By Edwin C. Bearss
Volume 29, Number 3 (April 1968), pp. 153-177
Upon the adoption of the Secession Ordinance by the Virginia Convention, Virginia militia converged on Harpers Ferry, eager to seize the arms and machinery in the United States Armory and Arsenal. The handful of United States soldiers assigned to guard the Government property could not defend the town. But before they fled across the Potomac, they managed to fire the armory and the arsenal, destroying thousands of stands of small-arms.
In the week that followed, Harpers Ferry and its vicinity became an important concentration point for Confederate forces in this section of Virginia. Colonel Thomas J. Jackson, who assumed command in Harpers Ferry, promptly began organizing the eager but untrained volunteers into a fighting force. Troops were sent across the Potomac into Maryland; Point of Rocks and Maryland Heights were occupied.7
[2 paragraphs]
On May 24, a senior Confederate officer, Brigadier General Joseph E. Johnston, reached Harpers Ferry and replaced Jackson as commander at that key position. The day before Johnston detrained at Harpers Ferry, a detachment from the 2d Virginia Infantry posted at Camp Allen secured a skiff and rowed across to the Maryland side of the Potomac. There the Virginians took possession of the ferryboat, which was secured to the landing at McCoy's Ferry. Camped nearby was a detachment of the Clear Spring Guard. The rustling of the oars attracted the attention of the Guard. Seeing six or seven men in the ferryboat, the Guard called out to them, but receiving no response, they opened fire. As the ferry pulled away from the landing, the Confederates shot back. Perhaps feeling they were too good a target, the Rebels abandoned the ferry and retreated to the Virginia shore in their skiff. The ferry drifted with the current. It was soon recovered by the Marylanders and towed to a place out or reach of the Southerners.10
Meanwhile, Major General Robert Patterson had been named by the Federal Government to [take] command of the newly constituted Department of Pennsylvania. Patterson began concentrating men and material at Chambersburg. News of the Union build-up was promptly carried to General Johnston at Harpers Ferry.
Captain Robert L. Doyle of the 3rd Virginia Infantry was in charge of a detachment on picket duty at Shepherdstown. As the Potomac was starting to fall, Doyle cautioned his men to be on the alert. On Sunday, June 2, several of Doyle's informants told him a Union spy had been along the canal, engaging boats and scows to be used to cross the Potomac. Another Union agent had been overheard to say that within a week from 20,000 to 25,000 soldiers would invade Virginia, crossing the Potomac at three points -- Mercersville, Dam No. 4, and Williamsport. At Dam No. 4 there was known to be a large number of canal boats that could be utilitzed by Union engineers to speedily bridge the river. Near Dam No. 4 the Confederates had a large ferryboat, capable of carrying 25 to 30 armed men. As the only guards aboard the boars were the boatment, perhaps 120 in all, Doyle suggested that he cross his troops, under the cover of darkness, and burn the canal boats.11
The raid proposed by Doyle was too daring for a man of Johnston's cautious temperament, so it was vetoed. Instead, Johnston saw Harpers Ferry as a trap for his command. News that a Union column advancing eastward along the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad had occupied Cumberland on the 10th further disconcerted the Confederate leader. As soon as he learned from his scouts that Patterson's vanguard was closing in on Williamsport, Johnston on June 15 pulled his troops out of Harpers Ferry and fell back to Winchester.12
Before evacuating Harpers Ferry, Johnston had his demolition teams sabotage the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. . . .
[2 paragraphs]
Union General Patterson was even more cautious than Johnston. It was July 2 before the Federals got around to crossing the Potomac at Williamsport. In the campaign which ensued, Johnston gave Patterson the slip and took his army eastward out of the Shenandoah Valley. At Manassas the combined armies of Joseph E. Johnston and Pierre G. T. Beauregard on July 21 mauled the Federals in the war's first major battle. As soon as it was discovered that the Confederates had hoodwinked Patterson, he was replaced on July 25 by Major General Nathaniel P. Banks. When Banks took charge of his command, which had been designated the Department of the Shenandoah, he found his field army concentrated at Harpers Ferry.17
[12 paragraphs]
In the weeks following the battle of first Manassas, the Potomac River above Great Falls divided the territory held by Union and Confederate forces. Union troops reporting to Brigadier General Charles P. Stone watched the river from Great Falls to the mouth of the Monocacy, while units from General Banks' department held the line of the river from the Monocacy to Shepherdstown. The primary mission of these Federal forces was to observe "the enemy across the Potomac and protect the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal."25
1861 was an extremely wet year in the Middle Atlantic States. Heavy rains in early August caused the Potomac and its tributaries to boom. With the Potomac at near flood stage along its middle reaches, there was little danger of a Confederate thrust into Maryland.26
[1 paragraph]
General Banks at this time pulled all of his troops, except one regiment, out of Harpers Ferry. This regiment, the 2d Massachusetts, would continue to occupy the town and hold the Virginia bridgehead. To guard the line of the Potomac, Banks at this time posted the 13th Massachusetts at Sharpsburg, the 28th New York at Berlin, and the 28th Pennsylvania at Point of Rocks. After recrossing the Potomac, Banks put his division into camp near Hyattstown.29
[2 paragraphs]
There was a flurry of activity during the second week of September. On the 9th at Shepherdstown, as a canal boat came down, the Rebels blazed away, mortally wounding a boatman. Union pickets of the 13th Massachusetts returned the Confederates' fire, and the fighting soon ceased.34
Four days later, on September 13, a strong force of Rebels was reported closing in on Harpers Ferry. Colonel John W. Geary, the Union commander at Point of Rocks, marched for the point of danger. Sporadic clashes on the 13th and 14th were followed by a severe skirmish on the 15th. In the fight on that day, Colonel Geary (the 13th Massachusetts having been withdrawn from Harpers Ferry) rested his left behind the railroad embankment southeast of the abutment of the burned Y-bridge and his right near Lock No. 35, two and one-half miles upstream. Sheltered by the railroad grade and the canal's towpath, Geary's bluecoats blazed away at the Rebels, who were posted in a mill, houses, and barns on the Virginia side of the Potomac. Skillfully employing the two rifled guns of the 9th New York Battery, Geary's people, after a spirited fire-fight of about two hours, gained the upper hand, compelling the Confederates to withdraw in the direction of Bolivar Heights.35
There was a marked step-up in the tempo of military operations along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in mid-October. Soldiers from General Banks' command under Colonel Geary on the 14th, crossed the Potomac, pushed through Harpers Ferry, and occupied Bolivar Heights. After a picket line had been established, fatigue parties were organized and began removing and boating to the Maryland side hundreds of bushels of wheat stored in the flour mill on Virginius Island.
By the evening of the 15th, the Federals had completed this task, but before they could be withdrawn across the Potomac on the following morning, a strong force of Rebels led by Lieutenant Colonel Turner Ashby advanced and drove in Geary's picket line. A sharp engagement ensued in which the Yankees more than held their own. Under the cover of darkness on the night of October 16, the Federals, having accomplished their mission, evacuated their bridgehead and recrossed the Potomac.36
[56 paragraphs]
(Volume 30, pp. 436-462)
[12 paragraphs]
By late March 1862, the tide of war had momentarily turned in favor of the Union. General Banks' columns had pushed up the Valley from Harpers Ferry and had occupied Winchester. Here they paused to await the completion of the railroad bridge across the Potomac. On March 18, the first locomotive crossed, and the bridge was declared open for railroad traffic. Confederate troops of the Valley District under Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson attempted to recover the initiative but were defeated at Kernstown on March 23. Jackson was compelled by this setback to retire up the Shenandoah Valley to Mount Jackson. Meanwhile, General McClellan's Army of the Potomac had advanced southwest from the Washington area. Not wishing to engage the bluecoats at this time, Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston evacuated his fortified camp at Centreville and fell back. After occupying the abandoned Confederate encampments, McClellan marched his army to Alexandria and there embarked it aboard ship and took it down the Potomac and Chesapeake Bay to Fort Monroe. From there the troops moved forward, but McClellan's advance was soon checked by a Confederate force holding the Yorktown Line.
[14 paragraphs]
In May 1862, Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson launched the lightning-like campaign that was destined to mark him as a military great. On May 8, his command, having marched westward from Staunton into the mountains, defeated a Union column at McDowell. Returning to the Valley, Jackson, after being joined by Maj. Gen. Richard S. Ewell's division, pushed forward to New Market and cross the Massanutten. Jackson then advanced his troops rapidly down the Luray Valley toward Front Royal, where on May 23, his men mauled Col. John R. Kenly's 1st Maryland. The next day, the 24th, Jackson's Confederates hammered Banks' Federals as they pulled back from Strasburg and retreated through Middletown and Newtown. On May 25, Jackson's butternuts defeated Banks' bluecoats at Winchester. The Federals fled toward the Potomac. . . .
[1 paragraph]
One of Jackson's columns, spearheaded by cavalry, hounded Banks' rear guard as far as Martinsburg, where on the 27th, it captured a large amount of supplies. The next day, the 28th, Col. Thomas T. Munford, with two squadrons of the 2d Virginia Cavalry, made a forced reconnaissance to within one mile of the Potomac. Union batteries, emplaced near the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, on the Williamsport side of the river, went into action and the Confederates withdrew from view. On the 29th, Munford marched his regiment to Charles Town to rendezvous with the column led by Brig. Gen. Charles W. Winder which Jackson had sent to threaten Harpers Ferry. Winder's foot soldiers and artillery on the 28th had driven the Federals out of Charles Town and through Halltown. Reinforced by Munford's horse soldiers, Winder attacked with artillery the troops of Brig. Gen. Rufus Saxton posted on Bolivar Heights covering the approaches to Harpers Ferry.29
Word now reached General Jackson that a strong Union column under Maj. Gen. James Shields was advancing westward from the Manassas area toward the Blue Ridge, while a powerful force under Maj. Gen. John C. Fremont was coming across the mountains from the South Branch. Unless Jackson abandoned his position in front of Bolivar Heights, his line of communications would be severed by these oncoming Union divisions. On May 30, the Confederates pulled back and retired rapidly up the Shenandoah Valley. Jackson pushed his men hard and succeeded in escaping before the jaws of the trap snapped.30
Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel, on June 2, relieved General Saxton at Harpers Ferry. Reinforced by an infantry brigade sent down from Williamsport by Banks, Sigel's troops during the afternoon moved up the valley. Upon Sigel's departure, Col. Dixon S. Miles was left in charge at Harpers Ferry. By the 3d, the Federals were again in possession of Martinsburg and Charles Town, and on June 4, Sigel's advance entered Winchester. A survey showed that the Confederates during their brief stay in the area had not done too much damage to the right-of-way of the Baltimore and Ohio. Crews were turned to, and General Banks predicted that by the 9th, through trains would again be running east and west out of Martinsburg.31
Heavy rains which had caused the Potomac to flood hindered the Federals. On the night of June 4, the railroad bridge at Harpers Ferry was swept away. Until the river crested and fell, it would be impossible for Banks' trains and the remainder of his soldiers to cross. As an expedient, a steam tug was sent up the canal from Georgetown and placed in the river at Harpers Ferry. The rains now ceased and the river fell, leading Banks to forecast that he would have his trains and the last of his troops across by the night of June 7. He was mistaken, however, and it was nightfall on the 8th before the last of his wagons got back over the Potomac at Williamsport.32
[14 paragraphs]
. . . In the last week of June and on July 1, Gen. Robert E. Lee, who had been called on June 1 to take charge of the Army of Northern Virginia, had turned on and attacked General McClellan's Army of the Potomac, then closing in on Richmond from the southeast. Reinforced by "Stonewall" Jackson and his troops from the Valley, Lee compelled McClellan's army to retreat to the cover of a fortified camp at Harrison's Landing on the James River.
In July, Lee sent Jackson with three divisions to Orange, Virginia, to watch Maj. Gen. John Pope's newly constituted Army of Virginia. Jackson on August 9, defeated Banks' corps of Pope's army at Cedar Mountain. General Lee now moved to join Jackson with the rest of the Army of Northern Virginia, as the Union government recalled McClellan's army from its base on the James. Before all the Army of the Potomac could join Pope behind the Rappahannock, Lee had sent Jackson on his famous march which brought his corps in behind Pope's troops. The Union supply depot at Manassas Junction was destroyed. Pope now turned upon Jackson, but he was unable to beat him before Lee arrived on the field with the rest of the Army of Northern Virginia. The Confederates defeated Pope's troops in a two-day battle fought on August 29 and 30, known as 2d Manassas. The bluecoats fell back into the defenses covering the approaches to Washington. As they did, Lee made an effort on September 1 to cut off their rear guard at Chantilly but failed. The Confederate victory at Manassas exposed the Union force under Brig. Gen. Julius White holding Winchester. In accordance with orders from his superiors, White, on the evening of September 2, evacuated Winchester and fell back to Harpers Ferry.46
. . . General Lee on September 3 determined to carry the war north of the Potomac. The Army of Northern Virginia was put in motion for Loudoun County. Shortly before noon on the 4th, a Confederate battery unlimbered its guns on Ball's Bluff and fired several projectiles at a passing canal boat. General McClellan (who had been placed in charge of the tens of thousands of troops charge with repelling the Rebel invasion of Maryland), when informed of this action, advised his superiors at the War Department that shelling canal boats "is an old amusement of the rebels; it is probably a pretty strong proof that they do no intend to cross at Edwards Ferry."47
McClellan was correct. Lee's lead division, Maj. Gen. D. H. Hill's, trampled through Leesburg. Before pushing on, Hill called a brief halt while he detached one brigade, G. B. Anderson's, to Berlin to attack with artillery any Baltimore & Ohio trains that might be passing. With two brigades deployed in line of battle, Hill approached the Potomac at White's Ford. This crossing of the Potomac and the nearby Monocacy Aqueduct were guarded by men of the 1st Potomac Home Guard Regiment and the 87th Ohio. The Union pickets fled, and Hill's combat-ready veterans waded the Potomac. By nightfall Hill's people, almost without firing a shot, had established a bridgehead. Before permitting his troops to bivouac, Hill turned out a detail charged with the task of putting a stop to traffic on the canal.48
[1 paragraph]
On the 5th, "Stonewall" Jackson's corps forded the Potomac, as D. H. Hill's people cheered, and crossed the canal. Pushing on toward Frederick, Jackson's troops camped for the night at Three Springs. . . .49
[1 paragraph]
Other major units of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia (Longstreet's corps and Stuart's cavalry) followed Jackson's corps across the Potomac and canal at White's Ford. On September 9, at Frederick, Lee determined to divide his army and move against the strong force under Col. Dixon Miles that was holding the Harpers Ferry -- Martinsburg area. By eliminating Miles' command, Lee would be able to supply his army via the Shenandoah Valley. General Jackson, in accordance with Lee's Plan, moved out with his corps, crossed South Mountain, passed through Boonsboro, turned southwestward, and struck out for the Potomac. Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaws with two divisions advanced across Pleasant Valley, and took position on Maryland Heights, which commanded Harpers Ferry on the north. Maj. Gen. John G. Walker's division was to destroy the Monocacy Aqueduct, recross the Potomac at Cheek's Ford, and occupy Loudoun Heights. Lee, with the remainder of Longstreet's corps and D. H. Hill's division, would cover Jackson's column, taking position to hold the South Mountain gaps.52
[2 paragraphs]
Jackson's columns, on the 11th, passed through Williamsport and crossed the canal and Potomac at Light's Ford. Pressing on, the Confederates by nightfall reached the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The next day, Jackson's corps wheeled and forced General White's troops to evacuate Martinsburg and retire into Harpers Ferry. On the 13th, Harpers Ferry was invested by the Confederates -- Jackson's people having closed in from the southwest, while McLaws' troops had seized Maryland Heights, overlooking the town on the north, and Walker's division had secured Loudoun Heights to the southeast. The Union troops (11,000 strong) penned up in Harpers Ferry surrendered on September 15. Meanwhile, McClellan's bluecoats had forced D. H. Hill's troops to abandon Turner's and Fox's Gaps on South Mountain, and General Lee fell back behind Antietam Creek. Here he was joined on the 16th by Jackson and McLaws. On the next day was fought the battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day's battle in American History.
[6 paragraphs]
Immediately following the battle of Antietam and the Confederate retreat into Virginia, General McClellan proposed to establish a depot for supplying his army near Harpers Ferry. . . .
[43 paragraphs]
West Virginia History Center