John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry

James N.

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Harpers Ferry on the Potomac
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The Potomac River seen from The Point where the Shenandoah flows in from the right; Maryland Heights is at left.

October 15 - 18 marks the 155th anniversary of a seminal event in the coming of the Civil War, the raid by abolitionist John Brown and his tiny so-called Provisional Army of the United States on the small manufacturing community of Harpers Ferry, ( then ) Virginia. Their targets were the United States Armory and Arsenal and nearby Hall Rifle Works in order to seize weapons with which to arm the slave revolt Brown believed would occur once his presence and purpose became known.

Harpers Ferry had been selected by President George Washington as the site for the armory for the manufacture of muskets and later rifles because it was well inland from possible foreign incursion and on the Potomac where it penetrated the Blue Ridge and had considerable force with which to operate the necessary machinery. The location had been settled as early as the French and Indian War period; Thomas Jefferson proclaimed that the view from the rock below which bears his name was "worth a voyage across the Atlantic."

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Jefferson Rock and the view that Jefferson was so enamored with, below. The stone supports were added to stabilize the rock by one of the superintendents of the U. S. Armory in the antebellum period.

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Since the town that grew up around Robert Harper's ferry and the subsequent armories and arsenal where guns were stored was in a gorge, building spaces were at a premium; there were only three main streets in the small town: Potomac Street and Shenandoah Street which paralleled the rivers of those names; and Washington Street, which as it neared The Point between them split into High Street and Clay Street. Below is a row of buildings between High and Clay streets.

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Many of the buildings were perched on rocks and terraces, like the ruin of the Episcopal Church above which was used as a hospital during the Civil War. The Catholic Church below has fared better and is still used for services, though its appearance was much altered following the war into the Gothic style seen today.

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Next, Enter John Brown.
 
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