On September 15, 1862, during the American Civil War’s Maryland Campaign, Confederate forces commanded by Major General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson compelled the surrender of the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry, then Virginia. In a carefully coordinated operation, Jackson’s columns seized the commanding ground around the town—Maryland Heights, Loudoun Heights, and the Bolivar Heights area—placing the Federal defenders in an increasingly untenable position below.
As fog lifted on the morning of September 15, Confederate artillery opened a devastating bombardment while Major General A. P. Hill’s troops advanced against the Union line. Surrounded, outnumbered, and short of long-range artillery ammunition, the Union commanders agreed to surrender. White flags rose along Bolivar Heights at about 9:00 a.m.; after Colonel Dixon S. Miles was mortally wounded by a stray Confederate shell, Brigadier General Julius White completed the surrender arrangements.
Jackson captured approximately 12,500 Union soldiers, about 13,000 small arms, and 47 artillery pieces. It was the largest surrender of Federal forces during the Civil War and gave Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia valuable prisoners, weapons, and supplies at a crucial moment in the Maryland Campaign.
The victory came only days before the Battle of Antietam. After processing the prisoners and securing the captured matériel, Jackson’s command moved to rejoin Lee near Sharpsburg, where the Confederate army would face the Army of the Potomac on September 17. Harpers Ferry demonstrated both the town’s strategic importance and the decisive effect of the surrounding heights: once Confederate artillery controlled them, the garrison’s position became nearly impossible to defend.
Image: Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, 1862
