"[1] The site of Fort Bayard itself was owned by Philip J. Buckey, a farmer who made his home in the Fourth Ward of Washington County.

During the construction process, he valued the land at approximately $5,000, and continued to live in a farmhouse near the fort with his wife, four children, and two servants throughout the course of the war.

Despite the loss of much of their land, the Shoemaker family continued to operate a local general store and sold various sundry items to the garrison at Fort Bayard.

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.

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.

At all points of the compass, forts and entrenchments would be constructed in sufficient strength to slow an attack and buy time for reinforcements to arrive and bolster the city's defenses.

[8] Prior to the outbreak of war, the Great Falls Turnpike, also known as River Road, was an important traffic artery for trade entering the District of Columbia from western Maryland and beyond.

[11] In April 1863, the fort was named in honor of the recently deceased Brigadier General George Dashiell Bayard, who had been killed on December 13, 1862, at the Battle of Fredericksburg.

As the fighting dragged on and casualties mounted, the various commanders of the Army of the Potomac repeatedly raided the Washington garrison for trained artillerymen and infantry replacements.

In addition, Howe found the fort's single magazine to be "dry and in good order," and the ammunition supply as "full and servicible."

The raid hoped to attack Washington, thereby distracting Grant and potentially allowing the Confederate forces time to rest and regroup.

On the morning of July 11, Confederate cavalry and infantry under the command of Brigadier General John McCausland advanced towards Washington with the goal of capturing Fort Reno, which defended the village of Tenleytown.

Discouraged by the resistance, McCausland's brigade moved to join up with the rest of Early's force, which was grouping for an assault on Fort Stevens.

After the surrender of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865, the primary reason for manned defenses protecting Washington ceased to exist.

However, the bill allowing for the purchase of the former forts, which had been turned back over to private ownership after the war, failed to pass both the House of Representatives and Senate.

By 1963, when President John F. Kennedy began pushing Congress to finally build the Fort Circle Drive,[28] many in Washington and the National Park Service were openly questioning whether the plan had outgrown its usefulness.

[29] After all, by this time, Washington had grown past the ring of forts that had protected it a century earlier, and city surface roads already connected the parks, albeit not in as linear a route as envisioned.