Entrance Gate to Fort Ward / Officers' Hut

Completed in May 1865, the Fort Ward entrance gate provided the only access to the fort's interior. Its decorative details included stands of cannonballs and the castle insignia of the Army Corps of Engineers, which designed and supervised construction of the Defenses of Washington, and the present gate is a reconstruction based on the original Corps of Engineers drawing. A ditch, or dry moat, surrounded the entire fort, and its earthen walls rose about 20 feet from the bottom of the ditch to the arch of the gate; at 12-14 feet thick, the walls could absorb artillery fire. Outside the fort, near the present Museum, stood the officers' huts, soldiers' barracks, and mess hall, built in a typical board-and-batten style. A photograph taken at Fort Ward in 1863 shows the quarters of Capt. Theodore H. Rockwood of Co. E, First Connecticut Heavy Artillery. Throughout the war, Fort Ward was manned by companies of the First Connecticut Heavy Artillery as well as units from New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and although it could accommodate about 1,200 soldiers, records indicate that only 300-400 men were stationed there at one time.

Alexandria, Virginia · United States