Shepherdstown, VA

Headnote
Shepherdstown is situated on the Potomac, in the northwestern part of the county, 5 miles north of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, and about 12 miles above Harper's Ferry... It contains 6 or 8 mercantile stores, 3 merchant mills, 1 Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, 1 German-Reformed, and 1 Lutheran church, and a population of about 1,600. There is a small stream, of considerable fall, which runs through the town, immediately opposite to which is an inlet-lock to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. (Historical Collections, 1852)
Place Unit Type
City or Town
Containing Unit
Jefferson County, VA

Shepherdstown, Virginia (Howe)

Gazetteer/Almanac
Shepherdstown is situated on the Potomac, in the northwestern part of the county, 5 miles north of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, and about 12 miles above Harper's Ferry. It was established by law in November, 1762, laid off by Capt. Thomas Shepherd, and named Mecklenburg: its first settlers were German mechanics. It contains 6 or 8 mercantile stores, 3 merchant mills, 1 Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, 1 German-Reformed, and 1 Lutheran church, and a population of about 1,600. There is a small stream, of considerable fall, which runs through the town, immediately opposite to which is an inlet-lock to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. This town is remarkable as being the place where the first steamboat was constructed and navigated.
Henry Howe, Historical Collections of Virginia… (Charleston, SC: William R. Babcock, 1852), 336.
Date Type
Confederate forces evacuate Harpers Ferry and other western Virginia towns along the Potomac Battles/Soldiers
Birthplace of
Date Title
Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, “Negro Insurrection!," October 20, 1859
How to Cite This Page: "Shepherdstown, VA," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/19688.