7 Important Civil War Battles history.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from history.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
SUMMARY
Harpers Ferry, in what is now West Virginia, lies at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers and serves as the gateway to the Shenandoah Valley. Before and during the American Civil War (1861–1865), this small, isolated town was an economically thriving community with great strategic importance because of its location along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and its firearms industry including the United States Arsenal and Armory and Hall’s Rifle Works. In 1859, Harpers Ferry emerged onto the national stage when the radical abolitionist John Brown and a small band of followers raided the armory in an attempt to ignite a slave insurrection. The town also became an object of intense military interest immediately after Virginia’s secession in April 1861, during the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862, the Maryland Campaign of 1862, and the Valley Campaign of 1864.
Unidentified Member of the Richmond HowitzersThe Richmond Howitzer Company of the 1st Regiment of Volunteers was founded on November 9, 1859, by George Wythe Randolph, a grandson of Thomas Jefferson, a U.S. Navy veteran, and a Richmond lawyer. After electing Randolph its first captain, the company, which was recruited from elite Richmond circles, marched to Charles Town, Virginia (now West Virginia), to help provide security during Brown’s trial and subsequent execution. Curious out-of-towners had flooded into Jefferson County, taxing the authorities’ ability to keep order. In addition, a series of damaging fires had swept through the area, and the locals pointed their fingers at allies of the accused. Virginia governor Henry A. Wise called for militia support, including the Howitzers, the cadets from the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington (commanded by Thomas J. Jackson and including the sixty-six-year-old “cadet” Edmund Ruffin), and the Richmond Grays, in whose rank
pretty soon after that, stonewall jackson was the first rock star of the war. men of virginia, your general will lead you! follow me! stonewall jackson earns the devotion of his men by leading the confederacy to stunning victories. in the first 2 years of the war, rebel generals jackson and robert e. lee are able to outwit and outfight every union general who opposes them. damn the blue bellies! speech! speech! to the south! you. long live the south! whoo! .the army of northern virginia, have saved our state and our confederacy from destruction. soon, we will achieve our independence. [ all cheering ] there s a mystique to robert e. lee. lee cultivated an image of a gentleman officer.
he was a refined individual. he was known for not having coarse manners. he carried himself erect and upright, and people still admire him today. the lost cause mythology holds up general lee as the best example of the noble confederate rebel fighting against tyrannical yankees, creating a legend both during and after the war. at the second battle of bull run, lee and stonewall jackson are outnumbered, and it appears that the federals are winning. i m out of cartridges! inspired by