Notes:Zaruba Street

2011-05-30: Source:Reeves: "So important was Pittsburgh to the Union war effort that in 1863, when Robert E. Lee began his second invasion of the North, a ring of 37 fortifications was hastily constructed in June and early July around the city to protect it from Confederate attack. Stanton Heights, Morningside, Greenfield and Squirrel Hill were among the places where earthen fortifications were built. ¶ A group largely composed of the city's African-Americans built Fort Robert Smalls on the South Side Slopes. The fort was named for a slave, later a U. S. congressman, who piloted a ship out of Charleston, S. C., harbor and brought it to the U. S. Navy. Jones & Laughlin steelworkers also constructed a fort nearby, on what is now the site of the Arlington playground."

"A sketch of the defenses of Pittsburg":

• https://catalog.archives.gov/id/305785
• https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sketch_of_the_Defenses_of_Pittsburg_(sic)_made_by_order_of_Captain_Craighill,_Corps_of_Engrs.,_USA,_July_20th,_1863..._-_NARA_-_305785.jpg
• https://www.civilwarpittsburgh.com/post/documenting-the-defenses-a-photographic-look-at-pittsburgh-s-1863-fortifications

1994: Source:Brown-et-al, p. 111: "ARLINGTON HEIGHTS ¶ Fort Robert Smalls ¶ Exact location undetermined (probably located on the slight rise beside Devlin Street and St. Peter's Cemetery in Arlington Heights, along Becks Run.) ¶ Arlington Heights ¶ Nature of site: Civil War fort site (1863) ¶ Significance: The threat of Confederate invasion of the North in the summer of 1863 led Pittsburgh to construct a number of forts and redoubts on the hills surrounding the city. At least two of the forts were built using African American labor. Fort Robert Smalls, also known as Fort Smalls, was built by black workers on what was known as McGuire's Hill. The fort was named after Robert Smalls, an African American ship pilot who escaped north during the Civil War, bringing with him a valuable naval prize. The four-to-five-foot-high earthen embankments of the fort survived until the 1930s, when they were destroyed for the construction of public housing. (2) ¶ Source: William D. McCarthy, 'The Civil War Fortifications of Pittsburgh: An Historical and Archaeological Survey' (M. A. paper, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, 1992)." The "(2)" means that it has importance in the category "Work and Businesses."

2009: Source:Fox

• Chapter 7, "Civil War fortifications of Pittsburgh," pp. 165–185
• p. 165: "The network of 37 'forts' and redoubts that surrounded the city in 1863 have been documented in several articles in the past 90 years. However, it was not until the 1990s that anyone attempted to 'piece' all of this work together to form a definitive study of the fortifications. William D. McCarthy, a trained historian and archaeologist at the University of Pittsburgh, assembled the most comprehensive work to date on these unique historic structures for his Masters Thesis.¹ McCarthy's complete work saw publication and only a few copies of his thesis exist; however, much of the work became available in a two-piece article in Pittsburgh History in 1998–99.² Also in 1998 I wrote an article for the Tribune-Review newspaper concerning the fortifications, drawing heavily on Bill's material, in addition to primary research I had also conducted on my own about the fortifications.³"
  • p. 183: "1. William D. McCarthy, The Civil War Fortifications of Pittsburgh: An Historical and Archaeological Survey. (M. A. Thesis, University of Pittsburgh, Department of Anthropology, 1992). ¶ 2. William D. McCarthy, 'One Month in the Summer of '63: Pittsburgh Prepares for the Civil War," Pittsburgh History, Part I, Fall 1998, 118–133; Part II, Winter 1998/99, 81, No. 4, 156–169. Part II describes each of the individual fort sites. ¶ 3. The author was fortunate at the time to be working with Bill at the now defunct CCRR (Center for Cultural Resource Research), University of Pittsburgh at Harmarville, during 1991–92 and had the opportunity to consult with him at various 'bull sessions' during his research. It was because of Bill's research and the many aspects of the unrecorded history of the 1860s, that he 'came across' and mentioned to me and related to, in the preface of this book, that caught my interest concerning this period in Pittsburgh. See also, Arthur B. Fox 'In the City's Defense.' Tribune Review FOCUS, August 30, 1998."
• p. 168: "The most notable as well as visual evidence of the fortifications is a set of 30 photographs in the Pennsylvania Room at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Oakland Branch. The photographs, taken by Dr. David R. Breed in the 1890s, were donated to the Carnegie by his wife, Mary Breed, in 1929. There is no record of any earlier photographs in existence and the Breed Collection documents the various sites approximately 30 years after their construction. Several sites destroyed by this time have never been photographed to the best of our present knowledge.¹⁷ In the same regard, there are no known photographs documenting the fortifications as they originally appeared in July 1863. Unfortunately, through the years, the fortifications have been mistakingly [sic] called by some writers 'camps;' but as I have documented in Chapter 2, this was not the case, for the camps and fortifications are two separate developments. ¶ The 'Defenses of Pittsburg,' a sketch of fortifications ordered by Captain Craighill on July 20, 1863, after construction had ended, pinpoints locations for 17 redoubts, 14 battery sites and a single fort. George T. Fleming, writing in 1923, noted the 'Defenses of Pittsburg' was drawn by a Mr. B. W. O'Grady to a scale of one and one-half inches to the mile. The map was procured for the Carnegie Museum in 1894 by Stephen Quinon, a former Pittsburgh Gazette Times newspaper man who had lived in Texas by the 1920s.¹⁸"
• p. 168: "The 37 sites surrounding the city are listed according to geographical areas of Pittsburgh. Several locations had more than one name while others are 'unidentified.' Some sites took their name from a landowner or family member and eleven are named for Civil War officers. In an obscure article from the October 8, 1864, Pittsburgh Gazette, eleven of the forts assumed names of officers killed in battle or who had died of wounds during the Civil War.²⁰"
• p. 177: "Fort Robert Smalls (Fort Smalls) ¶ Arlington Heights: Defenses south of the Monongahela River spanned the rise between Saw Mill Run in the west and Becks Run to the east. Fort Smalls overlooked the mouth of Becks Run, defending against an enemy advance up the Monongahela River's south bank. Pittsburgh's African-American population provided the bulk of labor for the Fort, named for Robert Smalls, a South Carolina slave and ship's pilot who brought a captured ship to the Union during the Civil War. The fort, built on a slight rise beside Devlin Street and St. Peter's Cemetery, survived into the 1940s before public housing projects claimed the site.⁵² Approximately 124 men labored on Fort Small [sic], 27 whites and 97 Blacks."
  • p. 184: "52. McCarthy, Part II, 164. Also the Daily Post, 7 July, 1863, provides a listing of black labor at Fort Small [sic]."
• p. 179: "TWO CIVIL WAR FORTS ON THE SOUTH SIDE COULD STILL BE SEEN IN 1929⁶⁵" p. 185: "Marie McSwigan, Pittsburgh Press, 14 February 1929, 'Remnants of Old Civil War Fort can still be seen on South Side.'"

To do

More about Fort Robert Smalls.

• William D. McCarthy, The Civil War Fortifications of Pittsburgh: An Historical and Archaeological Survey, M. A. thesis, University of Pittsburgh, Department of Anthropology, 1992.