Harpers Ferry witnessed the largest surrender of Federal troops during the Civil War.
Harpers Ferry is a small town at the confluence of the Potomac River and the Shenandoah River, the site of a historic Federal arsenal and a bridge for the critical Baltimore and Ohio Railroad across the Potomac. It was earlier the site of the abolitionist John Brown's attack on the Federal arsenal there.
As Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia advanced into Maryland, Lee expected that the Union garrisons that potentially blocked his supply line in the Shenandoah Valley, at Winchester, Martinsburg, and Harpers Ferry, would be cut off and abandoned without firing a shot. But the Harpers Ferry garrison had not retreated. Lee planned to capture the garrison and the arsenal, not only to seize its supplies of rifles and ammunition, but to secure his line of supply back to Virginia.
No comments:
Post a Comment