"Father of the Defenses of Washington"....

The 1988 version of a book "Mr. Lincoln's Forts" by Benjamin Franklin Cooling III & Walton H. Owen II has offered a wealth of information about the fortifications of Washington DC during the Civil War. One interesting item is that they honored Brigadier General John G. Barnard with the title of the "Father of the Defenses of Washington"

(Photo Courtesy of National Archives)


Surrounded by an interconnected complex of sixty-eight forts and 93 unarmed batteries, Washington, DC was the most fortified cities in the world. One doesn't realize until you explore such a well researched and presented tome, the engineering and protections that were in place during the "WAR BETWEEN THE STATES". Though the progress of events have "invaded" and left little remnants of these works, this shows the thoroughness of the protection that was put in place to guard against invasion.

In BG Barnard's A Report on the Defenses of Washington, published after the Civil War, he commented on the complexity and everchanging nature of the project: In Barnard's A Report on the Defenses of Washington, published after the Civil War, he commented on the complexity and everchanging nature of the project:

"From a few isolated works covering bridges or commanding a few especially important points, was developed a connected system of fortification by which every prominent point, at intervals of 800 to 1,000 yards, was occupied by an inclosed field-fort every important approach or depression of ground, unseen from the forts, swept by a battery for field-guns, and the whole connected by rifle-trenches which were in fact lines of infantry parapet, furnishing emplacement for two ranks of men and affording covered communication along the line, while roads were opened wherever necessary, so that troops and artillery could be moved rapidly from one point of the immense periphery to another, or under cover, from point to point along the line."