{"id":1848,"date":"2010-06-15T21:22:45","date_gmt":"2010-06-16T02:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/?p=1848"},"modified":"2010-06-15T21:22:45","modified_gmt":"2010-06-16T02:22:45","slug":"battle-of-harpers-ferry-september-12%e2%80%9315-1862","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/2010\/06\/15\/battle-of-harpers-ferry-september-12%e2%80%9315-1862\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle of Harpers Ferry – September 12\u201315, 1862"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> In October 1909 Union veteran Edward Ripley argued<\/a> that the Union\u2019s defeat at the Battle of Harpers Ferry (September 15-17, 1862) was a \u201ctragedy:\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not too exaggerated a term to use where 12,000 brave and patriotic Americans, only too willing to serve their country, were bound hand and foot by an incompetent commander and, in spite of indignant protest, handed over to the enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n

After General Robert E. Lee<\/a> invaded Maryland, he sent General Thomas \u201cStonewall\u201d Jackson<\/a> to capture the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Col. Dixon S. Miles ordered his forces to retreat into the town in response to Jackson\u2019s attack, which Col. Dixon S. Miles\u2019s response. After the war Union General Julius White argued that<\/a> \u201c[Col. Miles] had lost all confidence in his ability\u201d and explained that the high ground around Harpers Ferry<\/a> was critical to defense: \u201cHarper\u2019s Ferry is not defensible by a force inferior to that attacking it, unless the surrounding heights be well fortified, and each of them held by a force sufficient to maintain itself unsupported by others.\u201d
\nTeachers can learn more about this battle from a short essay<\/a> and related maps<\/a> on the National Parks Service website<\/a>. This site, which also focuses on John Brown\u2019s attack in October 1859<\/a>, also has a virtual tour<\/a> and a collection of over 300 images<\/a> (not all are related to the battle). Anyone planning a visit should check out the detailed information in the \u201cSelf Guided<\/a>\u201d and \u201cRanger Guided<\/a>\u201d sections of \u201cPlan a Field Trip\u201d page. Other resources are available from the Library of Congress, including historic maps<\/a>, photographs<\/a>, and illustrations <\/a>by Alfred Waud<\/a>. In addition, Cornell University\u2019s Making of America<\/a> has two articles written after the war by Confederate generals John Imboden<\/a> and John Walker<\/a>. Union General Julius White, whose article is referenced above, wrote it in response to these Confederate officers\u2019 accounts, which he considered \u201cincomplete.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In October 1909 Union veteran Edward Ripley argued that the Union\u2019s defeat at the Battle of Harpers Ferry (September 15-17, 1862) was a \u201ctragedy:\u201d \u201cIt is not too exaggerated a term to use where 12,000 brave and patriotic Americans, only too willing to serve their country, were bound hand and foot by an incompetent commander […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,171,156,12],"tags":[161],"class_list":["post-1848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civil-war-1861-1865","category-historic-periodicals","category-images","category-maps","tag-battles-soldiers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1848"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1870,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848\/revisions\/1870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}