Harper’s Ferry
By
John C Abercrombie
To many the name John Brown and Harpers Ferry go together.
In a previous post “Brown, John – The Life of” we looked at John Brown and in this one, we examine Harpers Ferry. As a point of interest, the name of the town started as Harper’s Ferry, but the location was changed omitting the ‘. The federal government purchased a 125-acre parcel from the heirs of Robert Harper to construct the United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry in 1796.
This armory was the second such facility of the United States government, the other being in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Harpers Ferry was transformed into an industrial center and produced more than 600,000 muskets, rifles and pistols. Prior to this, most rifles and pistols were handmade, and the parts were therefore not interchangeable, but Captain John H Hall pioneered the use of interchangeable parts. This made it possible to use parts from one rifle in another and was quite an innovation.
Hall’s M1819 Hall rifle was the first breech-loading weapon adopted by the Unites States Army. Also, of great importance is the fact that in 1833 service was established with Harpers Ferry when the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal linked it with Washington, DC.
A year later the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad began service. John Brown was a staunch abolitionist and had vowed at an early age to do all he was capable of doing to rid the country of slavery.
October 16, 1859, he led a group of 22 men on a raid of the arsenal seeking to obtain weapons to arm the slaves. The party included 5 Blacks, 3 free, one a freed slave and the other a fugitive slave.
Brown wanted to secure the weapons and arm a slave revolt across the South. He was armed with 1,000 pikes. Pikes are a pole weapon, a very long thrusting spear formerly used extensively by infantry.
The first shot of the raid killed Heyward Shepherd, a free Black baggage porter, when 2 of Brown’s raiders were crossing the bridge over the Potomac and encountered Shepherd. They ordered him to halt and when he didn’t he was shot.
He lingered for several hours before succumbing to his injuries. Shepherd was an inhabitant of Winchester. The citizens of Winchester organized a relief fund to care for his family and accompanied his body to the final resting place in the colored cemetery on the outskirts of town.
Noise of the shot caused Dr John Starry, who lived nearby to investigate. He was confronted by Brown’s raiders but was unable to do anything for Shepherd and Brown’s raiders let him leave. Instead of going home he alerted the neighboring villages. Nearby Charles Town rang its church bells alerting citizens who quickly pinned down Brown’s raiders in the fire engine house. This was later called Brown’s Fort.
The United states Secretary of War dispatched a unit of Marines led by Lieutenant Israel Green to take the town. Also called into service was United States Lieutenant Colonel Robert E Lee, on leave at his home in Arlington, Virginia. He and Lieutenant JEB Stuart as his aide-de-camp arrived by train.
They attempted to negotiate and when that failed stormed the fire house (Brown’s Fort), capturing most of the raiders, and killed a small number. During this scrimmage, they only suffered 1 casualty.
If the names Lieutenant Israel Greene, Robert E Lee and JEB Stuart sound familiar, but out of place it is because these former United States military men defected and joined the Confederated States of America, fighting against the United States of America.
Brown was captured and tried for treason, murder and commenting a slave insurrection. Convicted of all charges, he was hanged December 2, 1859. The case is known as Virginia v John Brown. John Brown’s words in an interview with Virginia Governor Henry A Wise and Brown’s famous “last speech” captured the attention of the nation like no other abolitionist before or since.
There is a great deal of information on the Secret Six who are supposed to have provided financial backing to Brown for his raid on Harpers Ferry. When the raid on Harpers Ferry failed and Brown was captured by federal troops, a carpet bag containing documents was seized. Inside the bag were letters establishing the network behind his actions. This group is commonly known as the Secret Six.
Fearing prosecution for conspiracy and treason, some member fled the United States, however none were prosecuted.
The members of this group are believed to be:
Thomas Wentworth Higginson: A minister and author, Higginson would go on to serve in the Civil War, commanding a regiment of Black troops, and would write a classic memoir based on the experience. Higginson served as Colonel of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers. This unit was the first federally authorized Black regiment. After the war, Higginson devoted much of his life to fighting for the rights of disfranchised people including Blacks and women.
To read about Higginson and the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, check out the books below.
Samuel Gridley Howe: A medical doctor and advocate for the blind. He was active, but his wife, Julia Ward Howe, is probably more widely known for having written “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”
Theodore Parker: A minister and public speaker on reform topics. Educated at Harvard and affiliated with the Transcendentalist, he has a book featured below.
Franklin Benjamin Sanborn: A graduate of Harvard and a Transcendentalist who became involved in anti-slavery politics in the 1850’s. He also has a book featured below.
Gerrit Smith: Born into a wealthy family in upstate New York, Smith was a vigorous supporter of various reform causes, including the American abolition movement. He is noted in the first post on John Brown and provided the land for Blacks near Lake Placid, New York.
But wait! There is more information on John Brown and Harpers Ferry that is seldom spoken of. There is another person that very few people know about and has for all intents and purposes been left out of history. This person is the subject of the next post in the series. Most likely overlooked because the person is not a White male.
A hint to the identity of this person rests in a note found in John Brown’s pocket when he was captured.
In an unlikely location and a most unlikely source of financing … Stay tuned for the next installation of this amazing person!
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The Raid on Harpers Ferry In one fateful night, John Brown brought the country closer to Civil War
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Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War
A New York Times Notable Book for 2011 A Library Journal Top Ten Best Books of 2011 A Boston Globe Best Nonfiction Book of 2011 Late on the night of October 16, 1859, John Brown launched a surprise raid on the slaveholding South. Leading a biracial band of militant idealists, he seized the massive armory at Harpers Ferry, freed and armed slaves, and vowed to liberate every bondsman in America.
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Laptop Computers
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Firebrand of Liberty: The Story of Two Black Regiments That Changed the Course of the Civil War
A nearly forgotten Civil War episode is restored to history in this masterful account. In March 1863, nine hundred black Union soldiers, led by white officers, invaded Florida and seized the town of Jacksonville. They were among the first African American troops in the Northern army, and their expedition into enemy territory was like no other in the Civil War. It was intended as an assault on slavery by which thousands would be freed. At the center of the story is prominent abolitionist Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who led one of the regiments. After waging battle for three weeks, Higginson and his men were mysteriously ordered to withdraw, their mission a seeming failure. Yet their successes in resisting the Confederates and collaborating with white Union forces persuaded President Abraham Lincoln to begin full-scale recruitment of black troops, a momentous decision that helped turned the tide of the war. Using long-neglected primary sources, historian Stephen V. Ash’s stirring narrative re-creates this event with insight, vivid characterizations, and a keen sense of drama.
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Harpers Ferry Virtual Tour
Our exclusive membership tours are usually restricted to our Quartermaster level ($100 or more) members, but with so many at home now, we opened this video to the public and hope you enjoy! To become a Quartermaster level member for more exclusive content
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Harpers Ferry National Historical Park (Images of America)
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park is a jewel of America’s National Park Service. Established by legislation and signed into law by President Roosevelt in 1944, today the park encompasses thousands of acres spanning three states as well as the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers. While the town was ravaged by repeated floods and war, it rose like a phoenix from the ashes. As a Civil War soldier presciently wrote, “In future years travelers and tourists will eagerly resort [here] . . . and history will point out [this] spot where many acts of the great tragedy, not yet closed, took place.” This book chronicles the creation and development of the national park in Harpers Ferry, a park that now affords hundreds of thousands of visitors each year the opportunity to marvel at the same scenery Thomas Jefferson said was worth a voyage across the Atlantic to see and to be able to walk the old streets where so many major acts of American history took place.
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Puzzles
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John Brown’s Raid at Harpers Ferry: Civil War West Virginia
It makes perfect sense to start our video trip through West Virginia and Kentucky not only right on the geographic edge of our theater, but also at one of the main sparks that helped propel the country toward war—John Brown’s Raid at Harpers Ferry. Garry Adelman is joined by former park ranger and co-founder of the American Battlefield Trust Dennis Frye for this in-depth breakdown!
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Six Years of Hell: Harpers Ferry During the Civil War
Most written accounts of Harpers Ferry, Virginia, during the Civil War era begin and end with John Brown’s raid in 1859 and his subsequent hanging. In Six Years of Hell, Chester G. Hearn recounts in colorful style the harrowing story of Harpers Ferry’s tumultuous war years-during which it changed hands more often than any town but Winchester, Virginia, and was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt. Relying heavily on records left by the citizens who weathered the war and the soldiers who garrisoned the town, Hearn treats the civilian experience as fully as he does military activities. He introduces the people who attempted to stay in their homes, protect their possessions, and accommodate the soldiers during the conflict. As Hearn clearly demonstrates, for those stouthearted individuals, the Civil War was truly six years of hell.
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Hobbies
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Harpers Ferry, Part 1:
The Plan After being radicalized in Kansas, John Brown wanted to start a war against slavery. His plan involved secret conspirators, a provisional government, a spy, and a traitor. This episode is part 1 of 3 on John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry.
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Bad Blood: The Border War that Triggered the Civil War – video
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Harpers Ferry, Part 2:
The Attack After more than a year of planning, John Brown conducted his raid on Harpers Ferry. With only eighteen men, John Brown terrorized the Virginia town for three days, holding citizens as hostage inside the federal armory and waiting for slaves to flock to join his cause. This episode is part 2 of 3 on John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry.
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Harpers Ferry Armory and the New Technology:
The Challenge of Change Focusing on the day-to-day operations of the U.S. armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, from 1798 to 1861, this book shows what the “new technology” of mechanized production meant in terms of organization, management, and worker morale. A local study of much more than local significance, it highlights the major problems of technical innovation and social adaptation in antebellum America. Merritt Roe Smith describes how positions of authority at the armory were tied to a larger network of political and economic influence in the community; how these relationships, in turn, affected managerial behavior; and how local social conditions reinforced the reactions of decision makers. He also demonstrates how craft traditions and variant attitudes toward work vis-à-vis New England created an atmosphere in which the machine was held suspect and inventive activity was hampered. Of central importance is the author’s analysis of the drastic differences between Harpers Ferry and its counterpart, the national armory at Springfield, Massachusetts, which played a pivotal role in the emergence of the new technology. The flow of technical information between the two armories, he shows, moved in one direction only― north to south. “In the end,” Smith concludes, “the stamina of local culture is paramount in explaining why the Harpers Ferry armory never really flourished as a center of technological innovation. “Pointing up the complexities of industrial change, this account of the Harpers Ferry experience challenges the commonly held view that Americans have always been eagerly receptive to new technological advances.
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Jewelry
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Harpers Ferry, Part 3
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American Heretic: Theodore Parker and Transcendentalism
Theodore Parker (1810-1860) was a powerful preacher who rejected the authority of the Bible and of Jesus, a brilliant scholar who became a popular agitator for the abolition of slavery and for women’s rights, and a political theorist who defined democracy as “government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people–words that inspired Abraham Lincoln. Parker had more influence than anyone except Ralph Waldo Emerson in shaping Transcendentalism in America.
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The Significance of Being Frank: The Life and Times of Franklin Benjamin Sanborn.
Franklin Benjamin Sanborn was born December 15, 1831, in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. In 1850, Sanborn studied Greek with a private tutor then entered Phillips Exeter Academy and, after, entered Harvard, from which he graduated in 1855. Sanborn moved to Concord, Massachusetts, where he taught school.
Active in politics as a member of the Free Soil Party in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, in 1856 Sanborn became Secretary of the Massachusetts Kansas Commission, where he came into contact with John Brown. Sanborn was one of The Secret Six, who knew in advance of Browns impending raid on Harper’s Ferry in October 1859.
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The Life and Public Services of George Luther Stearns
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
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