Back to last week's road trip. Last Thursday I drove to Martinsburg W.Va.on my way to Fredericksburg. A short drive down the road was Harper's Ferry. Most of the town is a National Park so it is really nice to just drive up to the big parking lot at the visitor's center and ride the shuttle down to town where there is very limited parking.It runs every 15 minutes and the drivers and rangers are very helpful.
Harper's Ferry is very strategically located. It is at the confluence ( see, I did go to school once) of the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers. Both rivers are very wild there and come through deep valleys but once joined, they cut a gap through the Blue Ridge Mountains. This meant that if you.were leading troops up the open rolling Shenandoah Valley toward Washington, you pretty much had to go through there. There was plenty of water power to run the machinery to manufacture goods, especially weapons for the U.S. Government. It was on the C and O canal that ran down to Washington. There was a railroad that ran down to Washington.It is the corner of Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia.There were 15,000 rifles stored there. Imagine all this in a valley that is only a couple of hundred yards wide.
That's why John Brown chose to try to start his slave revolt here. That's why the town changed hands numerous times during the Civil War.It is also why Thomas Jefferson looked out from a rock above the town and declared it the most beautiful place on earth.
Well, I don't want to turn this into a big history lesson but Maryland Heights was yielded to the Confederates early in the first battle. Imagine cannon up there raining fire on the town.If you want to know more, you have Google.Visit if you get a chance. Jefferson may have been right. As always, thanks for reading, leave a comment to enter the drawing and stop back next week.
Great old town, Dennis. When we lived in northern Va., we often went out to Harpers Ferry, sometimes in the heat of summer going into the shallow rapids of the Shenandoah above the confluence and just lying around for the afternoon.
ReplyDeleteLoved the history lesson - have never been there before. Hope you bought the Dan Finnegan pot - that is fabulous. Glad you had a really good time at the workshop!!
ReplyDeleteNice to meet you down in Fredericksburg! Looks like you had fine weather and a beautiful drive on your way down. Harper's Ferry is a beautiful little walking town.
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