West Virginia University Morning, April 18, 1861Everyone in Harpers Ferry was on edge. As Martinsburg resident David Hunter Strother took the train into the town, he noticed that no work was being done at the armory. Shortly after stepping off the train, he saw a large crowd gathered outside the armory yard, “a number of whom were engaged in a rough-and-tumble fight.”
What was causing all of this?
A convention was meeting in Richmond, Virginia, the state’s capital, to decide if Virginia would follow the lead of several other southern states and leave the United States to join the Confederate States of America. Fort Sumter had been fired on less than a week earlier, and President Abraham Lincoln had issued a call for troops to put down the rebellion in the southern states. Virginia had to decide what course to take. Among those representing Jefferson County at the convention was Harpers Ferry Armory Superintendent Alfred Barbour. He had been instructed by his constituents to vote against secession, though many in the county were beginning to favor it, and Barbour would change his vote at the last minute in favor of secession. Citizens fought with conflicting loyalties to state and country as the United States was launched into Civil War. 
Library of Congress Afternoon, April 18, 1861David Strother, a staunch Unionist, was greatly worried by what he saw and heard in Harpers Ferry that morning and moved on toward Charles Town. He didn’t like what he found there, either: several hundred armed and uniformed men of the Virginia Militia. They were awaiting orders from Governor Letcher to seize the Harpers Ferry Armory if Virginia voted for secession. Most of the companies present had been formed in response to John Brown’s Raid, and now stood poised to fight against the United States. Rumors abounded that Virginia had already voted to leave the United States. Strother refused to believe them and began to argue with several of the militia officers, many of them his friends. Growing impatient at the lack of reliable news, the militia’s commander decided to move his force to Hall Town, roughly halfway between Charles Town and Harpers Ferry. Strother followed along, hoping the news would be that Virginia was remaining in the United States.
West Virginia University Evening, April 18, 1861Troops arrived at Hall Town and waited for news. By this time, Strother had given up trying to change anyone’s minds or to convince the militia to go home. He settled down into a nearby house and ate dinner while drawing the scene before him.
“While we were at table,” Strother later wrote, “a courier arrived from the direction of Winchester, man and horse bespattered with mud and reeling with fatigue.” The courier passed a message to the militia commander. Here was the official news at last: Virginia had voted to secede. The militia were to march on Harpers Ferry and seize the Armory. The men were formed into ranks and began the final march on Harpers Ferry. 
"Personal Recollections of the War" by David Hunter Strother, published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, June 1866, pg. 15. 10:00 pm, April 18, 1861The Virginia Militia had reached the Lutheran Cemetery in Bolivar. Their journey there had been one of great anxiety, with many believing a fight was imminent. Not long after leaving Hall Town, the column had been challenged by a sentry. No one could be seen, it being too dark, but the decision was made for the troops to load their muskets. The leading company fixed bayonets and deployed in line across the road (modern US 340). They continued forward and were challenged again, this time near the base of Bolivar Heights at the Allstadt property. Still, no one could be found, and the column continued its slow advance up the western slope of Bolivar Heights to the cemetery.
The troops paused here to plan their next move. Rumors had now reached them that the armory workers and other citizens had joined the small US Army garrison and intended to make a stand. Unsure of what to do, the officers gathered together to discuss their best options. Then, as Strother recalled, there was “a sudden flash that illuminated for miles around the romantic gorge where the rivers meet. Then followed a dull report, reverberating from mountain to mountain until it died away in a sullen roar…then a steadier flame was seen rising from two distinct points, silently and rapidly increasing in volume until each rock and tree on the Loudon and Maryland Heights were distinctly visible, and the overclouded sky was ruddy with the sinister glare.”
The Harpers Ferry Armory was burning. 
Library of Congress Meanwhile, back in Harpers Ferry…Lt. Roger Jones had command of a company belonging the Regiment of Mounted Riflemen (future 3rd US Cavalry). They formed the garrison for the Harpers Ferry Armory, something the US government only began providing after John Brown’s Raid. Jones only had around fifty men, many of them new recruits, and he did not trust all of his men to remain loyal to the US. He also did not feel he could rely on the loyalty of many of the citizens, though some did volunteer their support in defending the armory. Finally, Jones made the fateful decision: he would burn the armory.
Under the pretext of refilling their mattresses with fresh straw, Jones marched his troops to the powder magazine, and here had the men hide small barrels of gun powder in their mattresses; these had once belonged to John Brown. They then marched back to the armory grounds and went around the buildings laying out the gunpowder. Around 10:00PM, the fires were lit, and Jones and his men made their way to Carlisle, Pennsylvania. 
Library of Congress Morning, April 19, 1861David Hunter Strother awoke to a world completely changed. His home state had abandoned the Union he so strongly cherished. “I must confess,” he wrote, “that I felt this morning like a man in a maze. The future exhibited but a dim and changing vista…Yesterday, I was a citizen of the great American republic…This was yesterday. To-day what am I? A citizen of Virginia. Virginia, a petty commonwealth of scarcely a million of white inhabitants. What could she ever hope to be but a worthless fragment of the broken vase? A fallen and splintered column of the once glorious temple.” To Strother, in that moment, the American experiment had failed and he had personally watched it crumble. Forgotten by Strother, but April 19, 1861 was also the 86th anniversary of the events that began the Revolutionary War at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts.
Virginia and the rest of the United States would be torn apart by four years of brutal war. Virginia itself would not remain wholly intact, with the western counties splitting in 1863 to form West Virginia. Harpers Ferry would find itself on the frontlines, with town trading hands between the two sides at least eight times during the conflict. The armory was never built, many homes were badly damaged if not destroyed, and some of the town’s own citizens would die in the crossfire or as soldiers in blue or gray uniforms. So began the Civil War in Harpers Ferry. |
Last updated: April 19, 2023