This photograph shows the flat nature of the open country about
Washington. There were no natural fortifications around the city.
Artificial works were necessary throughout. Fort Whipple lay to the south
of Fort Corcoran, one of the three earliest forts constructed. It was
built later, during one of the recurrent panics at the rumor that the
Confederates were about to descend upon Washington. This battery of six
guns, the one on the right hand, pointing directly out of the picture,
looks quite formidable. One can imagine the burst of fire from the
underbrush which surrounds it, should it open upon the foe. At present it
is simply drilling.
[Illustration: "STAND TO HORSE!"--AN AMERICAN VOLUNTEER CAVALRYMAN,
OCTOBER, 1862