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Jackson’s Brilliant Victory
On September 4, 1862, Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia
splashed across the Potomac River into Maryland at White's Ford. During
the next few days, Lee's veteran Confederates settled in around the town
of Frederick. The first invasion of the North had begun.
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“In The Footsteps of John Brown”
John Brown believed he could free the slaves, and he selected
Harpers Ferry as his starting point. Determined to seize the 100,000
weapons at the Arsenal and to use the Blue Ridge Mountains for guerrilla
warfare, abolitionist Brown launched his raid on Sunday evening, October
16, 1859. His 21-man "army of liberation" seized the Armory and several
other strategic points. Thirty-six hours after the raid begun, with most
of his men killed or wounded, Brown was captured in the Armory fire engine
house (now known as "John Brown's Fort") when U.S. Marines stormed the
building. Brought to trial at nearby Charles Town, Brown was found
guilty of treason, of conspiring with slaves to rebel, and murder. He was
hanged on December 2, 1859. John Brown's short-lived raid failed, but his
trial and execution focused the nation's attention on the moral issue of
slavery and headed the country toward civil war.
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Shenandoah Valley- Stonewall to Hunter’s Raid
The Valley is often described as an avenue of invasion directed
to the head of the Federal government at Washington D.C. More importantly,
it was a vital (and vulnerable) granary for the Confederacy and a worrisome
flank for both sides during operations around Richmond.
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Gray Ghost Tour - Shenandoah
“My purpose was to weaken the armies invading Virginia, by
harassing their rear…To destroy supply trains, to break up the means of
conveying intelligence, and thus isolating an army from its base, as well
as its different corps from each other, to confuse their plans by capturing
their dispatches, are the objects of partisan war. It is just as legitimate
to fight an enemy in the rear as in the front. The only difference is in
the danger….." John S. Mosby
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New Market Tour
As part of his 1864 spring offensive, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant
ordered Major Gen. Franz Sigel to advance south along the Valley Pike to
destroy the railroad at Staunton and then to move on the rail complex at
Lynchburg.
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1861 Virginia to 1863 Pennsylvania
Fought over the first three days of July 1863, the Battle of
Gettysburg was one of the most critical battles of the Civil War having
occurred at a time when the fate of the nation hung in the balance- the
summer of 1863. Often referred to as the "High Water Mark of the Confederacy",
it was the culmination of the second and most ambitious invasion of the
North by General Robert E. Lee and the "Army of Northern Virginia". The
"Army of the Potomac", the Union army that had long been the nemesis of
Lee, met the Confederate invasion at the crossroads town of Gettysburg
and though it was under a new commander, General George Gordon Meade, the
northerners fought with a desperation born of defending their home territory.
The Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg resulted in Lee's retreat
to Virginia and an end to the hopes of the Confederacy for independence.
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