Harpers Ferry and the Civil War

Schedule of Harpers Ferry's Civil War Events, 2013-2015

Exhibit: Forever Free: The Emancipation: A New Birth of Freedom
Date: February 3, 2013 through end of year
Description: This year long exhibit will highlight the refocused war effort and the Union commitment to ending slavery.

Event: The Birth of a State: 150th Anniversary of the State of West Virginia
Date: June 22, 2013
Description: This one day event will commemorate the birth of West Virginia in June of 1863. Activities will include living history, ranger conducted programs, and family/youth activities.

Event: First Alert: Harpers Ferry, the Gettysburg Campaign
Date: June 23, 2013
Description: This event will highlight Harpers Ferry's role in the Gettysburg Campaign. Activities will include living history, ranger conducted programs, and family/youth activities.

Exhibit: The USCT & the Spirit of Freedom
Date: February 2, 2014 through end of year
Description: This year long exhibit will highlight dedication and commitment of African American soldiers and their fight for freedom.

Event: Harpers Ferry and the USCT Recruiting Station
Date: April 26-27, 2014
Description: This event will commemorate the 150th anniversary of Harpers Ferry's role in the recruitment of United States Colored Troops during 1864. Activities will include living history and ranger conducted programs.

Event: Washington Saved! Jubal Early's 1864 March on Washington

Date: July 4-6, 2014
Description: This event will focus on the prelude of the Battle of Monocacy and Harpers Ferry's role in helping to delay Jubal Early's 1864 march on Washington. Activities will include living history, ranger conducted programs, and family/youth activities.

Event: Thunder in the Valley: Sheridan's 1864 Valley Campaign
Date: September 27-28, 2014
Description: This event will focus on Harpers Ferry's role as a staging ground and supply base during Philip Sheridan's 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign. Activities will include living history, ranger conducted programs, and family/youth activities.

Event: Abraham Lincoln and the Election of 1864
Date: October 11, 2014
Description: This event will explore Harpers Ferry's critical role in our nation's wartime presidential election. Activities will include living history, ranger conducted programs, and family/youth activities.

Event: Capt. Flagg's US Quartermaster City: Prospects of Peace
Date: December 6-7, 2014
Description: Learn the magnitude and scope of Harpers Ferry's role as Captain Flagg's 1864 US Quartermaster city that supplied Gen. Philip Sheridan's army in the Shenandoah Valley. Reflect on what the Civil War will determine; the Union of the States and eventual freedom of 4 million enslaved people.

Exhibit: The Freedman's Bureau, Educating the Newly Freed Slaved and the Prelude to Storer College
Date: February 1, 2015 through end of year
Description: This exhibit will launch a full year of activities that will highlight Harpers Ferry's role in the education of newly freed slaves post Civil War.

A downloadable version of this schedule is available as a PDF.

 

The Civil War had a profound and disastrous effect on Harpers Ferry, leaving a path of destruction that wrecked the town's economy and forced many residents to depart forever. Because of the town's strategic location on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley, Union and Confederate troops moved through Harpers Ferry frequently. The town changed hands eight times between 1861 and 1865.

On April 18, 1861, less than 24 hours after Virginia seceded from the Union, Federal soldiers set fire to the Armory and Arsenal to keep them out of Confederate hands. The Arsenal and 15,000 weapons were destroyed, but the Armory flames were extinguished and the weapons-making equipment was shipped south. When the Confederates abandoned the town two months later, they burned most of the factory buildings and blew up the railroad bridge. [Learn more about the Armory & Arsenal]. The first Harpers Ferry citizen killed during the Civil War was Frederick Roeder. To learn more about him, click here.

Federal forces re-occupied Harpers Ferry in 1862. During the Confederacy's first invasion of the North, on September 15, 1862, Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson surrounded and captured the 12,700-man Union garrison stationed here. When the Federals returned to Harpers Ferry after the Battle of Antietam, they began transforming the surrounding heights into fortified encampments to protect both the town and the railroad. In 1864, Union Gen. Philip H. Sheridan used Harpers Ferry as his base of operations against Confederate troops in the Shenandoah Valley. [Learn more about the 1862 Battle of Harpers Ferry].

Additional Information:

Units at Harpers Ferry during the Civil War