Mr. Lincoln's Forts

— Defenses of Washington, 1861-1865 —

Fort C.F. Smith was constructed in 1863 on farmland appropriated from William Jewell. The fort was named in honor of Gen. Charles Ferguson Smith, who was instrumental in the Union victory at Fort Donelson, Tennessee in 1862. The fortification was constructed to extend the line of forts to the Potomac River and to command a tributary ravine not covered by Fort Strong.

Along with forts Strong, Morton and Woodbury, Fort C.F. Smith functioned as part of the outer perimeter defenses that protected the Aqueduct bridge of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. The fort was a lunette with two bastions on the north side to protect from attack up the ravines from the Potomac. The original fort contained 22 gun emplacements, eight of which are preserved and visible today. The access road to the fort crossed Spout Run near Mason's Mill and proceeded up the hill to Fort Strong. Military Road linked Fort C.F. Smith with Fort Ethan Allen to the north.

The support buildings in which the garrison ate and slept were located to the east. These included barracks, mess halls, cook houses, officers' quarters, a barn and a headquarters' building. Period photographs illustrate how Arlington's landscape was denuded of trees to allow clear lines of fire from Fort C.F. Smith and the adjacent forts.

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Show me all markers in:  Arlington, VA  |  Arlington County  |  22207  |  Virginia  |  United States of America

Fort C.F. Smith
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