The Battle of Monocacy and Fort Stevens

WASHINGTON  —  Although Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace’s Union troops had slowed Confederates advance through Maryland at Monocacy in July 1964, the rebel march continued.

Confederate Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early pressed his exhausted troop onto his next target: Washington.

The battle of Monocacy had left the Confederate army bloodied, but unbowed. On July 10, 1864, the Confederates camped in Rockville, Md., a mere 10 miles from Fort Stevens, a Union fortification guarding the national capital. That same day, Union reinforcements dispatched by Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant from City Point, Va., arrived at Fort Stevens.

Over the next two days, the Confederates probed the Fort Stevens defenses, and were repulsed each time. On July 12, President Abraham Lincoln checked on the situation himself, climbing atop the parapet at one point to watch the action. Several individuals present asked Lincoln to come down from his perch. One officer, Capt. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., made his direct appeal in no uncertain terms. He yelled at Lincoln, “Get down, you damn fool, before you get shot!”

Holmes went on to become a renowned jurist, and serve as an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court for 30 years.

A restored section of Fort Stevens, complete with cannons, in northwest Washington is maintained by the National Park Service and is open to visitors. A commemorative stone on the parapet pays tribute to Lincoln’s visit to the fort.

Faced with veteran Union troops at the fort, Early abandoned his attack on Washington and headed back to Maryland late on July 12. By the next day, his Confederate army was back in Virginia.

Historic Fort Stevens is located at 13th & Quackenbos Street NW (about a half-block off Georgia Avenue NW), Washington, D.C. 20011

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