On July 11, 1861, the Battle of Rich Mountain was fought in Randolph County. It was the climax of a successful Union campaign to seize control of Western Virginia early in the Civil War.
Confederate General Robert Garnett had established defensive positions at Laurel Hill and Rich Mountain. Suspecting an attack on Laurel Hill, Garnett placed only about a fourth of his men on Rich Mountain, under the command of Colonel John Pegram.
Union commander George McClellan surprised Garnett and dispatched the bulk of his force, led by General William Rosecrans, to Rich Mountain. Rosecrans trapped the Confederates and captured the mountain.
The battle had two important results. First, the victory propelled McClellan into command of the Army of the Potomac—the Union’s most significant army in the East. McClellan’s Western Virginia campaign, though, was the last of his military glory. As head of the Army of the Potomac, he was continually bested by Confederate generals Joseph Johnston and Robert E. Lee. More importantly for our state’s history, Rich Mountain ensured Northern control of the region and helped pave the way for the formation of West Virginia.
This year marks the Centennial Celebration of the National Park Service – 100 years since the system was created. But 2016 is also special for another reason – it marks the release of a new quarter honoring one of West Virginia’s best known National Parks.
Hundreds of people gathered in Harpers Ferry for the official launch of the America the Beautiful Quarters Program honoring Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.
This new quarter recognizes one of the most historic towns in West Virginia – known for its significant role during the Civil War. The quarter’s reverse side depicts John Brown’s Fort, the site of John Brown’s last stand during his raid on the Harpers Ferry Armory.
“This quarter brings a lot of pride to a state, to an area; the pride that’s in here,” said Bill Norton, Director of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs at the United States Mint, “If you look around, there are people here from Illinois, California, Montana, Florida, and they come up, and it’s important. It’s important to keep us and keep Americans connected with this history.”
West Virginia’s quarter is one of five that will be released this year as part of the America the Beautiful Quarters Program that began in 2010.
A total of 56 new quarters will be released through 2020 honoring 56 national sites in each of the 50 states, Washington D.C., and five U.S. territories – Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Harpers Ferry’s quarter is 33rd in the series.
Thomas Hipschen is the artist behind the design of this new quarter. Hipschen is a member of the Artistic Infusion Program at the United States Mint and has been a regular visitor to Harpers Ferry for the past 40 years.
This is the first time one of his designs will appear on a circulating coin, and Hipschen says he chose John Brown’s Fort because it’s so iconic.
“It’s the only part of the original arsenal that still exists,” Hipschen explained, “It’s a major point in history; it was almost a trigger point for the Civil War. Later on, it became a meeting place for black groups that turned into the NAACP organization. It just has so many different points in history that makes it important.”
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park is one of four other national park sites in West Virginia and one of 411 sites in the country.
Those interested in getting the new Harpers Ferry quarter may visit any Jefferson Security Bank to exchange cash for rolls of coins until stock runs out. According to a representative from the United States Mint, other banks around the country may have the coins in stock, and individuals are encouraged to reach out and check with their local banks for availability.
Every year, dozens of people in Harpers Ferry go back in time. In the shops and at the national park, it’s 1864 all over again. It’s fun for locals and visitors to see how people in Victorian-era West Virginia celebrated Christmas. But it’s also a reminder of how bittersweet it can be for people to try to find a bit of good cheer in the midst of a long and terrible war.
I walk along cobblestone streets in historic Harpers Ferry. It’s still 2015, but it sure doesn’t feel like it. Most of the buildings around me were built in the 1830s or 1840s.
I’m surrounded by reenactors dressed in Victorian style; women in plaid, poufy dresses, bonnets, and some with green or blue parasols; some men are in black suits with a top hat and some patrol the streets dressed in their Union blues keeping an eye out for Confederate guerilla raiders.
There’s a blacksmith hammering in the distance. Some Union soldiers look for a sweet to eat at the confectionary, or they stop by the provost marshal’s office to see if there’s a letter or a package from home. A train rumbles by as I walk outside a Union soldier hospital.
I’m only brought out of the magic when I see tourists dressed in modern clothes ogling the same scenes I am.
I arrive at a large, white tent.There’s a small stage where two men play on instruments; one on a banjo and the other taps a beat on a cow jawbone.
On either side of the stage are long tables with holiday crafts for children, and in the corner of the tent is a small Christmas tree decorated with popcorn and cranberry strands.
Twenty-two-year-old, Colleen Moran stands next to her grandmother, Mary Lou Taylor. They’re standing behind one of the tables in Victorian style plaid dresses.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Colleen Moran (left) helping children decorate gingerbread cookies, a common Christmas tree ornament during the Civil War.
They’re decorating gingerbread cookies with visiting children.
“There is colored icing and paper faces that you can put on the gingerbread,” Moran explains, “and the very difficult decision is always deciding whether you should give your gingerbread to the tree or if you should just eat it.”
Moran’s grandmother tells me how ornaments like the gingerbread cookies used to be the norm during the Civil War.
“I explain to the visitors that they did not save ornaments from year to year, they made them fresh every year,” Taylor said, “and they made them out of things that were available like nuts and pine cones and things like this, and then they would just throw them out at the end of the year. But during the Civil War, the German soldiers started bringing the glass blown ornaments from Germany, and they remembered those, and so those became more popular, so it was actually during the Civil War that they started saving the ornaments from year to year.”
Taylor and her granddaughter come from a family of history buffs. In fact, Taylor sewed the dresses the two of them are wearing. She’s been volunteering at this event for almost 30 years – and for Moran this is year number 16.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
“Well it’s very important just historically to this area to remind people of what happened here on this land and this place,” Moran explained, “to the people who are related to a lot of the current residents here. They’re their great-great grandfathers or however many greats. They lived and celebrated and died here. There’s a lot of memories here, and it’s important to remember that.”
This is the 45th year for the Old Tyme Christmas event in Harpers Ferry. It’s put together by local businesses and the national park service, and it always happens the first weekend in December.
“All the activities here are something that actually happened here,” explained John King, the supervisory park ranger for the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, “and as much as possible at the original event location where they happened, too.”
King’s colleague, Melinda Day, is out of her ranger uniform for this occasion. She’s wearing a light green plaid dress, and her hair is pulled back in a low bun sort of like former First Lady, Mary Todd Lincoln.
“Because this is a historical park and because we do have a rich Civil War history, we focus on the idea that Christmas and war coexist,” Day said, “almost any visitor that walks into this park understands that someplace in this world, American service people are putting their lives on the line even though it may be Christmas, and when a visitor steps into this park for a Civil War Christmas, that’s the same story and relevance that resonates with them in modern times.”
Day says Harper’s Ferry was a strategic site in the war – it switched hands 14 times! And in late 1864, things were changing.
“The war’s coming to an end, and everybody feels that, and you can feel joy while you’re feeling pain. I think anybody that’s been through something like that could nod their head and say, yes I understand that, you can actually experience joy when you also experience pain,” she noted.
A reenactor named Tom Bates is portraying a Union soldier stationed in Harpers Ferry. He runs up to the Provost Marshal’s office. There’s a package waiting for him from his wife. Some Union soldiers check the contents of the box to make sure there isn’t any contraband or Confederate propaganda.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Two reenactors discussing the contents of a box mailed to a fellow Union soldier stationed in Harpers Ferry.
Bates gets some warm clothes, a welcome reminder of home especially at this time of year, but it wasn’t always like this for soldiers during the Civil War. Sometimes they might get a letter saying their child or wife died from disease. Or sometimes it was the other way around.
“Today, UPS rolls up to our door, that makes us happy at Christmastime, because we think joy is wrapped up inside of a box,” Melinda Day explained, “but during the Civil War, it’s gonna be Adam’s Express that might send you a notice in the mail that you have a package waiting down at the depot, and you need to get down there and pick it up. Well it’s your son’s pocket watch; it’s a small Bible that he carried in his pocket, maybe it’s a pocketknife that you gave him one Christmas long ago; now you’re getting it back, it’s the reverse effect, there is no joy in this, but that’s a Christmas of 1864.”
Still, the soldiers stationed in Harpers Ferry in 1864 tried to make merry as best they could even if some of them were far away from home at Christmas.
Two Civil War battlefields in Maryland are ringing bells to mark the 150th anniversary of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender.
The Antietam National Battlefield near Sharpsburg and the Monocacy National Battlefield near Frederick are ringing bells for four minutes Thursday starting at 3:15 p.m. The four minutes symbolize the four years of the war. The National Park Service is asking churches and local governments to join in.
Lee commanded the Army of Northern Virginia. He surrendered to Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses Grant at Appamattox, Virginia, on April 9, 1865.
Dr. Samuel Mudd, the physician who set John Wilkes Booth’s leg after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, has been portrayed in a variety of media as an innocent victim who was wrongly accused for conspiring with Booth.
Mudd is the subject of Berkeley County author, Ed Steers’ newest work and his first play titled, “The Trial of Dr. Mudd.”
Steers is now known as one of the leading experts on the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, appearing on numerous television and radio shows like PBS’s Morning Edition with Bob Edwards, NBC’s Today Show, CSPAN’s Book Notes, and more.
In 2009, Steers completed his first play, “The Trial of Dr. Mudd,” which deals with the controversy and intrigue surrounding the trial of Dr. Samuel Mudd, a Maryland native who was imprisoned for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of President Lincoln.
This year, the play was picked up by the Morgan Arts Council also located in Berkeley Springs and will premiere on stage in February.
Auditions for “The Trial of Dr. Mudd” will be held on Sunday, December 14th from 2-4 PM and Monday, December 15th from 7-9 PM at the Ice House in Berkeley Springs for a staged reading of Steers’ play. It will be directed by Kirsten Trump.
