Fortifications

Today, the area that once held the fort is largely forested, though some of the original bastions have been preserved. Two 15-inch (381 mm) guns sit on carriages overlooking the Potomac. Only one was originally used at Fort Foote. The other is from Battery Rodgers, which lay on the opposite side of the river during the Civil War.

At the time of the Civil War, only Fort Washington, a fort originally built to defend the city in the War of 1812 blocked the approach along the Potomac River. Fort Washington's vulnerability was highlighted in the 1862 clash of the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia, two wholly ironclad ships. Although the Virginia never attacked Union ships again, Washingtonians were concerned that an ironclad similar to the Virginia might be able to slip past the isolated guns of Fort Washington and begin a bombardment of the city. They were also concerned with the potential intervention of European nations on the side of the Confederacy, possibly adding a major naval threat to the city. Although sufficient defensive works had been constructed to defend the city from land attack, it was determined that the city was still vulnerable to attack from the water.

Rosiers Bluff, a 100-foot high Maryland cliff six miles south of Washington was found to be an excellent site for the new fort. In 1863, the first unit of the fort's garrison arrived in Maryland. The four companies of the 9th New York Heavy Artillery Regiment were immediately pressed into service as laborers on the construction project. On August 20, 1863, Secretary of State William Seward, President Abraham Lincoln, and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton visited the new construction. One month after the Presidential visit, the as-yet-unnamed fort was officially christened in honor of Admiral Andrew H. Foote.

Fort Foote operated from 1863 to 1878, when the post was abandoned. After the war, new construction was required to fulfill its role as a federal prison, which it performed between 1868 and 1869. The the fort was also used as a testing ground for a recoil gun carriage. In 1872, plans to strengthen the fort were submitted by the War Department and the federal government purchased the fort's land outright from its previous owner in 1873 rather than continuing the wartime lease. Work began on new improvements but, when the appropriation was abruptly withdrawn, construction halted. With continued post-war military cutbacks, the garrison was removed in 1878 and the fort was abandoned.

Between 1902 and 1917, it was used as a training area for a local engineering school. During this time, the fort's now-obsolete guns were removed, with the exception of the two 15-inch cannons. During the First World War, the fort was used for gas service training, and during the Second World War, the site was used by officer candidates from Fort Washington. After that war, the fort was transferred to the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service for inclusion in the Service's system of DC-area national parks.

Fort Foote never fired a shot in anger against any opponent, Confederate or otherwise.