Published for the Members and Friends IN THIS ISSUE: of the Harpers Ferry Civil War Historical Association Sesquicentennial Fall 2011 Event: Battle of Bolivar Heights Life on the Canal Border Town: Association Harpers Ferry in 1861 Celebrates 40 Years hen U. S. Army Lt. Roger Jones overall commander Robert E. Lee believed lit the fuses in the armory and Harpers Ferry was a key defensive posi- Warsenals on April 18, 1861—destroying tion. “As regards Harpers Ferry” he wrote, what he could not defend—war came to Harpers Ferry. The next day, an army led by “feather bed” and “corn stalk” militia officers began to fill the Virginia landscape. Farmers joined doctors as pri- vates. Teachers marched shoulder-to- shoulder with shoemakers. Laborers drilled daily with student scholars. Area citizen David Hunter Strother wrote these men were “earnest, eager, reckless fellows, marching with a free and vigorous step . most admirable material for a rebellion.” Although enthusiastic and ex- cited, the citizen soldiers lacked much needed discipline. The day after the arsenal explosion, Strother noted, “Confusion reigned supreme, ably seconded by whiskey.” Sent to the Ferry to bring order to the chaos was Colonel Thomas Jonathan Jackson. “its abandonment would be depressing to Ruins of the B&O Railroad Without delay, the former VMI instruc- the cause of the South.” General Johnston bridge at Harpers Ferry, June tor organized the recruits into regiments, be- disagreed. After surveying its geography 1861. (Library of Congress) gan rigorous daily drill, and—to the chagrin between two rivers and three heights, he of many soldiers—disposed of the whiskey. informed Lee, “I regard Harpers Ferry as He also dismantled the armory’s valuable untenable.” arms-making machinery and shipped it to Thus on June 13, three weeks after his The picture which appears Confederate factories further south. When arrival, Johnston ordered an evacuation. on our newsletter’s nameplate, Brigadier General Joseph E. Johnston ar- As the rebels departed, they set fire to the dating from 1803, is one of the rived as the higher-ranking post commander armory buildings and B&O railroad bridge. oldest prints of Harpers Ferry. Twenty years earlier, in 1783, on May 23, Jackson concentrated his ener- Two weeks later, the rifle factory and near- Thomas Jefferson had declared gies on turning the First Virginia Brigade est wagon bridges were all torched. Civilian that this view was “worth a into the effective force soon to be known as trade was severed; their economy destroyed. voyage across the Atlantic.” the “Stonewall Brigade.” All but a handful of families left town, many Because it stood at the gateway into the armory workers following the machinery strategic Shenandoah Valley, Virginia’s new continued on page 2 1 Armory Border Town: Harpers Ferry in 1861 impressed to move the wheat, and troops Superintendent Continued from Page 1 and artillery to protect the operation. Members south. “A dead calm reigned,” recalled In mid-October, Confederate authori- Jo (Kuhn) Curtis in resident Joseph Barry. “The stillness was ties received word that Federal troops had memory of Jim Kuhn rendered oppressive.” invaded Virginia, and were confiscating and Alexander and Mary Learning the Rebel position was aban- valuable grain. Colonel Turner Ashby Murphy doned, the Union Army advanced. After quickly maneuvered his men into place for Brandywine, MD a brief occupation, the Federals prudently an attack. Dr. Robert Johnson re-deployed on the Maryland side of the On October 16, 1861, the second an- Harpers Ferry, WV Potomac. The first skirmish in Harpers niversary of John Brown’s Raid, the Cham- Ronald Jones Ferry happened on July 4, 1861. After the bers family was warned of the approaching Our Lady of Sorrows firing ceased, confectioner and loyal Union- Confederate threat. While seeking refuge School ist Frederick Roeder walked to “the Point” the family crossed paths with soldiers from Farmington, MI where the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers Pennsylvania and Wisconsin on picket duty. Nancy Myers, in Honor of flow together. There, a ricocheting Union Passing by the pickets, 17-year-old Jennie Don Campbell bullet mistakenly hit him in the groin. Mor- Chambers warned them of the approaching Harpers Ferry, WV tally wounded, Roeder made his way back to Confederates. Refusing to pull back without Jim and Suzanne Silvia his house on High Street. There he died on orders, the Federals told Jennie to go ahead Taunton, MA & Harpers the back porch of his home, the town’s first but to signal them if the rebels appeared. Ferry, WV civilian casualty. She had only gone 25 yards when she saw In mid-August the Federals withdrew a company of Confederate cavalry on the to Frederick, Maryland, leaving behind one railroad tracks by the river. She turned and Paymaster Members corps to prevent the Southerners from cross- waved a warning to the Federal pickets. Cynthia Gayton ing the river, to protect the canal and fords Jennie’s mother Mary recalled, “Im- Harpers Ferry, WV in the vicinity, and to eliminate travel, com- mediately a volley of bullets whistled over Tony Horwitz munication, and trade between Maryland her head from the guns of the Confederate Vineyard Haven, MA and Virginia. During September and Octo- cavalry and the Union pickets returned the ber rifle shots often broke the silence and fire and ran. The Confederate cavalry came Master Armorer echoed from mountain to mountain. This dashing down the railroad after them.” The Members kept the citizens on edge. “Everything that Federal soldiers made their escape through Allison Alsdorf moved about the streets they shot at vindic- town and across the Potomac to Maryland. Harpers Ferry, WV tively,” wrote Joseph Barry. “The appearance Soon, Rebel artillery opened fire and the Kirk Bradley of even a mullein leaf swaying in the wind Union troops were under attack from both Sanford, NC elicited a volley.” School House Ridge to the west and Loud- Donald and Patricia One private business that survived the oun Heights to the south. Burgess outbreak of war was Herr’s Mill, located on Union commander Colonel John Geary Harpers Ferry, WV Virginius Island, an industrial area along quickly deployed to block the three princi- Rock Comstock the Shenandoah River. In August, Massa- pal routes toward the Ferry—leaning his left Vienna, VA chusetts troops had disabled it to prevent its on the Shenandoah, his center atop Bolivar Hon. and Mrs. Thomas use by Confederates. Now Abraham Herr, a Heights, and his right protecting the Po- Curtis and Family Union supporter, proposed Union soldiers tomac. Ashby’s men pressed forward, driving Baltimore, MD remove the wheat. Herr hoped to save his the bluecoats backward, until reaching the Peter Dessauer mill for future operation. The plan included outskirts of the village of Bolivar. The Rebel Harpers Ferry, WV a large boat for transport, local civilians cavalry, supported by Ashby’s infantry mili- Kim and Frank Edwards Edgewood, MD Laurence Freiheit This article combines material from the House on High Street” by John King; Berkeley Springs, WV Association’s soon-to-be released publica- “War on Their Doorstep” by David Fox; Rebecca Harriett tions Harpers Ferry Under Fire: A Border “A Patriot of Pennsylvania at Harpers Rocky Mount, VA Town in the American Civil War by Dennis Ferry” by Tyler Gum; and “The Battle of continued on page 3 Frye, and The Harpers Ferry Anthology: Bolivar Heights” by Jeff Bowers. Civil War Era Stories by Park Rangers and Both of these publications will be Volunteers. Anthology stories include: “In available for sale at the Park Bookshop or Good Hands: Jackson’s New Recruits at by calling 304-535-6881. 2 Harpers Ferry” by Autumn Cook; “The Master Armorer Members (Cont’d) Bruce Kramer Baltimore, MD Gregory Light Fort Lupton, CO Anne A. Long Myersville, MD Cynthia K. Mason Baltimore, MD Linda Parks Washington, DC George Rutherford Ranson, WV Ed Wheeless and Chris Craig Harpers Ferry, WV Recent Donations James R. Schatz, Jr. John Frye The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, New York, NY Mahoning Valley Civil War Roundtable, Boardman, OH Union capture of abandoned Confederate cannon during the Battle of Bolivar Heights. (Sketch by Thomas Nast) tia and two cannon, charged three times— night, clearing that region of invaders. “increasing in impetuosity with each repeti- Despite all the bullets and cannonading, tion”—but were checked each time by the neither side suffered many casualties. During defenders from Wisconsin, Massachusetts, the night following the fight, Colonel Geary and Pennsylvania. visited the iron foundry at Shenandoah City A three hour stalemate ended at ap- (just upstream from Virginius Island), where proximately 11:00 a.m. when Federals ar- he ascertained it was “used by the rebels rived with reinforcements, seizing the Rebel for casting shot and shell of all kinds.” He flank along the Potomac edge of the line. promptly ordered the foundry burned that Seeing this as “the key to the success of the night. Two days later, Confederate cavalry action,” Colonel Geary ordered an attack disguised as civilians crept onto Virginius along his entire front. This forced a gradual Island and torched Herr’s Mill. Confederate withdrawal, during which the Approximately three weeks before Southerners left behind one cannon with a his first clash with the South, Geary had broken axle. By 1:30 p.m., the Federals were written to his wife about Harpers Ferry. “in possession of the heights from river to Where the Shenandoah and Potomac Riv- river.” Soon the colors of the 28th Pennsyl- ers converge “the waters seem to refuse to vania Volunteers was unfurled “on the soil commingle and become one. The clearness of Virginia, and planted on an eminence of and limpidity of the Potomac...the muddy- Bolivar Heights.” ness [sic] of the Shenandoah...I cannot help Geary claimed his “victory was com- thinking it resembles the condition of our plete.” Ashby, too, was pleased, as the U.S.