Harpers Ferry

On our last day in the Gettysburg area we spent a couple of hours visiting the Eisenhower farm which is located just outside the battlefield. He apparently had a tour of duty here as a junior officer during WWI and fell in love with the area. After he retired from the Army (and before he was elected President) he purchased this 120 acre farm where he raised Black Angus cattle and grew corn & soybeans on his acreage. Made for a pleasant interlude before we made the short drive down to Harpers Ferry.



We last visited Harpers Ferry about 25 years ago when the boys were young but only spent part of a day here. This time we rented a pretty little cottage in the "upper town" and spent 5 days wandering about. The photo above was taken not far from our place at "Jefferson's Rock", so named because Thomas Jefferson apparently came here in the 1790's and gushed over the view of the Shenandoah & Potomac Rivers coming together...during the spring floods I guess. Anyway, all of the local guidebooks include his famous quote about the view. Back in the day I guess there weren't any trees around to block the panorama.



Here's another view of Jefferson's Rock. The Appalachian Trail winds past here at the midpoint of it's journey from Georgia to Maine. Lot's of hikers in town after it turned cold & rainy.

There's a lot of history here. Merriweather Lewis came to the Federal Armory in 1803 to buy muskets, tomahawks and other iron implements, with a letter of credit from Jefferson, to outfit the Corps of Discovery before the journey West in 1804.
One of the early surveyors in the area was a young George Washington. Later as President it was Washington who recommended that the Feds build an armory here to take advantage of all the free water power available. The Armory was burned by the Federal garrison in 1861 just after Virginia seceded from the Union. It was also the scene of a big battle in Sept. of 1862 - it was Stonewall Jackson & his troops that took the place.
Harpers Ferry was raided by John Brown, a fanatic abolitionist, in 1859. His failed attempt to incite a slave revolt set in motion a chain of events that led to the outbreak of the Civil War 18 months later. In an interesting historical footnote, the Army officer in charge of the detail that eventually captured Brown was Robert E. Lee, and witnesses to his hanging in nearby Charlestown, WV were Stonewall Jackson and John Wilkes Booth. The old firehouse above was the scene of the seige. As it happened we were in town for the 150th anniversary of the John Brown raid.



We made a side trip to the Antietam battlefield near Sharpsburg, MD one day. Antietam was the bloodiest one day battle of the Civil War, and the Union victory there allowed Lincoln to issue the draft of the Emancipation Proclamation.
The photo is the Dunker Church - one of the key geographic locations for both sides during the fight.



Another key point, and the location of much of the deadly fighting, is the Corn Field - still farmland after 147 years.


The Sunken Road was a particular scene of heavy fighting.



And lastly, the Stone Bridge is where the fighting reached a climax in the late afternoon. Gen. Burnside's troops suffered heavily trying to get across this bridge - taking heavy fire & losses from Georgia sharpshooters on the opposite bank.

Heading for Yorktown next - hoping for some sunny weather.