Bolivar Heights is a battlefield in Jefferson County, West Virginia, located near the towns of Bolivar and Harpers Ferry. In 1861, Stonewall Jackson trained his "Stonewall Brigade" on Bolivar Heights following the Confederacy's bloodless capture of Harpers Ferry, but the Confederates later abandoned the town due to its indefensibility. After the Union Army moved in, Confederate officer Turner Ashby attacked John W. Geary's Union troops at the 16 October 1861 Battle of Bolivar Heights, resulting in a minor Union victory. On 30 May 1862, another Confederate attack on Bolivar Heights was repulsed during the Valley Campaign, but, in September 1862, the Union defenders of Bolivar Heights were pounded by Jackson's artillery during the Battle of Harpers Ferry and were forced to surrender. In June 1863, the Union shelled Confederate troops on Bolivar Heights during the Gettysburg campaign, and, in July 1864, Jubal Early's Confederate troops briefly occupied Bolivar Heights during the Valley campaigns of 1864, before Union bombardment from Maryland Heights forced the Confederates to retreat. Bolivar Heights has been preserved as part of the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.
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