News Release

Learn about the 1862 Battle of Harpers Ferry

Date: October 19, 2017
Contact: Dennis Frye, 304-535-6224
Contact: Autumn Cook, 304-702-5684

HARPERS FERRY, W.Va – Witness the power of field artillery that defended the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry in 1862. Join living history staff and volunteers at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park on Saturday and Sunday, October 28 and 29 for Under Fire: Hold the High Ground, 1862. 

Demonstrations will occur at 1, 2, and 3 p.m. at Bolivar Heights Battlefield and a military camp will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. To access this location, visitors should go to the park’s visitor center at 171 Shoreline Drive, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425. Shuttle buses will be available to transport visitors from the visitor center to the battlefield.

 “We are surrounded by enemy batteries,” wrote a Union officer at Harpers Ferry on September 15, 1862. On that day, the 12,500-man Union garrison surrendered to Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.  This military action at Harpers Ferry was the largest surrender of Union troops during the American Civil War.  Following the surrender of Federal troops, Jackson’s men marched northward to join Confederate General Robert E. Lee near Sharpsburg, Maryland, arriving in time to save Lee’s flank from annihilation during the Battle of Antietam.

For more information about this living history weekend, contact Melinda Day at 304-535-6063.

 

-NPS-

 
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