Set in a nondescript block of Georgia Avenue in northwest Washington, D.C., this single-acre cemetery is one one of the country’s smallest national cemeteries, and serves as a reminder of the time the American Civil War came to the doorstep of the nation’s capitol. On July 11, 1864, Confederate troops reached what is now Silver Spring, Maryland, bordering Washington, D.C. General Robert E. Lee sent those troops, led by General Jubal Early, to relieve Union pressure on Petersburg, Virginia, amid rumors that the capitol was poorly defended. Those rumors were…
