Arlington Heights, Virginia, blockhouse near Aqueduct Bridge (Library of Congress)
UPDATED MEETING LOCATION: Due to the National Museum of African American History and Culture opening on Sept. 24, this tour will meet at St. George’s Episcopal Church located at 915 N Oakland St, Arlington, VA 22203 (not the Ripley Center).
During the time of the Civil War, Virginia's Arlington County—then known as Alexandria County—was covered with farms and orchards. It was home to a population of less than 1,500, the majority of whom were pro-Union. This pastoral county on the doorstep of Washington, D.C., became an arena for the political and military power struggles engulfing the nation. The site of some 22 forts, the area was overrun during the war with 150,000 Union troops encamped in the vicinity at various times throughout the 4-years of the conflict.
Beginning with a presentation at the Ripley Center, historian Kathryn Holt Springston leads a tour that focuses on life in Arlington County during and after the Civil War. Sites of many forts are viewed, and Springston points out the location of Mathew Brady’s photo “saloon,” where soldiers could have their tintypes made; homes that served as hospitals; a Confederate outpost; and the Reconstruction-era Freedmen’s Village.
