- Civil War Series - Roughly a 40-minute drive south of Savannah, Georgia, Fort McAllister State Historic Park preserves one of the country’s best remaining examples of a Civil War earthwork fortification. Constructed early in the war, Fort McAllister occupied a key position on the Ogeechee River and played an important role in facilitating the …
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- Civil War Series - Spanning more than 200 years of history, Maryland’s Fort Washington is situated on a picturesque hill overlooking the wide and placid Potomac River, within sight of Washington, DC. The 19th century fort today lies within Fort Washington Park, protected and administered by the National Park Service. Around the brick structure, …
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- Civil War Series - The history of Maryland’s Fort Washington spans several of America’s wars, from the War of 1812 through the Civil War and the two World Wars. The first fort on this site, a stone structure constructed in 1809, was short-lived: it was burned and abandoned by its own garrison as the …
- Civil War Series - One of 68 forts protecting Washington, DC during the Civil War, Fort Foote was built by Union forces to defend the nation’s capital from a potential Confederate naval attack on the Potomac River. Completed in 1863, this battery atop Rozier’s Bluff on the Maryland shore boasted eight 200-pound Parrott rifles …
- Revolutionary War Series - As the Battle of Yorktown raged to the east, George Washington and his French ally Comte de Rochambeau set up their encampments in the woody perimeter around Yorktown in 1781. After hitting the key sites on the Yorktown Battlefield Auto Tour, visitors to Virginia's Colonial National Historical Park today can also …
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- Revolutionary War Series - The Battle of Yorktown, the last major engagement of the American Revolution, was a decisive victory for Gen. George Washington’s Continental Army and the death knell for continued British occupation. Today, the site of the 1781 battle is protected by Colonial National Historical Park, near the banks of the York …
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- Civil War Series - Nearly a year after the onset of the conflict at Fort Sumter in April 1861, the Civil War had seen very few significant military engagements in the Eastern Theater. Following the Battle of Bull Run in July 1861, both sides played defense: strengthening their fortifications, bolstering their ranks, and eyeing …
- Civil War Series - On May 5, 1862, as Confederates clashed with the Union Army nearby, Redoubts 1 and 2 remained silent during the Battle of Williamsburg, the first pitched battle of the Civil War’s Peninsula Campaign (March-July 1862). These redoubts constituted the far right flank of Confederate Col. John Magruder’s “third line” of …
- Civil War Series - On the eve of battle in May 1862, Confederate Col. John Magruder’s “third line” of defenses on the Virginia Peninsula comprised 14 redoubts—small, enclosed defensive fortifications built from earth, sod, and timber. Together they served to temporarily delay the Union Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula Campaign (March-July 1862) …
- Civil War Series - The Twin Forts Loop Trail in Virginia’s Newport News explores the site of the Battle of Dam No. 1, a failed Union attack on a Confederate fortification on April 16, 1862. Part of the three-month Peninsula Campaign, the Union defeat was the second of the month (a similar effort failed …
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