Why Fort Stevens?

I've noticed in that a lot of American Civil War AHs, if the Confederates do attack Washington, they always do it at Fort Stevens? Grant Comes East and Guns of the South are the two that spring to mind.

Now, is there anything about Fort Stevens or its location that makes it a better target for the South, or is it just that there was a battle at Fort Stevens OTL, so authors just do the lazy thing and use the same fort?
 
I've noticed in that a lot of American Civil War AHs, if the Confederates do attack Washington, they always do it at Fort Stevens? Grant Comes East and Guns of the South are the two that spring to mind.

Now, is there anything about Fort Stevens or its location that makes it a better target for the South, or is it just that there was a battle at Fort Stevens OTL, so authors just do the lazy thing and use the same fort?

Kind of the lazy thing in that Fort Stevens was one of the few DC fortifications to not only come under attack but hosted the President during the attack.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Stevens_(Washington,_D.C.)
 
Well, there was one Confederate assault OTL against Fort Stevens in 1864, intended as part of an effort to try to force Grant to divert forces from the Overland Campaign to defend Washington and Maryland. AH writers could be simply playing off of that: just picking a familiar name, or assuming that whatever the OTL reasons for raiding Fort Stevens were, they probably also made it a good spot for serious assault.

Also, take a look at the geography of the defenses:
defenses-of-washington-925.jpg


Fort Stevens is conveniently along a major road leading directly into Washington from the Northwest (so Confederate attackers could cross the Potomac upstream where it's narrower and lightly-defended rather than having to try to force a crossing directly into DC's main defenses across a bridge or cross further Southeast where the river is patrolled by warships.

Fort Stevens is also relatively unsupported by other forts, compared with the rest of the defenses. Based on the map, it looks like in most places, the forts were deployed in depth so attackers would need to fight their way through several rings of defenders to reach Washington, whereas Fort Stevens is the only fort defending the Seventh Street Road approach. It's also a mile away from each of the neighboring forts, whereas in most other places, the forts are spaces half a mile apart or closer.
 
Ooh, nice map :). It helps a lot. So there were some logical reasons. Good, I was panicking that Turtledove had done something strictly for lazy OTL parallels/ cameos :rolleyes:

I never quite realized the scope of the Washington defenses. In Grant Comes East at least, it talks about a 100 pound cannon in the fort, along with some 40 pounders and regular guns :eek: I have to think it would take over 60,000 infantry to even break through somewhere, with just the garrison. Put the Army of the Potomac in there... Pickett's Charge look like a cake walk comparatively
 
There was also a force sent against Fort Reno(which controls the highest point in Washington), although that force turned tail fairly quickly. If you're interested in the details of the battle, the map I have places the union battle lines from DeRussy to Fort Slocum with at least some of the Confederate lines running through what is now Walter Reed.
 
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