Dock Landing Ship
LSD 49 - USS Harpers Ferry
Type, Class:		Dock Landing Ship; Harpers Ferry - class
Builder:		Avondale Shipyard, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
STATUS:		Awarded: June 17, 1988 Laid down: April 15, 1991 Launched: January 16, 1993 Commissioned: January 7, 1995 ACTIVE UNIT/ in commission (Pacific Fleet)
Homeport:		Naval Base San Diego, California, USA
Namesake:		Named after the Town of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
Ship's Motto:		FIRST IN FREEDOM
Technical Data: (Measures, Propulsion, Armament, Aviation, etc.)		see: INFO > Harpers Ferry - class Dock Landing Ship
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Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, USA
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia - 1865 Maryland Heights at Harpers Ferry (circa 1869-65)
Namesake & History:
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia: Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States. It was formerly Harper's Ferry with an apostrophe and that form continues to appear in some references. It is situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers where the U.S. states of Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia meet. It is the easternmost town in West Virginia. The town is located on a low-lying flood plain created by the two rivers and surrounded by higher ground. Historically, Harpers Ferry is best known for John Brown's raid on the Armory in 1859 and its role in the American Civil War. John Brown's Raid On October 16, 1859, the radical abolitionist John Brown led a small group of 22 men in a raid on the Arsenal. Five were black: three free blacks, one a freed slave, and one a fugitive slave. During this time assisting fugitive slaves was illegal even in the north, and morally unacceptable to most southern white communities. Brown attacked and captured several buildings; he hoped to use the captured weapons to initiate a slave uprising throughout the South. However, he and his men were quickly pinned down by local citizens and militia, and forced to take refuge in the engine house adjacent to the armory. On October 18, United States Marines were sent via train to Harpers Ferry. Under the temporary command of U.S. Army Colonel Robert E. Lee, they stormed the fire house and killed or captured most of the raiders. Brown was tried for treason by the State of Virginia, convicted, and hanged in nearby Charles Town. Following the prosecution (by Andrew Hunter), "John Brown captured the attention of the nation like no other abolitionist or slave owner before or since." The failed raid was a catalyst for the American Civil War. Civil War The Civil War was disastrous for Harpers Ferry, which changed hands eight times between 1861 and 1865. Because of the town's strategic location on the railroad and at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley, both Union and Confederate troops moved through Harpers Ferry frequently. The town's garrison of 14,000 Federal troops played a key role in the Confederate invasion of Maryland in September 1862. General Robert E. Lee did not want to continue on to Pennsylvania without capturing the town, which was on his supply line and would control one of his possible routes of retreat if the invasion did not go well. Dividing his army of approximately 40,000 into four sections, he used the cover of the mountains and sent three columns under Stonewall Jackson to surround and capture the town. The Battle of Harpers Ferry started with light fighting September 13 to capture the Maryland Heights to the northeast while John Walker moved back over the Potomac to capture Loudon Heights south of town. After an artillery bombardment on September 14 and September 15, the Federal garrison surrendered. Lee, because of the delay and the movement of Federal forces west, was forced to regroup at the town of Sharpsburg, leading two days later to the fateful Battle of Antietam, and the bloodiest single day in American military history. When Virginia seceded in April of 1861 the US garrison attempted to burn the arsenal and destroy the machinery. Locals saved the equipment, which was later transferred to a more secure location in Richmond. Arms production never returned to Harpers Ferry. Shortly after the end of the Civil War, Harpers Ferry, along with all of both Berkeley and Jefferson Counties, was separated from Virginia and incorporated into West Virginia. The inhabitants of the counties as well as the Virginia legislature protested, but the federal government went ahead anyway, forming the West Virginia "panhandle" of today. Without the distraction of Union forces at Harpers Ferry during the Antietam campaign the North might not have won that crucial battle or, consequently, the war.
USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49): On 1 September 2002, Harpers Ferry relieved USS Germantown (LSD-42) as a forward-deployed warship based in Japan. In 2011, the two ships exchanged places again with the USS Harpers Ferry returning to San Diego, California as its homeport. Following the Cyclone Nargis disaster in Burma in 2008, and during the following "Operation Caring Response" humanitarian aid mission to Burma, Harpers Ferry steamed in Burmese waters from 13 May to 5 June, waiting for the Burmese junta government to allow American aid to be taken to its citizens. During this operation, she was a part of USS Essex's expeditionary strike group, which also included Juneau and the guided-missile destroyer Mustin, However, in early June, with permission to enter Burmese airspace and land areas still not forthcoming from the Burmese government, it was decided to withdraw this aid mission and to return this Naval Task Group back to its previously-scheduled operations. In October 2009, Harpers Ferry participated in humanitarian rescue operations in the Pangasinan province, of the Philippines, following the impact of a typhoon that caused serious flooding. In early April 2010, the ship participated in the recovery efforts of the sunken R.O.K. Navy ship ROKS Cheonan (PCC-772). This ship was one of several participating in disaster relief after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
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