Information Panel: Bolivar Heights Kiosk

Information kiosk at Bolivar Heights.

NPS/ Claire Hassler

Quick Facts

Amenities

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Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

Invasion rocked the United States during the second year of the American Civil War. In September 1862 Confederate General Robert E. Lee launched his army into Maryland - the North. Lee's first target became Harpers Ferry. He ordered "Stonewall" Jackson to make the attack.

Here Jackson overcame great obstacles, defeating the Union during a three-day battle and forcing the largest surrender of U.S. troops during the Civil War. His victory at Harpers Ferry enabled Lee to make his stand at nearby Antietam.

A quote at the bottom right of the panel is attributed to Lieutenant James H. Clark, 115th New York Infantry:

At first their missiles of death fell far short of our camp; but each succeeding shell came nearer and nearer, until the earth was plowed up at our feet, and our tents torn to tatters.

The bottom panel is titled "Union Stronghold" and features a historic B&W photo of a cluster of white tents in the foreground. Homes and roads line the gently rolling hills in the background.

A caption tells us:

The mostly denuded Bolivar Heights ridgeline forms a backdrop to the tent cities of Union soldiers stationed here in summer 1862.

Text on the panel reads:

Harpers Ferry was located at the gateway into Confederate Virginia and the strategic Shenandoah Valley. The Union army used it as a supply base for operations into Southern territory. The Railroad Brigade, headquartered here with a force of over 14,000 men, protected over 400 miles of Northern rail lines, stretching from Baltimore into western Virginia. By the second week of September 1862 the brigade's world shrank to the hillside.

Inset in the center top of the panel is an oval B&W photo portrait of Colonel Dixon Stansbury Miles. He has white hair and beard and is wearing his military uniform.

The caption here tells us he was: a West Point graduate and Mexican War Hero, commanded the Railroad Brigade. His 42 years of military service were tarnished by one day - the Union's first defeat at First Bull Run - where he was unjustly accused of drunkenness. The Battle of Harpers Ferry 14 months later cost him his life, and the defeat further tarnished his military record.

At the top right of the panel, a historic B&W photo shows a young African American boy standing in beside a tent pole. A man sits just inside the opened tent flap behind him. The boy wears a dark head wrap and dark pants and jacket. His boots almost come up to his knees and he holds a stick in his left hand.

The Caption here reads:

A young boy - possibly an escaped slave - pictured with a Union soldier in Harpers Ferry just weeks before the battle. Bolivar Heights is visible in the background. The desire for freedom drove enslaved African Americans to the Union lined here at Harpers Ferry, but when the Confederates captured the town hundreds were forced to return to slavery.