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Harpers Ferry

March 8, 2012 By crossroads

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The base of Maryland Heights across from Harpers Ferry, and the covered railroad bridge, in 1859 (Library of Congress)Harpers Ferry as it looked before the war (National Park Service)Another view of pre-war Harpers Ferry (Courtesy of Timothy R. Snyder)A Currier and Ives print of Harpers Ferry before the war (c.1856-1861, Currier & Ives, artists; Library of Congress)An 1859 photograph of lower Harpers Ferry and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge (1859, Historic Photo Collection, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park)In this view of Harpers Ferry from 1861, the U.S. armory has not yet been torched, and soldiers can be seen marching in the center of the image (The Illustrated London News, June 22, 1861; courtesy of Princeton University Library)Detail of previous image, showing marching soldiersThe U.S. armory in Harpers Ferry was set aflame by Federal forces when they evacuated the town on April 18, 1861 (Harpers Weekly, April 30, 1861; NPS History Collection) A column of Virginia troops advances towards Harpers Ferry on the night of April 18, 1861, as the armory burns (D.H. Strother, artist; Harpers Weekly, May 11, 1861; NPS History Collection)Local citizens of Harpers Ferry salvage military supplies and weaponry from the burning armory buildings (D.H. Strother, artist; Harpers Weekly, May 11, 1861; NPS History Collection)Confederate artillery is positioned on the heights in Harpers Ferry to command the railroad bridge and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (Paul Fleury Mottelay and T. Campbell-Copeland, eds., The Soldier in Our Civil War: A Pictorial History of the Conflict, 1861-1865, Vol. 1 [New York: Stanley Bradley Publishing Company, 1893], 394-395)A Confederate battery overlooks the Potomac River by Harpers Ferry (D.H. Strother, artist, Harpers New Monthly Magazine, June 1866:19)Confederate artillery batteries on the heights above Harpers Ferry (The New-York Illustrated News, June 1, 1861; courtesy of Princeton University Library)One of the burned-out buildings of the U.S. armory in Harpers Ferry (Harpers Weekly, July 20, 1861; NPS History Collection)The destruction of the Harpers Ferry railroad bridge by Confederate troops before they evacuated the town on June 14, 1861 (Harpers Weekly, July 6, 1861; Library of Congress)The return of Union troops after the evacuation of Harpers Ferry by the Confederates (Harpers Weekly, July 6, 1861; courtesy of Timothy R. Snyder) Locomotive pushed off the railway bridge by the Confederates in Harpers Ferry (Harpers Weekly, July 20, 1861; NPS History Collection) Confederate troops destroy railroad cars in Harpers Ferry (Harpers Weekly, July 20, 1861; NPS History Collection)Union soldiers remove the Confederate flag from a flagpole in Harpers Ferry (Harpers Weekly, August 3, 1861; NPS History Collection)Capture of a Confederate cannon by Federal forces under Colonel John W. Geary on Bolivar Heights in a battle on October 16, 1861 (M. Wilson, artist; The New-York Illustrated News, October 28, 1861; courtesy of Princeton University Library)A Union pontoon bridge stretches across the Potomac River and into Harpers Ferry in February 1862 (C. S. Hall, artist; Frank Leslies Illustrated Newspaper, March 22, 1862; courtesy of Princeton University Library)Plan of Union breastworks on Camp Hill at Harpers Ferry (George W. Wingate, History of the Twenty-Second Regiment of the National Guard of the State of New York: From its Organization to 1895 [New York: Edwin W. Dayton, 1896], 111-112)Soldiers and civilians mingle in a Union camp inside the right flank of the breastworks on Camp Hill (August 1862, George W. Wingate, artist; George W. Wingate, History of the Twenty-Second Regiment of the National Guard of the State of New York: From its Organization to 1895 [New York: Edwin W. Dayton, 1896], 112)A soldier inspects a civilians pass (August 1862, Carl Wingate, artist; George W. Wingate, History of the Twenty-Second Regiment of the National Guard of the State of New York: From its Organization to 1895 [New York: Edwin W. Dayton, 1896], 62)This three piece sketch shows Camp Hill above Harpers Ferry, the village of Bolivar, and the tents of soldiers on Bolivar Heights. (September 1862, Edwin Forbes, artist; Library of Congress) The left panel of Forbes sketch, showing Camp Hill (September 1862, Edwin Forbes, artist; Library of Congress) Detail of the left panel showing Civil War aeronaut Thaddeus Lowes balloon, which made ascensions near Sharpsburg and Bolivar Heights (September 1862, Edwin Forbes, artist; Library of Congress) The middle panel of Forbes sketch, showing the town of Bolivar, and tents and troops on Bolivar Heights (September 1862, Edwin Forbes, artist; Library of Congress) The right panel of Forbes sketch, showing Bolivar, tents on Bolivar Heights, and a tent hospital (September 1862, Edwin Forbes, artist; Library of Congress) Detail of the right panel of Forbes sketch, showing the tent hospital set up next to St. Johns Lutheran Church (September 1862, Edwin Forbes, artist; Library of Congress) Soldiers of the 22nd New York State Militia on Camp Hill in August 1862, with St. Johns Lutheran Church in the background (Harpers Ferry National Historical Park)Members of the 22nd New York State Militia pose with their weaponry atop Camp Hill in 1862 (Library of Congress)The 22nd New York State Militia on Camp Hill in 1862 (Harpers Ferry National Historical Park)Union General John W. Geary (fifth from right) poses with his staff in Harpers Ferry in 1862 (Library of Congress)Gen. John W. Geary established his headquarters in the former armory superintendents home atop Camp Hill (Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial History of the Civil War in the United States of America, Vol. 2 [Hartford, Conn.: T. Belknap, 1868], 137)Stone piers are all that remain of the destroyed Harpers Ferry railroad bridge (1862, C.O. Bostwick, photographer; Library of Congress)The destroyed railroad bridge from the Harpers Ferry side (D.H. Strother, artist, Harpers New Monthly Magazine, July 1866:144)The remains of the U.S. armory at Harpers Ferry (October 1862, Silas A. Holmes, photographer; Library of Congress)A view of the destroyed armory in Harpers Ferry and the partially-constructed pontoon bridge (Harpers Weekly, October 4, 1862; NPS History Collection)Loudoun Heights in Virginia and the destroyed bridge across the Shenandoah River (L. M. Hamilton, artist; The New-York Illustrated News, October 18, 1862; courtesy of Princeton University Library)Earthworks on Camp Hill (L. M. Hamilton, artist; The New-York Illustrated News, October 25, 1862; courtesy of Princeton University Library)Union soldiers on Camp Hill watch as other Union troops burn trees on Loudoun Heights to make room for new fortifications (Frank Leslies Illustrated Newspaper, November 1, 1862; courtesy of Princeton University Library)A Union battery looks over the road to Charlestown from its position on Bolivar Heights near Harpers Ferry (A. Lumley, artist; The New-York Illustrated News, November 8, 1862; courtesy of Princeton University Library)Edwin Forbes depiction of the main street in Harpers Ferry on October 16, 1862 wagons, soldiers, officers and civilians, Zouaves riding mules, contrabands (formerly-enslaved African American refugees) pulling a cannon, and gawkers. Forbes called the scene picturesque confusion. (Edwin Forbes, artist; Frank Leslies Illustrated Newspaper, November 8, 1862; courtesy of Princeton University Library)Two members of a Zouave regiment race mules in Harpers Ferry in October 1862 (Originally appeared in Frank Leslies Illustrated Newspaper, November 15, 1862; source for this image: Louis Shepheard Moat, ed., Frank Leslies Illustrated History of the Civil War [NY: Mrs. Frank Leslie, 1895], 223)A burial in the soldiers graveyard on Bolivar Heights (The New-York Illustrated News, November 15, 1862; courtesy of Princeton University Library)Union forces cross over the Shenandoah River on the temporary pontoon bridge from Harpers Ferry to take Loudoun Heights (Frank Leslies Illustrated Newspaper, November 15, 1862; courtesy of Princeton University Library)Government supply wagons trundle through Harpers Ferry towards Charlestown (The New-York Illustrated News, November 15, 1862; courtesy of Princeton University Library)Union railway cars filled with hay, oats and corn catch fire on the bridge at Harpers Ferry (The New-York Illustrated News, November 22, 1862; courtesy of Princeton University Library)A sutlers store in Harpers Ferry is well attended by soldiers looking to purchase alcohol, tobacco, and other goods (Frank Leslies Illustrated Newspaper, November 29, 1862; courtesy of Princeton University Library)Union soldiers march along the banks of the Potomac while the armys supply wagons cross over the pontoon bridge ahead of the troops into Harpers Ferry (Colorized version of an illustration in The New-York Illustrated News, July 4, 1863; Harpers Ferry National Historical Park)After the railroad bridge in Harpers Ferry was destroyed, Union engineers constructed this temporary bridge (MOLLUS Collection, U.S. Army Military History Institute)Harpers Ferry from the vantage point of Loudoun Heights (Frank H. Schell, artist; Frank Leslies Illustrated Newspaper, September 19, 1863; Harpers Ferry National Historical Park)Titled Harpers Ferry by Moonlight, this image from December 1863 by Alfred Waud shows soldiers tents on Bolivar Heights, with Maryland Heights in the background (December 1863, Alfred R. Waud, artist; Library of Congress)Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge at Harpers Ferry as viewed from the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal on the Maryland shore, 1863 (U.S. Army Military History Institute)A line of cavalry ride four abreast out of the fortifications on Camp Hill (August 1864, Alfred Rudolph Waud, artist; Library of Congress)Union Gen. Philip Sheridans headquarters in Harpers Ferry, the former home of the armory paymaster (J. B. Taylor, artist; Frank Leslies Illustrated Newspaper, September 3, 1864; courtesy of Princeton University Library)Soldiers and civilians purchase goods from a produce market in Harpers Ferry (J. B. Taylor, artist; Frank Leslies Illustrated Newspaper, October 8, 1864; courtesy of Princeton University Library)Ruins of the Shenandoah River bridge (Autumn 1864, Alfred Rudolph Waud, artist; Library of Congress)This color lithograph shows the camp of the 5th New York Heavy Artillery on Camp Hill, late 1864 - 1865 (Harpers Ferry National Historical Park) Detail of the previous imageDetail of the previous imageA train filled with Union soldiers bound for the front lines of the war c.1864 sits on the tracks of the Winchester and Potomac Railroad in Harpers Ferry (Bowlsby, photographer; United States Military Academy, West Point)A train holding Union soldiers passes across Virginius Island in this photographer taken from Jefferson Rock c.1864 (Bowlsby, photographer; United States Military Academy, West Point)The confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers at Harpers Ferry as seen from a cemetery above the town (A. R. Waud, artist; Harpers Weekly, March 11, 1865; NPS History Collection)Lines of wagons wait outside the former U.S. armory, now used to store military supplies (A. R. Waud, artist; Harpers Weekly, March 11, 1865; NPS History Collection)The building in the center was headquarters for Union General John Stevenson during the last few months of the war (A. R. Waud, artist; Harpers Weekly, March 11, 1865; NPS History Collection)Alfred Wauds original drawing of the previous image (December 1864, Alfred Rudolph Waud, artist; Library of Congress)Detail of previous image, showing the refugee camp featured in the next two imagesA view of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the Harpers Ferry railroad bridge in early 1865 (Library of Congress)This image is part of a stereograph titled Contraband camp -- Harper's Ferry, Va. The scene was probably photographed in 1865, however, and post-Emancipation Proclamation, the term refugee camp is more accurate. (1865, John P. Soule, photographer; Library of Congress, courtesy of New-York Historical Society)View of the Harpers Ferry railroad bridge from the Maryland shore (c. 1865; Library of Congress)A photograph of lower town Harpers Ferry in 1865, showing the reconstructed railroad bridge (1865, James Gardner, photographer; Library of Congress)Another view of the refugee camp. This image is part of a stereograph titled Harper's Ferry, from Railroad - contraband camp in foreground. As with the previous image, this scene was probably photographed in 1865, and post-Emancipation Proclamation, the term refugee camp is more accurate. (1865, John P. Soule, photographer; Library of Congress, courtesy of New-York Historical Society; the Library of Congress also has a different stereograph of this image, attributed to George Stacy)A wagon crosses over a pontoon bridge west of Harpers Ferry, with Maryland Heights in the background (Alfred R. Waud, artist; Library of Congress)Former slaves who had escaped to Union lines (contraband) stand in front of the former armory superintendents home on Camp Hill, c.August 1862 (George W. Wingate, History of the Twenty-Second Regiment of the National Guard of the State of New York: From its Organization to 1895 [New York: Edwin W. Dayton, 1896], 85)A Confederate stockade atop Maryland Heights (Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial History of the Civil War in the United States of America, vol. 2 [Philadelphia, Pa.: G. W. Childs, 1866], 519) Unfinished Confederate camp on Maryland Heights (Harpers Weekly, July 20, 1861; NPS History Collection)Union battery on Maryland Heights (L. M. Hamilton, artist; The New-York Illustrated News, October 11, 1862; courtesy of Princeton University Library)Sketch of a Union signal station on Maryland Heights (c.1862, Alfred Rudolph Waud, artist; Library of Congress)Printed version of the previous sketch (A. R. Waud, artist; Harpers Weekly, November 15, 1862; NPS History Collection)The camp of the 1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery at Fort Duncan on Maryland Heights c.1863 (MOLLUS Collection, U.S. Army Military History Institute) Photograph of the housing of Co. B, 1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery on Maryland Heights (MOLLUS Collection, U.S. Army Military History Institute)Different view of the camp in the previous photograph (MOLLUS Collection, U.S. Army Military History Institute)A Union signal corps encampment on Maryland Heights in 1864 (James Montgomery, artist; Harpers Ferry National Historical Park)

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