Harper's Ferry Revisited

On a recent weekend my wife and I visited Harper's Ferry.  The National Park Service does a wonderful job of interpreting historic sites.  The visit was not our first, and I recalled that on a prior visit, I had recorded some impressions of a newly awakened appreciation for the place and its history.  Having just located those notes, I was surprised to see that they are over 14 years old.  They are as follows:

Harpers Ferry

July 5, 2001

I volunteer at the Hagley Museum, just north of Wilmington, Delaware.  Two or three weekend days each month, I explain and demonstrate the operations of nineteenth century machine tools.  Prior to my volunteering, I had only the vaguest notion of what a machine tool was.  The experience has awakened a deep interest in mid-nineteenth century manufacturing, the related tools and materials and in how all of these had an effect on history, especially the American Civil War.  Barbara and Madeleine (wife and child, respectively) are indulgent as I pour myself into books about arms manufacture, gunpowder, millwrighting, iron and steel metallurgy, railroads, clock making and Civil War battle tactics.  Barbara observes that I read books "with schematics, not plots".

When Barbara and I decided to spend a couple of days in Frederick, Maryland this summer, I insisted (nicely) that we visit Harpers Ferry, which was the site of one of two federal armories established in the early days of the United States, a place where startling technological innovations had been made.  And so we went.

The visit was a disappointment.  The effects of the war, periodic floods and post-war rebuilding had swept most of the physical evidence of the industrial past.  The National Park Service, which operates the site, has created an number of vest pocket displays in the surviving buildings of the lower town that give a many faceted impression of the history of the town, although focused heavily upon John Brown's raid in 1859.  The display about the armory consisted of a couple of machines in a small room with a video showing what the machine looked like when they were operating.  We wandered away from the restoration and followed a trail that passed among the ruined foundations of factories and millraces, some in the process of being excavated but most barely noticeable in the woods.

The day was hot, we had been rained on, and we were tired from having walked up and down the steep hillside that the town is set against.  I had given up hope of squeezing any insight from the experience, when I saw a group of people gathering in the shade of some trees nearby.  Barbara agreed to see what it was about, although the body language said, "Both you and I know that I am being a Very Good Sport about this, Buster."

A National Park Service Ranger, dressed in the uniform of a Union soldier and holding a musket across his shoulder, was greeting a crowd of about two dozen people who were seated on benches.  Not long after we arrived he launched into his presentation about Harpers Ferry during the Civil War.  He spoke for a few minutes and then moved on to another site in the lower town, where he stopped and spoke again.  Each time he moved he had gathered into his audience another dozen people.

It was spectacular.

In what follows I have tried to recreate the first quarter of the Ranger's tour.  As you read it, try to imagine that you are there, that the Ranger is outdoors, raising his voice to be heard by his growing audience and that, every so often, a slow freight train rumbles by several dozen yards away.  At points in his interpretation, the Ranger pauses and looks around at his audience, nodding as if in agreement with the statement he had just made.

The Ranger greeted the two dozen visitors who had shown up for the two o'clock tour.  When he had their attention, he began.

"The beauty of this place is compelling, with large green trees, the Shenandoah River behind me flowing into the Potomac River, and the Loudon Heights and Maryland Heights towering above.  In 1860 the picture is somewhat different.  Look anywhere around you and imagine a building, you are probably right.  The availability of large amounts of water power made Harpers Ferry a major industrial center.  Factories lined the banks of both rivers.  Rivers, railroads and canals running through Harpers Ferry made it a major crossroads as well.  The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ran 60 trains a day through here at all hours of the day and night.  Between the factories – with their machinery, trip hammers and forges – and the railroad – rumbling through and belching steam – this was a busy, noisy, smelly, unpleasant place.

"The reason why all of this was here, was this:

The Ranger raised the musket that he had been holding across his shoulder, and he shook it slightly.

"The Federal Government made these in the armory that stretched along the banks of the Potomac, just over there.  The armory is the largest employer in town, and the prosperity of the town depends upon the armory.  An armory is a factory where weapons are made.  The arsenal buildings were just over there, along the banks of the Shenandoah.  An arsenal is a warehouse where weapons are stored.

"In 1859, John Brown and his followers staged a raid on Harpers Ferry in the hopes of sparking an uprising among the slaves.  They made Harpers Ferry their target for the purpose of gathering weapons from the Federal arsenal to arm their supporters.  They failed.  Brown's men were killed or captured, and Brown was executed after a highly publicized trial.  The raid and the trial heightened the tensions that already existing between the northern and southern states.

"In November of 1860, Abraham Lincoln, the Republic party candidate, was elected President of the United States.  The Republican Party was a new political party, united around its opposition to slavery.  Lincoln didn't win the vote in any of the southern states.  The Democratic Party splintered during the election, and three different Democratic Party candidates ran for president.  Almost immediately after the election, the southern states started seceding from the Union.  South Carolina was first to go, and others followed. 

"Come with me and find out what happened next.

The Ranger, having reshouldered his musket, turned to his right and walked off to an open lawn.  Flat stones, showing through the grass, outlined a large rectangle that easily contained about a dozen low benches.

"Lincoln took office in March of 1861.  In 1861 Harpers Ferry was a part of the state of Virginia.  This part of Virginia became the state of West Virginia and was admitted to the Union in 1863.  Virginia is a southern state, and it calls a convention to consider whether to secede from the Union like most of the other states have done.  On April 12 the Confederate forces on Charleston, South Carolina opened fire on Fort Sumter, an island fortress in the harbor manned by a small Federal garrison.  On April 14 the Fort surrendered.

"On April 18 Virginia voted to secede from the Union. Loyalties in Harpers Ferry were divided – some people felt loyalty to the state, but the livelihood of many people in the community was tied to the Federal armory. The news that Virginia had left the Union caused rioting here.

"After John Brown's raid, the Federal government posted a contingent of 50 soldiers to protect the armory and the arsenal.  Immediately after Virginia seceded, there were rumors that hundreds or even thousands of Virginia militia men were on their way and would arrive the next day to seize the arsenal, which contained 15,000 rifles and muskets ready for use.  There was no way that the garrison of 50 could defend the armory against hundreds or thousands.  Under cover darkness, the Federal soldiers filled a mattress cover with gunpowder and dragged it into the main arsenal building, which is where you are sitting, and the smaller arsenal, which is just over there.  The explosion set both buildings on fire, destroying the buildings and all the weapons stored in them.

"The noise of the explosion brought the towns people running, and regardless of their loyalties, they did what they could to put out the fire and keep it from spreading.  In the nineteenth century fire was a common enemy.  If a building wasn't made entirely out of wood, it had a wooden roof.  Sparks from any blaze threatened everyone.

"They put out the fire.  The arsenals and all the finished weapons were destroyed, but the armory buildings along the Potomac River and all the machinery in them remained intact.  The rumors turned out to be essentially true.  A contingent of about 350 Virginia militia arrived the next day and seized the armory.

"Now, come with me, and let's look at the strategic situation.

The Ranger turned again to his right and walked out to a point of land about 50 feet above where two rivers joined together and flowed as one off into the distance.  He turned to face his audience, who stood looking into the distance where the river flowed.  On the far side of both rivers, rocky hills rose up over a thousand feet.

"Down there to your left is the Potomac River, and to your right is the Shenandoah River, which flows into the Potomac.

"Upon leaving the Union, Virginia becomes a part of the Confederate States of America.  The Potomac River divides Virginia from Maryland.  Maryland remains in the Union and is a part of the United States of America.  From the point of view of Virginia, the Potomac River has just become an international boundary with a hostile neighbor, shots having already been fired.  Is this a good place for an armory?  No.

"Let's think about this another way.

The Ranger pointed down into the Shenandoah River.

"Those boulders, where the Shenandoah flows into the Potomac, mark the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley, which runs southwest between two mountain ranges deep into Virginia.  An army moving through that Valley is essentially invisible to anyone outside of the Valley.  That is an invasion route into the South.

The Ranger pointed behind him to where the Potomac River disappeared into the folds of the landscape.

"You are looking east.  Sixty miles in that direction as the crow flies is the Federal capital.  They called it Washington City in those days.  For the armies of those times that distance is about three days' march.  That is an invasion route to the northern capital.

"In 1861, this has become an important place.

"The Virginia government brought in Thomas J. Jackson, a professor of artillery at the Virginia Military Institute, and they asked him how they could make Harpers Ferry secure from invasion.  Jackson, the foremost authority on artillery of the day, knew that artillery on the highest point of land controls the surrounding country side.  Harpers Ferry is surrounded by heights on three sides.  Bolivar Heights rises above the town behind where you are standing.  Loudon Heights rises up there …

he pointed up, across the Shenandoah …

"but the highest of the three …

he pointed up on the other side …

"is Maryland Heights, which rises across the Potomac.

"Bolivar Heights and Loudon Heights are in Virginia.  Maryland Heights is in Maryland.  Maryland is part of a foreign country, and taking control of Maryland Heights means invading a foreign country.  In April of 1861 the Confederacy was not ready to do that.   Jackson said, if I can't control Maryland Heights, I can't secure Harpers Ferry.  We will have to evacuate.

The Ranger led his audience back to the foundations of the arsenal building.

"The machinery in the Federal armory for making muskets and rifles was state of the art.  The Confederacy knew that it would be important to keep the machinery in order to make rifles and muskets for the war they knew was coming, but they lacked the means to move it to a place of safety.

"Although Virginia has seceded from the Union, the situation remained fluid, and Baltimore and Ohio Railroad continued to send 60 trains a day across the river through Harpers Ferry, between Virginia and Maryland, at all hours of the day and night.  Thomas J. Jackson, who was now in charge of the Confederate garrison at Harpers Ferry, wrote a letter to Mr. John Garrett, the President of the Railroad, and said, Mr. Garrett, your trains coming through Harpers Ferry at all hours of the day and night are disturbing my troop and interrupting their sleep.  In order to prevent these disturbances, I will cut off passage through Harpers Ferry unless the trains are limited to a two-hour period during the daytime.

"The Railroad agreed, and for a couple of weeks 60 trains ran through Harpers Ferry during a fixed two-hour period.  Then Jackson sprung his trap.  He held up the trains bound for Virginia into Maryland while permitting the trains coming from Maryland to pass into Virginia.  The two-hour windows was so brief that, before anyone knew what was happening, Jackson had bottled up 50 locomotives and over 300 cars.  He loaded the armory machinery onto these trains and shipped it south on another rail line that ran into the town.

"With the armory gone, the reason for Harpers Ferry to be a town was gone.  In 1860 about thirty-five hundred people lived in Harpers Ferry.  Most left, according to their loyalties.  Some armory workers and their families went north to the other principal Federal armory located in Springfield, Massachusetts.  Others followed Jackson's trains south to the armories in Richmond, Virginia and in Fayetteville, North Carolina.  Almost overnight, what had been a thriving and productive community was devastated – an early casualty of the war."

The Ranger turned and led his audience up one of the back streets of the lower town.

By the time the Ranger was done, about an hour after he started, he had collected an audience of about 75 people.  Distant thunder that had started to rumble about mid-way through his tour kept drawing closer, and rain started to sprinkle as the Ranger collected his people onto the covered back porch of the house from which Union General Phil Sheridan directed the 1865 campaign in the Shenandoah Valley.  The Ranger rested the butt of his musket on the ground and talked about Harpers Ferry at the end of the war while the rain fell more heavily with lightning and thunder. 

When he was done, the Ranger reshouldered his musket, turned and marched away, the sound of our applause melting into the sound of the rain.