We went on a cruise through history today. Our first destination was Harper’s Ferry. Harper’s Ferry has a ton of history but most of it was during the Civil War. A fervent abolitionist from New England named John Brown tried to attack and seize the U.S. Army armory in 1859 in an attempt to start a slave revolt. John only had 22 people with him and they were crushed by Marines under the command of Robert E. Lee. Not too much later, Brown did a rope tango in Sharpsburg. Harper’s Ferry is also located at the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers and is a rail hub. These distinctions made Harper’s Ferry a strategic hotbed during the Civil War and that resulted in not less than 11 changes of possession between the Confederacy and the Union between 1861 and 1865.
The town itself lies in a gorge between massive basalt cliffs. There are a bunch of gorgeous Civil War era buildings here, most of them built on the steep hillsides above the rivers. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal also passed through town, further contributing to its transportation hub status. Unfortunately, it also attracted massive armies to fight over the town. Not five miles away is the Antietam battlefield and Antietam Military Park. Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, Daniel Hill, Ambrose Hill and Stonewall Jackson led the Confederacy’s forces and George McClellan, Joseph Hooker, Joe Mansfield, Edwin Summer and Ambrose Burnside led the Union’s at Antietam. It was a very nasty fight on September 17, 1862, and 23,000 of the 100,000 folks who showed up for the party didn’t leave because they were either vaporized, were missing parts or were dead. The Union was left on the field at the end while the Confederacy withdrew to the nearby town of Sharpsburg. It must have been a terrible shitstorm. Photos in the park visitor center show the dead arranged like railroad ties where they were killed. The Bloody Lane here, for instance, was a small depression in the morning but a big mass grave by evening.
Nevertheless, Harper’s Ferry is a gorgeous little town and the Antietam battlefield is very pretty when it isn’t covered with blood.
We got a few photos along the way. Click here