does any body have any info on Harper's Ferry?

Question

Major Battles of the Civil War

Answer 1

On October 16, 1859, the radical abolitionist John Brown led a small group of 22 men in a raid on the Arsenal. Five were black: three free blacks, one a freed slave, and one a fugitive slave. During this time assisting fugitive slaves was both illegal and unacceptable to most white communities. Brown attacked and captured several buildings; he hoped to use the captured weapons to initiate a slave uprising throughout the South. However, he and his men were quickly pinned down by local citizens and militia, and forced to take refuge in the engine house adjacent to the armory.

On October 18, United States Marines were sent via train to Harpers Ferry. Under the temporary command of U.S. Army Colonel Robert E. Lee, they stormed the fire house and killed or captured most of the raiders. Brown was tried for treason by the State of Virginia, convicted, and hanged in nearby Charles Town. Following the prosecution (by Andrew Hunter), "John Brown captured the attention of the nation like no other abolitionist or slave owner before or since." The failed raid was a catalyst for the American Civil War.

Civil War
The Civil War was disastrous for Harpers Ferry, which changed hands eight times between 1861 and 1865. Because of the town's strategic location on the railroad and at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley, both Union and Confederate troops moved through Harpers Ferry frequently. The town's garrison of 14,000 Federal troops played a key role in the Confederate invasion of Maryland in September 1862. General Robert E. Lee did not want to continue on to Pennsylvania without capturing the town, which was on his supply line and would control one of his possible routes of retreat if the invasion did not go well. Dividing his army of approximately 40,000 into four sections, he used the cover of the mountains and sent three columns under Stonewall Jackson to surround and capture the town. The Battle of Harpers Ferry started with light fighting September 13 to capture the Maryland Heights to the northeast while John Walker moved back over the Potomac to capture Loudon Heights south of town. After an artillery bombardment on September 14 and September 15, the Federal garrison surrendered. Lee, because of the delay and the movement of Federal forces west, was forced to regroup at the town of Sharpsburg, leading two days later to the fateful Battle of Antietam, and the bloodiest single day in American military history. When Virginia seceded in April of 1861 the US garrison attempted to burn the arsenal and destroy the machinery. Locals saved the equipment, which was later transferred to a more secure location in Richmond. Arms production never returned to Harpers Ferry.

Shortly after the end of the Civil War, Harper's Ferry, along with all of both Berkeley and Jefferson Counties, was separated from Virginia and incorporated into West Virginia. The inhabitants of the counties as well as the Virginia legislature protested, but the federal government went ahead anyway, forming the West Virginia "panhandle" of today. Without the help of Harper's Ferry the North might have never won the war.

Answer 2

Look it up; it really is interesting. Basically, John Brown, the abolitionist, was trying to arm himself to free slaves. Lt. Robert E. Lee (yeah, that one) succeeded in capturing Brown and his allies; Brown was hung. (John Brown's body lies a-smoldering in the grave...) Later in the Civil War, the Confederates attacked the town because they needed shoes.
It is at the confluence of two rivers, with steep hills all around. Check it out.

Answer 3

Godsowndi certainly said it all... What an impressive answer... Entertaining too...