Military
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The Southwest Bastion was the most heavily fortified area of Fort Ward, with emplacements for seven guns as well as a magazine and a filling room. Fort Ward’s largest gun, a 100-pounder Parrott Rifle, stood in the Southwest Bastion on a center pintle carriage and could fire a 100-pound projectile about five miles. The weapon was important because it could defend both the Leesburg Turnpike and the Little River Turnpike, two major roads into Alexandria. An opening in the fort wall there also allowed troops to move through the ditch to an outlying rifle trench without exposure to enemy fire.
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Alexandria, Virginia · United States
