If my name ever goes into history, it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it.
— A. Lincoln, 1863Civil War Transformation of the
City of Washington
In this section...
The Capitol dome under construction. "4 March 1861: Inauguration of Mr. Lincoln"
Credit: Benjamin B. French Collection, Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division [LC-USZC4-4583]
In a broader sense during this period, the city of Washington was transformed from a small, young city into a seasoned national capital and seat of the Union war effort.1 From his country retreat at the Soldiers' Home, President Lincoln and his family had the opportunity to experience first-hand the remarkable changes underway in the city and the surrounding countryside.
When the Civil War began in 1861, the city of Washington was barely 60 years old, and was still considered provincial compared to the major cities of the eastern United States. The population of Washington in 1860 was just 61,122, at a time when the New Orleans population was near 170,000, Philadelphia had over half a million residents, and New York City was home to 1,175,000 people.
Visitors to Washington commented on the city's unpaved streets that became rivers of mud with rainfall. The provincialism of the city also was evident in its unfinished public buildings and sparse residential development. Many of the neighborhoods in between the White House and Capitol were notorious for crimes and dirty conditions. It was during this period, when many residents and visitors could not imagine Washington ever becoming the elegant national capital its founders envisioned, that the city gained such derisive nicknames as "The City of Magnificent Distances."
The outbreak of the Civil War thrust this immature city into a new role. As the national capital, it was the center of activity for the United States government, where the President and his advisors regularly met to coordinate the Union's military efforts, foreign policy, and other wartime duties. Because it was close to the front lines during much of the war, the city served as an important hub of military activity, including training, medical treatment, and the provision of supplies to the Army.
These new uses transformed the city. Soldiers camped in tents on the outskirts of the city, and often in makeshift quarters in government buildings - including the U.S. Capitol. Military parades enlivened the city's wide boulevards. Injured soldiers began streaming into the city after the first major battles, quickly overflowing the city's limited medical facilities. Sprawling new hospitals were set up throughout the region to accommodate the thousands of wounded soldiers who came for treatment.
During the forenoon Washington gets all over motley with these defeated soldiers'?queer-looking objects, strange eyes and faces drenched (the steady rain drizzles on all day) and fearfully worn, hungry, haggard, blister'd in the feet ... They drop down anywhere, on the steps of houses, on some vacant lot, and deeply sleep.
— the poet Walt Whitman, describing the Union soldiers' return from the Battle of Bull Run.2
As central as its role was in Union military operations, the city of Washington was located perilously close to the edge of Union territory. From the Soldiers' Home, for example, one could see across the Potomac River into Confederate-held Virginia. This location meant that the threat of a Confederate invasion of Washington - and the capture of the seat of the Union government - was always very real to the residents of Washington.
To guard against a potential invasion, Army engineers constructed a defense system encircling the city. By the end of the war in 1865, these defenses included 68 enclosed forts and batteries, 93 unarmed batteries for field-guns, and 20 miles of rifle trenches. Military roads were built to connect the various defensive sites; some of these military roads remain in place today.3
1For a detailed account of the Civil War period in Washington, see Margaret Leech, Reveille in Washington (New York; Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., 1941).
2Walt Whitman, quoted in The City of Washington: An Illustrated History, 203.
3See Benjamin Franklin Cooling III and Walton H. Owen II, Mr. Lincoln's Forts: A Guide to the Civil War Defenses of Washington (Shippensburg, Pennsylvania: White Mane Publishing Company, 1988), for information about the history and present-day condition of sites associated with the ring of fortifications.