Fort Stevens, formerly named Fort Massachusetts, was a US Army fort located in the Brightwood neighborhood of northwest Washington DC. The fort was built atop confiscated Black land in 1861 and was later enlarged and renamed "Fort Stevens" after Brigadier-General Isaac Stevens, who was killed at the Battle of Chantilly on 1 September 1862. By 1864, Fort Stevens was one of 68 forts manning a 37-mile-long arrangement of capital defenses. On 11-12 July 1864, Jubal Early's Confederate forces attacked the fort during his invasion of Maryland, but the Union Army reinforced the capital's defenses as President Abraham Lincoln watched the repulse of the rebel attacks. The site was abandoned after the American Civil War, and, in 1900, a 102nd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment veteran formed a memorial association to raise funds for a stone memorial on the site, dedicated in 1911. During the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps restored a portion of the parapet and one magazine. The site is now maintained by the National Park SErvice.
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