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SUMMARY Martinsburg, Virginia (now West Virginia), the county seat of Berkeley County, was in 1860 the Shenandoah Valley‘s second largest town, with a population of 3,364. Located in the northern portion of the valley, Martinsburg enjoyed a booming economy because of its location along the paved Valley Pike and because it was a major depot along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The same strategic location that made Martinsburg economically prosperous prior to the American Civil War (1861–1865), however, also spelled its wartime demise. The town changed hands between Confederate and Union forces thirty-seven times, was the site of two battles, and played host for a time to the intrigue of Confederate spy Belle Boyd, who was born there. ....
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. ....