Existing comment:
The Surrender
Even though Harpers Ferry was completely surrounded on September 14, the town remained in Union hands. Jackson forced the issue that evening by repositioning 30 cannon and sending 3,000 soldiers around the Union left on Bolivar Heights. General A.P. Hill's Southerners scrambled up steep ravines along the Shenandoah River and came up behind the Northerners' flank on the Chambers Farm. The next morning, Colonel Miles faced an intensified bombardment, a Confederate force poised to roll over his left flank and a dwindling supply of long-range ammunition. Miles ordered his troops to surrender. However, a late round of artillery from Loudoun Heights struck the Union line after the white flag went up. A shell fragment tore through Colonel Miles' leg, mortally wounding the beleaguered officer. With no time to march to a Southern prison, all of the captured troops were paroled under oath that they would not fight again until they had been exchanged for Confederate prisoners. The South captured 13,000 small arms, 200 wagons, 73 cannon, and 12,419 Union soldiers. It was the largest surrender of United States troops until the fall of Bataan and Corregidor during World War II.
General Julius White took command of Harpers Ferry after Colonel Miles' wounding, only to surrender the garrison. Reflecting on the circumstances years later, White wrote, "A number of the prominent officers of the Confederate army spoke of our situation as hopeless from the hour when the investment was completed."
"(General White, USA) was mounted on a handsome black horse, was handsomely uniformed, with an untarnished sabre, immaculate gloves and boots, and had a staff fittingly equipped. He must have been somewhat astonished to find in general Jackson the worst-dressed, worst mounted, most faded and dingy-looking general he had ever seen anyone surrender to."
-- Confederate Captain Henry Kyd Douglas, Jackson's aide
"Branch and Gregg were ordered to continue the march along the river, and, during the night, to take advantage of the ravines cutting the precipitous banks of the river, and establish themselves on the plain to the left and rear of the enemy's works... This was accomplished with but slight resistance, and the fate of Harper's Ferry was sealed."
-- Confederate General A.P. Hill |