Guarding the Potomac (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this trailside historical marker:

Guarding the Potomac
Battery Rodgers 1863-1865

The area around Jones Point, which lies just south of the nation’s capital, was an obvious location for early defensive fortifications. During the Civil War (1861-1865), Battery Rodgers was built overlooking the cove to guard the river approach to Washington. The battery also commanded the southern approaches to Alexandria by covering the Accotink Road (modern Fort Hunt Road). Though no visible remains of Battery Rodgers exist today, the complex once included the fortification, barracks, hospital and a slaughterhouse built especially to feed troops in Alexandria.

(side panel)
(Battery Rodgers) was arranged to throw its principal fire at any vessel attempting to pass up the river at a range of 600 yards... —General J.G. Barnard

(captions)
(background) Battery Rodgers was powerfully equipped with five 200-pound Parrott rifles and one 15-inch Rodman gun, but no shots—or men—were ever fired on enemy ships by its guns.

This view of the battery shows the 15-inch Rodman gun and the powder magazines overlooking Battery Cove. In 1911, the cove was filled in by the Army Corps of Engineers, creating 46.5 acres of new land, including the spot on which you’re standing. The battery is thought to have been just up the hill to the right.

(top right) Visitors posing with—and in—the Rodman gun, circa 1863-1865 Image courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration

Erected 2012 by National Park Service.

The marker in place on the wooded Mount Vernon hiker/biker trail (actually an eastward extension of Jefferson Street).