Editing Harpers Ferry, West Virginia (section)

==== American Civil War ====
[[File:Contraband camp at Harpers Ferry.jpg|thumb|[[Stereoscopic]] picture of [[contraband (American Civil War)|contraband]] camp at Harpers Ferry, about 1861, with [[John Brown's Fort]] in background]]
[[File:1861 07 20 Harpers locomotive.jpg|thumb|July 20, 1861 ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'' news illustration with camel back locomotive and tender wrecked by rebels in Harpers Ferry]]
[[File:NWDNS-165-SB-26 Harpers Ferry Virginia.jpg|thumb|Harpers Ferry in 1865, looking east (downstream); the ruins of the musket factory can be seen in the center.]]
The [[American Civil War]] was disastrous for Harpers Ferry, where five battles took place;<ref name=Atlantic>{{cite journal
|title=The Men who Started the War
|first=Drew Gilpin
|last=Faust
|journal=[[The Atlantic]]
|date=December 2023
|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/12/harpers-ferry-raid-john-brown-abolition/675814/}}</ref> it changed hands eight times between 1861 and 1865.<ref name=":1">Reynolds, John. ''John Brown: Abolitionist''. New York: Knopf, 2005 p. 309</ref> (Another article says it changed hands twelve times.<ref /name=Atlantic></ref>) One of the first military actions by secessionists in Virginia was taken on April 18, 1861, when they wrested control of the Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry from the Union Army, even before [[Virginia Secession Convention of 1861|the convention which would consider whether or not the state should secede]] had been called together.<ref>Nolan, Alan T. (1991) ''Lee Considered: General Robert E. Lee and Civil War History'' Chapel Jill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. p. 38. {{isbn|978-0807866092}}</ref>

Because of the town's strategic location on the [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]] and at the northern end of the [[Shenandoah Valley]], both [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] and [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] troops moved through Harpers Ferry frequently. It was said that "Jefferson County is where the North and South met."<ref>{{cite journal
|title=John Brown and His Black Allies: An Ignored Alliance
|first=Hannah N.
|last=Geffert
|journal=[[The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography]]
|volume=126
|number=4
|date=Oct 2002
|pages=591–610, at p. 594
|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20093575
|jstor=20093575
|access-date=September 17, 2021
|archive-date=February 8, 2021
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210208162648/https://www.jstor.org/stable/20093575
|url-status=live
}}</ref> It was a natural conduit for Confederate invasions of the North, as in General [[Robert E. Lee]]'s [[Maryland campaign]] of 1862 and [[Gettysburg campaign]] of 1863, and for Union troops heading south in their attempts to thwart Rebel forces in the Valley.

The town was "easy to seize, and hard to hold",<ref name=Horwitz>{{cite book
|chapter=The toll from the raid on Harpers Ferry
|first=Tony
|last=Horwitz
|author-link=Tony Horwitz
|title=Midnight rising : John Brown and the raid that sparked the Civil War
|date=2011
|publisher=[[Henry Holt and Co.]]
|isbn=978-0805091533
|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/midnightrisingjo0000horw_e1q1/page/284/mode/2up}}</ref>{{rp|284}} because of its topography: surrounded on three sides by high ground ([[Bolivar Heights]] to the west, [[Loudoun Heights]] to the south, and [[Elk Ridge, Maryland|Maryland Heights]] to the east) and the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, anyone who controlled the heights controlled the city.

The war's effect on the town was devastating. It was described in March 1862:

{{blockquote|Harper's Ferry presents quite a gloomy picture. The best buildings have been shelled to the ground, and nothing now remains but their foundations to mark the spot where they once stood. The old Arsenal has been burnt to the ground; that part of the building where old John Brown made such a fatal stand, still stands as a monument to his memory. Before the destruction of the town, it contained near 3000 inhabitants, but at the present time there are not more than 300 or 400 families there.<ref>{{cite news
|title=Army Correspondence. March 19, 1862
|first=Peter
|last=Fesler
|newspaper=Martinsville Gazette ([[Martinsville, Indiana]])
|date=April 2, 1862
|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/military-clipping-apr-02-1862-2011620/
|page=4
|via=[[newspaperarchive.com]]
|access-date=October 12, 2022
|archive-date=April 16, 2021
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416161502/https://newspaperarchive.com/military-clipping-apr-02-1862-2011620/
|url-status=live
}}</ref>}}

In the account of [[Joseph George Rosengarten]], Harpers Ferry and nearby [[Bolivar, West Virginia|Bolivar]], in 1859 "a blooming garden-spot, full of thrift and industry and comfort," had been reduced to "waste and desolation" by 1862.<ref>{{cite magazine
|magazine=[[The Atlantic]]
|date=June 1865
|pages=711–717
|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015030142130&view=1up&seq=873
|last=Rosengarten
|first=John [Joseph] G.
|authorlink=Joseph G. Rosengarten
|title=John Brown's Raid: How I Got Into It, and How I Got Out Of It
|access-date=July 12, 2021
|archive-date=July 12, 2021
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210712112212/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015030142130&view=1up&seq=873
|url-status=live
}}</ref>

The town's garrison of federal troops attracted 1,500 [[Contraband (American Civil War)|contrabands]] by the summer of 1862.<ref>{{cite news
|title=Speech of Hon. Cassius M. Clay
|newspaper=[[New York Times]]
|date=October 8, 1862
|first=Cassius M.
|last=Clay
|author-link=Cassius Marcellus Clay (politician)
|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/61659051/speech-of-cassius-m-clay-mentions/
|via=[[newspapers.com]]
|page=8
|access-date=October 23, 2020
|archive-date=October 24, 2020
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024225735/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/61659051/speech-of-cassius-m-clay-mentions/
|url-status=live
}}</ref> They were returned to slavery, however, when Confederate General [[Thomas J. Jackson|Stonewall Jackson]] took Harpers Ferry in September 1862. Lee needed to control Harpers Ferry because it was on his supply line and could cut off his possible routes of retreat if captured.<ref name="Tucker, S. C. 2013">Tucker, S. C. (2013). ''American Civil War: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection'' [6 volumes]: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection. ABC-CLIO.</ref> Therefore. Lee divided his army of approximately 40,000 into four sections, sending three columns under Jackson to surround and capture the town.<ref name="jackson">{{Cite web |title=Harpers Ferry NHP Stonewall Jackson Woodward engraving published in the ''Aldine Magazine'', Vol. VI, No. 7 (July 1873) p. 134 |url=http://www.nps.gov/hafe/jackson.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060620053854/http://www.nps.gov/hafe/jackson.htm |archive-date=June 20, 2006}}</ref>[[File:Harper's Ferry and Bridge, from Maryland Heights..jpg|left|thumb|Harpers Ferry and bridge from Maryland Heights, 1872]]
[[File:MdHghtsHarper'sFerry.jpg|thumb|Maryland Heights, Harpers Ferry, 1873]] The [[Battle of Harpers Ferry]] started with light fighting September 13 as the Confederates tried to capture the [[Elk Ridge (Maryland)|Maryland Heights]] to the northeast, while John Walker moved back over the Potomac to capture [[Loudoun Heights (Mountain)|Loudoun Heights]] south of town. After a Confederate artillery bombardment on September 14 and 15, the federal garrison surrendered. With Jackson's capture of 12,419 federal troops, the surrender at Harpers Ferry was the largest surrender of U.S. military personnel until the [[Battle of Bataan]] in 1942.<ref name="Tucker, S. C. 2013" />

Because of the delay in capturing the town and the movement of federal forces to the west, Lee was forced to regroup at the town of [[Sharpsburg, Maryland]]. Two days later he commanded troops in the [[Battle of Antietam]], which had the highest number of deaths among troops of any single day in United States military history.

By July 1864, the Union again had control of Harpers Ferry. On July 4, 1864, Union general [[Franz Sigel]] withdrew his troops to Maryland Heights, from which he resisted [[Jubal Early]]'s attempt to enter the town and drive out the federal garrison.<ref name="eb1911">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Harper's Ferry}}</ref>