Nurse Abba Goddard withstands Jackson’s bombardment at Harpers Ferry, part 1

In this view of Harpers Ferry taken from the Potomac River’s Maryland shore after Confederates withdrew from the town in 1861, a railroad bridge lies in ruins in the foreground. The bridge spanned the Potomac, which meets the Shenandoah River (left, beyond the point) at Harpers Ferry. (Library of Congress)

Maine at War celebrates Women’s History Month with a four-part tale about nurse Abba Goddard and her adventures at Harpers Ferry during the Antietam Campaign. You can read part 2 here, part 3 here, and part 4 here.

Maine nurse Abba Goddard went livid when Col. Dixon Stansbury Miles surrendered the Harpers Ferry garrison to Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson on Monday, September 15, 1862. Enduring a two-hour Confederate bombardment a day earlier, the spunky 42- or 43-year-old nurse from Portland was ready to keep fighting — and she was willing to die to keep the enemy from capturing the seven black civilians assigned to her.

Among the buildings affiliated with the Harpers Ferry armory was the two-story paymaster’s house (known as Lockwood House) standing on Camp Hill near the Upper Town. The War Department took over the “stately brick mansion” as a hospital in summer 1862 and named Goddard as matron of “Clayton General Hospital,” according to the National Park Service.

In summer 1862 the army designated the Lockwood House at Harpers Ferry as Clayton General Hospital. Maine nurse Abba Ann Goddard was named hospital matron; she was there when Stonewall Jackson captured the town in September 1862. (National Park Service)

By late July the hospital housed 285 patients, mostly assigned to large tents set up in the yard. Clayton General primarily treated soldiers drawn from the Harpers Ferry garrison. Then Robert E. Lee invaded Maryland after his Second Manassas victory. Rumors soon reached Harpers Ferry that Confederates were headed there.

The next day our empty hospital quarters were turned into barracks and occupied by some three hundred scared, weak-backed cowardly sneaks, who became suddenly afflicted with crick-in-the-back, pain-in-the-stomach, weaknesses in the knees, &c.,—contracted in anticipation of a visit from Stonewall Jackson,” Goddard informed the Portland Daily Press. “It was laughable, however, to see how rapidly they recovered the day afterward, when it was discovered that the said ‘Stonewall’ was paying his special attention to Frederick,” 22 miles distant.

This news gave us all breathing time, and for nearly two weeks we looked for reinforcements daily—only hoping meanwhile that our doubtful commander would be superseded,” she said.

Colonel Dixon S. Miles commanded the Harpers Ferry garrison as Stonewall Jackson’s troops approached in September 1861. Now 58 years old, he was long past his prime.(Library of Congress)

Goddard referred to 58-year-old Col. Dixon Stansbury Miles, ordered by Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck to defend Harpers Ferry against the approaching Confederates. Deciding to lightly hold the formidable Maryland Heights rising dramatically above the Potomac River, Miles opted to defend Bolivar Heights just outside the town. An experienced officer, he should have known that enemy artillery placed on both Maryland Heights and Loudon Heights (which rise above the Shenandoah River opposite Harpers Ferry) would have unfettered views of his positions and the town.

Halleck would not order a withdrawal, and Miles would not risk his career to unilaterally retreat from Harpers Ferry. “I had … got ready to leave this post, and hoped for a glimpse of dear old Portland, before another Sabbath sun,” Goddard said, but “we hoped against hope.”

Confederates destroyed the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad bridge at Monocacy, Maryland on September 4. “Journeying was out of the question,” Goddard realized before transferring her supplies (including 300 “sheets and pillow-cases” and 50 quilts) to the hospital steward of the regiment now occupying Lockwood House. Goddard moved into another house nearby.

Maryland Heights looms above two hikers using the bridge that carries the Appalachian Trail over the Potomac River at Harpers Ferry. (Brian F. Swartz Photo)

Day by day for two weeks, we waited for a turn in the tide,” but Jackson and his corps finally reached Harpers Ferry on Saturday, September 13. “A tremendous firing commenced on [Union-held] Maryland Heights” around 9 a.m., continued “some three hours,” and “the musketry then ceased on both sides,” Goddard reported.

Union artillery fired “at intervals until 5 P. M, not provoking, however, a single shot in reply,” she italicized. “Yet, to the indignant surprise of every one, at that hour, the stars and stripes were pulled down [on Maryland Heights], our cannon spiked, our men retreating, and the key to our defence completely abandoned.”

Colonel Thomas H. Ford of the 32rd Ohio Infantry Regiment had “the honor of ordering the abandonment of the post,” and witnesses “devoutly pray it may be the last time he will have the opportunity to disgrace himself in a public capacity,” Goddard seethed. Ford was courtmartialed and sacked from the army in November.

No Southerners appeared on Maryland Heights late Saturday or “at any time during the siege,” Goddard said. Union artillery on Bolivar Heights resumed shooting the next morning. At 2:30 p.m. two Southern artillery batteries opened fire from Loudon Heights.

During some two hours the fall of shot and shell on both sides was incessant,” said Goddard, surprised by “no less than four shells and a slug falling within ten feet of me.” None exploded, but if any had, “my epitaph would have been written long ere this.

The boys laughed to see me go and pick up my shells,” her “trophies,” which she wanted “to carry home” as “proofs of narrow escape in time of peril.” The slug was “a piece of iron six inches long” and “so hot I could not hold it.”

Charged with defending Maryland Heights against approaching Confederates, Col. Thomas H. Ford made a token resistance and then withdrew. (Wikimedia)

Exploding shells riddled hospital tents, but no one was hurt Sunday, Goddard believed. Enemy artillery “opened from four points” at dawn on Monday, September 15, “and our batteries returned the fire.

Not a shot took effect, and not a man was wounded,” she noticed. Dixon Miles suddenly “hoisted a handkerchief upon a pole as a signal of surrender.”

A Confederate shell struck Dixon in one leg; mortally wounded, he died on Tuesday.

Dixon had surrendered an almost intact garrison, and Jackson captured around 12,400 Union soldiers and their weapons and supplies. A cavalry commander led his troopers to safety by a side road near Maryland Heights.

The rage, the indignation, the surprise, the mortification of eleven thousand men, and one woman, it is impossible for me to describe,” Goddard seethed. One cavalry commander led his troopers to safety by a side road near Maryland Heights; Dixon actually surrendered some 12,400 men.

Sources: University of Massachusetts Lowell Library; National Park Service; Letter from Harper’s Ferry, Portland Daily Press, Wednesday, October 1, 1862

Next week: Abba Goddard stands guard over her frightened black helpers

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If you enjoy reading the adventures of Mainers caught up in the Civil War, be sure to  get a copy of the new Maine at War Volume 1: Bladensburg to Sharpsburg, available online at Amazon and all major book retailers, including Books-A-Million and Barnes & Noble.

Passing Through the Fire: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the Civil War (released by Savas Beatie) chronicles the swift transition of Joshua L. Chamberlain from college professor and family man to regimental and brigade commander.

Drawing on Chamberlain’s extensive memoirs and writings and multiple period sources, the book follows Chamberlain through the war while examining the determined warrior who let nothing prevent him from helping save the United States.

Order your autographed copy by contacting author Brian Swartz at visionsofmaine@tds.net

Passing Through the Fire is also available at savasbeatie.com or Amazon.

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Brian Swartz can be reached at visionsofmaine@tds.net. He enjoys hearing from Civil War buffs interested in Maine’s involvement in the war.

Brian Swartz

About Brian Swartz

Welcome to "Maine at War," the blog about the roles played by Maine and her sons and daughters in the Civil War. I am a Civil War buff and a newspaper editor recently retired from the Bangor Daily News. Maine sent hero upon hero — soldiers, nurses, sailors, chaplains, physicians — south to preserve their country in the 1860s. “Maine at War” introduces these heroes and heroines, who, for the most part, upheld the state's honor during that terrible conflict. We tour the battlefields where they fought, and we learn about the Civil War by focusing on Maine’s involvement with it. Be prepared: As I discover to this very day, the facts taught in American classrooms don’t always jibe with Civil War reality. I can be reached at visionsofmaine@tds.net.