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During the Civil War, Washington was surrounded by a chain of forts, most of which consisted of earthworks hastily thrown up. Many of these forts were merely improved hills; others were more completely developed, with batteries, magazines, and series of breastworks. Among the more important of these forts were those which defended Washington from the northern attack of General Jubal Early.
On July 11 and 12, 1864, Early attacked Washington, hoping to divert Grant's attention from Richmond. He had an easy march through Maryland; some towns had ransomed themselves' others were pro-Confederate and had helped him in his march. At Monacacy Bridge, just outside of Frederick, he had won a skirmish with Union troops and, on the morning of July 11, he reached Washington. He intended to enter the city by way of Seventh Street Pike. The northern defenses were poorly manned. Fort Reno, Fort De Russey, and Fort Stevens together could not have made one fort. Fort Stevens was to bear the brunt of the attack. This fort on the land of Elizabeth Thomas, the famous Aunt Betty Thomas. The fort was hastily enlarged. Two magazines were constructed, one where Emory Chapel now stands and the other in the basement of Aunt Betty's house, which had then been torn down. A bomb-proof, about 130
feet in length, extended parallel to the stockade and about 75 feet from it. Aunt Betty says, according to Cox,
The soldiers camped here at this time were mostly German. I could not understand them, not even the officers, but when they began taking out my furniture and tearing down our house, I understood. In the evening I was sitting under that sycamore tree---my only house---with what furniture I had left around me. I was crying as was my six-month's old child, which I had in my arms when a tall, slender man, dressed in black, came up and said to me: "It is hard, but you shall reap a great reward. It was President Lincoln, and had he lived I know the claim for my losses would have been paid." (Defenses of Washington, p. 4.)
Aunt Betty is again quoted:
"I have been living here where this fort is since I was three years old, and I am now sixty-nine," she said. "Do I remember the battle? Why sir, I will never forget it. Those were awful days. Just before the fight when we heard that Gen. Early was at Rockville some white folks told me they had read in the newspapers that Gen. Stonewall Jackson had declared he would eat his dinner in the White House or he would eat it in the bad place. Then I knew there was going to be trouble. The soldiers tore my house down and I had to find shelter in a stable. I was crying with my six-months-old child in my arms when a tall man dressed in black came out from the city. He tried to comfort me and said, It is hard, but you shall reap a great reward.' That tall man was President Lincoln.
"Soon after that an officer came prancing along and said, All you people must get out of here; we are going to form a line of battle.' This was back of the fort. Then the artillery came with their fine guns and some sailors. The next thing we knew the rebel cannon balls came howling over our heads, and women and children were running in all directions. I went to my home in the stable, and that day the rebel bullets pattered against it like hail. I saw President Lincoln standing on the fort. A bullet hit a doctor (Surgeon Crawford, U.S.A.) who was standing beside him on the fort and he fell. Then a general made Mr. Lincoln get down behind the fort, but he was very tall and kept peeping over the top at the woods from which the rebels were firing. A lot of sick men (convalescents) from the hospitals marched out and took charge of the cannon on the fort, and the way they shot at Gen. Early's men was something awful. Presently the rebels stopped firing their guns and then the Union soldiers all yelled. The guns on the fort set fire to many houses in front of them. The Union ambulances were in the bottom back of the fort, and soon after the 6th Corps charged down the slope they commenced bringing in the wounded. The first man brought in was a Union Cavalryman. He was badly shot and they took him back to the ambulances." (Washington Star, 1903, July 11 (?))
Aunt Betty was well know in the Fort Stevens area for many years. Her parents had owned 80 acres in the vicinity of the fort. Only after her death in 1932 was her land sold for the Fort Stevens park. She was a familiar figure at
G.A.R. Encampments and at celebrations by Fort Stevens veterans. One incident in which certain soldiers held a conversation with her while others stole a ham from her pot, was explained to her years later when the culprit confessed to her at a reunion. She was well known also to the officers' wives. On Sundays Washington's officers wives came out to the forts in carriages, bringing their children with them. Aunt Betty cooked for those who came to Fort Stevens, and became very friendly with some of them."
