As early as the 1820s, free African Americans settled in a community called Vinegar Hill near the intersection of today's Georgia and Missouri avenues, NW, an area now known as Brightwood. By the time of the Civil War (1861-1865), most were landowners, and the majority of these were women. During the Civil War, a military fort was built within Vinegar Hill that repulsed the only Confederate attack on the District of Columbia.