Maryland Heights is situated at the southern end of the Elk Ridge mountain in Washington County, Maryland. In 1862, the Union Army established artillery emplacements and fortifications on the heights during Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign, and, during the Battle of Harpers Ferry in September 1862, Confederate general Lafayette McLaws captured the heights from its Union defenders and used its commanding view of Harpers Ferry to bombard the town into surrender. Following the Battle of Antietam, President Abraham Lincoln visited the heights and was unable to climb the steep slope, promising that any man who could make the climb would pass his muster. In June 1863, the Union Army returned to the heights and fortified them against a renewed Confederate invasion of the North. The Civil War-era fortifications were preserved, and the heights are now lined with hiking trails.
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