Existing comment:
Union Stronghold:
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 this hillside.
Colonel Dixon Stansbury Miles, 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 Bull Run - where he was unjustly accused of drunkeness. The Battle of Harpers Ferry 14 months later cost him his life, and the defeat further tarnished his military record.
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 lines here at Harpers Ferry, but when the Confederates captured the town hundreds were forced to return to slavery. |