Harpers Ferry

Harpers Ferry (pop. 400), town in eastern West Virginia, site of a federal armory established by George Washington. The Potomac and Shenandoah rivers meet at Harpers Ferry, forming the borders of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. John Brown's dramatic raid on the arsenal there in 1859 was one of the events leading to the Civil War. Because of its strategic location, the town was the scene of many battles during the war. General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson captured it from Union forces in 1862, taking 12,000 prisoners, the largest number captured in a single battle during the war. Union forces later retook it. Today it is a small residential town, the site of a national park in which the Civil War battle sites are preserved.