Civil War Washington
Transcript
1) Introduction Hello, I am Ranger Layton, a Park Ranger with Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site. Today, you will join me on a tour of life in Civil War Washington. During this tour, I will talk about places that still exist and others that are lost to time. We will visit sites that tell a story of division, war, and freedom. It is a story of how people struggled to deal with difficult times and persevered through 4 years of a horrible war. Some of the individuals I will discuss are recognizable to us, such as President Abraham Lincoln, but others are lesser-known whose stories deserve recognition. Washington DC was a divided city, where many of its residents didn’t support President Lincoln. If you visited the city in 1861, you would have observed a small town, scattered with large public buildings. Charles Dickens remarked on the young capital when he visited in 1842, calling it “the City of Magnificent Intentions. … Spacious avenues, that begin in nothing, and lead nowhere.” By 1861, it still resembled the city that Dickens remembered, with only one paved road, Pennsylvania Avenue and a few public buildings, including the Capitol and the White House. The population had grown slightly to 65,000 people including southerners, northerners, immigrants, and enslaved and free African Americans. On the eve of the Civil War, the capital was truly divided, but over four years the city would see change and freedom. Now we will take a step back in time, it is February 11, 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln has just left his home of Springfield, Illinois. He arrived in Washington DC twelve days later. To learn about life in the capital city, we will start where Lincoln arrived in February of 1861 at the Willard Hotel. This tour will take you approximately x hours and has a total of 14 stops.
2) Willard Hotel at 1401 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC Facing north away from the mall stand on the World War one memorial block, looking left of the Willard Hotel, you will see the Occidental Hotel, the W Hotel, and the Treasury building. If you visit the Willard Hotel today, you will observe a twelve-story ornate hotel built in the Beaux Arts style in 1901. The current building is in stark contrast to the one here during the Civil War, which was a much smaller, more modest white painted wooden five-story building. Called the “center of Washington,” it lived up to its reputation and played an important role in Washington DC politics through the years. At the time of the Civil War, it became a focal point for the divisions facing the country. These divisions were felt around the city and nation. Days after the election of Abraham Lincoln in November of 1860, mob violence occurred throughout the city, perpetuated by street gangs including the nativist group the plug-uglies, who opposed immigration. The city also witnessed members of Congress fighting in saloons, in the streets, and at this hotel. Many people hid their political views out of fear that they would be assaulted. As the country began to fall apart, rumors spread that the capital would fall, or Lincoln would be assassinated. However, there remained hopes for peace, as members of Congress and other politicians met at the Willard Hotel on February 4, 1861. The conference consisted of representatives from fourteen states, led by former President John Tyler. While they were meeting, Abraham Lincoln was traveling by train from Springfield, Illinois to Washington DC. During his journey, famed railroad detective Alan Pinkerton, uncovered a plot to kill the incoming president as he passed through Baltimore. To protect Lincoln, Pinkerton snuck him through Baltimore in the early hours of the morning on February 23. Lincoln later arrived at the Willard Hotel where he stayed for the next ten days before his inauguration. While there, he met with his presidential rivals including Stephen Douglas, members of the Peace Conference, and conducted cabinet meetings. On the morning of March 4, the city was on edge, worried about the threats to the capital and Lincoln. As people lined the avenue, perhaps they saw the armed soldiers on the rooftops stationed there to protect the incoming president. Shortly before noon, Lincoln and President James Buchanan rode in a carriage down Pennsylvania Avenue to the US Capital visible down Pennsylvania Ave to your right. One reporter noted, "His carriage was closely surrounded on all sides by marshals and cavalry, so as almost to hide it from view." To the relief of many in the city, Lincoln was then sworn in as president, but he still faced a divided city and nation. As the Civil War loomed on the nation’s capital, how did the citizens learn about the news from the battlefields? To learn that, we will next examine Newspaper’s Row and its role in this divided city. If you like you can pause and walk across the street to see the numerous plaques detailing the hotel’s history. Next, facing the Willard Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, you will turn right and travel along Pennsylvania Ave to Freedom Plaza crossing 14th street. From that corner, look north along 14th street. 3) Newspaper's Row/Rum Row at 14th Street and Pennsylvania Ave How do you learn about news today? Perhaps you watch cable news or local news on television or read the news on the internet. During the 1860s, one of the few ways to get information was from the newspaper. The newspaper became vital for many in the city, as it was where people learned what was happening during the war. With the White House only a few blocks away, 14th street consisted of a row of buildings nicknamed Newspaper Row. In these buildings various newspapers set up their offices reporting on the news from the front lines. They chose this spot because of the Western Union Telegraph office located right where the Marriott Hotel is now. The telegraph office provided news not only for the press but also for the citizens of DC, a place to learn of what was happening in the war. Imagine that it is July 1863 you would have observed hundreds of people waiting on these two blocks, eager for news from Gettysburg or perhaps learning of Grant’s capture of Vicksburg. The newspapers also used this location for its strategic advantage. While some papers were local, many were from other cities, such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and even London. Much like the city itself, you could see the divisions represented in the newspapers here. From the National Intelligencer, a moderate Republican newspaper, to the more radical Daily Chronicle, each provided distinct partisan views of the war. This divide was even more sharp a few blocks down Pennsylvania Avenue, where you could find the Evening Star, the Democratic newspaper. While critical of Lincoln at first, they began supporting the administration’s efforts by the end of the war. Local businesses took advantage of the influx of reporters, soldiers, and people clamoring for news. Here on this strip of what is now Pennsylvania Avenue, they opened a number of saloons, gambling halls, and other forms of entertainment. Locals began calling this block Rum Row. Today you will see modern office buildings that hide its once colorful atmosphere. As you might imagine, this part of Washington was the entertainment district and another part of entertainment was theatre. To learn about theaters in Washington, continue east on Freedom Plaza toward the Capitol until you reach the National Theatre on your left at 1321 Pennsylvania Avenue. There, you will learn how theaters distracted the people during these times of civil war. 4) National Theatre/Grover’s Theatre and Theaters at 1321 Pennsylvania Avenue Now face the National Theatre. The current building was finished in the 1920s and is the sixth theater on this spot. The first National Theatre was built here in 1835, but less than 10 years later it burned down. Theaters were notorious firetraps at the time, and many burned. It was rebuilt only to burn down again in the late 1850s, after which it remained vacant for over five years. At the start of the Civil War, as the National was being rebuilt, there were only two theatres in the capital, the Washington Theatre and Canterbury Hall. Canterbury Hall was a variety theater, which would later become vaudeville. Opening its doors in 1804, the Washington Theatre was the oldest theatre in DC, situated on the corner of 11th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue where the IRS building is today. During the first two years of the war, the Washington Theatre filled the entertainment void, as it was the only respectable theatre in town. On January 23, 1862, the Washington Theatre hosted President Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary, where they saw an Italian opera. President Lincoln returned the following year in April to see a comedy with his son, Tad. Ironically, two weeks later, the actor John Wilkes Booth started leasing and managing the theatre. He continued to manage it for the next six months, before giving up his lease to the actress Laura Keene whose path he crossed again at Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865. By 1863, the Washington Theatre now had competition. On tenth street, John T. Ford had opened a new theater, Ford’s Theatre. Additionally, the National was finally finished, now called Grover’s Theatre for its manager, Leonard Grover. During the Civil War, this theatre became a place where the city residents escaped from the horrors of war. The three-story theater could hold over two thousand people. On the first floor and lower balcony, were the most expensive seats. The upper balcony were the cheap seats, set aside for the working class. Conveniently, Grovers provided them with a saloon. This third level, which was segregated, was likely the only option for African Americans seeking entertainment. Grover’s was also a favorite spot for the Lincoln family who attended numerous plays at the theater. On April 14, 1865, Tad Lincoln was here watching Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp when he learned the horrible news that his father had been shot at Ford’s Theatre. While this area was a popular place to escape, many locals avoided traveling south of Pennsylvania Avenue as they saw it as a more dangerous part of town. To learn why turn right heading east to 13th street, passing the statue of Casmir Pulaski on a horse then turn right at the intersection and follow 13th street south to the Reagan Building courtyard, crossing the street to reach it. Here in Federal Triangle, you will learn the story of Murder Bay. 5) Murder Bay at 300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Gaze into the clutter of federal buildings. We are facing what is now called Federal Triangle. Between 15th and 12th Street on the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue, once stood a neighborhood in Washington DC which by the 1850s had a very poor reputation. It’s not hard to imagine why - the smell would have been horrendous. Only three blocks south, on what is now Constitution Avenue, was the Washington City canal. Originally built for commerce, by the Civil War the canal had been abandoned and was informally used as a city sewer. Everything was thrown in, from dead animals to waste. In 1863, the Secretary of the Interior called it "a shallow, open sewer, of about one hundred and fifty feet in width, (sometimes called a canal,) which stretches its filthy surface through the heart of the city.” With so many in DC temporarily here for the war effort, this undesirable area became home to saloons, gambling establishments, and brothels for those seeking diversions. Was this why the neighborhood was nicknamed Murder Bay by some? We may never know. But while the area was unsanitary, overcrowded, and unpleasant, many people did live here, by desperation or necessity. The Civil War more than doubled the number of those living in the city and notably included formerly enslaved African Americans seeking freedom, who were legally referred to as contraband. The military argued that since the Confederacy called them property, the Union Army had the right to seize and hire them. Many so-called contrabands moved into DC in the time leading up to the Emancipation Proclamation, and were paid to build many of the fortifications around the city. Looking for places to live, in a city undergoing a housing crisis, they established contraband camps north of the White House and here along the canal. They were joined in this area by others who found themselves in difficult circumstances. Life was difficult for these men, women, and children who lived here, and they suffered from impoverished conditions, disease, and crime. For those living here, why did they seek refuge in such horrible conditions? We will never know. They had the greater goal, though, of seeking freedom which they achieved on April 16, 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Compensated Emancipation Act that freed those enslaved in the District of Columbia. While they gained this freedom, they suffered from hardships that others in the city did not face. At the next stop, you will learn about these conditions. Start walking east along Pennsylvania Avenue, crossing 12th Street, and stop at the Ben Franklin Statue in front of the Old Post Office Tower on the right. After admiring the statue, turn and gaze across Pennsylvania Avenue to the grey office building with roof-top gardens. 6) Kirkwood House and National Hotel and other hotels in city at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW In 1860, this part of downtown Washington DC looked quite different. At the start of the Civil War, the population of the city was around 75,000. By the end of the war, the population had nearly tripled. Thousands of people came into the city: soldiers, camp followers, enslaved people seeking freedom, and those profiting off the war. The city faced the problem of where to house all these additional residents. Many of these people chose boarding houses. Boarding houses were a common type of housing during the nineteenth century. Many families and individuals decided to profit off the housing crisis by renting out rooms in their homes to tenants. Some of these boarders included government workers like Walt Whitman and Clara Barton. For those residents who could afford something more luxurious, they chose one of the many hotels in the city. This included congressmen, senators, or those who had the resources to rent out a room in a hotel. While the Willard Hotel remained the most prominent hotel near the Executive Mansion, the National Hotel which was located on the northeastern corner of the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and 6th Street attracted those who wanted to be closer to the Capitol. Founded in 1827, the National Hotel was the oldest hotel in Washington DC. The National, though, lost its appeal in 1857 when a mysterious sickness spread there during James Buchanan’s inauguration. Numerous congressmen and senators became sick, including President Buchanan, and several people even died. During the Civil War, the National had one famous occupant, the actor John Wilkes Booth who was staying there on April 14, 1865. Other hotels played an important role for life in the city, including the Kirkwood House the location of which we now face. The hotel stood on the northeast corner of 12th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. Built in the 1840s, many congressmen and senators lived in the Kirkwood during the war. In March of 1865, Vice President Andrew Johnson was living here after the inauguration. On the night of April 14, George Atzerodt arrived at the hotel and began drinking at the bar. Atzerodt was part of a conspiracy organized by John Wilkes Booth to take down key members of Lincoln’s administration. While Booth was preparing to kill Lincoln, Atzerodt was at the Kirkwood considering whether or not to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson. He eventually decided against killing him and instead fled the city but was ultimately captured. On the morning of April 15, 1865 following Lincoln’s death hours earlier, it was at the Kirkwood House that Chief Justice Salmon Chase swore in Andrew Johnson as president. As the population grew in the city, commerce became important. For that part of the story, we will visit the site of Center Market. Turn right then continue east down Pennsylvania Avenue three blocks until reaching the National Archives building on your right. Feel free to admire the NeoClassical columns, the landscaping, and take a break at one of the nearby benches. 7) Center Market at 700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Here at the corner of 9th street and Pennsylvania Avenue, we are at the center of commerce for Civil War Washington. If you had visited here in 1860, you would have found a ramshackle collection of wooden frame buildings. Imagine coming here and seeing two blocks of vendors selling fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, and live animals. Besides the food market, you also would have seen several rows of saloons, seedy hotels, and other enterprises providing unsavory goods and services. The market was like a combination of a farmer’s market and a shopping mall, where you could find all sorts of goods. Perhaps you were looking for the newest fashions -if you wanted it you were likely to find it at Center Market. If you were hungry for seafood, you could wander down to the canal where you would find a fishmonger selling live fish such as shad. They kept their fish in baskets which they lowered into the foul-smelling canal. Not only would fishmongers use the canal, but so would butchers, who threw carcasses of dead animals and waste into it. Visiting here must not have been pleasant, and we can only imagine the smell of the market on a hot August day. Unfortunately, before the Civil War, the market also sold people to those who wanted them. Until the 1850s, a slave market stood near here, selling men, women, and children. Even after the abolishment of the slave trade in the capital in 1850, life for African Americans in the district still remained difficult. While you might see African American vendors here, black codes restricted what they could sell, their movements, and where they could set up their stalls. Until 1863, you still would most likely have seen enslaved people, perhaps engaged in business for their owner. The market typified many of the problems you saw in the city. It showed how DC wanted to be like a northern city, providing people with new opportunities. However, it restricted those possibilities to largely white males, and you wouldn’t see many women here either. At the time of the Civil War, it would be unsavory for a woman of means to be here at the market. During the war, you also would have seen many soldiers shopping here. To learn about their role in the city, turn around and cross Pennsylvania Avenue on 9th Street to the Navy Memorial, then turn right and continue east along Pennsylvania Avenue to the Civil War hero General Winfield Scott Hancock on a horse. Passing by it on your left, you will cross the street at 7th street and stop at the Grand Army of the Republic Memorial, a grey obelisk, where you will learn about soldier life here in the city. While here, f eel free to take advantage of the shaded granite seating. 8) Grand Army of the Republic Memorial at the intersection of 7th Street, Indiana Avenue, and Pennsylvania Avenue NW The monument before you is the Grand Army of the Republic Memorial. Dedicated in 1907, the memorial was erected in memory of Dr. Benjamin F. Stephenson, Civil War surgeon and founder of the Grand Army of the Republic which was responsible for the monument. While this memorial is dedicated to the founder of the GAR, it also represents all of those soldiers who fought in the battlefields and those who defended the nation's capital. When the war began, Union troops began pouring into the city, 20,000 within the first month alone. To accommodate these soldiers, government buildings, including the Capitol, the Patent Office, and the White House were used as barracks. Many troops camped in public squares, fields, and farmland on the edge of the city. As one might imagine, life was difficult for these soldiers, especially dealing with the sweltering heat of the summer. While many of the troops were training for battle, others were sent to build fortifications around the city to help protect against a Confederate attack. By 1863, these soldiers included African American troops who were joining to secure their freedom. Many of these troops stayed and defended the city at forts including Fort Stevens, attacked in July of 1864. To supply the army, the government relied on women volunteers who helped not only to make uniforms but also weapons and ammunition. At the Washington Arsenal, located on Greenleaf's Point on the southern tip of the city, 300 women and 100 men and boys worked there. At the arsenal, they manufactured Minie cartridges, Minie balls, and artillery shells. The work was difficult and dangerous and some even died. On June 17, 1864, one lab exploded, leaving 21 women dead and another 30 severely injured. Three days later the funeral procession for these women traveled down 7th street right past us and where this memorial now stands en route to Congressional Cemetery in the east of the city. There President Lincoln attended the funeral service with thousands of other mourners. A year later, on May 23 and 24, 1865, many residents of this city witnessed the Grand Review marking the end of four years of war. The crowd stood here and watched General Grant and General Sherman lead their armies down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. There President Andrew Johnson reviewed the troops and they were disbanded. While here, many of these soldiers commemorated the occasion with formal photographs, some perhaps at our next stop, Matthew Brady’s studio. Turn right to the pinkish building then walk east through the tree-lined courtyard between the National Council of Negro Women and the National Bank of Washington. Look up to the top floor of the last quarter of the pink building and you will see an angled skylight. Here you will learn about photographer Matthew Brady and his work during the Civil War. 9) Matthew Brady Studio at 633 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Many people walk right past this pink building, not realizing its importance to the Civil War. That skylight looks into the floor below where the photos of many prominent and lesser-known Americans were taken. On the top three floors of this building was Brady’s Gallery where he and his assistants famously took and developed photos for over thirty years. By the time he moved into this studio in 1849, Brady had already established himself as a famous photographer in New York City. Here, Brady and his assistants photographed prominent Americans such as politicians Henry Clay, Abraham Lincoln and his cabinet, Civil War generals such as U.S Grant, William Sherman, and Robert E. Lee, Native American tribal representatives, others including Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman, Mary Todd Lincoln, and Clara Barton. His fame, though, came from photographs taken on the battlefield. When the war first began, Brady rushed to the Manassas battlefield and took photos of the grisly results of war. Brady himself, though, actually took very few of these photos, as his eyesight was failing by that time. Instead, he left the photography to his assistants including Alexander Gardner. Gardner traveled to Antietam and took photos that became part of Brady’s exhibition, "The Dead at Antietam." Much to the anger of Gardner, Brady gave him no credit for the photos, and failed to note who took any of them. Gardner later decided to open his own studio two blocks north of here on 7th Street. While we might see Brady’s tactics as unethical today, it was quite common at the time in the world of photography. Once his assistants returned from the battlefields, Brady had the photos developed, and displayed here. During and after the war, he had several exhibitions here and in his studio in New York City. However, after four years of war, people grew tired and even uneasy of seeing photos of the dead, and Brady’s gallery struggled. He continued to operate his studio here until he went bankrupt in the 1880s. There are other buildings that have similar stories which have been forgotten, including the Old City Hall. To reach this stop, continue east through the courtyard, crossing an alley, and stay east, passing under a covered arcade. Turn left and continue up 6th street for two blocks crossing Indiana Avenue and D Street. Turn right and follow D street east two blocks, until you are in front of a statue of Lincoln below stone steps leading up to a Greek Rival courthouse. 10) Old City Hall at 400 block of Indiana Ave NW Near Judiciary Square you see before you one of the oldest public buildings in DC, Old City Hall. Built in 1820, it was one of first public buildings constructed by the Federal government after the White House and Capitol. This Greek Revival building was originally intended to be used as City Hall for Washington DC. Over time, the city and federal government also used it as a courthouse. Several famous trials were held here before and after the Civil War, including the trial of John Surratt Jr. Surratt, one of John Wilkes Booth’s conspirators to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, was tried here in 1867 but the trial ended in a hung jury. In 1881, this courthouse saw another famous trial when Charles Guiteau, who had assassinated President James Garfield, was tried and convicted here for murder. During the Civil War, though, there were few significant trials held in this courthouse perhaps that was because many of the famous prisoners were held at the Capitol Prison without trial. The Capitol Prison, where the Supreme Court is now, was originally the Old Brick Capitol used briefly as the capitol after the burning of Washington in 1814. During the Civil War, the military converted it into a prison and used it to hold several notable prisoners, especially spies. One of the most famous of these spies was Rose Greenhow. Greenhow was a socialite who had a house on Lafayette Square, not far from the White House. When the war began, she was very sympathetic to the Confederacy largely because she hated abolitionists-blaming them for her father’s death at the hand of one of his enslaved. A Confederate captain knowing this, enlisted her as a spy, and she quickly created a spy network throughout the city. She used this network to learn about plans to attack Confederate forces at the Battle of First Manassas. Detective Allan Pinkerton uncovered her spy ring and arrested her. She stayed in the Capitol Prison for nearly a year, before being released and exiled. By the end of the war, hundreds of spies, political prisoners, and other criminals went to the prison, including those involved in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Speaking of Lincoln, you might notice a statue of President Lincoln in front of Old City Hall, the first monument to Lincoln after his death. It was dedicated on April 15th, 1868 with 25,000 dollars raised including a donation from John T. Ford, the owner of Ford’s Theatre. During the Civil War, there were two prisons in the district. While spies went to the Capitol prison, most went to our next stop. To reach the site of this infamous prison from your position facing Lincoln, turn left and retrace your steps, heading west on Indiana Avenue to the first intersection, with 5th St NW, and turn right onto 5th. You’ll proceed north on 5th St NW, keeping Judiciary Square Park (with its gold statue) and Old City Hall on your righthand side. Cross E street continue straight up another block, until you reach the intersection with F St NW, where you will see a large red brick building to your right, and there you will learn about the Blue Jug. 11) The Blue Jug (The Building Museum) at 401 F St NW At the spot where the Building Museum (the imposing brick structure you see before you) now sits, once stood the DC City Jail. Built in 1839, the city jail was a stucco gothic revival building. It gained the nickname “the blue jug” for the hideous light-blue color of its walls. For most of its early existence, the jail served as the city’s unofficial “slave pen” a degrading term used for an enclosed area that held enslaved people caught fleeing bondage for freedom. It also held free African Americans who violated the city’s strict black codes or laws created to specifically target and restrict black residents. By 1861, a city inspector called the jail, “a badly ventilated, unwholesome building, unfit in nearly every respect for the purpose for which it was designed.” Unfortunately, the city continued to use it and this use even became more prominent during the first year of the Civil War. Shortly after Lincoln’s inauguration, he named his friend and bodyguard, Ward Hill Lamon, Provost Marshal of the District of Columbia. Part of his job included running the old jail and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act. Lamon threw in the jail anyone he considered to be runaway slaves and refused to consider any of them “contraband”. By late 1861, the prison became overcrowded with free and enslaved African Americans and reports circulated stories of horrific living conditions with up to ten prisoners sharing an 8 by 10-foot cell. Senator Henry Wilson from Massachusetts sent in famed detective Allan Pinkerton to investigate. His report horrified Congress who criticized Lamon and Lincoln for the conditions of the jail. Lincoln intervened and ordered Lamon to release all enslaved people who were seeking freedom. This controversy influenced Senator Henry Wilson and others to pass legislation that emancipated all those enslaved in the district. On April 16, 1862, President Lincoln signed the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act into law. For African Americans in the city the day became a day of celebration, one which is still celebrated to this day as Emancipation Day. After the Civil War, the jail fell into disrepair, and the city finally razed the building in 1878, replacing it a decade later with the building you see before you. This red brick building was built in 1887 as the Pension Bureau building, designed by Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs. Meigs, a Union veteran of the Civil War, designed many government projects throughout the city. His most famous project was his work on Arlington Cemetery. By 1864, the Union dead overwhelmed cemeteries in the district. Meigs decided to bury the dead on Robert E Lee’s estate, Arlington House. After the war, he continued his work at Arlington, designing much of the cemetery, including McClellan Gate and the amphitheater. Some of the soldiers buried at Arlington Cemetery were treated by the most famous nurse of the Civil War, Clara Barton. To learn more about her role in the Civil War turn left, crossing 5th St NW and continue heading west on F street for two blocks to 7th St NW. Turn left onto 7th street. Head south on 7th St one block to E St, cross E St, and continue down 7th St. The Clara Barton Missing Soldier Home will be located in the second building on your left following the intersection of 7th St and E St, at 437 7th St NW. 12) Clara Barton Missing Soldier Home at 437 7th St NW The building before you is a historic site that was nearly lost to history. This three-story brick building was once a boarding house where the most famous nurse of the Civil War lived, Clara Barton. Barton grew up in Massachusetts and moved to DC for a job at the Patent Office. After Lincoln’s election, she moved into this boarding house, and was living here when the first bloodshed of the Civil War occurred. On April 19, 1861, Union soldiers were assaulted in Baltimore as they traveled to Washington DC. Over the next few days, hundreds of soldiers injured in the event arrived in the city. Realizing some were from her native Massachusetts, Barton sprang into action and attended to the injured soldiers who were completely uncared for. From that moment, she decided to nurse injured soldiers from the battlefields of Northern Virginia to the battlefield of Antietam. While coming to the aid of an overwhelmed surgeon at the battle of Cedar Mountain, she acquired the nickname “the Angel of the Battlefield.” Throughout the war, Barton continued to treat soldiers, and used her political connections to bring supplies to various battlefields. She also became interested in learning what happened to soldiers missing in action. In 1865, she contacted President Lincoln and asked for permission to locate missing soldiers. The War Department authorized her to conduct this search and provided her resources. Over the next year, she worked here out of this boardinghouse, creating an office and hiring staff. To help her search, she even went to Andersonville Prison during the summer of 1865. Over the next three years, she uncovered what happened to many missing soldiers, helping to bring closure for many families. She operated this office here until 1868 when she moved out and went to Switzerland for her health. The boardinghouse was later remodeled and turned into a shoe store, with little to tell of its important past. In the 1990s, the General Services Administration sent Richard Lyons to inspect the building before its demolition. While on the third floor, Lyons felt something tap his shoulder. Upon turning around, he found an envelope hanging out of the ceiling. He went up into the attic and discovered papers, clothes, and other materials belonging to Clara Barton. His efforts saved this building, and it was turned into a museum in 2015. This boarding house isn’t the only building in this neighborhood that has survived the Civil War. There are two more buildings not far away that Clara Barton would have recognized. Turn left cross E street and head north one block to F street. Cross F street and take a left, crossing 7th street, and stop in front of the National Portrait Gallery on F street facing the steps and columns entrance to learn about its connection to the Civil War. 13) Patent Office at the corner of 8th street and F Street Here on F Street between 7th and 9th streets, you will see one of the more impressive buildings in Washington DC. This marble three-story Greek Revival building resembles a Greek temple. Built in 1836, it was the original home of the Patent Office, a patent museum, and the Department of the Interior. Today, it is the National Portrait Gallery. Across F street, its architectural style is mirrored in a large Greek Revival building, which was the General Post Office and now is the Monaco Hotel. Both buildings were designed by the architect Robert Mills who designed the Washington Monument. These two large buildings must have stood out among the simple brick and wooden structures which would have predominated here in 1860. When the Civil War began, the government utilized both of these buildings for the war. As thousands of troops entered the city, they used them as barracks for several months. For a year and a half, the third floor of the Patent Office served as a hospital for the thousands of wounded soldiers kept in the city. If you visit the third floor of the north wing, you might find initials from one of these soldiers who stationed here. While it is unknown if Clara Barton ever visited the soldiers here, another famous resident did, Walt Whitman. In 1862, Whitman was on the cusp of fame as a rising poet living in New York City. After learning his enlisted brother was injured fighting for the Union at Fredericksburg, he arrived in Washington DC, looking for him. Upon finding him, he decided to remain in the city. He worked part-time for the Army and eventually here for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He visited the injured soldiers at the Patent Office often, bringing them gifts, reading to them, playing games with them, and helping them write letters. While he visited often, he wasn’t here on March 6, 1865 for Lincoln’s second inaugural ball. President Lincoln had faced a difficult 4 years and now the war appeared near its end. Perhaps, the Lincolns deserved to celebrate after such difficult times. For the ball, several thousands of people showed up and guests stayed well past midnight. Unfortunately, there was a snafu. They had set up a buffet table including all types of delicious foods, including oysters, stews, beef à l’anglais, veal, turkeys, pheasants, venison, ducks, hams, lobsters, cakes, and ice cream. However, there was one problem, the table only accommodated 300 people, and 4000 famished guests rushed towards it. One newspaper account described the scene “The floor of the supper room was soon sticky, pasty, and oily with wasted confections, mashed cakes, and debris of fowl and meat.” More food was wasted than eaten. After a night of celebration, the Lincolns returned to the White House. Unknown to President Lincoln, a conspiracy had begun that would result in tragedy. To learn of this tragic moment, continue west, or left if facing the Portrait Gallery. Head one block down F street, crossing 9th street and continue turning left on 10th street which you will follow down to Ford’s Theatre.
14) Ford’s Theatre and Petersen House at 511 10th St NW Ford’s Theatre, a 3-story brick theatre built in 1863, was a popular entertainment venue during the Civil War. On April 14, 1865, residents learned that the Lincolns and the Grants were attending Our American Cousin, that night. Many in the city hoped to catch a glimpse of the hero of the Civil War, General Grant, and rushed to the theater. For others attending, they saw it as an opportunity to celebrate the end of the war, as General Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox several days earlier which they had celebrated with fireworks. Many of these celebrations were still continuing on April 14, as theatergoers packed into Ford’s that evening. Around 1700 people arrived waiting for the President and General Grant. Around 8:30 p.m., Lincoln arrived and to the disappointment of many in the theatre, Grant wasn’t with him. The Grants had instead decided to see their children in New Jersey for the Easter holiday. In their place, Mary Lincoln had invited Clara Harris and her fiancé Major Henry Rathbone. During the play, the theater several times erupted into laughter as they watched the comedy. At one point, as the audience were laughing, a shot rang out and a man jumped out of the box. The audience heard him shout something in Latin before running out the back of the theater. They then heard shouts and cries coming from the box, saying the President had been shot. Shock and confusion spread throughout the theater, with many shouting to hang the assassin. During the chaotic scene, three doctors entered the box and confirmed that Lincoln was dying. Not wanting him to die in the theater, they brought him outside, looking for a place to bring him. Across the street was the Petersen boarding house, and one of the renters there, Henry Safford, heard the commotion and went outside. Upon learning that Lincoln had been shot, he told the men, “Bring him here!” They brought Lincoln into the house and laid him in the back bedroom. During the night over 9 hours, Lincoln’s cabinet and congressmen arrived to pay their respects. Around 6 a.m. on April 15, thousands of mourners gathered around the house, including many African Americans who were said to be “painfully affected.” At 7:22 that morning, Lincoln breathed his last. Many people stayed and openly grieved possibly wondering what they had lost. While the African Americans grieving Lincoln’s, death had achieved the freedom they had sought, it would take a further century of struggle to obtain the rights promised to them. Many people throughout the city were shocked by Lincoln’s death and grieved him. In the years that followed, Lincoln became a martyr whose symbol helped to reunify North and South but at the expense of African Americans achieving more rights. Throughout the city, these two days mirrored the emotional journey of the war. It was a war that began in celebration but languished in grief, and then ended in hope which was dashed by despair. Thank you for going on this tour of Civil War Washington. To learn more, please visit our website at www.nps.gov/foth or like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/fordstheatrenps.
Journey back in time, as Ranger Layton from Ford's Theatre National Historic Site guides you on a walking tour around Downtown Washington, DC. You will learn about what life was like in Washington during the American Civil War. The walking tour is about 2 miles and will take you about 3 hours to do. It starts at the Willard Hotel and ends at Ford's Theatre.