When researching various parts of the Hill, the most interesting part is when some intriguing character becomes involved in the story. Often, they make for better stories than the actual landmark under scrutiny. This certainly goes for Lieutenant Colonel Franklin Wharton, who is far more interesting than the wharf that he owned briefly around the […]
In a few weeks, I will be giving a tour of the Navy Yard neighborhood, to try to give a sense of what the area looked like just before the British arrived on August 24, 1814. In order to prepare, I have been looking through old texts learn more about what used to be there […]
As we have seen in the previous installments of our look at how the battle of Fort Stevens 150 years ago was seen in the newspapers of the time, news of the battle of Fort Stevens was slow in being printed in D.C., based on hearsay and often wrong. Thus, too, was the news on the […]
One hundred and fifty years ago today, July 11, 1864, is generally considered to be the beginning of the Battle of Fort Stevens, which is located about four miles due north of the White House, on what was then 7th Street and is today Georgia Avenue. Around noon of that day, the first of Confederate […]
Today’s update is, in contrast to yesterday’s, short. This is not due to a shortage of news, but rather a shortage of newspapers. It being Sunday, only one newspaper was slated to be published, and while one other put out an extra, that seems to have been lost to history.