The Washington times., 1911-07-08
OLD FORT STEVENS
SCENE OF A NARROW
CAPEFORL|NCOLN
Rebel Bullet Came Perilous-
ly Near Ending the Pres
ident's Life.
CAPITAL MENACED
BY EARLY'S FORCES
Stirring Days of Year Recalled,
When Nations Executive Real
ly Figured in Battle.


the life of President Abraham Lincolr
who stood in a hail of bullets on tn
firing line of the only battle in which
Chief Executive of the Republic ha
ever participated.
The day was a Tuesday. and o.
Tuesday next the forty-seventh ami
versary of that periIous event will fall.
For the third time in history, Wash
ington was threatened by an invading
foe. Jubal Early and an army of sea
soned veterans was at the gates OF tn
Capital City, which lay impotent at hi
feet, practically undefended.
The gray-clad army was WITHIN nV'
miles of Pennsylvania avenue, movlna
southward when II was halted at For
Stevens in Brightwood. by a heroic
little band of defenders urged to val
orous deeds by the inspiring presence lr
the thick of the fight of Abraham Lin
coin, the President.
Stood on Front Parapet.
Where Lincoln stood, his tall form ex-
posed to the aim of the sharpshooter
was on one of the two remaining para
pets of the fort, and some day it is
proposed to erect on the spot a suitable
monument to commemorate the most
llOul VI q NCoRSA oNSAy SAAN
cal time in the nations history.
OF the sixty-eight forts and batteries
and rife trenches that spread in an i'm
mense periphery around Washington In
the north, the east, and the west, Fort
Stevens was the outermost Although
much of the earthworks has been
leveled in the march of home building
there We; stands. as defiantly as in the
stirring days Of "a, considerable sec
ton of the breastwork, and on the spot
where Lincoln courted death at the
hands of Early's sharpshooters, there
is now growing a lusty walnut tree, to
which a board inscribed with an an
nouncement of the incident is attached.
A Dramatic Scene.
Not at any time throughout the war
was ever a more dramatic scene. On
the rampant of Fort Stevens, the tall
form Of the sad-faced President. clad
in civilian black, a high hat on his
head, was silhouetted against the wall !
of a powder magazine. but few feet
behind him. AS he watched the ap-
proach of Early's gray-clad soldiers,
all Of them veterans of a dozen cam
paigns, across the fields and the ridges.
gazing stoward him, there stood on
an eminence in the rear of the Con-
federate advance John c. Breckenridge,
who had received the votes of the Sc
ceding States for President in the cleo
ton a short time before. From where
he stood Breckenridge could see the
white dome of the Capitol rejecting
the rays OF the sun. Also, If he could
see it, the picture of the White House
was in his mind, for he was waiting to
enter Washington with the army Of
Northern Virginia, and seize the Presi-
dency.
This day of deadly import to the
nation was one of glorious midsummer
sunshine. Earlys skirmish line, from
the old tollGate of the Seventh street
pike now called Georgia avenue, at
Piney Branch road, and extending
south, and around Fort Stevens on the
west, had advanced to within a few
yards of the earthworks. To the left
of Lincoln as he anxiously scanned that
lire of glittering gun barrels stood
Gen. HoratiO G. Wright, commander of
the fort, and cammander of the
ist and I'd divisions of the Sixth Corps,
that, like the Scots Highlanders at
Lucknow, had come at the desperate
moment to the relief of beleaguered
city.
"Sharpshooters' Tree"
To the right and left of the President,
a AO" yolNS op~ ~ NAAS SAAAOA
sures through which cannon growled
Of Lincoln stood Surgeon c. c. Y. Craw-
ford. afterwards a major.
Out of the landscape a majestic tree
reared its branches far above the
ground. "Sharpshooters' Tree" A tree
from amidst the foliage of which, a few
minutes later, there was fired a shot
that was sped straight for Lincoln and
that came perilously near at that mo-
ment anticipating the tragedy of a
blacker day.
Nearly Hit the President.
The President saw the flame of the
sharpshooter's rife, he heard the wasp
fish birr of the bullet as 1t sped past
him, fattened its leaden nose on a
cannon's barrel, DETECTED. and buried
itself in the ankle OF Surgeon Craw-
ford standing beside him. Crawford
fell, but he was not dangerously
wounded 1t was then that General
Wright, who had been en- entreating ;Ind Lin LIN
emy's bullets, ordered the President to
leave the parapet.
Mr. President" said General Wright,
II know you are Commander-in-Chtef of
am in command here, and you are not
safe where YOU are standing. As l
am responsible for your personal safe
ty, I order you to come down."
Lincoln looked at the generals de-
rermined face and smiled. He stepped
DOWN
A witness OF the scene at that peril
US moment, as related By Louis Cass
White, who owns and lives on the
ropsfty where the old tollgate for
lei stood, and who was also. as color
ergeant of the 102d Pennsylvania
egiment, engaged in the defense of
Jashington. says of it:
LAS he, Lincoln, or, as We boys all
llled him, Old Abe,' stood on the
lrapet, the boys were mostly looking
him to see what he was going to
-. He had on a black suit of clothes
ID a high beaver hat. When the bull
was tired Lincoln lodged, and his
fell of When Crawford fell the
y went all along the fort:
The surgeon has been shot!
When they were carrying the wound
. man to the rear, and, as they passed
nd, and said, so that Crawford heard
H..u:
You will not say that there was not
cue surgeon shotn
is common knowledge that Presi-
c IT Lincoln was the cause of much Of
&c al worry for his personal safety at
ti.le when he was most imperiled. In
tba tense days Immediately preceding
tha battle at Fort Stevens, Grant was
Er mly crowding Lee toward Richmond.
se determined TO follow the example
OF Napoleon. As did Napoleon. whed