150 Years Ago Today -- Abraham Lincoln Comes Under Fire

Lincoln's Stovepipe Hat made him a tempting target.

   President Abraham Lincoln was, and is, the only U.S. President to come under enemy fire during his term.
     150 years ago Saturday, there was a Confederate attack on Washington D.C. that struck fear into the hearts of the Union...and Lincoln rode out to see the fighting from Ft. Stevens.
This map shows the battle action.
     The Smithsonian tells the story of Lincoln's visit to the battlefield:

At Fort Stevens, one of the Union’s main fortifications, Lincoln walked up to the parapets, and looked out at the Confederate lines; a towering and conspicuous figure in his top hat. “Get down, you fool,” yelled an officer nearby, who obviously didn’t recognize the President. Lincoln was purportedly amused at the young captain’s advice and dutifully crouched down. Although modern historians doubt it, tradition holds that the young officer was Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., who would later go on to spend 30 years as a Supreme Court justice.

A largely reconstructed version still stands, but encroaching development in the Brightwood neighborhood of D.C. prompted the Civil War Preservation Trust to list it, in 2010, as one of the ten most endangered Civil War battlefields.

Look around the Fort on Google Earth and you'll see why.

Fort Stevens in 1864

     Almost 900 soldiers from both sides died in the fighting. 41 of them are buried in nearby Battleground Cemetery. 
     The Union Generals were worried enough about the attack that a gunboat stood ready to evacuate The President, should the fighting go against them.