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action occurred here every President Thomas Jefferson had a Charles Town is named
year. The largest engagement in great vision—to explore the Louisiana for its founder, Charles
present-day West Virginia happened Purchase. He chose his secretary, Washington, brother of
here when Stonewall Jackson Meriwether Lewis, to command an our first president.
captured 12,700 Union troops in the expedition known as the Corps of
Battle of Harpers Ferry—the biggest Discovery, along with the assistance
surrender of U.S. soldiers during the war. of William Clark. In the spring of 1803,
Lewis arrived at the U.S. armory and
John Brown altered America’s destiny arsenal at Harpers Ferry to gather
when he targeted Jefferson County supplies for the trek, including bullet
to launch his war to end slavery. The molds and gun parts. He also worked
fiery abolitionist attacked the U.S. with armory designers to develop an
armory and arsenal at Harpers Ferry experimental collapsible boat before
on October 16, 1859, in an attempt embarking on the Corps of Discovery
to obtain weapons for his gathering
army. Though the raid proved During the Civil War, thousands of
unsuccessful, Brown then captivated former enslaved persons sought
the nation with the letters he wrote refuge behind Union lines at Harpers
from jail. During his widely publicized Ferry. The Lockwood House in
trial at the courthouse in Charles Harpers Ferry became the first school
Town—still in use today—Brown was house for former slaves in Jefferson
tried, convicted, and sentenced in County, and it then grew into Storer
one of the most famous trials in College—the first institution of higher
American history. learning in the state of West Virginia
for African Americans, and one of the
first in the former Confederacy.
Jefferson County Museum Jefferson Rock Historic Shepherdstown Museum
200 E. Washington St., Charles Town Rock Formation on the Appalachian Trail 129 E. German St.
304-725-8628 • jeffcomuseumwv.org above lower Harpers Ferry 304-876-0910 • historicshepherdstown.com
Visit to discover the people and events According to Thomas Jefferson in 1783, Open weekends from April to October.
that helped shape our county’s and “This scene is worth a voyage across
nation’s history. the Atlantic.”
Storer College at Harpers Ferry Shepherdstown Mystery Walks Zion Episcopal Church Cemetery
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park shepherdstownmysterieswalk.com 300 E. Congress St., Charles Town
Founded in 1867 as a school for A 90 minute guided walking tour covering The cemetery is the burial site
freedmen by the Freewill Baptists. the historical and ghostly legends of the for nearly 80 members of George
Former slaves were educated and sent oldest town in West Virginia. Departs from Washington’s family.
out to teach others. Shepherdstown Visitors Center.
866-HELLO-WV
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