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Much of the Civil War was fought in the Washington, DC, area. Washington was surrounded by slaveholding states Virginia and Maryland, and Lee's Army of Northern Virginia camped for long periods only a few hours' march from the capital. Confederate cavalry roamed nearby, and spies and agents of all kinds prowled the streets and alleys. Within a few weeks after the fighting broke out Washington became and armed camp, with soldiers, camp followers, federal and state officials and hangers-on of all sorts crowding the area around the mall and Capitol Hill. For President Lincoln, Washington was both a refuge and a prison. He spent many long nights in the telegraph office, waiting for news from the battlefields, much of which was bad. He often visited the lines around the city, and once, during a Confederate raid, he got so close to the fighting that an officer (who did not recognize his commander-in-chief) shouted, “Get down, you damned fool!” Lincoln was in a sense born in Washington. He grew up from an Illinois lawyer and politician into America's greatest President. He lived the remainder of his life in Washington, and of course he died there. Updated October 24, 2003 |
