The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-12-08
FORT STEVENS FIGHT--PRESI
 DENT LINCOLN'S FIGHT.
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 re chronic citizen of Washington is proae 10 point kind ot modified prGe 10 Fort Stevens. and inc iiet that there his city had a battle fought actu- ally within its borders; but he don't atroga,e to himself any great credit for his own share in the performance.
 No" says an amiable resident in speaking of the affair. l wasn't at the battle of Fort Stevens. was too blamed busy trying to ge, my family safe away 10 the nortb.'
 Fcu Stevens, at Brigthwood. five miles out he Seventh street road, at first named Fort Massachusetts, was origin ally a very insignificant work hastily thrown up; but, occupying one Of the most important positions along the line i, was at an early day greatly enlarged, strengthened and supplied with an auxi- liay battery. It was mounted with seventeen heavy guns, mostly seige piece. with two mortars, and commanded wide sweep of the horizon to the west, northwest and southwest.
 Al present all of the parapet next to the seventh road has been leveled and Emory chapel, erected On the spot where ;he great guns used to stand. The site is owned by Mrs. Betty Thomas. a colored woman who lives in house erected be- fore the war. upon the left flank. lm- meciaiely back of the fort is the pretty little village of Brightwood. where pre- WOES 10 the war only three or four houses existed. One of these. the old hotel kept a, the time of the battle by Jacob poss and occupied by General Couch as his headquarters. vas burned down on the -th oi December last, and i,s place has oeer taken by a modern style structure which is popular resor, of sporting mer but the story is told tha, when General Couce rode up and q amounted old foss ran out shouting:
 Mine Gott. shinerai mine Gou :. don't figh; in my front yard. shust show you pehint mine barn de incest leddle calf lo, were you light shGst so nice as anytings an no; scare de vooraans."
 The general assured him that there should be no row in his iron, yard. and the old man kep, on selling whisky all through the action as though there was a circus n town.
 The original store of the place IS still kep: Oy squire, postmaster, school direc- tor ard auc,ioneer. Alfred C.. OsboTn, one of the citizen veterans Of the memor- able -gh,, on whose porch were laid the first two union men wounded. The vil lage which has sprung up in the last twenty years is called Brigh,wood and has abou, one hundred and fifty inhabitants
 In the early part of June, r8o+, General Early came down the Shenandoah valley on his annual raid into Maylind, al the head of abou, twelve thousand men. He was delayed in crossing the Potomac, bu, on the oh of July he was confronted at Frederick City. Md. by General Lew Wallace. with about two thousand five hundred one-hundred days men. and General Recke,t's division Of the Sixth corps, numbering three thou defeated and Early pushed on nearly to Rockville, sixteen miles from Washing ton. where he encamped.
 By this time the confederate com mander's intentions were only too ap- parent. His object was a dash on the National Capital and wild consterna,ion seixed alike upon officials and civilians m the threatened city, and upon all union residents along the bold invaders line of march, the former being scarcely more dismayed at the danger of his approach than they were assonished al the harm lessness of his passage. Their wild-eyed terror merely changed to blank as,onish- mens.
 Washington, beside her oordoa of de fences. fully around and in perfect order had within her lines 70, 100 effective men, of vhem 9 too. mostly raw troops, con- ssitu.ed the garrison of the defences. As soon as the city was threatened General HaIeck had called upon General Grant to send succor, and on the night of July the oth two divisions of the Sixth corps Jeff the lines in front of Petersburg. and embarking on transports, reached Wash ington at two o'clock p. m. on the nth. The men were a, once disembarked. and marched out Seventh street to Fort Stevens greeted on the way by the joyous enthusi- asn of thousands of people, who felt in their presence relieved from a ponderous weight of apprehension.
 Maior-General H. C.. Wright who com-