Harpers Ferry

Fought over four days in mid September 1862, from the 12th through the 15th, the clash at Harpers Ferry formed one chapter of the Confederacy's push into Maryland during the Civil War. General Robert E. Lee had brought his southern forces across the border, and a detachment under Major General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson closed in on the federal garrison stationed at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, a town that later became part of West Virginia. Jackson's men encircled the position, subjected it to heavy shelling, and ultimately forced its surrender.

Lee's push down the Shenandoah Valley toward Maryland came with a specific objective: seizing the Harpers Ferry garrison so his supply route to Virginia would remain intact. Major General George B. McClellan trailed him with the Army of the Potomac, holding a numerical edge of better than two to one, yet moved without urgency. Despite this threat at his rear, Lee gambled by splitting his forces, dispatching one wing to close in on Harpers Ferry from three separate angles simultaneously. Colonel Dixon S. Miles, who held command of the Union garrison, chose to cluster the bulk of his men close to the town rather than establishing strong footholds atop the surrounding high ground. Maryland Heights, the single most vital position overlooking the area, had only a thin defensive line, and it was there that Confederate forces first made contact on September 12, though only light skirmishing broke out that day. The following day, two Confederate brigades launched forceful assaults that pushed the Federal defenders off those heights entirely.

While this struggle for Maryland Heights unfolded, Jackson's remaining columns arrived on the scene and found, much to their surprise, that key ground to the west and south of the town had been left completely open. Jackson methodically placed his artillery pieces around Harpers Ferry and directed Major General A.P. Hill to march his men along the western bank of the Shenandoah River, setting up a flanking strike against the Union left flank planned for daybreak. By the time morning broke on September 15, Jackson had massed close to fifty cannons between Maryland Heights and the foot of Loudoun Heights. He unleashed a punishing bombardment from every direction at once, then sent his infantry forward. Recognizing that further resistance was futile, Miles conferred with his officers and they agreed the garrison should surrender under a white flag. Fate intervened, however, before Miles could personally carry out the surrender: an artillery shell struck him down, inflicting a mortal wound, and he succumbed to it the following day. Once Jackson's command had taken charge of more than 12,000 captured Union soldiers, they marched quickly toward Sharpsburg, Maryland, to link back up with Lee's main force in time for the Battle of Antietam.

Background

At the junction of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers sits Harpers Ferry, a small town that housed a historic Federal arsenal, established under President George Washington in 1799, along with a crossing point for the vital Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. In 1859 the town gained notoriety as the location where abolitionist John Brown launched his raid on that same arsenal.

By this point in the war, the garrison stationed there, formally designated the Railroad Brigade of the Middle Department, Eighth Army Corps, existed to safeguard the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and the lower Shenandoah Valley wherever they ran through the region. It stood as the only substantial Union force remaining south of the Potomac, numbering roughly 10,400 troops, soon reinforced by another 2,500 pulled from Martinsburg. Stockpiled there were significant quantities of small arms, artillery, wagons, and Union uniforms. Geography left the town almost impossible to hold, since higher ground surrounded it in every direction. Heading west, the terrain climbed gradually across a mile and a half toward Bolivar Heights, a 669 foot plateau running from the Potomac to the Shenandoah, with Schoolhouse Ridge lying further west along a parallel line. Across the Shenandoah to the south rose Loudoun Heights at 1,180 feet, while the northeastern edge of Elk Ridge, on the far side of the Potomac, culminated in Maryland Heights, standing 1,476 feet tall. One Union soldier remarked that without control of these three elevations, Harpers Ferry would prove "no more defensible

Inquiry

To get to the bottom of what went wrong at Harpers Ferry, the War Department set up a special panel led by Major General David Hunter. Over the course of fifteen days, witnesses gave testimony that filled more than 900 pages, and the panel examined Miles' loyalty and fitness for command, how he had organized the garrison's defense, the conduct of the officers beneath him, and any chances for rescue or retreat that had gone unused.

Colonel Thomas H. Ford emerged as a central figure in the panel's conclusions, since his handling of Maryland Heights was judged "without ability." The commission determined he had left his post without adequate justification and concluded that his overall fitness for command was so lacking that he should never lead troops again. Blame also fell on General John E. Wool, who had overseen Miles as head of the Middle Department in Baltimore before Miles came under McClellan's authority, and who had instructed him to hold an untenable position "at all hazards." The panel censured Wool for having placed Miles in charge at Harpers Ferry to begin with. McClellan did not escape scrutiny either, drawing criticism for not moving to rescue and safeguard the garrison in time.

Miles himself, despite being deceased and despite the panel's stated hesitance to condemn a man with no chance to defend himself, was still judged harshly, his conduct labeled as showing "incapacity, amounting to almost imbecility" in what the commission called the disgraceful surrender of such a crucial position. The investigators suggested that had McClellan's troops arrived sooner, or had Miles simply resisted surrender a bit longer, the attacking force would have had no choice but to abandon the siege or risk being destroyed piece by piece.

Notably absent from any blame was General Henry Halleck, the General-in-Chief who had turned down McClellan's plea to fold the Harpers Ferry garrison into the Army of the Potomac. That refusal cost McClellan roughly 11,000 additional troops and left Miles stranded in a position that could not be held, yet the commission's findings made no mention of Halleck's role in the disaster.