Burning of the US Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, 1861
Engraving entitled: "The burning of the Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, 10 , April 18, 1861." Harpers Ferry, in what is now West Virginia, lies at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers and serves as the gateway to the Shenandoah Valley. Before and during the American Civil War (1861-1865), this small, isolated town was an economically thriving community with great strategic importance because of its location along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and its firearms industry, including the United States Arsenal and Armory and Hall's Rifle Works. On April 18, 1861 In an effort to prevent Confederates from seizing arsenal equipment, including 15,000 muskets, 1st Lieutenant Roger Jones set fire to the arsenal buildings and then fled north to Carlisle, Pennsylvania. In the meantime, Virginia militia under the command of Major General Kenton Harper occupied the town, and when Colonel Thomas J. Jackson arrived on April 27 to organize the militia into army regiments, he salvaged what he could from the arsenal ruins, including 300 machines and 57,000 tools and rifle stocks, and shipped them to Richmond.
Size: 3000px × 1988px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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