Freedom Hill Redoubt

Small batteries called redoubts were constructed during the Civil War as part of the outer defensive lines that encircled Washington, D.C. Late in the war, a redoubt was built on Freedom Hill, which according to tradition was named for one of Fairfax County’s earliest free black communities, settled nearby in the 1840s. On New Year’s Day 1865, two 13th New York Cavalry troopers encountered a concealed force of thirty Confederates near Freedom Hill. One of the Federals escaped and spread the word, but patrols failed to capture any of the Confederates. Later that month, Federal authorities ordered the construction of the redoubt. Military dispatches and other official communications confirm that the fort saw no significant action during its brief lifetime. A company of the 5th Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery Regiment was stationed there as part of a larger contingent assigned to protect the signal tower at the nearby Peach Grove Stockade. The fortifications also offered protection to couriers and patrols on Chain Bridge Road as they sought to elude Confederate Col. John S. Mosby’s Rangers. The redoubt was built to standard army design, with a gun platform in the center, earthen walls lined with timber, and ditches around the exterior. The soldiers were not shielded from the weather, and the earthworks protected against nothing but small arms fire.

Tysons, Virginia · United States