Security· American Civil War
Garrison of Fort Washington
One of the first Marine moves of the secession crisis, made to secure the approaches to the threatened capital.
As the cotton states left the Union and rumors swirled of plots against Washington, the government acted to put its nearby fortifications in safe hands. On 5 January 1861 a detachment of forty Marines under Captain Algernon Taylor was sent from the Washington barracks to garrison Fort Washington, the old work on the Potomac below the city, opposite Mount Vernon. The fort was a decaying ruin, but its position commanded the river approach to the capital, and a reliable garrison there was a prudent precaution in those uncertain weeks. No fighting occurred; the deployment was purely protective. It was a small but characteristic early service of the war, the Washington Marines, the force closest to hand, being used to shore up the defenses of a capital that many feared might be seized before Lincoln could even take office.
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Record no. 387