Fort Couch - General Couch - Fort Washington

Fort Couch and Fort Washington were built as emergency fortifications to defend Harrisburg and nearby bridges across the Susquehanna River during the 1863 Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania. Fort Washington was constructed primarily between June 14-19, 1863, on a hilltop east of this site, with entrenchments, earthen redoubts, and wooden platforms for 25 pieces of artillery, occupying about 60 acres. Fort Couch was begun on June 20th, 1863, by command of Major General Darius Nash Couch and on the advice of Federal Army engineer officers as an advance position to help protect Fort Washington. Fort Couch was mainly built by local African-American railroad workers, while Fort Washington was constructed by more than 600 local citizen volunteers and African-American railroad construction crews, with water pumped up from the Susquehanna by volunteer firemen. Artillery at Fort Couch was mounted behind earthworks and pointed west, and several forward infantry picket lines were established between Fort Couch and Oyster Point. Both forts were manned by New York National Guard, Pennsylvania militia, and Federal troops, including members of the 4th U.S. Cavalry Regiment evacuated from the U.S. Army barracks at Carlisle, and the Federal cavalry instructed the New York and Pennsylvania troops in the use of artillery. On June 29-30, 1863, troops from Fort Washington engaged Confederate forces at Oyster Point and Sporting Hill. Darius Nash Couch, born in 1822 in Putnam County, New York, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1846, served in the Mexican War, became a brigadier general in 1861 and a major general in 1862, led divisions in the Peninsula and Antietam campaigns, commanded the 2nd Army Corps at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, headed the Department of the Susquehanna in 1863-64, later led divisions in Tennessee and North Carolina in 1864-65, held political and military posts in Massachusetts and Connecticut after the war, and died in 1897 in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Lemoyne, Pennsylvania · United States