When the Capitol at Washington was threatened by the Confederate armies,
it was still an unfinished structure, betraying its incompleteness to
every beholder. This picture shows the derrick on the dome. It is a view
of the east front of the building and was taken on July 11, 1863.
Washington society had not been wholly free from occasional "war scares"
since the withdrawal of most of the troops whose duty it had been to guard
the city. Early's approach in July, 1864, found the Nation's capital
entirely unprotected. Naturally there was a flutter throughout the
peaceable groups of non-combatants that made up the population of
Washington at that time, as well as in official circles. There were less
than seventy thousand people living in the city in 1864, a large
proportion of whom were in some way connected with the Government.
[Illustration: PROTECTING LOCOMOTIVES FROM THE CONFEDERATE RAIDER