Defenses of Washington at Fort Willard Park (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this trailside historical marker:

Defenses of Washington
After Virginia seceded from the Union on April 17, 1861 the District of Columbia was on the dangerous border between the divided states. Because of the city’s importance, the Union Army immediately occupied Northern Virginia, which allowed troops to protect the city’s bridges and the Aqueduct, the city’s primary water source.

After Alexandria was seized in May 1861 orders were issued to begin construction on Forts Corcoran, Haggerty, Bennett, Runyon, and Ellsworth surrounding the city. After the Confederate Army’s victory at the Battle of Manassas in July 1861, concern for the safety of the District of Columbia and Alexandria prompted plans for a complete fortification system for Washington.

Major General George B. McClellan placed Major John Gross Barnard, Corps of Engineers, in charge of the construction of defenses for Washington. By the end of 1861, Barnard and his engineers had worked together with soldiers and civilians to complete 48 forts surrounding the city.

As the war progressed, military strategists recommended additional forts to be built to fill in gaps in the defensive system. The construction of Forts Whipple, Berry, C.F. Smith, and the redoubts to Fort Lyon provided the supportive strength needed for the capital’s defense. There were 60 forts and 93 batteries protecting the city at the end of 1863.

At the end of the war in 1865, there were 68 forts surrounding the District of Columbia, connected with a system of batteries, rifle pits, batteries, blockhouses, and military roads. On June 23, 1865 orders were issued from the Department of Washington Headquarters to dismantle all but 17 forts, redoubts, and batteries that constituted the Defenses of Washington. All the forts were dismantled and the land was returned to the prior owners.

General Barnard described the Defenses of Washington as a: “connected system of fortifications by which every prominent point, at intervals of 800 to 1,000 yards, was occupied by an enclosed field-fort, every important approach or depression of ground, unseen from the forts, swept by a battery for field-guns, and the whole connected by rifle-trenches which were in fact lines of infantry parapet, furnishing emplacement for two ranks of men and affording covered communication along the line, while roads were opened wherever necessary, so that troops and artillery could be moved rapidly from one point of the immense periphery to another, or under cover, from point to point along the line.”

Erected by Fairfax County Park Authority.
The left of two historical markers at the Fort Willard Park plaza.

More about this marker. On the upper right of the marker is a photo captioned Portrait of Brig. Gen. John G. Barnard, officer of the Federal Army. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC-DIG-cwpb-05400 DLC] and a map captioned Map of American Civil War defenses of Washington, D.C. in 1865. US Government document, War Department (1865).Map by Engineer Bureau, War Department, Via Library of Congress Department of Maps.


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Here follows information about Fort Willard from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Fort Willard is a former Union Army installation now located in the Belle Haven area of Fairfax County in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is currently undergoing preservation treatment to protect its earthen walls and trenches.

Occupation of Northern Virginia
Following the surrender of Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, on April 14, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln declared that "an insurrection existed," and called for 75,000 troops to be called up to quash the rebellion.[1] The move sparked resentment in many other southern states, which promptly moved to convene discussions of secession. The Virginia State Convention passed an ordinance of secession and ordered a May 23 referendum to decide whether or not the state should secede from the Union. The U.S. Army responded by creating the Department of Washington, which united all Union troops in the District of Columbia and Maryland under one command.[2]

Brigadier General J.F.K. Mansfield, commander of the Department of Washington, argued that Northern Virginia should be occupied as soon as possible in order to prevent the possibility of the Confederate Army mounting artillery on the hills of Arlington and shelling government buildings in Washington. He also urged the erection of fortifications on the Virginia side of the Potomac River to protect the southern terminuses of the Chain Bridge, Long Bridge, and Aqueduct Bridge. His superiors approved these recommendations, but decided to wait until after Virginia voted for or against secession.[3]

On May 23, 1861, Virginia voted by a margin of 3 to 1 in favor of leaving the Union. That night, U.S. Army troops began crossing the bridges linking Washington, D.C. to Virginia.

Taking the High Ground
Over the seven weeks that followed the occupation of northern Virginia, forts were constructed along the banks of the Potomac River and at the approaches to each of the three major bridges (Chain Bridge, Long Bridge, and Aqueduct Bridge) connecting Virginia to Washington and Georgetown.[4]

While the Potomac River forts were being built, planning and surveying was ordered for an enormous new ring of forts to protect the city. Unlike the fortifications under construction, the new forts would defend the city in all directions, not just the most direct route through Arlington. In mid-July, this work was interrupted by the First Battle of Bull Run. As the Army of Northeastern Virginia marched south to Manassas, the soldiers previously assigned to construction duties marched instead to battle. In the days that followed the Union defeat at Bull Run, panicked efforts were made to defend Washington from what was perceived as an imminent Confederate attack.[5] The makeshift trenches and earthworks that resulted were largely confined to Arlington and the direct approaches to Washington.

On July 26, 1861, five days after the battle, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan was named commander of the military district of Washington and the subsequently renamed Army of the Potomac. Upon arriving in Washington, McClellan was appalled by the condition of the city's defenses.

In no quarter were the dispositions for defense such as to offer a vigorous resistance to a respectable body of the enemy, either in the position and numbers of the troops or the number and character of the defensive works... not a single defensive work had been commenced on the Maryland side. There was nothing to prevent the enemy shelling the city from heights within easy range, which could be occupied by a hostile column almost without resistance.[6]

To remedy the situation, one of McClellan's first orders upon taking command was to greatly expand the defenses of Washington. At all points of the compass, forts and entrenchments would be constructed in sufficient strength to defeat any attack.[7] Alexandria, which contained the southern terminus of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and one of the largest ports in the Chesapeake Bay, was an object of "anxious study."[8]

Planning and construction
Fort Willard was constructed during the latter part of 1862 and early 1863 as Redoubt "D" to Fort Lyon by detachments of the 34th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.[9] Lieutenant Colonel William S. Lincoln of the 34th Massachusetts explains in his memoirs that on January 8, 1863 General Barnard, along with a "party of engineers,"

spent the day running lines for an additional Fort, to be connected by covered ways and rifle pits, with the redoubts we have been constructing; and Lieutenant Schenck [engineer in charge] communicates the not very agreeable information, that the 34th will be required to build the new works. Colonel Wells chafes at this, and says that if we continue our work as we have begun, we shall be converted into a regiment of Engineers.[10]

The fort was named in honor of Colonel George L. Willard, who was killed at the Battle of Gettysburg, on July 2, 1863. The fort was a small, unflanked enclosure with a bombproof and a magazine. The fort had emplacements for fifteen guns, and its armaments consisted of two 24-pound siege guns, two 12-pound howitzers, four 4.5-inch ordnance rifles, four 6-pound guns, two 10-inch siege mortars and two 24-pounder Coehorn mortars.[11]

It originally contained three barracks, a guardhouse, officers quarters, a cook house and ordnance sergeants' quarters. Two detached batteries supported the fort. These features have all been displaced by construction of the community around the fort in the 1930s.[11]

Some of the regiments garrisoned at Fort Willard included:
34th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery
10th New York Heavy Artillery Regiment
1st U.S. Artillery, Battery G
1st U.S. Artillery, Battery E
1st Wisconsin Heavy Artillery Regiment[11]

Fort Willard Historic Site
Fort Willard Historic Site is located at 6625 Fort Willard Circle, Alexandria, Virginia 22307-1168. This park contains significant remains of a fort built by the Union Army. The principal features remaining on site consist of earthen fortifications, cannon embrasures or platforms and the remains of a bombproof (bomb shelter) and magazine (arms and gunpowder storage) area. It is owned and maintained by the Fairfax County Park Authority which has designated it as a Resource-based Park.[12] On October 15, 2011, there was a ribbon cutting for a restoration and interpretive program.[13]


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Here follows a biography of John Barnard as published by the National Park Service:

John Gross Barnard was born in Sheffield, Massachusetts, on May 19, 1815. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1833. He was second in a class of forty-three members. As one of the top graduating cadets of his class, he was posted as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers, embarking on a 48-year career in that branch.

Throughout his career he served on many garrison and fortification details, most notably participating in the construction for defenses in New York City, New Orleans, and Pensacola. During the Mexican War, he led the construction of United States Defenses at Tampico.

With the outbreak of the Civil War, General Barnard served as Chief Engineer to General Mcdowell in the Firt Bull Run Campaign. Next, with the rank of Brigadier-General, he acted as the Chief Engineer to the Army of the Potomac in the Virginia peninsular, serving Major General George B. McCellan. When the confederate army advanced into Virginia, he was appointed Chief Engineer of the Civil War Defenses of Washington, and was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel of Engineers in March 1863.

In Barnard's A Report on the Defenses of Washington, published after the Civil War, he commented on the complexity and everchanging nature of the project:

"From a few isolated works covering bridges or commanding a few especially important points, was developed a connected system of fortification by which every prominent point, at intervals of 800 to 1,000 yards, was occupied by an inclosed field-fort every important approach or depression of ground, unseen from the forts, swept by a battery for field-guns, and the whole connected by rifle-trenches which were in fact lines of infantry parapet, furnishing emplacement for two ranks of men and affording covered communication along the line, while roads were opened wherever necessary, so that troops and artillery could be moved rapidly from one point of the immense periphery to another, or under cover, from point to point along the line."
In 1864, he was appointed Chief Engineer, and was on the staff of General Grant in the Richmond campaign. He was made Major General at the end of the Civil War for "gallant and meritorious services in the field," and was promoted to Chief Engineer of the Corps of Engineers December 28, 1865. Although he was promoted to full rank Colonel of Engineers, upon General Totten's death, he asked that the nomination be withdrawn. He served out his career as Chief Regular Army Engineer until his retirement in 1881.

Brevat Major General Barnard died in Detroit, Michigan on May 14, 1882.


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Here follows information about John Barnard from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

John Gross Barnard (May 19, 1815 – May 14, 1882) was a career engineer officer in the U.S. Army, serving in the Mexican–American War, as the superintendent of the United States Military Academy and as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.[1] He served as Chief Engineer of the Army of the Potomac, 1861 to 1862, Chief Engineer of the Department of Washington from 1861 to 1864, and as Chief Engineer of the armies in the field from 1864 to 1865.[2] He also was a distinguished scientist, engineer, mathematician, historian and author.

Early life and career
John G. Barnard was born into a large and gifted family in Sheffield, Massachusetts.[4] His brother, Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard was a longtime educator and president of Columbia University and namesake of Barnard College in New York City.[5] Both John and Frederick, as well as most members of their family, suffered from a hereditary form of deafness which intensified in later years.[6] In early life, when stationed in New Orleans, Barnard married Jane Elizabeth Brand, of Maryland, with whom he had four children. In 1860, he married Anna E. Hall of Harford County, Maryland, with whom he had three children.[7]

In 1833, at the age of 18, Barnard graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, second in a class of forty-three cadets.[8] As one of the top graduates of his class, he was posted as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army Corps of Engineers, embarking on a 48-year career in that branch.[9]

Barnard's first assignment after being commissioned was as an assistant to Colonel Joseph G. Totten in constructing Fort Adams in Newport, Rhode Island, from 1833 to 1834. Totten was the foremost American military engineer of his day and served as Chief Engineer of the Army for much of Barnard's career. There the two formed a close friendship as evidenced by Barnard's extensive eulogy of Totten which was published in 1866.

Throughout his career, Barnard served on many garrison and fortification details, most notably participating in the construction of coastal defenses at Fort Columbus/Fort Jay, Fort Hamilton and Fort Wadsworth in New York City, New Orleans, Pensacola, Mobile, Fort Livingston, Louisiana, Fort Jackson, Louisiana, Fort St. Philip, Louisiana and on the Pacific Coast at San Francisco.[10][11] During the Mexican–American War, he headed the construction of American defenses at the captured Mexican port of Tampico,[12] ensuring that city's safety as a vital supply line for American forces advancing on Mexico City. He also worked on the survey of Mexican–American War battlefields.[12] and as chief engineer for the Exploration and Survey of the projected Tehuantepec Railroad in Mexico, in 1850–1851.[10][13]

From May 31, 1855, through September 8, 1856, Barnard served as the Superintendent of the United States Military Academy,[14] succeeding Robert E. Lee.[15] He then returned to work on coastal defenses, especially in the New York and New Jersey area.[10] During a leave of absence, he studied construction projects in Europe.[10]

Civil War
Soon after the outbreak of the Civil War, U.S. Army commander Major General and Brevet Lieutenant General Winfield Scott, bearing in mind Barnard's success at defending his Tampico-based supply lines during the Mexican–American War, assigned then Major Barnard to the Department of Washington. This was the Union Army unit in charge of defending Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. On April 28, 1861, Colonel Joseph K. Mansfield, the department commander, a former engineer himself, attached Barnard to his headquarters as chief engineer.[16]

When the Union Army moved into Northern Virginia on May 24, 1861, Barnard oversaw the erection of fortifications on the Arlington hills.[17] He also accompanied the Army to Manassas in July 1861 and was present at the Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas).[17] Between June 1861 and September 1861, Barnard also served on the U.S. Navy's Blockade Strategy Board.[14] Major General George B. McClellan assumed command of the Military Division of the Potomac, the troops around Washington, D.C., on July 23, 1861.[18] On August 15, 1861, McClellan was appointed to the command of the Army and Department of the Potomac,[18] and Barnard became chief engineer of the Military District of Washington.[17][19] As McClellan formulated his thoughts for fortifications around Washington, D.C., Barnard planned, designed and oversaw their construction.[17]

In Barnard's A Report on the Defenses of Washington, published after the Civil War, he commented on the complexity and ever-changing nature of the project:

From a few isolated works covering bridges or commanding a few especially important points, was developed a connected system of fortification by which every prominent point, at intervals of 800 to 1,000 yards, was occupied by an inclosed field-fort every important approach or depression of ground, unseen from the forts, swept by a battery for field-guns, and the whole connected by rifle-trenches which were in fact lines of infantry parapet, furnishing emplacement for two ranks of men and affording covered communication along the line, while roads were opened wherever necessary, so that troops and artillery could be moved rapidly from one point of the immense periphery to another, or under cover, from point to point along the line.[20]

On September 23, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Barnard to the grade of brigadier general, U.S. Volunteers, to rank from September 23, 1861.[21] Lincoln formally nominated Barnard as brigadier general on December 21, 1861, and the U.S. Senate confirmed the promotion on March 24, 1862.[21] Barnard was engineer for the Army of the Potomac between August 20, 1861, and August 16, 1862. He participated in the Peninsula Campaign and directed the siege works at Yorktown, Virginia and later the offensive and defensive works on the Chickahominy River. On the march to Harrison's Landing on the James River, he reconnoitered and selected positions for the Battle of Gaines Mill, the passage of White Oak Swamp and the Battle of Malvern Hill. After the conclusion of his work in that campaign, he again was engaged in working on the defenses of Washington as chief engineer of the Department of Washington until May 1864. He had certain additional special assignments such as devising the defenses of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during this period.[22]

Upon the death of the Chief of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Brigadier General Joseph Totten, on April 22, 1864, President Lincoln nominated Barnard to be the next Chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the grade of brigadier general, U.S. Army, but Barnard immediately asked that the nomination be withdrawn.[23]

Barnard was Engineer XXII Corps, Department of Washington, between February 2, 1863, and May 25, 1864.[14] Between May 25, 1864, and June 5, 1864, he was chief engineer for the Army of the Potomac.[14] He was on the staff of General Ulysses S. Grant in the Overland Campaign between June 5, 1864, and July 4, 1864.[14] On July 4, 1864, President Lincoln nominated and the U. S. Senate confirmed the award to General Barnard of the honorary rank of brevet major general, U.S. Volunteers, to rank from July 4, 1864, for "Meritorious and Distinguished Services during the Rebellion."[24]

Barnard was appointed chief engineer of the armies in the field with his appointment to General Grant's staff.[12] He remained in this position during the Siege of Petersburg, including the capture of Fort Harrison, the Battle of Hatcher's Run and the final assault on Petersburg, until the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox, Virginia, on April 9, 1865.[12]

General Barnard served in the honor guard for President Lincoln's funeral in April 1865.[14] He was mustered out of the U.S. Volunteers on January 15, 1866.[14]

On April 10, 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated and on May 4, 1866, the U.S. Senate confirmed the award to Barnard of the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general, USA, (Regular Army) to rank from March 13, 1865, for "Gallant and Meritorious Service in the Campaign terminating with the Surrender of the Insurgent Army under Gen. R. E. Lee."[25] On July 17, 1866, President Johnson nominated and on July 23, 1866, the U.S. Senate confirmed the award to Barnard of the honorary grade of brevet major general, USA, to rank from March 13, 1865 "for Gallant and Meritorious Services in the Field during the Rebellion."[26]

Postbellum career
Barnard was promoted to colonel in the Regular Army on December 28, 1865, and continued his career in the Army Corps of Engineers until January 1881.[27]

Soon after the close of the war, Barnard was made president of the permanent Board of Engineers for Fortifications and River and Harbor Improvements, a position which he held until his retirement from active service, in January, 1881.[28] Barnard successfully recast the approach to coastal defenses which was required because of the obsolescence of wooden ships and muzzle loading guns.[12] He also advocated the successful use of parallel jetties to improve the mouth of the Mississippi River.[29] He was a prominent member of the United States Lighthouse Board from February 20, 1870, until his retirement on January 2, 1881.[30]

The production of scientific literature in the USA was fostered by Barnard:[31] It was largely through the influence of General Barnard that David Van Nostrand was brought into close association with a group of young army officers who became his friends and later his authors and editorial consultants. Numbered among them were William T. Sherman, H. W. Halleck, Silas Casey, Philip St. George Cooke, Quincy Gillmore, Hugh L. Scott, George W. Cullum, Philip Sheridan and many others known to history.

Barnard was an original member of the Aztec Club of 1847 as well as the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.

Barnard was a co-founder of the United States National Academy of Sciences, as were several other senior officers of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.[32]

General Barnard retired from the Army on January 2, 1881[14] and died in Detroit, Michigan, on May 14, 1882. He is interred in Sheffield, Massachusetts.[33]

Writings
Barnard authored several scientific and engineering treatises and Civil War history papers.[33] Among the more notable of these were:

Phenomena of the Gyroscope analytically examined. 1858.
Dangers and Defences of New York City. 1859.
Notes on Seacoast Defence. 1861.
The C. S. A. and the Battle of Bull Run. 1862.
Reports of the Engineer and Artillery Operations of the Army of the Potomac from its Organization to the Close of the Peninsular Campaign. (Jointly with General Barry.) 1863.
Eulogy on the late Major-General Joseph G. Totten, late Chief Engineer, IT. S. A. 1866.
Report on the Defences of Washington. (P. P. Corps of Engrs., No. 20.) 1871.
Fabrication of Iron for Defensive Purposes. (Jointly with General Wright and Colonel Michie.) (P. P. Corps of Engrs., No. 21, and supplement.) 1871.
Report on the North Sea Canal of Holland. (P. P. Corps of Engrs., No. 22.) 1872.
Problems of Rotary Motion presented by the Gyroscope, the Precession of the Equinoxes, and the Pendulum. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. XIX, 56 pages, 1872.
On the Internal Structure of the Earth considered as Affecting the Phenomena of Precession and Nutation, being the Third of the Problems of Rotary Motion. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. XXIII, 19 pages, 1877.
Over 90 articles in Johnson's Cyclopaedia on scientific subjects. 1874–1877.