Existing comment:
Timeline:
1859:
October 16-18: John Brown raised U.S. Armory/Arsenal
November 2: John Brown is sentenced to hang.
December 2: John Brown is executed in Charles Town, Va.
1860:
November 7: Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th president.
December 20: South Carolina secedes.
1861:
April 12-14: Fort Sumter in Charleston, SC, is fired upon by Confederate troops.
April 15: President Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the rebellion.
April 17: Virginia secedes.
April 18: Federal troops under command of Lt. Roger Jones (USA) set fire to the US Armory/Arsenal.
April 19 -- 2,400 Virginia volunteer militia occupy Harpers Ferry.
April 28 -- Col. Thomas J. Jackson (CSA) assumes his first command of the war and trains Virginia volunteers who became party of the Stonewall Brigade.
April - May -- Armory machinery and tools are removed and hipped to Richmond, Va. and Fayetteville, NC.
May 23 -- Jackson captures 56 locomotives in a raid on the B&O Railroad.
June 14 - 15: Confederate Army evacuates Harpers Ferry and destroys U.S. Armory and the B&O Railroad.
July 4 -- Skirmish fire across the Potomac River between Confederate cavalry and the 9th New York. The first civilian death occurs when Frederick Roeder is shot by a Union soldier on Maryland Heights.
July 21 -- First Battle of Manassas.
July 21 -- Federal troops briefly occupy Harpers Ferry.
July 25 -- Approximately 7,000 Federal troops Harpers Ferry.
August 17 -- Federal troops withdraw to Maryland shore.
October 16 -- Battle of Bolivar Heights. Col. John Geary's (USA) Union troops clash with Col. Turner Ashby's (CSA) Confederate troops. Union forces hold their positions as the Confederates fall back into the Shenandoah Valley.
October 18 -- Confederate forces burn Herr's flour mill on Virginia Island in retaliation for Herr supplying grain to Union troops.
October 21 -- Battle of Ball's Bluff.
1862:
February 1 -- Union soldiers burn the commercial area near "The Point" in retaliation for the death of a Federal scout.
February 25 -- Federals occupy the town to maintain communication and supply lines along the B&O Railroad and deter invasion of the Shenandoah Valley.
February 26 -- Federal troops complete a pontoon bridge across the Potomac River.
March 4 -- Federal troops begin repair of the B&O Railroad.
May - June -- Shenandoah Valley Campaign.
May -- Union Army and U.S. Navy construct a Naval artillery battery on Maryland heights.
May 29-30 -- Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson (CSA) and his forces probe the defenses of Union positions on the western ridge of Bolivar Heights.
June 15 -- Gen. John E. Wool (USA) orders strengthening of Harpers Ferry defenses.
June 25 - July 1 -- Seven Days Battles, near Richmond.
August 28 - 30 -- Second Battle of Manassas.
September 4 -- 1st Confederate invasion of the North.
September 9 -- Maryland campaign. Gen. Lee issues Special Orders No. 191, boldly dividing his army into four parts, sending three columns to capture or destroy the federal garrison at Harpers Ferry.
September 12 -- Gen. Julius White (USA) and Union troops are forced from Martinsburg, Va. (today W.Va.) to Harpers Ferry by Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson (CSA). White relinquishes his command to Col. Miles at Harpers Ferry.
September 13 - 15 -- Battle of Harpers Ferry.
September 13 -- "Stonewall" Jackson's Confederates take strategic positions on the hills surrounding Harpers Ferry garrison.
September 14 -- Battle of South Mountain.
September 14 -- "Stoneswall's" artillery bombards the Harpers Ferry garrison. Jackson orders A.P. Hill's (CSA) division to the Chambers Farm (today the Murphy Farm) to outflank the Union position on Bolivar Heights.
September 15 -- Approximately 12,700 Federal soldiers surrender to "Stonewall" Jackson.
September 17 -- Battle of Antietam.
September 18 -- Confederates evacuate Harpers Ferry.
September 20 -- Federals occupy Harpers Ferry and begin extensive fortifications on the heights.
September 22 -- President Lincoln issues the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.
September - December -- Federals build military roads, stone redoubts, and signal station on Loudoun Heights and Stone Fort, four powder magazines and a 30-pounder artillery battery on Maryland Heights.
October 1 - 2 -- President Lincoln reviews Federal troops on Bolivar, Loudoun, Maryland Heights and tours the John Brown Fort.
December 13 -- Battle of Fredericksburg. |