Chain Link Fences at Fort Ward

Chain Link Fences at Fort Ward 

by Dave Cavanaugh

Chain Link fences guard a vacant maintenance yard and an old cemetery for African Americans at Fort Ward.  The maintenance yard and the compacted soils have undermined graves in the cemetery and hay bales have become the stop-gap means of diverting water.

After the Civil former slaves settled in the area of the Fort and successive generations of African Americans lived there until the 1960s.  They were moved out and resettled by the City to make way for a historic park that was completed in time for the Civil War Centennial. The Fort and the bastions built as part of struggle to unite the nation and end slavery was protected from destruction by the former slaves who settled there.  Ironically, the African American residents were relocated and the homes, family burial plots, a former school and church site, and the stories of families vanished from public view.

Fort Ward is heavily used by residents and remains a popular destination for tourist and school age children interested in the Civil War.  In area next to a busy interstate highway, the park and museum is an historic educational resource and provides a casual setting for small gatherings, family picnicking, walking, and listening to local entertainment. 

We have a rare opportunity to reclaim and provide a balanced and diverse interpretation of the Civil War at Fort Ward.  The all but vacant maintenance yard should be removed and the land returned to the park as open space and possible picnic areas.  The school site and various home sites and known family burial areas should be identified and protected from further desecration.  A plan for the park should be completed that preserves the natural terrain and protects the natural resources.  The plan should also recognize the contribution of African Americans who endured the dashed hopes of reconstruction, treatment under Jim Crow, segregation and the race riots of the 1960s.  

The City of Alexandria should lead a community based effort to tell the story in a way that will attract a more diverse group of visitors to the museum and park.  African Americans actively participated in gaining their freedom and helping with the Union war effort.  Free Blacks and emancipated slaves went to work as guides, laborers, teamsters, cooks, ambulance drivers and a 185,000 men served in the Union Army.  More importantly as the City plans for the Civil War Sesquicentennial, the story can be told in a way that makes the Civil War and the impacts on the nation and society more relevant than ever before.