History: Battle of Fort Stevens
Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge, former U.S. vice president and one of Lincoln’s opponents in the presidential election of 1860, was one of the Confederate commanders; the Battle of Fort Stevens marks the only occasion in American history when two former opponents in a presidential election faced one another across battle lines and only the second time in American history a sitting president was under fire in combat. Breckinridge was a cousin of Mary Todd Lincoln and a beau in her youth.
