there are probably more records in the national archives now that are not in the official wars of the rebellion for the benefit, mostly, of the veterans after the war. >> grant may have declared that early's lost opportunity did change his summer plans. if only they would force grant to seal the achilles heel of the

shen doe want valley and approach to washington. the soldiers in these days were still cleaning up, not the battlefield, necessarily, which they did. they were cleaning up the neglected fortifications. kind of locking the barn door after the horse had been stolen, if you will. make no mistake, it was not gettysburg. it was a little toll house, that was the fullest extent that the confederate forces at ft. stevens came on the afternoon of july 11th and 12th changing the course of the war and the course of us, today.

quite frankly. we don't yet really know where lincoln stood. i think he stood all over the place. lincoln never stood still. he was over at ft. stevens. but we really don't know, for sure. despite the lovely stone and relief out there at ft. stevens. i'm 75 years of age, folks. i remember things differently.

that's their monoyumt. we don't know that the justice of the supreme kourts really uttered one of those immortal words, get that damn fool down. veterans, as well as the owner of the ft. steven's property that also shouted get that fool down. horatio wright said he couldn't protect him. so finally, lincoln condescendingly gets down off of his perch. urbanized washington took over. still, washington forts are yet another of washington's many monoyumtss that have transitioned in purpose. testament to survival of national unification and, particularly, ft. stevens and its decisive battle.

commemoration after 150 years for what they did there. many of whom who are at grace episcopal church out in silver spring. so just what they have become and what those soldiers brought there 150 years ago certainly warrant our gratitude today. our recognition and confederacy, including the general officers as well as the enlisted personnel.

they helped preserve what lorretta is going to tell you about right now. thank you. [ applause ] >> well, thank you, frank. he is amazing. everything i'm going to show you, and i am the picture girl. i've learned from him and a few others like him. but, mainly, from frank. and, especially for the civil war defenses of washington. there is a bible. and it's frank's -- and walley owens, his co-author, wrote mr. lincoln's a forts. i'm going to go as fast as i

can. you can read faster than i can talk, so i'm not going to read what's on these slides chlts i wants y want you to see these beautiful places that i have. as frank said, the city was unprotected. it's quite different from the forts that were built during the civil war. so here they are. as you can see, it's quite an amazing feat. they did them very, very quickly. it was just tremendous.

and here they are today. i've circled the ones that are under government ownership today. the ones that are in washington, d.c., one in maryland and one in virginia. you'll see some of them, as well. another part of the story, and it's a story, as well, in 1902. the mcmillen commission were planning for parks in d.c. they saw that these forts were highly placed and were both beautiful to look at and look from. they saw these as potential parks. i have a newspaper article that says about all but one mile was bought.

and these are all the different forts. it's something that we're hoping to change. bipartisan with a republican from virginia to establish the civil war defenses of washington national historical park and have it under its own superintendent and, hopefully, its own staff and, you know, we'll be able to do the things that we would like to see done. a few other slides is the farmland. all of this is just farmland. many of you got burned and hit by the shells and burned. but here it is today. the ccc in the 1930s, the civilian conservation core,

reconstructed much of ft. stevens. we can get the flavor of what it's like. the boulder, i don't think -- sorry, i didn't get a picture of the boulder. nmn5or americans history, then and now. the -- it was the earliest black settlement in d.c. this woman was a free african american, had 11 acres. think back then, women didn't tend to own land at all. a free black woman was really unusual. it was threatened with a townhouse development and it was awful.

down here, i encourage you to read about them. i think this will help best of all knowing around ft. stevens. all of the fortifications kind of manned up. it's coming in ft.taten. fort slocum is in manor park. it's a neighbor of ours. here's ft. stevens. fort derussi is in here. you'll see more of that in a moment. i also have down here ft.bayard.

ft bunker hill was quickly a square block and is high. and the park is now repairing the trails that lead up there. it should be a great recreation spot, even though it doesn't have any of the defenses that are left. this is part of the land that was bought for the ft. circle drive. there is a drive along it here. but i suppose they would have put it in the middle. i'm glad they didn't. this was leading in to ft. todd. the high hills of the actual fort are up here. i tried to get the real person's name ffr it. the more i studied, this i loved the land, i love the parks and i

love all of that. when i first started taking pictures about 15 years ago, this gate was open when they've had some trouble. there's erosion from dirt biker who is love to come. this is a real defense. it needs programs and what the park service does besz. run parks. ft.slocum, it's in manor park. you can see around it, this is all farmland.

at ft. slocum, it's just a graet park. >> this is military road. you just come in and drive in and pull off. it's very easy to find. it's a huge tree by the nature center. they call this a witness tree. it might have been a regrowth. but it still is ashlt 150 years old. >> it's just a terrific park.

>> similarly, when jubil early looked out at his eyeglass, he said oops, that is pretty well-fortified. it's high, it's big, it's strong. and then he turned down and game down on georgia avenue to ft. stooempbs. and here's the molds earn fort reel know. you can really feel what it might have been like. and i took this just a couple weeks ago.

and i'm driving along here, this is on 36th street. looking down here, i'm thinking. what a beautiful wilderness in the city. this is more man cured. i felt this guy and i looked over here. sure enough, here's a guy on the tree reading a kindle book or something, i guess. that's a park. back in these trees are some fences that remain and it's well-worth a visit. it's a beautiful area. it's got massive, pretty good-sized defenses there.

not much interpretation, if any. a little. so you know what you're seeing. you know where to go. you can enjoy it. that's something i would love to see in the future that it would be better interpreted. and then crossing to the're side of the river. before you're going, this beautiful land up here. those are all the ft. circle parts. the lands connecting and then the forts. i gave this to the national catchal plachbing commission when they had a hearing on the expansion of the high dak in d.c. looking from those pictures, you're going to get a couple views. you'll see how beautiful they are. how historic they are.

this is one of my favorites. it's high up in the river. you can see in beautiful vista there. it's historically very important. and here's this pan not so show off as much as me, and these are the real cannons down here. they had fallen down the ravine, but they got put back up in the '80s. it's about halve way between washington and d.c. this is the view i took in 2003 when i started getting invvled with the park service on these

things. last fall, here's the same view. she said she wanted it by fourth of july to have a cut. sure enough, i went the other day and took this picture mplt it's everyone better than it was before, so, thank you, kim. this is not part of the parks. nobody can go up and see it. the house is fabulous. again, you can see, a picnic table and then behind, in the trees, there are defenses still there. here's ft. davis. this is the only part of the fort drive that was concern instructed. it was done during the ccc area in 1935.

it's overgrown, but you can still go there and see it. it has problems with the exotic vegetation. these beautiful plants, native plants. they do it quite regularly. in fact, this afternoon, there will be one leaving from ft.derussi.

here are the ones that are in virginia and maryland. this is battery bailey. it's just a little one. it's just a place where they had a platform. 40th and allen, just this spring, they've done a wonderful job of improving the earth works, but, also, doing some interpretation. they had a fabulous event here's

cf smith. this is historic. ft. ward, this is the gem of them all. i have to say. it's about 90% of the earth works are restored. it has a great museum. its's in alexandria. they're doing a lot of history on the african american story there. i won't get into it. they're at least trying now to make up for past wrongs. look what they did. this is a cannon. this is what it was the last couple years. every day, the closer years, we have an event.

here's kim and this is our alliance group. we're six years old. we're fighting very hard for that legislation. we hope you'll help us support it and i thank you for the chance to speak. >> well, again, good afternoon. i'd like to thank our hosts for having all of those guests here today to talk about the civil war forts of washington. i'd like to talk about the ncpc. and, again, i'm going to click

this button here. so we've got a lot of great things here going on in these forts. this is a great history, 150th anniversary of this battle of ft. stevens. the only civil war battle fought in washington, d.c. including at the battleground of the national cemetery. the second smallest national cemetery also managed by the national park service. 38 union soldiers buried there. i did want to point out that many of you all got a copy of this program there.

it ice all here and we ask you to take a look ats it. so if you noticed, just this week today and tomorrow, we've got a lot of great things going on. we we've got a lot of great things q we just learned that cspan will be out tomorrow evening on fort stephens to cover of the historian's round table. we're looking at fort stephen's day which we've been hosting for the past three years. fort stephens on steroids with mr. lincoln, mrs. lincoln. we will be firing a canon from fort stephens. the first time in 150 years a canon will be fired in a d.c. fort. you've got to come out and share with that. as i mentioned on sunday, we'll 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 didn't 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. i'd 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 this on? i take it you're from virginia. what we try to do is making revenue neutral. it also provides for a cooperative agreements with the other locally owned forts so that the one in virginia and airy land. also private owners. we'd like to get better signage. for example i went out with my

husband and said there's a fort bennett. they have a lovely sign there that says fort bennett. there's a ravine on the side there. so we will study ways to have a place in washington to study and commemorate the entire civil war on both sides, confederacy and union. >> i'd like to ask about the compensation for folks land when we set up the forts. i've talked to the ranger and she was saying she wasn't compensated. i'm interested to know how we got the land then to set up the forts and what practices were in place at that time. what law -- >> she alluded to the fact a free black woman by the name of elizabeth thomas who owned a

little over 11 acres of land. that's what we considered today to be imminent domain. you can do that in time of war. that's exactly what happened. >> and all of those other forts, the same practice. >> this was called necessity in time of war. yes. descendants have always said that president lincoln promised her a great reward and she never got one and the descend ants will say they never saw a reward and so forth. the property owners would receive it back if it was there land and the timbre remaining in the forts. the claims after the war in archives and many record groups is where you go to fine the records of what had happened. this was universally used in the south wherever the military had occupied land and destroyed property. fences, barns, everything else.

that is kind of the story there. some of these forts were retained with garrisons and gradually the fears of any resergeants of the rebellion or the threat from the french in mexico or the british, the army realized they were taking up a lot of money keeping these things so they would get rid of them. fort washington even more recently was still an active post. >> sir, i think you'll be our last question. >> i was wondering if you were familiar with a question i've had for years and years. when earlie approached washington cavalry patrols were sent out but the one that will always intrigue me was a cavalry regiment on the western side of washington who really were a little lost and didn't know where they were reported that they entered one of the forts, found it completely unmanned. went up top and could see the capitol and the white house in the distance. do you think there's any credibility to that report? there's three legends you've

wrapped into one. john mcausilin's army came down the pike and were not sure why he deviates over to the 7th street road in georgia avenue. you should go up there if for no other reason there's a match that's on display out of the library of congress dated april, 1864, it is obviously taken from a union corp of engineer map, et cetera but whether or not he had this and presented it to earlie so he could come and see where to get into washington, we don't know. it's a great mystery. mysteries are still surging. he had on his staff a man by the name of luffborro. live johnston a washington lawyer who had taken a diary of

that family, he auftencibly had dinner at his family's place and they looked down on quote unquote the dome of the lights of the capitol. mcauslin was happy to tell this story to general grant when he

was in the white house after the war. you can imagine him chopping on a cigar. no fears nobody believed it. the confederate soldiers claimed to have seen the dome of the

capitol. there's no place you can see the dome of the capitol. you can see it is below where a visual would have gotten it out in silver spring. probably saw the lights georgetown. john b. gordon claims to have rode up on the lines in broad day light. no way of substantiating that. again, old soldiers have vivid memories. >> one more little comment, i was land surveyor in washington d.c. it was a cool set of maps. i think the library of congress has them. >> with that i'd like to again, thank the national archives for

hosting this really wonderful event. our speakers, dr. frank cooling, neumann, kym elder. please join me one last time in a round of applause for them. thank you. [ applause ] >> with live coverage of the u.s. house on cspan and the will of the crater. union forces detonated xploes toifz create a gap in the defenses but at tack failed with heavy losses for union troops.