[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 63 (Monday, April 11, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E377]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     INTRODUCTION OF THE CIVIL WAR DEFENSES OF WASHINGTON NATIONAL 
                          HISTORICAL PARK ACT

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, April 11, 2022

  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, on the anniversary of the week of the 
start of the Civil War, I introduce the Civil War Defenses of 
Washington National Historical Park Act, which would recognize and 
preserve the Civil War Defenses of Washington located in the District 
of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland. The Defenses of Washington, 
including forts, unarmed batteries and rifle trenches, created a ring 
of protection for the nation's capital during the Civil War. This bill 
would redesignate the 22 Civil War Defenses of Washington currently 
under National Park Service jurisdiction as a national historical park, 
and allow other sites associated with the Defenses of Washington that 
are owned by the District or a unit of state governments to be 
affiliated with the national historical park through cooperative 
agreements. This bill would also require the Secretary of the Interior 
to facilitate the storied history of the Civil War for both the North 
and the South, including the history of the Defenses of Washington and 
the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864, being assembled, arrayed and 
conveyed for the benefit of the public for the knowledge, education and 
inspiration of this and future generations. In 2018, the House Natural 
Resources Committee Subcommittee on Federal Lands held a hearing on 
this bill. Although the Department of the Interior opposed this bill, I 
feel strongly that the Defenses of Washington need additional 
recognition and should be redesignated as a national historical park.
  The Defenses of Washington were constructed at the beginning of the 
war, in 1861, as a ring of protection for the nation's capital and for 
President Abraham Lincoln. By the end of the war, these defenses 
included 68 forts, 93 unarmed batteries, 807 mounted cannons, 13 miles 
of rifle trenches and 32 miles of military roads. The major test of the 
Defenses of Washington came with the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 
1864, when Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Early, directed by 
General Robert E. Lee, sought to attack the nation's capital from the 
north, causing Union forces threatening to attack Richmond, the capital 
of the Confederacy, to be withdrawn. General Early was delayed by Union 
Major General Lew Wallace at the Battle of Monocacy on July 9, 1864, 
and was stopped at the northern edge of Washington at the Battle of 
Fort Stevens on July 11-12, 1864. The Shenandoah Valley Campaign ended 
when Union Lieutenant General Philip Sheridan defeated General Early at 
the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia, on October 19, 1864.
  Nearly all the individual forts in the Defenses of Washington--on 
both sides of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers--were involved in 
stopping General Early's attack, and the Battle of Fort Stevens was the 
second and last attempt by the Confederate Army to attack Washington.
  Taken together, these battles were pivotal to the outcome of the war 
and the freedom and democracy that the war represented for this 
country. It is therefore fitting that we recognize the Defenses of 
Washington by redesignating them as a national historical park.
  I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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