FORT ALBANY was located on Arlington Heights, southwest of the Long Bridge that led into Washington, DC. The land to the rear of this earthwork structure was used as a parade ground for the frequent review of the thousands of soldiers encamped nearby (at Camp Seward and Camp Chase). 

Below is an 1861 drawing, printed in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper on 31 August 1861, while it was still being constructed. The Arlington House is in the background, on the left, while the Potomac River and the White House are in the distance on the right side of image. 

Below is another image of Fort Albany, this time facing south and looking at the main gate. This was also from 1861, with New York troops encamped outside. It was built to overlook the Columbia Turnpike, which is the road running horizontally through image (it turns south after passing the western view of the fort). 

To the east of the fort (left side of above picture from this view) is the Roach (or Roche) farm, which can be seen on the 1862 map seen below. As Seth Bryant mentioned in his journal (Nov 11th entry), the troop review was on the flat back of Fort Albany, which would have been below the Heights. On that day, he says that after the review they marched on to the road and, instead of taking a left back towards Camp (Seward), they turned right towards the Long Bridge, and marched down to the flat marshy ground by the river. The location of Gen. Casey's gathering would have been somewhere in the location marked with the red circle.  

Fort Albany no longer exists, as the earthworks and hillside was completely eliminated for the highway system, with Rt. 395 now runs through its former location. A historical marker stands in Prospect Hill Park (1025 S Arlington Ridge Rd, Arlington, VA 22202) to mark the nearby spot.

Links:
1862 Map of N. Eastern Virginia and vicinity of Washington -[LoC or Rumsey]
Defenses of Washington Marker Series [Fort Albany on Flickr]
Fort Albany at Arlington Heights, 1861 (E.F.Ruhl, Publisher - LoC site)
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 31 Aug 1861 [Vol. XII, pg. 253]
The Historical Marker Database: Fort Albany 

​During his time with the 27th Maine, Private Charles W. Gooch, of Company I, wrote over fifty letters to his wife Julia, back home in Kennebunk, Maine. The following is a letter he wrote to her on the 15th of March, 1863. I've transcribed it as written, with lack of punctuation and spelling errors included.
Note:clicking on images will enlarge them for better viewing/reading

NOTES:
(pg 1) Charles Gooch was a religious man, and this letter seems to show his disapproval for all the maneuvers taking place on a Sunday
(pg 2) "people of niniver" - likely a reference to Ninevah, from the Biblical Book of Jonah, whose residents had to fast and repent for their sins to avoid their city from being destroyed by God
        - the "worthey" (ie worthy, slang for someone important) John M. Goodwin from Maine was probably the Biddeford lawyer.
   - "agent for northern lights" - other than the steamship "Northern Light", and a company of Wisconsin soldiers, I did not find sources for what he meant by this phrase
(pg 4) "G Wakefield" is George W. of Kennebunk. While he was serving in the 27th ME, letters sent from home told of "suspissious storys" between his wife and a "Mr A.C.". They separated soon after his return in '63, and he filed for divorce in 1864 (while on furlough from the 2nd Maine Cav), approved in Jan of '65. ALSO in court at this time was Olive B Clark, who was divorcing Abner Clark (aka Mr A.C.) [SJC Vol 22 pg 108], who had deserted her the same day George's wife Emma left home. Many years later, this same Olive (Littlefield) Clark would marry, as his 2nd wife, Charles W Gooch, writer of this above letter (his wife Julia died in 1882).

In The Portland Daily Press, on the 4th of August, 1890 [link: Chronicling America] the above notice was printed [and copied by the Daily Whig on the following day]. A Medal of Honor, which was inscribed to Philip Banfield of Company E, 27th Maine, had been found on a beach in Wells, Maine, and the former soldier was being sought out for its return.

​At the time of this publication, Philip Banfield was an inmate in the Soldiers Home out in Milwaukee [1890 Vet. Sch: NW Branch Nat'l Home, pg 85], living there since March 1884. He had been transferred there from the Hampton, Virginia (Southern) Branch, first admitted into the system in Sept 1881. He returned to Maine in July of 1891, when he was transferred over to Togus. There were no furloughs mentioned in the paperwork from the earlier facilities, which may have shown him traveling to Maine, or in the vicinity of.

..."a reward for his patriotism in remaining behind in Washington"
However, Pvt Banfield was NOT on the list of those men who stayed behind in Washington, so this medal would have been one of the 500+ extras not distributed by Col. Mark Wentworth. As mentioned in "A Shower of Stars" [pgs 129-130: Erastus Moulton's 1904 letter], the undistributed medals were returned to Augusta, Maine, where they sat in City Hall, until the building was remodeled, and the medals were sent back to Wentworth in Kittery. 
​
It has been stated that (as Moulton's letter continued), while having a 27th Maine Regimental Reunion in Kittery, some of the attendees went into the Colonel's stable and grabbed some of the medals, later offering them to those whose names were written on them (though many did not accept them). The date of this incident was most likely either 12 Sept 1888 or 27 Aug '89, as Wentworth berated many of the men who showed up "at a reunion in Biddeford" [the 27th of Aug 1891 being the only time a reunion was held there] wearing these unearned medals.

How did this medal end up on a beach in Wells?
​Was Banfield's medal one of those stolen from Wentworth's stable and, since this soldier was probably not in attendance at the reunion (him being in the Milwaukee Soldiers Home in 1888-1889), his medal was just discarded? It is even possible, considering the inscription is on the back side of the medal, that someone else had been wearing his medal and tossed it out after one of the Kittery reunions.

There was never a follow-up article about this in the newspaper. "Joseph Fountain of Great Falls, NH", himself a Civil War veteran (with the 6th NH Inf), died in 1895. I wonder what ever became of this medal.

More about:
Philip Banfield (his bio page)  

During his time with the 27th Maine, Private Charles Gooch, of Company I, wrote over fifty letters to his wife Julia, back home in Kennebunk, Maine. The following is a letter he wrote to her on the 15th of January 1863. I've transcribed it as written, with lack of punctuation and spelling errors included.

Notes:
(pg 1) "Theodore" is Theodore Gooch, a cousin of Charles W Gooch, who also lived in Kennebunk. His full name is mentioned in an earlier letter.
(pg 2) The Christian Watchman and Reflector was a Baptist newspaper style weekly periodical, printed in Boston, MA. The article mentioned by Charles was likely from the Dec 25th issue (viewable on Genealogy Bank w/ subscription), which included a letter written by a soldier at Fort Albany, describing the 27th Maine (and other units) marching onto the grounds.
   (fath) = perhaps he meant "faith"? As he wrote this word on both ends of the sentence where he declined the offer of milk, was he fibbing about already having coffee that morning? Charles was a religious man, so perhaps he felt bad about lying to the Irishman and wife, so called that out in his letter.
(pg 4) "Isaac" is Sgt Isaac Emery of Kennebunk, who was the brother of Charles' wife Julia.

It is the final day of 2018, and I shall soon be entering my 14th year of having an online presence for my 27th Maine research. 

My original goal of finding more about the soldiers of the 27th Maine Infantry is nearly complete, if such a word can ever be used with any kind of genealogical work. I have researched every man in the regiment and, while there are a few that have completely stumped me, the overall mission was a success. Of the 946 (or 949, as was officially reported) men in the regiment, I have been able to find the burial places for 890 of them. 842 of these have memorials created on Find a Grave (578 of them under my management), and I have personally visited 639 of them, in order to photograph the stones and/or the plots (for those with no stones).

I hope that, in this coming new year, I will be able to make more trips to the cemeteries located out of state, and continue recording these burial sites. With many newspapers now being scanned and uploaded online, especially those from the New England states, finding more information about the 27th Maine and its volunteers is getting a bit easier. Lets hope that it leads to solving a few of these "dead ends" I have.

Here's to 2019!

Steve