Fort Ward

When Virginia's secession from the Union became effective on May 24, 1861, Federal forces immediately occupied Northern Virginia to protect Washington, D.C. After the Confederate victory at First Bull Run in July 1861, the Federal government began building a defense system for the Union capital. The initial construction of Fort Ward was completed in September 1861 to protect the approaches to Union-occupied Alexandria by way of the Leesburg Turnpike and Little River Turnpike. By late 1864, its earthwork perimeter had grown from 540 yards with 24 gun positions to 818 yards with 36 guns, making it the fifth largest stronghold in the Defenses of Washington and a model of 19th-century military design and engineering. Named for Commander James Harmon Ward, the first Union naval officer to die in the Civil War, it was dismantled by December 1865. By the end of the war, the Defenses of Washington included 162 forts and batteries with emplacements for 1,421 guns, the only battle in the system having been fought at Fort Stevens in July 1864 when General Jubal A. Early's Confederate forces attacked there about seven miles north of the White House. After the war, the forts and batteries were dismantled and their materials sold at auction; Fort Foote, the last remaining earthwork fort in the system, was deactivated in 1878. Today, remains of many of these fortifications still survive, and the 37-mile network that protected the Federal capital was the most extensive fortification system built in the Western Hemisphere.

Alexandria, Virginia · United States