Confederate Earthworks

Confederate Earthworks. Guarding the Potomac River Frontier. Across the ground in front of you are the remains of Confederate infantry earthworks most likely built after the Battle of Ball’s Bluff on October 21, 1861. At this time, Leesburg was on the front lines of the American Civil War and an outpost on the Potomac River frontier. The river was, for the Confederates, an international boundary between two nations at war. Leesburg was an important point to defend on that line., After Ball’s Bluff, the Confederates under Gen. D.H. Hill continued work on several preexisting forts to discourage another Federal attack from Maryland. They included Fort Evans (which stands today on private property to your right just beyond the shopping complex), Fort Johnson on Catoctin Ridge immediately west of Leesburg, and Fort Beauregard on a ridge overlooking Tuscarora southeast of town. Additional outer works, such as the one here, augmented the forts and sheltered the troops guarding Leesburg., Although records for this work are lacking, it is located on a spur extending 600 yards from Fort Evans to protect the approach to the fort from the southeast. Surveys conducted early in the 21st century located at least twelve platforms where soldiers’ huts may have stood., Early in March 1862, the Confederates withdrew from Leesburg, and Union Col. John Geary’s 28th Pennsylvania Infantry occupied the town and the fortifications. The earthworks around Leesburg soon fell into disuse and deterioration. Much of Fort Evans, however, as well as traces of Fort Johnson and other works along Edwards Ferry Road such as this one, have survived.