Battle of Fort Stevens

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Officers and men of Company F, 3rd Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, in Fort Stevens

Date	July 11–12, 1864
Location	District of Columbia
Result	Union victory

Combatants

United States of America

Confederate States of America

Commanders

Horatio G. Wright
Alexander McD. McCook

Jubal A. Early

Casualties

874 total (US and CS)

Early's Raid and Operations Against the B&O Railroad
Monocacy Junction – Fort Stevens – Cool Spring – Rutherford's Farm – Kernstown II – Folck's Mill – Moorefield

The Battle of Fort Stevens was an American Civil War battle fought in what is now Northwest Washington, D.C. as part of the Valley Campaigns of 1864, Confederate General Jubal A. Early's attempt to seize the city of Washington and distract Ulysses S. Grant's campaign against Robert E. Lee in Virginia. Early's arrival in the outskirts of Washington was delayed by Lew Wallace and his troops at the Battle of Monocacy Junction, which allowed Union reinforcements from Grant to come to Washington's defenses. Early retreated after a one-day effort to take the city.

President Abraham Lincoln rode out to observe the attack, and was briefly under enemy fire before he was brusquely ordered to take cover by an officer who did not recognize him (apocryphally, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.). Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge, former U.S. vice president and one of Lincoln's opponents in the presidential election of 1860, was one of the Confederate commanders; the Battle of Fort Stevens marks the only occasion in American history when two former opponents in a presidential election faced one another across battlelines. Early remarked to one of his officers after the battle, "Major, we didn't take Washington but we scared Abe Lincoln like hell."

Fort Stevens is now maintained by the National Park Service. The fort is located near 13th St NW between Rittenhouse and Quackenbos Streets NW. The battlefield cemetery is located nearby, at 6625 Georgia Avenue NW.