Dear Friends,
While I always enjoy adding new locations to the Trust’s roster of successes, some sites are so significant they merit returning to time and again over the course of years and decades.
One such place is Harpers Ferry, where we’ve succeeded in saving 542 acres of hallowed ground over 29 years — most of which has been incorporated into Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. Today, as our preservation story continues at the West Virginia site, we’re wrapping up a big chapter and celebrating the transfer of the last of four tracts — totaling almost 17 acres — that were saved in 2013-2014.
The 0.61-acre tract now transferred to the National Park Service was once the proposed site for a new gas station and mini-mart, but we’ve ensured that such a fate will never fall upon this sacred terrain. Along with 3.28 adjacent acres (across two tracts), the property was protected in 2013 through a partnership between the National Parks Conservation Association, the National Park Service and the Bank of Charles Town, all of which recognized its profound role in history.
The small-but-critical parcel sits along the route of the Harpers Ferry–Charles Town Turnpike on Bolivar Heights. Charged with capturing the federal arsenal, Stonewall Jackson strategically placed artillery on the heights surrounding the town, and, on the morning of September 15, 1862, proceeded to rain fire upon the turnpike and its bordering fields. The move ultimately opened the gate for a Confederate flanking maneuver that forced a Union surrender.
Not only decisive in the largest capitulation of Union troops during the Civil War, the land also witnessed a key moment in abolitionist John Brown’s 1859 raid. This land is close to the Allstadt Ordinary, a landmark of the raid, which we transferred to the park almost exactly two years ago.
Because of your unwavering support, we can deliver this memory-packed parcel of battlefield land to Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, making for a more complete western gateway to the park. We’ll never stop working to piece together the preservation puzzles at our nation’s battlefields, as each piece represents the unique perspectives engrained in our American story.
With Gratitude,
David Duncan
President
American Battlefield trust