The Strange Story of Harper's Ferry, with Legends of the Surrounding CountryBarry, Joseph
History
The Strange Story of Harper's Ferry, with Legends of the Surrounding Country
Barry, Joseph
Harpers Ferry (W. Va.) -- History; Harpers Ferry (W. Va.) -- History -- John Brown's Raid, 1859
Harper's Ferry, including Bolivar, is a town which, before the war of
the late rebellion, contained a population of about three
thousand--nine-tenths of whom were whites. At the breaking out of
hostilities nearly all the inhabitants left their homes--some casting
their lots with "the confederacy" and about an equal number with the old
government. On the restoration of peace, comparatively few of them
returned. A great many colored people, however, who came at various
times with the armies from southern Virginia, have remained, so that the
proportion of the races at the place is materially changed. Also, many
soldiers of the national army who married Virginia ladies, during the
war, have settled there and, consequently, the town yet contains a
considerable number of inhabitants. The present population may be set
down at sixteen hundred whites and seven hundred blacks. The village is
situated in Jefferson county, now West Virginia, at the confluence of
the Potomac and the Shenandoah, at the base and in the very shadow of
the Blue Ridge Mountain. The distance from Washington City is fifty-five
miles, and from Baltimore eighty-one miles. The Baltimore and Ohio
railroad crosses the Potomac, at the place, on a magnificent bridge and
the Winchester and Potomac railroad, now absorbed by the Baltimore and
Ohio, has its northern terminus in the town. The Chesapeake and Ohio
canal, also, is in the immediate neighborhood. Within the last twelve
years, the place has become a favorite summer resort for the people of
Washington City and, from about the first of June to the last of
October, it is visited by tourists from every part of the northern
states and Europe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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