Washington dc
Background Reading and Useful Books (#InvalidCorpsFilm)
I’ve been doing quite a lot of reading to make sure we are solidly grounded in the history of these events. It has been a fun challenge in some ways. The information is split up in multiple places: Stories about men injured during the war is in one place, information on the Battle of Fort Stevens is in another, and information on the Invalid Corps itself is somewhere else again. Pulling it all together is the part that is most exciting.
I’ve looked at several websites, explored library collections, spoken to people in online forums, and perused journal articles as well as general articles for the public. But I thought it might be useful to just list some of the actual books that I’ve been reading. Granted, not all fit the topic fully, but they’ve all been very informative and have helped immensely.
So, in no particular order, to date I have read:
- Jubal Early’s Raid on Washington by Benjamin Franklin Cooling III
- The Day Lincoln was Almost Shot: The Fort Stevens Story by Benjamin Franklin Cooling III (this one is my favorite)
- Lincoln Under Enemy Fire by John Henry Cramer
- Jubal’s Raid by Frank E. Vandiver
- Maryland Voices of the Civil War edited by Charles W. Mitchell
- Desperate Engagement by Marc Leepson
- Scraping the Barrel: The Military Use of Substandard Manpower, 1860-1960 edited by Sanders Marble
- Union Soldiers and the Northern Home Front edited by Paul A. Cimbala and Randall M. Miller
- After Chancellorsville: Letters from the Heart edited by Judith A. Bailey & Robert I. Cotton
- Gone for a Soldier: The Civil War Memoirs of Private Alfred Bellard edited by David Herbert Donald (my second favorite from this list)
Although I don’t have the book yet, I’ve gone through Ronald S. Coddington’s website “Faces of the Civil War” several times. Fantastic images and he’s obviously gone through a lot of trouble to get the stories of the men behind the photos.
AND after having a GREAT phone conversation with Susan Claffey who is a past president of the Civil War Roundtable of the District of Columbia, I have a new book for my list: As I Remember: A Civil War Veteran Reflects on the War and Its Aftermath by Lewis Cass White and edited by Joseph Scopin.
I also have to give a shout-out to the National Park Service who has a wonderful brochure on the Battle of Fort Stevens.
Washington’s #CivilWar Forts and Parks – Video
Before beginning this project, I had never heard of the Fort Circle Parks. It is a 37-mile-long arrangement of fortifications that encircle the capital. They consist of 68 forts, 20 miles of rifle pits, and are connected by 32 miles of roads. Fort Stevens is one of those forts, built to defend the main approach to Washington from the north – 7th Street Pike (now Georgia Avenue).
In the 1900s, there was a plan to buy up land connecting all of the forts and create a green ring of parks and trails around Washington DC. Although not fully realized, there were some efforts made (and continue to be made) to realize the McMillan Plan. Today, nineteen of the fort sites are administered by the National Park Service, while four are administered by other local and state governments.
The video below is from a fantastic panel at the National Archives from 2014:
During the Civil War, the Union army constructed a series of earthen defenses in and around Washington to protect the nation’s capital from attack. The defeat of Confederate forces at one of these―Fort Stevens―helped keep Washington in Union control. Dr. B. Franklin Cooling, historian, author, and Professor of History, National Defense University, and Loretta Neumann, Vice President, Alliance to Preserve the Civil War Defenses of Washington, will discuss the development of Washington’s Civil War forts, their role in the war, and their ensuing transformation into the public parks and cultural resources known as the Fort Circle Parks. This program is presented in partnership with the National Capital Planning Commission and will function as the kick-off for the official commemoration of the 150th anniversary of The Battle of Fort Stevens.
For more information check out the Alliance to Preserve the Civil War Defenses of Washington.