Harpers Ferry was captured by Confederate forces on this day in 1862. General Stonewall Jackson swept through the town and captured over 12,000 Union soldiers in the process, the largest Union surrender of the war. The town, now in West Virginia but at the time still in Virginia, was fired on by artillery throughout Sept. 14; the next day, the Union soldiers surrendered, realizing they were woefully unequipped for the fight.
The battle at Harpers Ferry teed up the Battle of Antietam, which ended up being something of a draw but resulted in 22,000 killed or injured. It remains the deadliest one-day battle in American military history, according to the American Battlefield Trust, which has a good writeup of Antietam here.
NCPA
