The circumstances that led to the location of today's Fort Myer date to this time period, as do the first major landscape changes. The Civil War prompted the defensive occupation of the highland surrounding the city of Washington. Forts Cass and Whipple were part of that defensive ring. Today, any remains that exist lie buried beneath the stables area and officers' row areas of Fort Myer respectively. The War also prompted the clear cutting of the wooded areas along Arlington Heights. The deforestation of the area had a major impact on the appearance of the installation in its first decades and until planted trees began to mature. The Civil War determined the general location of the installation, and to a limited degree, roads constructed or maintained during the War ultimately contributed to the boundary and shape of the installation as it stands today.
At the beginning of the Civil War, marked by the firing on Fort Sumter, South Carolina on April 12, 1861, Washington, DC found itself in a vulnerable position on what would become the boarder between the Union North and the Confederate South. Initially, the Federal officials viewed only the southern land approach to the city as needing defensive works (Cooling 1972). Arlington Heights posed particular danger because from that point, artillery fire could reach the White House and many Government buildings. On the night of May 23-24, just hours after the people of Virginia voted for secession, Federal troops crossed the Potomac River to secure the heights of Arlington and the important railway junction in Alexandria, Virginia (Rose 1960). The first forts and entrenchments were intended to defend the bridges and secure Alexandria. Federal troops constructed Fort Corcoran to cover the Aqueduct Bridge that connected Northern Virginia to Georgetown and Fort Runyon to encompass and control an important road junction near Long Bridge. At the same time, troops constructed Fort Ellsworth in Alexandria.2 Next, because Forts Corcoran and Runyon lay below the high ground of Arlington, the troops constructed Forts Albany, Bennett, and Haggerty and a series of rifle trenches to guard the approaches (see Figure 7). This work took seven weeks (Rose 1960).
The next stage of construction followed the disastrous defeat of Union troops by Confederate forces at the First Battle of Bull Run, a mere 37 miles from Washington. Union generals now viewed the first defensive works around Washington as inadequate and began work on the elaborate circumferential defense system of which both Fort Cass and Fort Whipple were a part. The outer ring of the system consisted of a series of forts and lunettes connected by roads and rifle trenches. A lunette is a fieldwork with two faces, forming a salient angle and two parallel flanks. Fort Cass, first known as Fort Ramsay, was a lunette in the outer ring. Soldiers completed it by the end of 1861. In 1862, Secretary of War Stanton appointed a commission of Union Generals to determine the sufficiency of the system of defenses.
In 1862, the commission recommended the construction of auxiliary batteries to cover the ravines and depressions between the forts and lunettes that formed the defenses of Washington. According to Rose (1960), the commission specifically recommended the construction of "a work on the spur behind Forts Cass and Tillinghast... to `see' into the gorges of these works and give important fire upon the high ground in from of the line." To accomplish this, the Army constructed Fort Whipple, named for Maj. Gen. A. W. Whipple who died May 7, 1863 from wounds at Chancellorsville. When completed, Fort Whipple along with Fort C. F. Smith, a variation on a lunette about a mile north of Fort Cass, represented "the most perfect and beautiful specimens of what may be called `semipermanent' field works" (Rose 1960). Miller (1976) refers to Fort Whipple as "the finest field work ever constructed." According to Cooling (1972) "by the end of 1863, 60 forts, 93 batteries, and 837 guns encircled the city and 25,000 men were in position to man this complex." The defenses continued to grow through the end of the war with the numbers raising to 68 enclosed forts and batteries armed with 807 pieces of artillery and 98 mortars, 93 unarmed batteries for field guns, 20 miles of rifle trenches, and 30 miles of military roads. Virtually all traces of Forts Cass and Whipple are gone. The Army apparently leveled both forts sometime between 1868 and 1871 to provide level ground for the construction of a Signal Corps School. A 1927 aerial photograph, taken to monitor winter flooding on the Potomac River, shows possible signs of the Fort Whipple's earthworks on the east edge of Whipple Field where Marshall Drive is today (see Figure 8).
The Fort Whipple area included a number of out buildings under the jurisdiction of the Quartermaster. According to a June 21, 1865 plan (following the end of the War), these included five officers' quarters, three barracks, and two mess houses (see Figure 9). A note on the plan reads, "buildings at this fort are constructed like those used for similar purposes at forts north of Potomac." However, this author has been unable to confirm the total number and type of buildings at Fort Whipple. A letter from the Quartermaster General's Office to the Secretary of War dated November 6, 1867 requests permission to sell at public auction the following buildings:
· One Barracks Building 100 x 21 with bunks
· One Laundress Quarters 80 x 20 1/2
· One Laundress Quarters 40 x 20 1/2
· One Sergeants Quarters 16 x 12
· One Stable 44 x 24
· One Hospital Kitchen 12 x 15
· One Hospital Stewards Room and Dispensary 58 x 20
· One Officers' Quarters 58 x 20
· One Officers' Quarters 44 x 16
· .............. with I. [?] 16 x 25
Several of these buildings seem to correspond to the buildings depicted in the 1865 plan. For example, the barracks on the plan are approximately 100 feet by 21 feet and the "mess houses" nearly match the dimensions of the "laundress quarters" as described in the letter. Others, however, do not match in any obvious way. Furthermore, photographs reproduced and described in Brooks (1974), show a large hospital and stables area in what would be the lower post today. This author has been unable to make a good correlation among these three sources. The buildings that appear in the photographs do not accurately match the buildings described in the letter or depicted on the plan. More research into the configuration of the Civil War out buildings at Fort Whipple is needed.
Fort McPherson, another Arlington County fort, deserves mention for it was intended to function in tandem with Fort Whipple. Soldiers began building Fort McPherson in 1864, located in what is now a portion of Arlington Cemetery. However, according to Rose (1960), it was not completed before the end of the war. Miller (1976) cites a 1902 Washington Star newspaper article that mentions plans for the restoration of Fort McPherson to its "warlike appearance." The same 1927 aerial photograph mentioned above reveals that indeed it was in excellent condition through the 1920s. In the late 1940s, however, Arlington Cemetery authorities completely leveled Fort McPherson; it is not visible today.
Fortification and Deforestation
The fortification of Washington resulted in extensive deforestation. Specifications for the construction of the forts surrounding the city called for earthworks supported with lumber or timber. For example, while engineers designed the exterior slope of the parapet to be covered with three four-inch layers of sod (grass side down), the interiors required timber revetment (Rose 1960). The revetment consisted of posts four to six inches in diameter and five-and-one-half feet in length cut from oak, chestnut, or cedar and set vertically side-by-side. Magazines and bomb-proofs also required heavy timber (Rose 1960). Most, if not all, enclosed forts and batteries included abatis, a defense formed of felled trees with sharpened ends facing the enemy. The forests in Arlington County suffered as troops cut firewood, cleared the area around forts, and cleared lines of fire. As Maj. Gen. J. G. Barnard, chief engineer of the defense system, reported in 1871, "the woods which prevailed along many parts of the line were cleared for a mile or two in front of the works, the counterscarps of which were surrounded by abatis."
It is very likely that President Abraham Lincoln visited Fort Whipple during the Civil War. According to Webb (1973), Lincoln inspected the Arlington forts on August 5, 1863. Fort Whipple was among the newest additions to the defenses of Washington at that time having been completed in June 1863. Webb (1973) found personal accounts of Lincoln's inspection of Fort Strong, a lunette some three-quarters of a mile north of Fort Cass, in a regimental history and in the National Archives regimental papers. Accounts of life at Fort Whipple and events possibly involving the President may be available through unit and regimental histories and papers of the 14th Massachusetts Volunteers Heavy Artillery (companies "A," "E," and "F"), the 145th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, the First Pennsylvania Artillery, the 10th New York Heavy Artillery, and others who garrisoned Forts Whipple and Cass between 1863 and 1865. It is certainly an area for further research on the history of Fort Myer.
The Freedmen's Village and the Arlington Tract
The Freedmen's Village represents an important aspect of the history of the Arlington Estate that is related to Fort Myer. At the beginning of the Civil War, fugitive slaves from the area surrounding Washington, DC fled to the city for protection. An Act of Congress in 1861 forbid slave owners from recovering their "property" or "contraband." The following year, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation freed all slaves in the District of Columbia. According to Rose (1976),
The large numbers of footloose and impoverished freed slaves and contraband created a problem. What was in effect a concentration camp was established to house them in the District on East Capitol Street, now the site of the Folger Library. A smallpox epidemic forced the removal of the camp to another site, on 12th Street. But even here conditions were deplorable. In May 1863, the Quartermaster of the Washington Military District recommended their resettlement in the "pure country air" of the Arlington Plantation.
Rose (1976) and James (1967, 1974) explain that the government established the village on what is now the southern most portion of Arlington Cemetery. Initially, the conditions in the village represented a dramatic improvement. James (1967) describes the village as follows,
It consisted of approximately 100 frame houses, each a story and a half high, with a bedroom on the second floor. The houses were neatly whitewashed and divided in the center so that two families could be accommodated. The houses faced each other with a clean street dividing the rows (see Figure 10).
Rose (1976) notes that the village also included workshops for learning the trades of blacksmith, carpenter, and wheelwright. A dormitory hosted those unable to work (see Figure 11). One of the ideas behind the establishment of the Village was to encourage the independence of the residents with the hope that they would eventually find permanent jobs outside the Village and leave. However, limited employment opportunities for African Americans during and after the Civil War and the relative comfort of the Village led to overcrowding. In 1866, more than 1,000 people lived in the Village (Williams 1991). According to Rose (1976), "tuberculosis and dysentery were rife. Contagious diseases took a heavy toll: there was an average of two deaths a day."3 In an effort to provide relief, the government subdivided a large portion of the Arlington Estate into nine and ten acre lots that could be rented for a small fee. This area outside of the Village became known as "Arlington Tract" (Rose 1976). To a degree this worked and, the village remained for some 30 years. However, beginning in 1885, the federal government essentially took back the land for use as a military reservation (now part of Fort Myer) and the expansion of Arlington National Cemetery.4
On the one hand, the location of the Freedmen's Village was far enough south not to have had an impact on the landscape of what is today Fort Myer. The Village's location, as shown on General Barnard's Civil War map and subsequent maps, is in a portion of Arlington Cemetery just north across the cemetery wall from Federal Building #2, also known as the Navy Annex (see Figure 12)5. On the other hand, the Arlington Tract may have had a subtle influence on the Fort Myer landscape. Maps from the 1880s (see Figure 16) show a series of 10 acre plots abutting what was then the southern boundary of the fort, a line that today would run as a perpendicular to Arlington Boulevard, east between Buildings 248 and 249 (the 3rd Infantry Museum), and across Summerall Field, through a portion of Building 400 (the band building) to the Old Chapel. The boundaries of these tracts formed a grid that appears to have influenced the pattern of development of Fort Myer following its acquisition of the land. Maps of the post prior to the acquisition of the tracts to the south indicate that the planners of the post expansion had not yet committed themselves to following the rectangular grid they eventually did. The largest influence of the presence of the Freedmen's Village and the Arlington Tract on Fort Myer's history probably came in the relationship between the people of each. According to James (1974), "villagers cultivated Fort Myer's garden and performed....much of the labor around the fort" in order to pay rent on the land.
Influence of the Civil War on the Landscape of Fort Myer
The main influences of the Civil War period on the landscape of Fort Myer can be summarized as follows:
· Establishment of a military presence: The Civil War brought the military to Arlington Heights in defense of the Federal Capitol. Of the 22 fortifications in Northern Virginia, described in their time as forts "south of the Potomac," only Forts Cass and Whipple became part of a permanent installation.
· The Location and Orientation of Fort Myer: The topography of the Arlington Estate determined the location of Forts Cass and Whipple, and their location in turn determined the location of Fort Myer. With Virginia as hostile territory, the Civil War forts faced west with their backs to Washington. With reunification following the War, the first permanent construction along Grant Avenue and the buildings that replaced them, now the Whipple Field Officers' Quarters, faced towards Washington to take advantage of the view of the city that Forts Cass and Whipple sought to protect from Confederate guns.
· Development Grid: The ten-acre plots that comprised a portion of the Arlington Tract influenced the orientation of the subsequent development and expansion of Fort Myer to the south.
· General Deforestation: The wholesale deforestation of much of the land around the Civil War forts and their lines of fire left the landscape that became Fort Myer nearly barren. Photographs taken during the War and in the early 1870s show a once forested landscape largely denuded. As Fort Whipple developed into a permanent installation, and underwent development as Fort Myer in subsequent years, the Army began planting trees and vegetation in a manner reflective of urban settings of the time. The War had essentially provided a "clean slate."
Fort Runyon
Fort Haggerty
Fort Corcoran
Fort Cass
Fort Albany
Fort Whipple
Fort Bennett
Figure 7. Location of Civil War forts in Arlington, Virginia. The first forts included Corcoran, Runyon, Albany, Bennett, and Haggerty (Miller 1976).
Figure 8. Aerial photograph, 1927, showing possible signs of Fort Whipple earth works. Also note long shadow of the tall Balloon House to the middle right of the image (National Archives and Records Administration, Cartographic and Architectural Branch, RG 328, DC Box 108-214).
Figure 9. Plan of Fort Whipple, 1865 (National Archives and Records Administration, Cartographic and Architectural Branch, Miscellaneous Fortifications File).
Figure 10. Drawing of Freedmen's Village (reproduced in Gurney 1965).
Figure 11. Probably Freedmen's Village (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Civil War File, Alexandria and Arlington Section).
Figure 12. Location of Arlington Tract and Freedmen's Village on recent map of Arlington County (Rose 1976).
2 In 1909, Fort Ellsworth served as the turn-around point for Wilbur Wright's out and back cross country flight from Fort Myer. Today the site is located behind the George Washington Masonic National Memorial.
3 According to Williams (1991) the government buried the deceased in what is today Section 27 of Arlington National Cemetery with headstones noting names and designated "Civilian" or "Citizen." Stones marked "USCT" in the Section 27 mark the resting places of "U.S. Colored Troops" from the Civil War.
4 An unfortunate and ugly controversy surrounded the decision and process of reclaiming the land, and it was accomplished through a series of false accusations and evictions that in some cases carried strong racial overtones. See James (1967, 1974) for a detailed account.
5 It should be noted that Williams (1991) states that the Village "sprawled north from what are now the amphitheater and the Tomb of the Unknowns to Section 27." All historical evidence I have found suggests that this information is erroneous. It is true that Section 27 is at the north end of Arlington Cemetery, but the Village itself was certainly much further south.