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Maureen Dowd: Lincoln’s Forgotten Fort

[Maureen Dowd is a columnist for the NYT.]

We went sledding there and played hide and seek, rolled Easter eggs and stole our first kisses. We could be dragged away only when we heard our mom’s vibrant whistle, signaling dinner.

When we were little, Fort Stevens was just a cool playground, with dry moats and tall mounds and a couple of cannons, located across the street from our Catholic grade school and down the block from our house.

My mom, an ardent student of the Civil War, explained that the fort was an important part of history — the scene of a battle in which a sitting American president came under enemy fire and the only time the nation’s capital was attacked by the Confederate Army....
Read entire article at NYT