Before the war it had been defended by a descendent of George Washington, and later, it would used by Sheridan for his base of operations in the Shenandoah Valley.  
Its doom was ensured when Lafayette McLaws gained the high ground on Elk Ridge.  When it fell, more than 12,500 prisoners were taken in the largest Union surrender of the Civil War.  Those troops under Dixon Miles were no match for the Confederate army that marched south from Boonsboro under Stonewall Jackson.  Before the war it had been defended by a descendent of George Washington, and later, it would used by Sheridan for his base of operations in the Shenandoah Valley.  Lying at the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers, FTP, name this West Virginia town best-known for a night in October 1859 when 21 men under John Brown raided its armory.
Its doom was ensured when Lafayette McLaws gained the high ground on Elk Ridge.  
Harpers Ferry