The National tribune., 1894-03-01
OLD FORTIFICBTIONS.
Those That are Decaying Round About
Washington

va WI lenses around Washington re-
t1EEA Y called a saying of the great
ia Napnleon, both interesting and
AWTS- anpropriate which might have
been proftably needed 81 years
non and which should not be unheeded even
now, says a writer in the EUenihg Star. 1t was
while Napoleon was in retirement, with ample
time and leisure to mediate over the causes
which led to his meteoTic rise and iall, that
be proclaimed as a general military principle
the absolute necessity OF certifying NaIlohaI
Capitals. He even declared that 5000 artll-
lerymen and $4,000 National Guardsmen could
defend any duly fortified city against an at
lacking army of 100000 men, and went so far
as TO admit that had Vienna Berlin aud Madrid
been fortified the countries of which they are
the Capitals would have been preserved from
the fatal results of his campaign OF 1910 ana
Is0s; and that had Paris been properly forth
fed in 1914 his own Empire would have been
saved from overthrow.
While. of course, the theories or reflections
of Napoleon in exile are not calculated to stir
MP any excitement in these days of American
progress, the thought nevertheless suggests
itself that as war strategy changes but little IN
even a hundred years, glance at our own Ma
tional defenses might be interesting.
Asa matter of fact although we have no less
authority than that of Gen. Early for the state
ment that in 1864 Washington, duly garrisomed
and alert, was well nigh impregnable against
any attacking army, Washington to-day IS as
defenseless as in 1914. when the British walked
without hndrance into our midst 10 burn and
pillage public archives. or as in 1e6l, when our
streets after the disastrous battle oil Bull Run,
were filed by fleeing Federal soldiers, who, If
not followed within the city by the Conied-
crates was due to the fact that the Southern
army was as badly demoralized in victory as
the Union men had been in de eat.
There were hundred defenseless approaches
49,, Tor ,1Fatyr I'm
Capital. Indeed, there was not a ratification
or earthwork then, north, east, or west OF
Washington, and those that were subsequently
erected, have In the past % years been allowed
20 go to rack and ruin, apparently without any
thought of past necessity or future exlgency.
Nobody in particular, perhaps can well be held
responsible for this, inasmuch as the opinion
seems TO prevail that the policy of maintain
ing the field works of the last war is unneces-
sary in times of peace.
At this period but two Army garrisons are
maintained in the immediate vicinity of Wash
ington. both of them being nothing more than
Mere military barracks, one for the accOmmO-
dalton of four troops of cavalry at Fort Myer,
on the Virginia shore of the Potomac, and the
other for five batteries of artillery the
water front of the city. There are, however,
IS moldering mounds extending circuIarly 81
miles around Washington, each one OF which,
slough fast decaying, marks the spot where
some lOTG OF DhLISTy WAS IOCdIoo, anu dltO-
Retber belonging to that general system of ex-
terror defenses which was evolved from condi-
tions and practical experience that would seem
20 entite il to more serious consideration at ali
times.
The war of the rebellion, it is argued, was
one Of greater magnitude on land than this
Government is ever likely to engage in again.
We had powerful enemy of our own kind,
making for our National Capital, which, much 10
our EN- Embarrassment, was situated on the border
line of the strongest Southern State, whose
territory was to be the chief tbeater of the war.
Every inch of the ground in and about Wash
ington was as well known to Southern leaders
es 10 Northern defenders
The situation was of vital importance, de-
msnding the quickest conception and swiftest
execution of the most effective system of de-
Tense which any Capital in the world ever stood
ia need OF. Even in the very beginning OF the
war reserved forces on the Union side were
hastily smassed TO withstand threatened in
vasion of victorious Southern army, and III
May, 1861. small force of United States troops
crossed the Potomac and began the erection of
offensive works. These works were necessarily
weak, being designed at first TO protect the de-
boucbes to the Long Bridge and the Aqueduct,