The Battle of Bolivar Heights (October 16, 1861) was an early battle of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

Bolivar Heights The Bolivar Heights Battlefield in Jefferson County, West Virginia, partly in the town of Bolivar, is an American Civil War battlefield which, – because of its strategic position overlooking Harpers Ferry, where the U.S. had an armory, a ...

is a plateau which overlooks the towns of

Harpers Ferry, West Virginia Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia. It is located in the lower Shenandoah Valley. The population was 285 at the 2020 census. Situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, where the U.S. st ...

and Bolivar, West Virginia, then part of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

Battle

On October 15, 1861,

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...

Nathaniel P. Banks Nathaniel Prentice (or Prentiss) Banks (January 30, 1816 – September 1, 1894) was an American politician from Massachusetts and a Union general during the Civil War. A millworker by background, Banks was prominent in local debating societies, ...

ordered

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...

John White Geary John White Geary (December 30, 1819February 8, 1873) was an American lawyer, politician, Freemason, and a Union general in the American Civil War. He was the final alcalde and first mayor of San Francisco, a governor of the Kansas Territory, an ...

to cross the Potomac River from Maryland Heights, part of

Elk Ridge (Maryland) Elk Ridge, or Elk Mountain, is a mountain ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Maryland and is the westernmost of four parallel ridges. It forms the western side of a narrow valley in which are situated the towns of Yarrowsburg and Brownsvill ...

and capture wheat stored by the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

near

. Geary crossed the river with 600 men but sent 500 of them back that night. On October 16, a Confederate force of 300 militia men armed with obsolete flintlock muskets, 2 companies of regular Confederate infantrymen and 230 cavalrymen under Colonel

Turner Ashby Turner Ashby Jr. (October 23, 1828 – June 6, 1862) was an American officer. He was a Confederate cavalry commander in the American Civil War. In his youth, he organized an informal cavalry company known as the Mountain Rangers, which beca ...

attacked Geary's force, drove them back to Bolivar and nearly surrounded them. The Union force then flanked the inexperienced Confederates and in turn forced them to withdraw. The Union troops captured a Confederate 24-pound cannon that had broken down during the fight. Ashby claimed that he had withdrawn in the face of heavy Union reinforcements after holding his position for four hours. Dufour, Charles L.br>''Nine Men in Gray''
Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1993. . p. 53. Geary greatly exaggerated the size of the Confederate force (3,000) and the number of casualties his men inflicted on them (about 150).Blair, 1995, p. 19. In turn, Ashby exaggerated the Union dead, stating that his men had killed 25 Union soldiers. Ashby reported that he lost one dead and nine wounded. Geary reported his losses at four dead, seven wounded and two taken prisoner. Geary himself was one of the wounded, having been cut to the bone below the knee by a shell fragment.Welsh, Jack D
''Medical Histories of Union Generals''
Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1996. . p. 127. He stayed on the field despite the wound, from which he recovered quickly.

References

Notes Bibliography * Blair, William Alan and Bell Irvin Wiley
''A Politician Goes to War:The Civil War Letters of John White Geary''.
University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University, 1995. . * Dufour, Charles L.br>''Nine Men in Gray''
Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1993. . * Welsh, Jack D
''Medical Histories of Union Generals''
Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1996. .

External links

* National Park Service. "Place (U.S. National Park Service)." U.S. Department of the Interior, 8 June 2014. Web. 8 June 2014. Bolivar Bolivar

1861 in Virginia October 1861 events {{AmericanCivilWar-battle-stub