Visit to Harpers Ferry, weekend of December 10th, 2017

Great photos. I love the area. Been there several times at our advanced training center there at schoolhouse ridge.
 
I've hiked Bolivar and Maryland Heights, never been up Loudon Heights. Has anyone hiked over that way?

I've hiked up Loudoun Heights a couple of times. The hike difficulty is comparable to the one up Maryland Heights. There are a couple of nice overlooks along the crest. I don't recall there being any interpretation at all on that mountain, though.
 
Seven pictures down, I put in a picture of the shell of a ruined church. That was the original Episcopal Church during the CW. They used it as a hospital. And the Episcopal priest did NOT stay. I can't remember why they let it fall into ruin after the war but the newer Episcopal Church was rebuilt but in the "new" town of Harpers Ferry a mile or two up the road. Also, as I remember, the reason St. Peter's is still in one piece, was the priest came from Ireland - he was offered sanctuary by his bishop back in the British Isles if he wanted to leave - but he stayed to share the fortunes and misfortunes of his flock and town. He flew the British Union Jack at the church and thus it was "neutral territory. He was a smarty to think of that!

I wish I had taken more photos at Bolivar Heights but it was late in the afternoon and my sister was hating me. I made her go up and down all the stairs and part of the hiking trail, up the street till the end of the historic homes, look at architectual details, etc. She wouldn't get out of the car at Bolivar Heights!:furious:
 
I can't believe my pictures showed up! I thought they were all lost. This is the first time I tried to put photos into CWT, so please bear with me. I was trying to put titles with the photos and I just couldn't seem to figure it out...

Once you have loaded your photos, before posting them scroll back to the top and using your mouse place your cursor alongside the right of the first one; hit enter and it should create a space for you to create a caption. If this doesn't seem to work (but it will if you're persistent until you get the hang of it), you can instead: insert ONLY the first photo, caption it; enter the next photo, caption it; etc.; etc.

... Jefferson rock is much steeper than it looks - both in getting there and once you are there. It looks like it is leveled off there, but no siree, you can fall right off the rock face if you aren't careful. You can't go on the rock anymore though we saw college kids up there. The park service has "stabilized" it from rocking back and forth. I just can't imagine being on a tippy rock above a rock/cliff face.

I thought so too, but since read that the stabilization was done by one of the Superintendents of the Armory in the Antebellum period.
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... Bolivar heights was late in the day and quite a different place. Even though there were people using the trail, it was still an eerie place. It was amazing to think 4,000 men were packed up there in that field. Also amazing to think that a few feet from where I was had been a gallows and they used it. The wind really did whistle up over the ridge there and that certainly created an atmosphere. It wasn't windy just the way mother nature created the ridge and the trees there, the wind sighed through them.

One of my favorite mental pictures of Bolivar Heights was the story in My Life in the Irish Brigade by William McCarter of the 116th Pennsylvania in which he recounts saving the life of his commanding general, Thomas Francis Meagher. According to McCarter, Meagher was standing outside his tent, pitched on that steep slope, when he tipsily lost balance almost falling downhill into a large bonfire! (It was a chilly October day.) McCarter was walking sentry duty nearby and had the presence of mind to hold his rifle out between Meagher and the fire pit, breaking his fall. He said the sheepish Meagher avoided him for a time afterwards but soon they became friends and the general put him on his staff as a clerk.
 
The pic shown of the slippery rock steps displays the street down below beyond the buildings in the foreground. You can see a balcony on one of the houses on the opposite side of the street. That's the street that was cordoned off and made to look like F'burg in Dec. 1862 when "G's and G's" was filmed. I know it might be tedious, but you can pull up that sequence in the motion picture and say to yourself, "yep that's Harper's Ferry for sure...." Sad the movie got carved up so bad. It was supposed to start off with and have included Brown's trial after the raid, which was filmed in the original courthouse room in Charlestown. All of that wound up on the cutting room floor.
 
Beautiful pics! Makes me wonder if any and how hoop skirts and their hems escaped any damage going for walks there. Would LOVE to visit...I see a lovely horse drawn wagon...do they take you on tours in it?

I wanted to - but we seemed star-crossed with them. Every time we wanted a lift, they would be way off in the distance. By the time we got to that distant point, they would be way off in another area of Harpers Ferry.
 
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