The Battle of Harper’s Ferry took place September 12 - 15, 1862, during the American Civil War, as part of the Maryland Campaign. Confederate General Stonewall Jackson led about 40,000 troops to capture the Union garrison at Harper’s Ferry, a key transportation and supply hub at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers. Surrounded and heavily outnumbered, Union Colonel Dixon S. Miles surrendered more than 12,000 soldiers—the largest single surrender of U.S. forces during the war. The Confederate victory secured vital supplies and cleared the way for Robert E. Lee's army to concentrate before the Battle of Antietam.