Information Panel: Harpers Ferry Prize of War

Trapped on the border between North and South, Harpers Ferry changed hands eight times.

NPS/ Claire Hassler

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It may be said with truth that no spot in the United Sates experienced more of the horrors of war"- Joeseph Barry, Harpers Ferry Resident
Trapped on the border between North and South, Harpers Ferry changed hands eight times during the Civil War. Because of its position on the Potomac River - an international boundary for four years from 1861 to 1865 - the town's industries were destroyed, its buildings were abandoned, its mountains were raped, and the population dwindled more than 3,000 to fewer than 100 residents.
Both union and Confederate forces coveted Harpers Ferry's strategic location at the gateway to the Shenandoah Valley. The Federals used the town and its connection to Baltimore and the Ohio Railroad as a supply base, launching repeated invasions from here into the heart of Virginia. The Confederates targeted this area as an avenue of invasion into the United States, occupying Harpers Ferry during the 1862 Maryland (Antietam), the Gettysburg Campaign in 1863, and the raid on Washington in 1864.
Throughout the war, the mountains surrounding Harpers Ferry played a key role. Forests were denuded for artillery fire and firewood; the earth was carved into earthworks and forts; and the ridge tops were converted into campgrounds and battlegrounds
No one and nothing, escaped the fury of the Civil War at Harpers Ferry.
Photo Caption: Gen. Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson surrounded and captured the Union garrison here in September 1862, forcing the largest surrender of United States troops during the Civil War.
Photo Caption: Former U.S. Armory buildings at Harpers Ferry served as Union Gen. Philip H. Sheridan's quartermaster and commissary supply base during his 1864 campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, where he crushed Confederate Gen. Jubal A. Early's army. - Courtesy Harpers Ferry National Historical Park
Illustration Caption: The burning of the United States Arsenal in Harpers Ferry on April 18, 1861, was the first destruction wrought during the Civil War in Virginia. Harper's Weekly, May 11, 1861.