Battle of Fort Stevens

On July 11, 1864, Confederate troops attempted to capture the Union's capitol by first taking Fort Stevens, one of a ring of forts built to defend Washington, in the only Civil War battle fought in the city. Approaching from the north, they used this high ground overlooking Fort Stevens to the south, and in the area's rural landscape they found water and shelter at the nearby farm of Thomas Carberry, a former mayor of Washington. Confederate sharpshooters and signal men occupied several vantage points during the fighting, including a 150-foot-tall tulip, or poplar, tree just north of the Carberry House. The battle ended on July 12 when Union reinforcements arrived, halted any further advance, and forced a Confederate retreat. During the fighting, artillery shells from Fort Stevens struck both the Carberry farm and the tulip tree, later known as the Sharpshooter's Tree. The tree survived and later stood on the grounds of Walter Reed General Hospital, where buildings including the Nurses' Quarters to the north and the Commanding Officers' Quarters to the south were constructed near it. After severe storm damage, the tree was removed in December 1920, and a memorial now stands at its former location, displaying cannonballs reportedly recovered from the Carberry, later Lay, farm. The house remained in use as a caretaker's residence until the late 1908 when it was demolished for new hospital facilities, and the fire station along the southern edge of the hospital campus stands in its approximate location.

Washington, District of Columbia · United States