Honoring the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, several members of the Alliance to Preserve the Civil War Defenses of Washington made it a “day of service” and met at Fort Stevens on Saturday,
January 15, 2022, to clean up trash at the site. Board Secretary Bryan Cheeseboro organized the event and was joined by fellow Alliance members Burnell Irby, Blake Lindsey, Bob Meffert, and
Tom Sneeringer.
Despite sub-freezing temperatures, Alliance
members collected a large a large volume of litter dumped on the park grounds. According to Bryan, “When I got to the fort, I didn't know what to expect. Looking at the parade ground from Quackenobos Street behind the fort, it looked like a clean-up effort had already been done. But then we discovered the ditch- it was full of trash. About 75% of it was alcohol related- beer cans, liquor, and wine bottles. I had no idea that things were that bad.”
Besides the clean-up, local passersby were treated to a spontaneous lecture about the historic fort by Bob Meffert. Fort Stevens was the scene of the only Civil War battle to take place in the District of Columbia on July 11-12, 1864, where President Abraham Lincoln observed Union troops repel Confederate General Jubal Early’s Army of the Valley, a late-war detachment of the Army of Northern Virginia.
