Fort Lyon (Historical Marker)

There is a historic marker standing on the site of Fort Lyon. Here follows the inscription on the tablet:

In this vicinity stood Fort Lyon, the major fortification on the left flank of the Federal defenses guarding the city of Washington during the Civil War. Named in honor of Brig. Gen. Nathaniel Lyon, the fort covered an area of nine acres with its forty gun-emplacements. New York, Massachusetts and Ohio troops garrisoned here controlled the Hunting Creek valley, the Little River Turnpike, and the railroad depot as well as the town of Alexandria. On 10 June 1863, President Lincoln personally inspected the damage caused by the spectacular explosion of the fort’s powder magazine. Marker Erected 1998 by Department of Historic Resources. (Marker Number E-102.)


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Here follows an excerpt from the book, "Mr. Lincoln's Forts: A Guide to the Civil War Defenses of Washington" by Benjamin Franklin Cooling III and Walton H. Owen II:

The fort was laid out in September 1861 by Major John Newton. The fort became the second largest in the system. Covering an area of nine acres with a perimeter of 937 yards, it was placed on a plateau spur with a commanding view of Hunting Creek and Telegraph Road. The main function of the fort was to prevent Confederate occupation of the high ground (near the modern Metro stop) from which Alexandria could be shelled.

The fort was built mostly by the work of the 27th New York Volunteer Infantry. In addition elements of the 16th New York Infantry, 26th New York Infantry, 34th Massachusetts Infantry, 3rd Battalion New York Artillery, 107th New York Infantry, and 142nd Ohio National Guard occupied the fort at different times during the war.

The armament consisted of ten 32-pounder guns, ten 24-pounder guns, seven 6-pdr guns, two 10-inch mortars, and four 24-pounder mortars. These were arranged in five bastions.

THE MAGAZINE EXPLOSION:
The explosion noted occurred on June 9, 1863. A detail from the 3rd New York Artillery Battalion was managing ammunition and happened to be refilling shells with powder. The process required the existing powder, which had been exposed to moisture, to be removed with wooden spoons. The detail commander, concerned at the slow progress, issued metal priming wires to speed the removal. A spark from one of the priming wires rubbing against the cast iron shell case set off the explosion. Twenty-one were killed in the blast and another ten injured.


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Here follows an excerpt from the blog, "Jaybird's Jottings" by Jay Roberts:

Fort Lyon Location:
Standing at the plaque at the Huntington Metro Kiss and Ride Parking Lot, walk to the stoplight at North Kings Hiway. Turn right and you will see James Drive. One of the guns was at the corner of James and North Kings Hiway.

Basic Info:
Built in 1861, Fort Lyon was the largest and first of the five forts to be built. Its hillside spot had a commanding view of Telegraph Road and Hunting Creek Valley, and protected Alexandria’s railroad depot, the Little River Turnpike, and the city of Alexandria. Soldiers wrote about its great views that included the unfinished Capitol in the distance. Named in honor of General Nathaniel Lyon, the fort covered an area of nine acres and housed forty guns. Troops from New York, Ohio and Wisconsin served there.

Newsworthy:
As reported by the New York Times, a black powder explosion on the afternoon of June 9, 1863 killed 21 soldiers, including Lieutenant L. Kuhne, commander of the outfit, the 3rd Battalion New York Artillery. The next day President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton visited the site.

Visible Remains:
On the south side of James Drive, is a trace of Fort Lyon’s southern parapet. The northeast trace of the fort can be seen in the outline of the hill as you travel down North Kings Hiway towards Telegraph Road.


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Here follows an excerpt from the blog, "Emerging Civil War" by Nathan Marzoli:

Disaster in the Defenses of Washington: The June 9, 1863 Explosion at Fort Lyon
Emerging Civil War welcomes back guest author Nathan Marzoli.

Lewis Bissell, a soldier in the 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery, had spent the better part of a year stationed in the numerous forts and batteries that ringed the nation’s capital. He had grown accustomed to the monotonous routine there, and probably expected June 9 to be another hot, sticky day of fatigue duty in which the men “sweat their shirts through and [got] as wet as though dipped in a mud puddle.” But as he left his barracks near Fort Lyon, Virginia, that afternoon to go work on the construction of a redoubt, Bissell’s world came crashing down around him.

The Connecticut soldier suddenly heard a popping of shells that sounded like firecrackers, “only a great deal louder.” Before he could realize what was happening, there was a stunning crash. Shells whizzed through the air all around him. Bissell immediately hit the ground and flattened himself to the dirt, praying that the stumps and logs around him would provide protection from the flying shells.

Anne Frobel, a local Alexandria resident, was at her home when she heard the “most violent thundering explosion, followed by another, in quick succession.” As “the earth shook and trembled,” a terrified Frobel looked over to nearby Fort Lyon, “which at that moment went up with a tremendous shock.” The blast reminded her of the pictures she had seen of the Mt. Vesuvius eruption. Massive amounts of debris “flew up from the center [of the fort] and seemed to stand still for a moment…then…pieces of steel, stones, and dirt, came rattling, and thundering down.” Frobel, like Bissell, was also in the line of fire; a stray shell exploded very close to her house, marked by a “little stream of blue smoke [which] came in one door and passed out the other.”

The massive explosion witnessed by Bissell and Frobel took place in the magazine of Fort Lyon, one of the largest forts in Washington’s defense system. A detail of twenty-six men from the 3rd Battalion German Heavy Artillery (New York)[1], commanded by a lieutenant, had been inspecting, airing, and refilling shells because moisture had dampened the powder and caused it to become caked into the shells. The men at first tried scraping the powder away using wooden spoons; when that didn’t do the trick, the officer thought it was a good idea to give the men priming wires to expedite the process. The lieutenant’s impatience proved disastrous. Friction from the priming wire probably caused a spark, igniting an explosion that set off the eight tons of powder and several thousand rounds of fixed ammunition in the magazine. The massive blast hurled debris, dirt, shells, and bodies hundreds of feet in the air. The concussion was so powerful that it shook houses and shattered windows in parts of nearby Alexandria.

“As soon as the shells stopped yelling around [his] ears,” Bissell raced back to the smoldering fort. Picking his way through the dust and debris, the Connecticut soldier witnessed a grisly scene at the explosion site – marked by a hole as large as his father’s barn cellar, Bissell thought. Scattered around the crater were the mangled bodies of dead and wounded men. The first man Bissell saw “lay with a hole as large as your fist in the top of his head.” The poor soldier’s body was “cut and mangled, his legs were broken and nearly torn off, both arms were gone and the skin nearly all torn away from what remained.” Another body was legless and had also been decapitated; the man’s head was later found some distance outside the fort. The poor lieutenant in charge of the detail, whose impatience caused the explosion, was so badly disfigured that he could only be identified by a piece of his shoulder strap. Newspapers reported that the explosion killed over twenty men and wounded nearly twenty others.

To his relief, Lewis Bissell discovered that most of the men in his own regiment were in their quarters at the time and were unhurt, but he still went down to the hospital to visit the wounded. “One was so badly wounded that his entrails came out,” Bissell wrote his father. “Another had the left side of his head blown away. The brains came out leaving a hollow space.” Still another had his hip mostly torn off by the explosion; Bissell thought the poor man was “riddled like a sieve.” Several of these most seriously wounded died before the next morning.

The next day, President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton made the trip across the Long Bridge from Washington to view the extent of the damage. The President pulled up to the gate of the fort in his carriage, stepped out, and walked around the camp “just as if he was at home,” Bissell thought. Lincoln even couldn’t resist picking up an axe lying around to “[show] the boys how he used to swing it.” The Connecticut soldier was on guard at the time, and told his father that he got a good look at the Commander-in-Chief as he passed by. “He is very tall and slim,” Bissell wrote, “stoops a little, [and] has a very keen, quick, and shrewd look about his eyes.” The President and his party got back into the carriage and made their way back across the Potomac after about an hour’s stay. At 4:00 pm, a funeral procession, consisting of seventeen ambulances and accompanied by mournful music from the 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery band, made its way out of the fort and rumbled toward the Soldiers’ Cemetery (now the Alexandria National Cemetery). For the men guarding Washington, the brief terror and excitement was over. “Since then,” Bissell told his father, “things have been very much as usual.”

Fort Lyon, one of the sixty-eight forts and batteries built during the Civil War to protect Washington, D.C., was the main work designed to guard the heights south of Hunting Creek. If a Confederate force gained that high ground, it could easily shell the city of Alexandria. Named after Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon (killed at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, Missouri), the fort was the second-largest work in the system and covered an area of nine acres, with a perimeter of 937 yards. It had emplacements for forty guns, and its armament consisted of ten 32-pounders, ten 24-pounders, seven 6-pounders, two eight-inch mortars, and four 24-pound Coehorn mortars. No visible remains of the fort exists today; its site is now occupied by the Huntington Metro station. For more information of the Civil War Defenses of Washington, please visit: https://www.nps.gov/cwdw/index.htm.

In May 1864, Grant pulled Lewis Bissell and his regiment, the 2d Connecticut Heavy Artillery, from fort duty and sent them to the Army of the Potomac to make up for losses in the Overland Campaign. Converted to infantrymen, their first action was at Cold Harbor, where they suffered 323 casualties. The regiment fought with the VI Corps for the remainder of the war at Petersburg and in the Shenandoah Valley. Lewis Bissell survived the war and lived until the age of 93.


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Here follows an excerpt from Don Hakenson's "This Forgotten Land" tour guide:

Fort Lyon was located near the scenic overlook known as Ballenger's Hill featuring a vista of Alexandria and Washington near the temporary parking area (Kiss and Ride) on North Kings Highway. The main camp was located behind the fort on the slope now occupied by apartment buildings. A few visible remains of the fort exist. The bombproof of Fort Lyon was located where the Metro police cars now park. A Virginia State Historical marker is posted in the area of the Kiss and Ride.

The fort was named in honor of Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon, who was killed at Wilson's Creek, Missouri, August 10, 1861. Fort Lyon formed the main work on the left flank of the defenses of Washington. Its function was to hold the heights south of Hunting Creek from which Alexandria could be shelled if controlled by Confederate artillery. The fort had emplacements for forty guns. Fort Lyon was the second largest work in the system and covered an area of nine acres with a perimeter of 937 yards. The site of the fort was placed on the spur of a plateau and arranged to command the broad valley of Hunting Creek and Telegraph Road. Below the valley, the fort protected the railroad depot, Little River Turnpike and the city of Alexandria. The Sixteenth New York Volunteer Infantry, the Twenty-sixth New York Volunteer Infantry, the Twenty-seventh New York Volunteer Infantry, the Thirty-Fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the Third Battalion New York Artillery, the One Hundred Seventh New York Volunteer Infantry, the Fifteenth New York Heavy Artillery and the One Hundred Forty-second Ohio National Guard were assigned at Fort Lyon.

THE GREAT EXPLOSION AT FORT LYON:
The Washington Star reported that on Tuesday, June 9, 1863 at approximately two o'clock in the afternoon, Alexandria was startled by a tremendous explosion, shaking the houses in many parts of the city, breaking glass, and jarring down plastering. The shock was caused by the explosion of a magazine at Fort Lyon, situated on Ballenger's Hill, on the opposite side of the Hunting Creek, about a mile and a half distant.

A gentleman from the fort reported a terrible account of the explosion. He reported twenty men attached to the garrison killed, and about thirty seriously wounded. Many of the killed were thrown a great distance in the air, and were mangled in a shocking manner. Two men were thrown nearly two hundred yards, and landed on their feet, without being seriously injured, and walked back to the fort without assistance. Most of the wounded will die. Most of those killed were in the magazine procuring powder for the practice on the garrison guns, and as their death was instantaneous, the cause of the explosion can never be known.

Ms. Anne Frobel (who lived at Wilton Hill near Telegraph Road) recorded the following in her memoirs:

"...were startled by a most violent thundering explosion, followed by another, in quick succession, the earth shook and trembled, and the old fabric we were in seemed to move, I was so frightened. I thought I saw logs tumbling out and falling all about, every body sprung to their feet exclaiming "what's that, what's that" a shell burst very near, for a little stream of blue smoke came in at one door and passed out at the other, I cried run, run don't you see the house coming down, I shoved every one as I passed along, but I believe, I was the very first to get on the outside - I looked up at Fort Lyon, which at that moment went up with a tremendous shock. It presented a splendid appearance, just my idea of a large volcano. Indeed it looked very much like the pictures of Vesuvus during an eruption, in the old Woodbridge geographys I used to study at school, so many, many years ago. Everything flew up into the air, an immense column of smoke and dust burst up from the center and seemed to stand still for a moment, and the sun reflected through it made it look like flames. The cloud then lifted and floated off towards the river, then the plants and heavy logs, timbers, pieces of steel, stones and dirt, came rattling, and thundering down the sides of the fort, and embankments -- then all was quiet -- the stillness of death seemed there.

We stood and looked, expecting every moment to see the soldiers rush out in a body and mount the parapet -- but not a sign of life was there. After a time a few men, from the camp a short distance off appeared. They moved along very slowly, and cautiously, and after taking a survey of the outside ventured in. We were too far off to see or hear anything more, and thinking old mammy might be alarmed, started for home. We found Mr. McCluer and the children here when we got home. They did not seem to have felt the concussion the way we did. In the evening Milly went over to the fort, so curious to see and know all that is going on there. She came back perfectly horrified at what she witnessed. She says a great number were killed, and many more wounded. She never beheld such a sight. The men were dragging out the crushed, mangled and disfigured bodies from the dirt and rubbish, some without heads. The dismembered bodies, and disevered limbs are scattered all round the fort and through the woods and fields in every direction. Everything happened so quickly, I could not imagine so much mischief had been done."

The next day, President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton visited the fort to see the extent of the damage. The President attempted to conceal and downplay the disaster for political and operational reasons because he did not want that devil, Colonel John S. Mosby, the Confederate Partisan Ranger, to find out the current limitations and operations of Fort Lyon.


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Here follows an excerpt on Fort Lyon from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Fort Lyon (usually Camp Lyon in Northern records) was a timber and earthwork fortification constructed south of Alexandria, Virginia, as part of the defenses of Washington, D.C. during the American Civil War. Built in the weeks following the Union defeat at Bull Run, Fort Lyon was situated on Ballenger's Hill south of Hunting Creek, and Cameron Run (which feeds into it), near Mount Eagle. From its position on one of the highest points south of Alexandria, the fort overlooked Telegraph Road, the Columbia Turnpike, the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, the Little River Turnpike, and the southern approaches to the city of Alexandria, the largest settlement in Union-occupied Northern Virginia.

The Huntington Station of the Washington Metro is located next to Fort Lyon's former hilltop site, which is commemorated by a historical marker at the north end of the station lot off North Kings Highway.

Occupation of Arlington:
Before the outbreak of the Civil War, Alexandria County (renamed Arlington County in 1920), the Virginia county closest to Washington, D.C., was a predominantly rural area. Originally part of the District of Columbia, the land now comprising the county was retroceded to Virginia in a July 9, 1846 act of Congress that took effect in 1847. Most of the county is hilly, and at the time, most of the county's population was concentrated in the city of Alexandria, at the far southeastern corner of the county. In 1861, the rest of the county largely consisted of scattered farms, the occasional house, fields for grazing livestock, and Arlington House, owned by Mary Custis, wife of Robert E. Lee.

Following the surrender of Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, on April 14, 1861, new American president Abraham Lincoln declared that "an insurrection existed," and called for 75,000 troops to be called up to quash the rebellion. The move sparked resentment in many other southern states, which promptly moved to convene discussions of secession. The Virginia State Convention passed "an ordinance of secession" and ordered a May 23 referendum to decide whether or not the state should secede from the Union. The U.S. Army responded by creating the Department of Washington, which united all Union troops in the District of Columbia and Maryland under one command.

Brigadier General Joseph K. Mansfield, commander of the Department of Washington, argued that Northern Virginia should be occupied as soon as possible in order to prevent the possibility of the Confederate Army mounting artillery on the hills of Arlington and shelling government buildings in Washington. He also urged the erection of fortifications on the Virginia side of the Potomac River to protect the southern termini of the Chain Bridge, Long Bridge, and Aqueduct Bridge. His superiors approved these recommendations, but decided to wait until after Virginia voted for or against secession.

On May 23, 1861, Virginia voted by a margin of 3 to 1 in favor of leaving the Union. That night, U.S. Army troops began crossing the bridges linking Washington, D.C. to Virginia. The march, which began at 10 p.m. on the night of the 23rd, was described in colorful terms by the New York Herald two days later:

There can be no more complaints of inactivity of the government. The forward march movement into Virginia, indicated in my despatches last night, took place at the precise time this morning that I named, but in much more imposing and powerful numbers.

About ten o'clock last night four companies of picked men moved over the Long Bridge, as an advance guard. They were sent to reconnoitre, and if assailed were ordered to signal, when they would have been reinforced by a corps of regular infantry and a battery....

At twelve o'clock the infantry regiment, artillery and cavalry corps began to muster and assume marching order. As fast as the several regiments were ready they proceeded to the Long Bridge, those in Washington being directed to take that route.

The troops quartered at Georgetown, the Sixty-ninth, Fifth, Eighth and Twenty-eighth New York Regiments, proceeded across what is known as the Chain Bridge, above the mouth of the Potomac Aqueduct, under the command of General McDowell. They took possession of the heights in that direction.

The imposing scene was at the Long Bridge, where the main body of the troops crossed. Eight thousand infantry, two regular cavalry companies and two sections of Sherman's artillery battalion, consisting of two batteries, were in line this side of the Long Bridge at two o'clock.

The occupation of Northern Virginia was peaceful, with the sole exception of the town of Alexandria. There, as Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth, commander of the New York Fire Zouaves (11th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment), entered a local hotel to remove the Confederate flag flying above it, he was shot and killed by James Jackson, the proprietor. Ellsworth was one of the first men killed in the American Civil War.
Throughout the remainder of the war, Alexandria would lean strongly towards the Confederate government, necessitating continued occupation by a Union garrison.

Battle of Bull Run:
Over the seven weeks that followed the occupation of northern Virginia, forts were constructed along the banks of the Potomac River and at the approaches to each of the three major bridges (Chain Bridge, Long Bridge, and Aqueduct Bridge) connecting Virginia to Washington and Georgetown.

While the Potomac River forts were being built, planning and surveying was ordered for an enormous new ring of forts to protect the city. Unlike the fortifications under construction, the new forts would defend the city in all directions, not just the most direct route through Arlington. In mid-July, this work was interrupted by the First Battle of Bull Run. As the Army of Northeastern Virginia marched south to Manassas, the soldiers previously assigned to construction duties marched instead to battle. In the days that followed the Union defeat at Bull Run, panicked efforts were made to defend Washington from what was perceived as an imminent Confederate attack. The makeshift trenches and earthworks that resulted were largely confined to Arlington and the direct approaches to Washington.

On July 26, 1861, five days after the battle, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan was named commander of the military district of Washington and the subsequently renamed Army of the Potomac. Upon arriving in Washington, McClellan was appalled by the condition of the city's defenses.

In no quarter were the dispositions for defense such as to offer a vigorous resistance to a respectable body of the enemy, either in the position and numbers of the troops or the number and character of the defensive works... not a single defensive work had been commenced on the Maryland side. There was nothing to prevent the enemy shelling the city from heights within easy range, which could be occupied by a hostile column almost without resistance.

To remedy the situation, one of McClellan's first orders upon taking command was to greatly expand the defenses of Washington. At all points of the compass, forts and entrenchments would be constructed in sufficient strength to defeat any attack. Alexandria, which contained the southern terminus of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and one of the largest ports in the Chesapeake Bay, was an object of "anxious study."

Planning and construction:
Gen. Horatio Wright, who had overseen the construction of Fort Ellsworth, and Gen. John Newton, who was in charge of the forts south of Four Mile Run, supervised the construction and managed the flow of men and material.

It was laid out in September 1861 with a perimeter of 937 yards (857 m), covering nine acres (3.6 ha), and was surrounded by abatis, and rifle pits. The fort built by the 27th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment. It had 31 guns, including four 200 pounders, (8-inch (203 mm) Parrott rifles), and 16 mortars. It was named for Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon, who was killed at the Battle of Wilson's Creek, Missouri, August 10, 1861.

Wartime use:
General Samuel P. Heintzelman was headquartered at Fort Lyon, southwest of Alexandria, when he was in charge of the defense of Washington from 27 October 1862 to 13 October 1863. Robert Knox Sneden served there on his staff, from January 12, 1862 to March 22, 1862, when they embarked for the Peninsula Campaign.

On June 9, 1863, Fort Lyon was rocked by an enormous black powder explosion that resulted in the deaths of 25 soldiers and the destruction of eight tons of powder and several thousand rounds of ammunition. The explosion was loud enough to be heard in nearby Alexandria, and one witness noted:

...about two o'clock today..we were startled by a most violent thundering explosion, followed by another, in quick succession, the earth shook and trembled... I was so frightened...a shell burst very near, for a little stream of blue smoke came in one door and passed out the other... I looked up at Fort Lyon, which at that moment went up with a tremendous shock...It...looked...like the pictures of Vesuvus [sic] during an eruption... Everything flew up from the center and seemed to stand still for a moment...then...pieces of steel, stones, and dirt, came rattling, and thundering down...

In the wake of the explosion, Fort Lyon, and Alexandria were visited by many military and civilian dignitaries, including Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and President Abraham Lincoln.

The garrison was originally the 16th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, 26th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, 27th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, 107th New York Volunteer Infantry, 142nd Ohio Infantry, 15th New York Heavy Artillery Regiment. In October 1864, Company's G, H, K, and M, 1st Wisconsin Heavy Artillery Regiment were assigned to the Fort. They were mustered out on June 26, 1865.

Post-war:
Nothing remains of the fort today; only a historical marker, located at the north end of the North Kings Highway parking area of the Huntington Metro station and erected in 1998 by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, marks its former location.

There is also a historical marker at the south end of Mount Eagle Park describing the earthen works erected by the Union Army. Though much of it has been eroded, a small path still exists where you can walk back to where the earthen works are.