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War Nears the Capital VOLUME 11, ISSUE 8 An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program War Nears the Capital ■ Student Activity: A Personal Side of the American Civil War ■ Resource: Civil War Diaries, Letters and Manuscripts ■ Post Reprint: “The day ‘Old Jube’ nearly took Washington” ■ Map Study: Civil War Defenses of Washington ■ Map Study: Fort Stevens and Battleground National Cemetery ■ Post Reprint: “On a hot July day, Bethesda became a battleground” ■ Post Reprint: “At Battle of the Crater, black troops prove their courage” May 9, 2014 ©2014 THE WASHINGTON POST VOLUME 11, ISSUE 8 An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program s the District of Columbia was transforming into a capital city, it was a city targeted for attack by Confederate generals. To the north was Maryland, a slave-owning state. To the south across the Potomac River, Virginia was home to the Southern Acapital city of Richmond. Only Fort Washington, built in 1808 south on the Potomac River to control river access, protected the vulnerable city. In order to better secure D.C., the Union army constructed 68 forts in a defensive ring. Former slaves assisted troops to build and maintain the fortifications. In the hot July of 1864, General Robert E. Lee ordered General Jubal Early, with around 20,000 troops, to strike D.C. from the north. Encamped at Rockville, Md., on July 10, Early was ready to attack Fort Stevens — and from here the Federal capital. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE May 9, 2014 ©2014 THE WASHINGTON POST VOLUME 11, ISSUE 8 An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program A Personal Side of the Civil War Diaries, Letters and Manuscripts http://www.vmi.edu/archives.aspx?id=3945 American Civil War Civil War Letters, Diaries, Manuscripts Annotated entries from the Virginia Military Institute Archives Archivists work to preserve manuscripts. Historians carefully read diaries that have http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/cwd/ survived. Scholars enjoy the personal nature of Civil War Diaries and Letters letters. All look for clues to troop movement, A University of Iowa Libraries project time and place of activity, and mundane events http://americanhistory.si.edu/documentsgallery/exhibitions/ and schemes to survive another day. nursing_1.html You too can understand how Americans dealt The Diary of a Civil War Nurse with friendly and enemy troops, disease and daily Smithsonian document file includes an interactive map of D.C. chores, changing seasons and disparate fortunes. in 1863 Read the diaries, letters and manuscripts that are available online. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mogenweb/cwdiary.htm Diary of Mrs. Rachel Young King Anderson (1818-1898) TWEET Written in Greene County, Missouri, the diary begins Aug. 26, Based on information gained from diary entries 1861, and ends April 15, 1865. and letters, write tweets as if you were living then. Give a sense of war-time activities, impact http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/civil_war/letters/index.shtml on citizens and changes imposed on daily life. Manuscripts of the American Civil War Letters and correspondence from the manuscript holdings in the Department of Special Collections, University of Notre Dame. WRITE A LETTER Each is annotated to give a sense of person, time period, place After reading diary entries and letters from a and engagements covered. particular state or region, write a letter to relate the impact of war upon people living there and http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/blacks-civil-war/ article.html soldiers from the area. You may use information Teaching with Documents: The Fight in The Washington Post’s Civil War 150 articles for Equal Rights: Black Soldiers in the Civil War and timelines to add insight. This lesson includes letters, photographs and military service records. BLOG Read diaries, letters and memoirs of military http://www.loc.gov/collection/diary-of-horatio-taft/about-this- collection/ leaders, foot soldiers and women who lived Washington During the Civil War: The Diary of Horatio during the Civil War. Write a series of blog Nelson Taft, 1861-1865 entries from the perspective of different Three volumes that document daily life in D.C. and events individuals to give insight into the effects of a surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln particular battle or skirmish. May 9, 2014 ©2014 THE WASHINGTON POST VOLUME 11, ISSUE 8 An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program The day ‘Old Jube’ nearly took Washington With Lincoln watching, the last rebel invasion of the North ended at Fort Stevens in the District retreat. Lee’s first invasion, in September 1862, led to the single BY STEVE VOGEL bloodiest day in American history, at Antietam, where the Confederates • Originally Published April 24 were turned back but escaped to Virginia. Less than a year later, Forty-one white headstones form Lee crossed the Potomac River two concentric circles around an again, culminating in the fateful American flag in the tiny graveyard Confederate defeat at Gettysburg in that is tucked into the middle of July 1863. a block on Georgia Avenue in Lee was a risk-taker, and Northwest Washington. in the summer of 1864, he was The two six-pound smoothbore ready to gamble again. Lt. Gen. guns guarding the entrance of Ulysses S. Grant’s relentless Battleground National Cemetery NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Army of the Potomac had backed seem out of place amid the The center of the cemetery is marked the Confederates into battle by a central flagpole surrounded by 41 surrounding apartment buildings. regulation marble headstones marking lines protecting Richmond and The immaculate one-acre plot, one the remains of the honored dead of Fort Petersburg, and it appeared poised of the country’s smallest national Stevens. Behind these headstones and for a drive to capture the Southern to the east, stands a marble rostrum capital. cemeteries, draws scant attention used to conduct yearly Memorial Day from cars whizzing by, perhaps services. The four granite pillars are in On June 12, Lee entrusted Lt. fitting for a little-remembered Civil memory of the four volunteer companies Gen. Jubal A. Early, one of his War episode. who fought at Fort Stevens. most aggressive and experienced Yet 150 years ago, the fate of commanders, with a bold mission the capital, and, some feared, the along a Confederate line of intended to relieve pressure on Union, hung on the men defending advance that cut through towns and the Confederate defenders. Lee Washington during the third and neighborhoods that today are at or would send his 2nd Corps under final Confederate invasion of the near the heart of the Washington Early — a major portion of his North. The soldiers laid to rest there region, including Frederick, army — to clear out a Union died protecting the northernmost Gaithersburg, Rockville, Bethesda, force that had taken possession of of Washington’s fortifications, Fort Takoma Park, Silver Spring, and, much of the Shenandoah Valley. Stevens (from the cemetery, go six most critically, Monocacy Junction. If he saw an opening, Early was blocks south on Georgia and take a Twice before, Gen. Robert E. Lee to invade Maryland, disrupt right at the Wonder Chicken.) had sent the Army of Northern Union rail and communication That fight was the culmination of Virginia on invasions of the North, lines, and threaten Washington. a series of battles and engagements and twice he had been forced to Lee was fond of Early — “my May 9, 2014 ©2014 THE WASHINGTON POST VOLUME 11, ISSUE 8 An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PRINTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION Members of Company F, 3rd Regiment, Massachusetts Heavy Artillery at Fort Stevens, where Confederate Gen. Jubal Early asserted, “we scared Abe Lincoln like hell.” bad old man,” as he called the skedaddling to Charleston, W.Va. Bolstered by reinforcements, their cantankerous and blunt commander. Compounding Hunter’s wretched numbers reached 16,000. Early, a West Point graduate who performance was his failure to alert On July 4, the nation’s 88th practiced law in Rocky Mount, the Union high command that he birthday, Early’s army reached the Va., had vigorously opposed would be unable to cut off Early’s Potomac, celebrating with raucous secession but took up arms when advance. Grant — who believed feasts on Yankee provisions captured war was declared. Lee had grown Early’s corps was still at Petersburg at Martinsburg and Harpers Ferry, to rely on “Old Jube,” particularly — was left blind to a great and including sardines, oysters and with the death of Maj. Gen. sudden danger. plenty of liquor. The third invasion Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson at “Nothing blue stood between of the North was underway. Chancellorsville the previous year. Early and the Potomac,” historian The idea of Washington falling to Early and his men — many of them Shelby Foote wrote. an enemy army may seem almost tough veterans of Jackson’s 1862 The rebels moved northeast at impossible today, but it did not Shenandoah campaign — took to a rapid clip beginning June 23, seem at all implausible to residents the mission with verve. Little more passing through Lexington, where in 1864. Just fifty years earlier, than the sight of the Confederate the men marched past Jackson’s within the lifetime of old-timers, a force at Lynchburg on June 18 was grave, baring their heads in silent bold British force had captured the enough to send Union Maj. Gen. salute. They reached New Market capital, burning the White House David Hunter and his larger force on June 30, and Winchester July 2. and the Capitol. May 9, 2014 ©2014 THE WASHINGTON POST VOLUME 11, ISSUE 8 An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Officers of Companies A and B, 3rd Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, and crew of 100-pounder.
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