“Get Down You Fool”

During the Civil War battle that stopped the Confederates from taking Washington, President Abraham Lincoln ducked from the Fort Stevens parapet after someone shouted, “Get down you fool.” On July 9, 1864, about 15,000 Confederates under General Jubal A. Early defeated Union forces at the Battle of Monocacy near Frederick, Maryland, then turned south toward the lightly defended capital despite losses from the battle and the summer heat. The fighting at Monocacy and skirmishes along the Rockville Turnpike gave the Union time to regroup, and on July 12 fresh Union troops met the Confederates in a fierce but brief fight that ended with Early’s retreat to Virginia, concluding the only Civil War battle fought in the District of Columbia. Abraham Lincoln and Mrs. Lincoln both watched the afternoon battle, and Captain Elijah Hunt Rhodes of Rhode Island recalled seeing the president on the parapet, Mrs. Lincoln and other ladies in a carriage behind the earthworks, the troops moving into a peach orchard in front of Fort Stevens, and a surgeon beside the president being wounded. Lincoln later remarked, “Early should have attacked early in the morning.” He remains the only serving U.S. president to have come under enemy fire.

Washington, District of Columbia · United States