Most histories of Washington, D.C. during the Civil War only talk about President Lincoln, Congress and the familiar National landmarks of the city. Most people know very little about the District of Columbia (which in 1861 was the same size as Gulfport, Mississippi today) and the ordinary people who called Washington City and the surrounding Maryland and Virginia countryside home during the War of the Rebellion. Using photographs, original writings and other researched information, U.S. Park Ranger Bryan Cheeseboro brings to light the stories of “everybody else” and presents a diversity of Union and Confederate men and women, Blacks and Whites, and free and enslaved in and around Washington during the war. He plans to talk about lesser known and forgotten people of the era.

Peerless Rockville Historic Preservation Ltd. is supported in part by a grant from the City of Rockville and funding from the Montgomery County Government and the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County.