Battle of Fort Stevens The Battle of Fort Stevens was an American Civil War battle fought July 11 – 12 , 1864 , in Northwest Washington , D . C . , as part of the Valley Campaigns of 1864 between forces under Confederate Lt . Gen . Jubal A . Early and Union Maj . Gen . Alexander McD . McCook . Although Early caused consternation in the Union government , reinforcements under Maj . Gen . Horatio G . Wright and the strong defenses of Fort Stevens minimized the military threat and Early withdrew after two days of skirmishing without attempting any serious assaults . The battle is noted for the personal presence of President Abraham Lincoln observing the fighting . Background . In June 1864 , Gen . Jubal Early was dispatched by Gen . Robert E . Lee with the Second Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia from the Confederate lines around Richmond with orders to clear the Shenandoah Valley of Federals and then if practical , invade Maryland , disrupt the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and if possible threaten Washington , D . C . The hope was that a movement into Maryland would force Union Lt . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant to send troops to defend Washington against the threat , thus reducing his strength to take the Confederate capital . After driving off the Army of West Virginia under Maj . Gen . David Hunter after the Battle of Lynchburg on June 18 , the Second Corps marched northward through the valley , entering Maryland on July 5 near Sharpsburg . They then turned east towards Frederick where they arrived on July 7 . Two days later , as the Second Corps prepared to march on Washington , Maj . Gen . Lew Wallace leading a small Union force composed mostly of garrison troops , bolstered by the eleventh - hour addition of two brigades of the VI Corps sent from Richmond under Maj . Gen . James B . Ricketts , attempted to resist the Confederate advance at the Battle of Monocacy . The battle lasted from about 6 a . m . until around 4 p . m . , but ultimately Early ' s corps drove off the small Union force , which was the only substantial Union army between it and the capital . After the battle Early resumed his march on Washington , arriving at its northeast border near Silver Spring at around noontime on July 11 . Because of the battle and then the long march through stifling summer heat , and unsure of the strength of the Federal position in front of him , Early decided to not send his army against the fortifications around Washington until the next day . Early ' s invasion of Maryland had the desired effect on Grant , who dispatched the rest of the VI Corps and XIX Corps under Maj . Gen . Horatio G . Wright to Washington on July 9 . The steamers carrying the Union force started to arrive in southeast Washington around noon on the July 11 , at about the same time that Early himself had reached the outskirts of Fort Stevens with the lead elements of his troops . Union command structure . The arrival of the VI Corps brought desperately needed veteran reinforcements . It also added another high - ranking officer into a jumbled Federal command . The Washington defenses played host to a number of generals ejected from major theaters of the war or incapacitated for field command due to wounds or disease . Maj . Gen . Alexander M . McCook was one of the former , having not held a command since being relieved of command after the Battle of Chickamauga . McCook was , however , placed in command of the Defenses of the Potomac River & Washington , superseding Christopher Columbus Augur , who commanded the Department of Washington . Augur also commanded the XXII Corps , whose troops manned the capital ' s defensive works . Maj . Gen . Henry W . Halleck called upon Maj . Gen . Quincy A . Gillmore in New York City to take command of a detachment from the XIX Corps . The U . S . Army ' s Quartermaster General , Brig . Gen . Montgomery C . Meigs , took command of an " Emergency Division " , composed of federal employees who were armed during the raid , directly under the command of McCook . Even President Abraham Lincoln personally arrived at the battlefield . McCook tried to sort out the problem of too many high - ranking generals in the face of Early ' s advance . He was unable to rid himself of the generals , and their attempts to gain leverage over one another , but a somewhat workable command structure was established . With McCook in overall command , Gillmore commanded the northeast line of fortresses ( Fort Lincoln to Fort Totten ) , Meigs commanded the northern line of forts ( Fort Totten to Fort DeRussy — including Fort Stevens ) and Augur ' s First Division commander , Martin D . Hardin , commanded the northwest line of forts ( Fort DeRussy to Fort Sumner ) . Wright and the VI Corps were initially to be held in reserve but McCook immediately decided against this , stating that he felt veteran troops needed to take the front lines against Early ' s troops . As it was , Hardin ' s troops engaged in some light skirmishing , but as McCook intended , it was to be Wright ' s veterans who bore the brunt of the fighting . Battle . At about the time Wright ' s command was arriving in Washington , Early ' s corps began to arrive at the breastworks of Fort Stevens , yet Early delayed the attack because he was still unsure of the federal strength defending the fort , much of his army was still in transit to the front , and the troops he had were exhausted due to the excessive heat and the fact that they had been on the march since June 13 . Additionally , many of the Confederate troops had looted the home of Montgomery Blair , the son of the founder of Silver Spring , Maryland . They found barrels of whiskey in the basement of the mansion , called Blair Mansion , and many troops were too drunk to get a good start in the morning . This allowed for further fortification by Union troops . Around 3 p . m . , with the bulk of their force present , the Confederates commenced skirmishing , probing the defense maintained by Brig . Gen . Martin D . Hardin ' s division of the XXII Corps with a line of skirmishers backed by artillery . Near the start of the Confederate attack the lead elements of the VI and XIX Corps arrived at the fort , reinforcing it with battle - hardened troops . The battle picked up around 5 p . m . when Confederate cavalry pushed through the advance Union picket line . A Union counterattack drove back the Confederate cavalry and the two opposing lines confronted each other throughout the evening with periods of intense skirmishing . The Union front was aided by artillery from the fort , which shelled Confederate positions , destroying many houses that Confederate sharpshooters used for protection . President Lincoln , his wife Mary , and some officers rode out to observe the attack , either on July 11 or July 12 , and were briefly under enemy fire that wounded a Union surgeon standing next to Lincoln on the Fort Stevens parapet . Lincoln was brusquely ordered to take cover by an officer , possibly Horatio Wright , although other probably apocryphal stories claim that it was Oliver Wendell Holmes , Jr . , Private John A . Bedient of the 150th Ohio Infantry , the fort commander , other privates of the Ohio National Guard , and Elizabeth Thomas . Additional Union reinforcements from the VI and XIX Corps arrived overnight and were placed in reserve behind the line . The skirmishing continued into July 12 , when Early finally decided that Washington could not be taken without heavy losses which would be too severe to warrant the attempt . Union artillery from Fort Stevens attempted to clear out Confederate sharpshooters hidden in the buildings and fields in front of the fort ; when the artillery fire failed to drive them off , the IV Corps brigade of Daniel Bidwell , supported by Oliver Edwards ' brigade and two Veteran Reserve Corps regiments , attacked at about 5 p . m . The attack was successful , but at the cost of over 300 men . Aftermath . Early ' s force withdrew that evening , headed back into Montgomery County , Maryland , and crossed the Potomac River on July 13 at White ' s Ferry into Leesburg , Virginia . The Confederates successfully brought the supplies they seized during the previous weeks with them into Virginia . Early remarked to one of his officers after the battle , " Major , we didn ' t take Washington but we scared Abe Lincoln like hell . " Wright organized a pursuit force and set out after them during the afternoon of the 13th . Battlefield . Fort Stevens is now maintained by the National Park Service under the administration of Rock Creek Park . The fort is located near 13th Street NW between Rittenhouse and Quackenbos Streets NW and is the only part of the battlefield currently preserved ; the remainder was developed following 1925 . The Battleground National Cemetery was established two weeks after the battle and is located nearby , at 6625 Georgia Avenue NW , containing the graves of forty Union soldiers killed in the battle ; seventeen Confederate soldiers are buried on the grounds of Grace Episcopal Church , slightly north of current downtown Silver Spring , Maryland at the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Grace Church Road .