B08c_Attachment_2_-_Wayside_Panel_Specifications.pdf

1. A Position Strong by Nature

Title: A Position Strong by Nature Panel Dimensions: 36 x 24 inches

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In 1862 Union Colonel Dixon Miles thought that the ridge in front of you, BolivarHeights, was the perfect place to defend Harpers Ferry. However, in September of ’62, Colonel Miles and 14,000 Union soldiers found themselves surrounded by 24,000 Confederates led by “Stonewall” Jackson.

From the Confederate position behind you on School House Ridge, one of Jackson’s officers described BolivarHeights as “a position strong by nature.” Jackson agreed. He had no time for a siege and did not want to risk an attack up the steep slope of BolivarHeights. Jackson planned a fake attack here to cover a full-scale assault against a weaker Union position on the southern end of BolivarHeights. Following a full afternoon of artillery bombardment on September 14, the Confederate plan began to unfold.

Photo Captions: Colonel Dixon Miles. General “Stonewall” Jackson

Map Quotation: “In the afternoon General Hill was ordered to move along the left bank of the Shenandoah, turn the enemy’s left, and enter Harper’s Ferry . . . . General J.R. Jones was directed to make a demonstration against the enemy’s right.” “Stonewall” Jackson

Wayside in Context

Wayside Face

2. First Line of Defense

Title: The First Line of Defense: The Union Skirmish Line Panel Dimensions: 36 x 24 inches

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After sunset on September 14, 1862, the Confederate cannons across the road on School House Ridge vanished in the darkness. The features of the landscape began to blur as the shell-shocked Union soldiers on BolivarHeights wondered if they could survive another day of artillery bombardment. The Union troops could not rest until tomorrow, however, because General “Stonewall” Jackson’s Confederate Army might charge over School House Ridge at any moment.

To guard against such an attack, the Union command established a human alarm system on this field in the form of a skirmish line. It was the first line of defense. If the Confederates advanced, the gunfire from the Union soldiers on the skirmish line would reveal the location of the attack, “Stonewall” Jackson was counting on it.

7. Home Becomes a Battlefield Title: Home Becomes a Battlefield Panel Dimensions: 36 x 24 inches

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The Civil War affected not only the soldiers who fought but the families whose homes and towns became battlefields. Edmund H. Chambers bought this farm in 1848 and lived here with his family until the Civil War. Although Chambers was a loyal Unionist, the Union confiscated his farm in 1862, forcing the family from their home. The U.S. Army arranged for an appraisal of the farm in the event of damage. At war’s end Chambers found the property destroyed and filed a claim demanding restitution. In 1888, 23 years after the end of the war, he was still trying to settle his claim. There is no evidence that he was ever paid. He died in 1890.

Quotation: I am now very poor and am eighty years old. I am the son of a Revolutionary soldier . .

. and I think I have a very good record. Excerpt from Edmund H. Chambers’s letter to the Secretary of War, 1888.

Painting Caption: Harpers Ferry painting attributed to Edmund Chambers’s daughter Jenny, 1891

7. Morrell House

Title: Morrell House Panel Dimensions: 18 x 24 inches

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This house was built in 1858 as quarters for the U.S. Armory paymaster’s clerk and his family. This clerk helped the paymaster manage the armory’s complex budget and payroll, and assisted also with the collection of government quarters’ rent and the oversight of armory contracts.

Soon after the establishment of Storer Normal School (later college) in Harpers Ferry in 1867, Reverend Alexander Morrell of Maine came south into the Shenandoah Valley as a missionary for the Freewill Baptists – a church dedicated to the education of former slaves. Morrell preached and taught in the area for nearly 20 years, and this house, in which Morrell and his family once resided, was named in honor of his dedicated service. Today the Morrell house is a National Park Service office building.

Wayside in Context

Wayside Face

EKerwin-Nisbet Cross-Out

EKerwin-Nisbet Inserted Text formely enslaved people.

8. Island Access (on Shenandoah Street)

Title: Island Access Panel Dimensions: 18 x 24 inches

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Bridges spanning the canal, like the one to your left, provided access from the island to the mainland for residents and workers. During floods, they were paths to safety. To delay departure could spell disaster, as in 1870, when swiftly rising water swept away all avenues to higher ground.

Photo Caption: The wooden truss bridge as it appeared in 1886 from Shenandoah Street, looking across to VirginiusIsland.

Photo Caption: The access bridge (below) as seen from Shenandoah Street in 1886. Rebuilt from this historic photograph, the present bridge is dedicated to former U.S. Senator Jennings Randolph of West Virginia for his efforts to establish Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.

10. Interior Fort

Title: Interior Fort Panel Dimensions: 36 x 24 inches

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You are standing inside the Interior Fort, facing its north wall – the most imposing earthwork on MarylandHeights. This nine-foot-high parapet and accompanying ditch defended the crest from an attack from the north. The five embrasures which cut through this wall served as artillery positions for howitzer guns and later, 30-pounder Parrott rifles.

A Union recommendation that “all plateaus or gentle slopes between the crest and Harpers Ferry be held” suggests the purpose and origin of the Interior Fort. As a rectangular earthwork, its defensive position included part of the mountain’s crest and a narrow plateau just below. Built during the winter of 1862-1863, it borders the Exterior Fort on the west and encompasses the Stone Fort within its southeast corner.

Archaeological surveys recorded thirteen powder magazines on Maryland Heights, three within this fort. Used to store gun powder and shells, these 30’ x 20’ rectangular excavations were dug to a depth of eight feet, supported by a heavy timber superstructure and covered with earth and sod.

Working around a powder magazine could be hazardous, especially to the untrained but enthusiastic soldier, as revealed in this passage by Joseph Barry, a local citizen: “A company of them [“the Hundred-Day Men from Ohio”] were preparing dinner and, not having anything convenient on which to build their fire, they procured from an ammunition wagon several large shells on while they piled their wood which was soon ablaze. ‘Round the fire they all squatted… Soon a terrific explosion shook the surrounding hills, sending all the culinary utensils flying over the tree tops and, unfortunately, killing or wounding nearly every man of the group.

Map Caption: Stone Fort Area Plan, by George Kaiser, January 1863. This map includes the Interior Fort’s north wall. The five small squares with symbols represent artillery piees and gun platforms abutting the wall. The small square next to the letter “M” indicates a powder magazine.

13. 30 Pounder Battery

Title: 30-Pounder Battery Panel Dimensions: 36 x 24 inches

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Positioned here at the end of a towering plateau, this fortification was the first earthen battery built on the mountain by the Federals in the fall of 1862. Facing south, its guns “commanded perfectly the summits of LoudounHeights as well as BolivarHeights.”

A four-sided earthwork forms the dominant feature of this battery. Protecting its exterior slope is a dry moat – the widest, longest, and most uniform moat on the mountain. 30-Pounder Parrotts were standard armament here.

Subtitle: 30-Pounder Battery Plan

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George Kaiser’s January, 1863, illustration of the 30-pounder Battery shows many features of the earthwork.

10. First Year of the War (old)

Title: The First Year of the War Panel Dimensions: 36 x 24 inches

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The armory and arsenal’s destruction signaled the beginning of the war and the end of prosperity in Harpers Ferry. On April 18, 1861, the day after Virginia seceded from the Union, Virginia militia awaited reinforcements on this ridge while preparing to seize Harpers Ferry. At 10:00 p.m., the out-numbered Federal garrison blew up the arsenal and attempted to burn the armory before retreating into Maryland.

Col. Thomas J. Jackson arrived 10 days after the arsenal’s destruction to assume his first command of the Civil War. He drilled thousands of Virginia volunteers encamped here on BolivarHeights into a disciplined military unit that soon became famous as the “Stonewall Brigade.” In mid-June 1861, Maj. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston ordered the Confederate forces to abandon Harpers Ferry, pronouncing the area “untenable.”

On October 16, 1861, exactly two years after John Brown raided Harpers Ferry, 500 Confederates led by Col. Turner Ashby attacked 600 Union soldiers commanded by Col. John White Geary on this ridge. Ashby ordered repeated assaults on the Union position. After six hours of fighting, Geary’s troops ultimately repulsed the Confederates. The “Battle of Bolivar Heights” ended as Ashby’s troops fell back towards Charles Town and Union flags were planted on the ridge.

War correspondent Porte Crayon, wrote: “There was a sudden flash that illuminated for miles around the romantic gorge where the rivers meet . . . . The flashes and detonations were several times repeated; then a steadier flame was seen rising from two distinct points, silently and rapidly increasing in volume until each rock and tree on the Loudoun and Maryland Heights were distantly visible, and the now overclouded sky was ruddy with the sinister glare.

Illustration Caption: Later, Crayon drew this illustration for Harpers Monthly Magazine.

Illustration Caption: This eyewitness illustration shows the Confederates using naval cannon on Bolivar Heights during the early months of the war.

Quotation: “The people for the most part were tongue-tied with terror . . . overwhelmed with ruin . . . .” Porte Crayon, war correspondent April 18, 1861.

4. Naval Battery

Title: Naval Battery Panel Dimensions: 36 x 24 inches

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Positioned 300 feet above the Potomac River, the Naval Battery was the first Union fortification on MarylandHeights. Hastily build in May 1862; its naval guns were rushed here from the Washington, D.C., Navy Yard. Along with a detachment of 300 sailors and marines, the battery was equipped to protect Harpers Ferry from Confederate attack during Stonewall Jackson’s famous Valley Campaign in the spring of 1862.

Thwarted that spring, Jackson returned to Harpers Ferry in mid-September 1862, during the Confederacy’s first invasion of the North. Jackson’s three-day siege included an infantry battle on the crest of MarylandHeights on September 13, in which the Confederates advanced south along the ridge top. The Naval Battery guns were turned uphill to pound the crest, but orders to retreat forced the Federals to abandon the mountain and this battery.

On September 22, one week after the Union surrender at Harpers Ferry, U.S. forces returned to MarylandHeights to build fortifications at better locations on the crest and slope of the Heights. The Naval Battery lost its defensive importance and eventually became an ordinance depot.

Subtitle: Battery Improvements

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Federal troops periodically improved this fortification – the oldest on MarylandHeights.

Photo Label: At first, the Naval Battery’s three guns sat on a clear, manmade leveled area. This August 1862 photo taken from across the Potomac River at Camp hill shows the Naval Battery position.

Map Label: By January 1863, the battery consisted of seven separate platforms protected by sandbag embankments, or ramparts. Four powder magazines for ammunition storage also had been constructed.

Subtitle: Heavy Artillery

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Art Caption: By July 1863, a three-sided earthwork protected the guns in anticipation of another Confederate advance. Remains of this earthwork are visible today.

4. Naval Battery(continued)