The enlisted men's barracks at Fort Washington. NPS
During the Civil War, the enlisted men's barracks at Fort Washington were so crowded that soldiers lived in the attic. A cache of objects found there offers a rare look at everyday life at the fort during and just after the war. NPS archeologists drew on their knowledge of mid-19th-century material culture to identify and interpret the finds.
An overcrowded fort
The two-story barracks, finished in 1824, were built for just 60 soldiers, with outside stairs linking the floors — unlike the officers' quarters, which had stairwells inside.
When the war began, Confederate troops seized many federal forts and arsenals in the seceding states. Fort Washington, in Maryland — a slave state with many secession supporters — faced the same danger, and it was then the only fort defending the national capital. Union troops arrived in January 1861, and the fort filled beyond capacity:
| Date | Enlisted men |
|---|---|
| 1861 | 280 — Company D, 1st U.S. Artillery; two companies of recruits; the Logan Guards; and the Washington Artillerists |
| June 1862 | 272 |
| March 1863 | 146 |
| May 1864 | 146 |
| July 1865 | 142 |
Behind the attic wall
At some point during or just after the war, part of the attic was lathed and plastered — a sign it was used as living space. Behind a low wall under the eaves, archeologists found:
Bottles, shoe parts and oyster shells from behind the attic wall. NPS
| Find | What it suggests |
|---|---|
| Bottles — mostly fragments, several whole, holding alcohol and medicine; one shaped like a blacking (shoe polish) bottle | sutlers — peddlers who visited the fort — sold shoe polish and beer during the war, and at least one sold ale afterward. The alcohol may have been hidden from officers |
| A bottle with a label fragment reading "cures" | possibly a patent medicine — ineffective, but it contained alcohol, plus opium extracts and morphine: a way to get a drink when the sutler had no beer or ale |
| A sardine can, its gold label still soldered on: "Burguin sardines, Port Louis" | packed in Port Louis, France — evidence that trade with Europe in food and munitions went on through the war |
| 22 shoe fragments, mostly soles; one heel with extra nails | repairs — perhaps missing parts were reused to mend other shoes |
| Oyster shells, cans, and a ball from canister shot | canister shot packed balls, sometimes in sawdust, into a can that burst when fired, spraying an advancing enemy. Was this one used in a game? |
Women's shoes in a men's barracks
Three of the shoe fragments were clearly from women's shoes — two mostly soles, one an almost complete boot. Officers' wives could live in the officers' quarters, but the barracks had no room for enlisted men's wives, who lived outside the fort. So how did the shoes get there? Did a wife slip in with help from the gate guards? Did an enterprising cobbler among the soldiers set up shop in the attic?
Passing the time
A portrait on the attic ceiling. NPS
Off duty, soldiers read, drew and played games. A handmade checkerboard turned up between two wall studs, and on a nearby ceiling someone had drawn a portrait of a man, apparently in candle soot.
The checkerboard found between the wall studs. NPS
A handful of objects can't settle much, the archeologists caution — but they raise questions that further research may answer.
Sources
Based on "Artifacts in the Attic: An Unusual Cache at Fort Washington Park," National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The article calls the canister-shot ball both lead and iron, and spells the sardines' place of packing two ways ("Morihan," "Moribhan"), so neither the metal nor the region is given here.
In these publicationsFort Washington Park
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
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