Ghosts of Gettysburg Haunted Daytrips: Harpers Ferry
Out of the highlands of Maryland, from the north and west, flows the Potomac River, past Williamsport, Falling Waters, Sharpsburg and Shepherdstown. From the south, out of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, runs the Shenandoah River, given the same name as the lush valley it helped carve, once criss-crossed by belligerent armies hundreds of times. The tongue of land that is formed where these two great American rivers meet in West Virginia is called Harpers Ferry.
By 1763, Robert Harper had established a ferry business to transport people, animals and goods across the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers. The site was chosen by George Washington for an armory to supply weapons for the nation. Meriwether Lewis, half of the leadership of the Lewis and Clark exploratory expedition, procured weapons for his company of explorers from the Harpers Ferry armory. Over half-a-million shoulder arms were produced at the armory from the turn of the 19th Century through the beginning of the Civil War.
During the early part of the 19th Century, sectional differences between the states fomented numerous crises. Unequal tariffs, expansion into the west, representation in Congress, all plagued the growing nation. But the most tortuous—socially, economically and morally—was the issue of slavery.
Numerous political compromises were struck every few years between slave holding and non-slave holding states. However, they only served to postpone a solution to black slavery that was economically, philosophically and ethically right: the emancipation from slavery for African-Americans.
The snail’s-pace of politics was not rapid enough for some. While compromises were initiated and an uneasy peace was maintained, the radical abolitionists in the northeastern section of the country felt that such an abhorrent institution as human bondage had to go, and had to go immediately. One of them—John Brown—finally took matters into his own hands.
Brown had demonstrated a propensity for violence in the mid-1850s in Kansas, slaughtering pro-slavery men. (To be fair, the violence extended to both sides.) In October 1859, he planned to execute an attack on Harpers Ferry, to capture the arms in the United States arsenal and arm the tens of thousands of slaves he expected to join him in their rebellion for freedom.
His planning for the raid took place in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where he tried to recruit the famous African-American anti-slavery orator Frederick Douglass. Douglass turned him down, expressing his belief that it was a suicide mission that would only help to inflame sensibilities on both sides of the slavery question.
For three months before the raid, Brown gathered men, arms and intelligence about his target. He rented the Kennedy Farmhouse, not far from Harpers Ferry. Finally, under cover of darkness, on October 16, 1859, Brown and his “army” of less than twenty men, marching alongside a wagon, entered Harpers Ferry.
A scouting party Brown sent out returned with Colonel Lewis Washington, great-grandnephew of George Washington, captured at his nearby estate along with a few other prominent citizens, to be held as hostages.
At first the raid went well, with the raiders cutting telegraph wires out of the town to keep their actions a secret from authorities in Washington. A train arrived, but for some unknown reason Brown allowed it to pass, perhaps thinking that, by the time it got to Washington, he would have captured the armory, gathered the weapons, and armed the thousands of slaves he felt would be clamoring to fight for their freedom under his banner. The train stopped at the next station and used the telegraph there to warn Washington of the raid.
Slaves from surrounding farms began to gather in the Ferry. But instead of the tens of thousands Brown expected to lead to freedom, only a handful showed up.
As word spread through the town, the taverns began to empty and men pulled muskets off their parlor walls to see what they could do against this individual who had invaded their town for some unsavory reason. Four of them, including the mayor, paid with their lives.
Ironically, the first man killed in the raid was Heyward Shepherd, a baggage handler at the railroad station, and a free black man.
By the morning of October 17, a company of local militia had captured the Potomac River Bridge, cutting off any escape for the raiders. Brown moved his small band from the large armory building to the much more easily defended smaller fire engine house across from it. It was quickly surrounded by townsfolk and militia from the surrounding area. President James Buchanan received word of the raid and potential slave insurrection led by a man named “Smith” with some Kansas Border Ruffians, and decided to take military action.
The closest troops were U. S. Marines at the Washington Navy Yard. Buchanan ordered them to Harpers Ferry under the command of Lieutenant Israel Green. He also sent a Lieutenant Colonel on leave from his U. S. Cavalry unit in Texas, whose name—because of the conflagration Brown’s raid would ignite—would soon become famous. Robert E. Lee was to take overall command of the government troops. A young officer, who had known Lee from his days at West Point, volunteered to accompany him as his aide. His name would also echo through the halls of American Military History in the upcoming war: James Ewell Brown (“Jeb”) Stuart. Lee and Stuart arrived by special train late that night.
Earlier Brown, seeing that his raid to free the slaves was essentially over, had attempted to negotiate with the townspeople who were, to say the least, agitated and taking potshots at any movement in or near the engine house. Brown sent out one of his sons and another raider, Aaron Stevens, under a white flag to parley. They were shot down by the Harper’s Ferry civilians who didn’t honor the flag of truce coming from someone who had just invaded their town for nefarious purposes.
Lee, still in civilian clothes, Stuart and the Marine detachment walked across the bridge in the dark and decided to wait until daylight to launch an attack. But first Lee would give the insurrectionists a chance to surrender.
At 7:00 a.m., Stuart, under another flag of truce, approached the large wooden doors of the engine house. He immediately recognized the older bearded leader as “Osawatomie” Brown, whom he had known about from his days serving on the frontier. Brown wanted to negotiate his way out using the hostages for barter. Stuart told him he wasn’t authorized to negotiate Brown’s escape, but if the U. S. troops had to be used, he couldn’t guarantee anyone’s safety. Brown wanted to keep talking, but seeing no use to it, Stuart leapt aside from the doors and waved his hat, a pre-arranged signal to Lee.
The Marines’ assault began. Sledgehammers were used on the stout doors to no avail. A heavy ladder was found and used as a battering ram splintering an opening at the bottom through which Lt. Green crawled. Two other Marines who followed were shot. In the smoke and haze, Colonel Washington had to point out John Brown to Green who landed a glancing blow with his saber to the back of Brown’s neck. An attempt to run him through was thwarted by something in Brown’s coat and Green’s light dress blade simply bent double. Marines poured through the gap in the door and, under orders not to fire, bayoneted several of the insurrectionists. The fighting ended in less than three minutes.
Ten of Brown’s “army” were killed, including two of his sons. The hordes of slaves he expected to lead to freedom never materialized. Terrorized by previous attempted slave insurrections, the State of Virginia’s reaction was swift and uncompromising: by December Brown was tried and executed by hanging in Charles Town, Virginia (now West Virginia) for murder, insurrection and treason against the state.
His death transfigured him. To the Abolitionists in the north and slaves in the south he became a martyr to the cause of emancipation; to southerners he was a terrorist, fomenting the reality of their worst nightmares: slaves who lived and worked side by side with them turning to slaughter them in their own homes. The difference to each side was plain and stark.
Harpers Ferry During the Civil War
During the Civil War sparked in part by Brown’s Raid, Harpers Ferry would play a role, changing hands several times during the conflict. Historians refer to the surrender of the Harpers Ferry garrison of 12,700 troops before the Battle of Antietam to Confederate forces as the largest wholesale capture of Union soldiers during the entire war. Depending upon U. S. Army figures from the surrender of Bataan in World War II, the Harpers Ferry capitulation might be the largest in U. S. History.
Several other historic sites are just a few minutes from Harpers Ferry. Antietam National Battlefield is only 16 miles (about 35 minutes) from Harpers Ferry and travelers pass Monocacy Battlefield near Frederick on the way from Gettysburg. The famed Appalachian Trail, a walking path that runs from Maine to Georgia passes through Harpers Ferry, and the historic Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and its bicycle-friendly towpath is just across the bridge.
Directions to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia: From Gettysburg, take Route 15 South to Frederick, Maryland. At Frederick, take the exit for Route 340 South. Follow Route 340 to Harpers Ferry. The National Park Service maintains Harpers Ferry much the way it appeared in the mid-19th Century. Also, Harpers Ferry is close enough to Antietam to be part of that Daytrip.
The Ghosts of Harpers Ferry
[image error]Harper Cemetery
The spark struck at Harpers Ferry grew into a great conflagration that eventually took the lives of over 800,000 young men over the four years of the American Civil War. Needless to say, with so much human energy expended because of the events at Harpers Ferry, there tends to be a good number of ghost stories associated with the place.
One ghost has been identified as one of Brown’s raiders. Dangerfield Newby, a freed slave, had joined Brown’s band after saving the money to buy his enslaved family’s freedom, only to have their owner raise the price. His hopes shattered, Newby determined the only way to free his family was by destroying the institution of slavery with John Brown. He was one of the first to fall, killed by a six-inch spike fired from a townsperson’s musket that ripped open his throat. His body was dismembered, mutilated, and left for the hogs of Harpers Ferry to finish off. His ghost periodically appears wearing baggy pants and an old-fashioned slouch hat and is identified by its 6’2” height and the wicked slash across its throat.
Railroaders dislike passing through Harpers Ferry at night. According to Shirley Dougherty, author of A Ghostly Tour of Harpers Ferry, they fear running into (literally!) “Jenny,” a young townswoman of the 1800’s. She was killed when she accidentally caught her hoop-skirts on fire and ran into the path of a train rolling through the town. Modern-day engineers see the ball of fire moving swiftly up the track toward their engine, slam on the brakes and hear a sickening thump. When they inspect the front of their locomotive, there is no trace of the fiery apparition.
Dougherty also writes about the priest who is seen making his way to St. Peters Catholic Church. Visitors on their way back to town will say hello to the priest, but will receive nothing but silence as he passes. Turning to watch the incommunicative man of God, they are astounded when he simply vanishes a few feet from them by walking through the wall of the church.
Guided ghost tours of Harpers Ferry are available. See Ghost Tours of Harpers Ferry for information.
