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Fort Ward (Historical Marker)

GPS Coordinates: 38.8290114, -77.1025355
Closest Address: 4301 West Braddock Road, Alexandria, VA 22304

Fort Ward (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this roadside historical marker:

Historical Site
Defenses of Washington
1861-1865
Fort Ward

Here stands Fort Ward, constructed in 1861 to protect the approaches to Alexandria by Little River Turnpike and Leesburg Turnpike. In 1864, the fort was enlarged to a perimeter of 818 yards with 36 gun emplacements. The fort has been preserved by the City of Alexandria.

Erected by Civil War Round Table of Alexandria.

More about this marker:
In the center of the marker is a map of the Washington Defenses, with a red dot indicating the location of Fort Ward.


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Fort Ward Particulars From Mr. Lincoln's Forts: A Guide to the Civil War Defenses of Washington, by Benjamin Franklin Cooling III and Walton H. Owen II:

Named for Commander James Harmon Ward, killed in action at Mathias Point, on the Potomac River, June 27, 1861 (the first Federal naval officer killed in the war). The fort was started in September 1861.

Originally the perimeter was 540 yards. Armament was five 32-pdr guns, six 24-pdr guns, and seven 10-pdr Parrott rifles. By December 1862, an additional battery of two 100-pdr Parrott Rifles was added. In January 1864, the fort was extended again, out to a perimeter of 818 yards. The armament was then listed as five 32-pdr guns, six 24-pdr guns, six 12-pdr guns, five 6-pdr guns, one 100-pdr Parrott, five 4.5in Ordnance rifles, one 10-pdr Parrott, seven 8-in siege mortars, and one 24-pdr Coehorn Mortar. Lastly, in February 1865, another upgrade of the armament was requested, adding six more 6-pdr guns, four 12-pdr howitzers, and six more 4.5in Ordnance rifles.

During the war, units garrisoning the fort included the 15th New York Engineers, 40th New York Infantry, 2nd New York Light Artillery, 3rd Battalion New York Artillery, 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery (Companies L, C, F, and M), 166th Ohio National Guard (Companies B and C), Battery F Independent Pennsylvania Artillery, 1st New Hampshire Heavy Artillery, 4th Massachusetts Heavy Artillery (Companies F and M), 6th Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery (Companies C and M), 1st West Virginia Light Artillery (Battery C), and 13th New Jersey Infantry.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Washington Post newspaper:

A Tale of Two Communities, and of How the Tale Gets Told
By Marc Fisher
Sunday, March 15, 2009

With its rolling lawns and secluded glens, Fort Ward looks like a lovely place to take a walk. Turns out, it's far more than a park in Alexandria -- it's one history sacrificed to make way for another, a Civil War military installation that has become a contemporary battleground over whose story gets told.

Officially, Fort Ward is, as the city of Alexandria puts it, "the best preserved of the system of Union forts and batteries built to protect Washington, D.C., during the American Civil War." That's fascinating enough: a Union fort in Confederate Virginia.

But Fort Ward is also Adrienne Washington's ancestral home. Her great-grandmother lies buried there, the headstone standing crooked and forlorn in the middle of a scruffy city maintenance yard along one edge of the park -- a painful symbol of a community of black families that was forced off the hillside in the early 1960s when the city bought the land to stop a housing development.

Fort Ward is also Tom Fulton's back yard, literally. Fulton, a retired Interior Department deputy assistant secretary who has delved into the history that lies behind his house, and his next-door neighbor, a National Park Service retiree named Glenn Eugster, are part of a group of residents trying to do what the city never did -- learn about those who lost out when Alexandria took these 44 acres across Braddock Road from Episcopal High School, reconstructed the old fort and made a park out of someone else's neighborhood.

Now the city of Alexandria is trying to figure out Fort Ward's future: Should the park be used more intensively -- already, it's a site for big corporate picnics -- or protected as a site for reflection? And which story should the park and its museum tell -- that of the Civil War fort, or the black community that called this home?

The debate has brought together two sets of residents who previously barely knew each other existed: The immediate neighbors, who want to curb the loud parties that have been held in the park since alcoholic drinks were allowed in its picnic groves, and the families who want to recover their relatives' buried stories of life "on the fort." The two groups have united in support of a park that tells a different history -- quietly.

"It's just a shame when you have to go through two locked gates to see one of the graves of your ancestors," then find them surrounded by trucks, tools and piles of mulch, says Washington, a columnist at the Washington Times who is researching the history of the Fort Ward settlement where her family lived through much of the 19th and 20th centuries.

For a long time, the city operated a trash transfer station right where Washington's great-grandmother, Clara Adams (1865-1952), was laid to rest. Her headstone -- and, historians say, the unmarked grave of her husband -- now sit smack in the center of the maintenance yard, an offense to history that the city could solve easily, Washington says.

Neighbors who want the park to tell the full story of Alexandria's past have been gearing up for a fight. "Our park services have always had a discomfort with the tension between African American history and Civil War history," Eugster says. "But what started for us as a literally not-in-my-backyard battle because the city had put dumpsters behind our houses led us to explore what really is one story of both the Civil War and the black community that was here afterwards."

During the Civil War, you could stand atop Fort Ward and see Confederate soldiers at Baileys Crossroads three miles away, and those black flecks in your spyglass certainly looked like cannon (though you'd later learn that they were really tree trunks painted black to fool Union spies into thinking that the enemy was armed and dangerous).

After the war, freed slaves settled on abandoned land around the fort. Those workers who built and maintained the Virginia Theological Seminary (of Seminary Road fame) are the people whose graves are now believed to be scattered throughout Fort Ward Park. Just last week, says Lance Mallamo, director of the Office of Historic Alexandria, city historians used old maps to discover an area where still-visible depressions in the ground indicate some of the old residents are buried.

Thanks to pressure from people such as Eugster, Fulton and Washington, the city says it is looking at Fort Ward much as the neighbors do. After a community meeting Wednesday, the city will move to stop the issuing of alcohol permits, reduce the size of picnic groups and number of picnic areas, and look for ways to tell the black community's history, says Kirk Kincannon, Alexandria's recreation and parks director.

The broken headstones are a reminder that the city rebuilt Fort Ward when "there was probably not much thought about more contemporary history," Mallamo says. But since the '60s, "the history of ordinary people has become as important as the history of the heroic."

No one expects to find the money anytime soon to conduct the archaeological digs needed to flesh out Fort Ward's full story. But it should be possible to protect the graves and the row of cedar trees that once led to the long-gone houses, and to use the park's tours and museum to tell a history of the fort that you can still see and the community that you can't.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Clio Foundation website as written by Angelica Garcia, Julie Hoover, and Sasha Frizzell:

Introduction
Fort Ward, the best preserved fort from the system of Union forts and batteries, was built to protect Washington, D.C. during the American Civil War. It was the fifth largest fort built to defend the capitol. The Fort Ward Museum interprets the site's history and offers exhibits on Civil War topics, education and interpretive programs, tours, lecture and video series, bus tours, and living history activities throughout the year. The Museum and Historic Site also cover the topic of Alexandria, Virginia as an occupied city, the city's role as a vital Union Army crossroads, life within the Defenses of Washington, and the everyday life of Civil War soldiers and civilians.

Backstory and Context
Following the Battle of Bull Run, Major General George B. McClellan assumed command of the military district of Washington. Upon his arrival, he noted the inadequate condition of the city's defenses. Consequently, McClellan issued the order to expand the defensive capabilities of the city via the construction of forts and entrenchments.

Fort Ward, named for the first naval Union officer to die in the Civil War (James Harmon Ward), originally had a perimeter of 540 yards. It also included platforms for 24 guns and, later, a 100 lb Parrott gun. Owing to the vulnerability of the fort, the result of such large artillery, the perimeter was expanded to 818 yards and more guns added. General John Newton supervised the construction, and liberated slaves, "contrabands," helped build the defenses. The fort never saw any attacks and was dismantled in 1865.

Fort Ward provides visitors and tourists with an understanding of Civil War era military engineering. Approximately 90-95% of the fort's original walls are preserved, although erosion continues to affect the site. The Northwest Bastion has been restored return it to its 1864 condition.

Part of a 45 acre historic area, the Fort Ward Museum and Historic Site includes a museum, an Officer’s Hut, a Ceremonial Gate, and the reconstructed northwest bastion. The Museum displays information about the battles that took place in the area and the technology that was employed during those battles.

Fort Ward also preserves the history of individual soldiers and families from the area. Special exhibits include information on the quality of life for African Americans before and after Civil War. Many of the artifacts are from on archaeological evidence found on battle sites and plantations throughout the area. The Museum also offers living history reenactments that give a broader understanding of battle during the period. There are many special events and exhibitions held at Fort Ward, which help tell the story of Alexandria's Civil War involvement.

The museum houses both rotating and permanent exhibits. Its permanent exhibits include "The Common Solider," "The Art of the Artilleryman," and "Medical Care for the Civil War Soldier." Self-guided tours for the fort itself begin at reconstructed Fort Ward entrance gate, and details about the Bastion's guns are available from informative signage.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Atlas Obscura website:

Fort Ward Park
Alexandria, Virginia
Built to defend Washington D.C. during the Civil War, this fort became a post-war nucleus for a thriving Black community.

From the waterfront in downtown Alexandria, Virginia, a drive north on King Street roughly follows the route of the southwestern border of the original District of Columbia. About three and a half miles north, near a shopping center, you can find one of the best-preserved perimeter forts built to protect Washington, D.C., during the U.S. Civil War.

Fort Ward, along with scores of temporary forts encircling Washington during the Civil War, sprang up after several southern states seceded from the Union in April 1861. Virginia seceded in late May 1861, triggering an immediate, four-year occupation by Federal troops. Fort Ward was established in May 1861 in, what was then, the rural western reaches of Alexandria near the intersection of two strategic roads, Leesburg Pike and Braddock Road. As with most of the 140-plus defenses of Washington, Fort Ward never saw any combat and was used mostly as a garrison and staging area for Federal troops.

The fort’s military role ceased at the end of the Civil War, but over the next century it became a focal point for an evolving community of formerly enslaved people purchasing land around the old fortification and establishing a community known as “The Fort.” Through the first half of the 20th century, the Fort was a vibrant African American community with homesteads, houses of worship, cemeteries, and distinct culture. But that community faded in the 1950s, as the City of Alexandria bought out residents and condemned the land in advance of archeological study and preservation of the old Fort Ward grounds. Ironically, the end of the Fort led to its cultural interpretation, along with the military history of the Fort Ward site.

Fort Ward sits on 45 acres in western Alexandria and opened in 1964. There is an extensive interpretive center describing the perimeter defenses of Washington during the Civil War and typical garrison life in the fortifications. The restored entry gate, officer’s hut, and the northwest cannon bastion are accessible and complement the interpretive and archeological work done over the years. Picnic areas are available by reservation. Archeological and culturally sensitive areas are marked and restricted.

Today the Fort Ward site is nestled in a northern Virginia suburb, surrounded by shopping, schools, businesses, churches, and car dealerships. The urban landscape is a far cry from the rural farms and pastures of 1861, and its narrative tells the little-known story of a nation securing a suddenly hostile border, and the aftermath of an emerging multi-cultural community of the early 20th-century.

Know Before You Go
From the intersection of King and Union streets in Old Town Alexandria go north on King Street 3.1 miles where it intersects with Braddock Rd. Go left (west) on Braddock Rd. for approximately ¾ of a mile, and the entrance is on the right. Ft. Ward park is owned and managed by the City of Alexandria, and is accessible daily, 9:00 AM to sunset during the week and closed on Sundays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day.

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Nathaniel Lee

c/o Franconia Museum

6121 Franconia Road

Alexandria, VA 22310

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