The First Year of War

The destruction of the armory and arsenal on April 18, 1861, the day after Virginia seceded from the Union, marked the beginning of the war and the end of prosperity in Harpers Ferry. That night, while Virginia militia waited on the ridge for reinforcements and prepared to seize the town, the outnumbered Federal garrison blew up the arsenal and tried to burn the armory before retreating into Maryland. Ten days later, Col. Thomas J. Jackson arrived to take his first Civil War command and drilled thousands of Virginia volunteers camped on Bolivar Heights into the disciplined unit that became known as the Stonewall Brigade. In mid-June 1861, Maj. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston ordered Confederate forces to abandon Harpers Ferry as untenable. On October 16, 1861, two years after John Brown's raid, 500 Confederates under Col. Turner Ashby attacked 600 Union soldiers under Col. John White Geary on the ridge. After six hours of repeated assaults, Geary's troops repulsed the Confederates in the Battle of Bolivar Heights, and Ashby's men withdrew toward Charles Town as Union flags were planted on the ridge.

Lovettsville, Maryland · United States