When thefirst shots of the Civil War were fired in 1861, Washington, D.C., was a small,essentially Southern city. The capital rapidly transformed as it prepared forinvasion—army camps sprung up in Foggy Bottom, the Navy Yard on Anacostia was abeehive of activity and even the Capitol was pressed into service as abarracks. Local citizens and government officials struggled to accommodate thefugitive slaves and troops that crowded into the city. From the story of one ofthe first African American army surgeons, Dr. Alexander Augusta, to thetireless efforts of Clara Barton, historian Lucinda Prout Janke renders anintimate portrait of a community on the front lines of war. Join Janke as sheguides readers through the changing landscape of a capital besieged.