People often overlook the importance of Harper’s Ferry. It has been reduced to a footnote in American history. Schoolchildren are taught that John Brown captured the armory in his failed attempt to arm and free the slaves. Civil War buffs are less concerned with the causes of the war and instead focus on Harper’s Ferry and its role in the Maryland Campaign. Both are important in the history of Harper’s Ferry, but both ignore the larger role the armory played in American history.
A Natural Gateway Through the Appalachians
For millions of years, the Appalachian Mountain chain has stood as an impenetrable wall blocking travel and growth westward. For centuries, there were no roads by which to cross this barrier. Cutting through the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers provided one of the few passageways past this mountain chain. Its proximity to Washington, D.C., brought more attention to it.
Robert Harper and the Founding of the Ferry
In 1747, Robert Harper, an architect from Philadelphia, chose an opening in the Blue Ridge Mountains, carved by the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, as a passageway to Winchester, Virginia. Harper had been commissioned to build a Quaker meeting house in the fledgling frontier town. Following completion of his assignment, Harper returned to the passageway, having recognized its commercial potential with western expansion.
At the time, there was a primitive ferry operation across the river, established fourteen years earlier by a squatter. Harper was an architect by trade but an entrepreneur at heart. Harper quickly arranged to take over the ferry and petition the Virginia colony for a charter to operate a business, thus establishing Mr. Harper’s Ferry.
Washington, Jefferson, and the Road West
On June 3, 1754, George Washington discovered the region as he was canoeing down the Potomac, seeking a route for military troops and supplies to Fort Cumberland in Maryland, 124 miles away. He instantly recognized it for the door it provided into the western territories. A few years later, Thomas Jefferson also discovered the land around Mr. Harper’s Ferry, commenting that the view was worth the passage across the Atlantic Ocean.
The Armory and the Growth of a Transportation Hub
Washington, both during and after his presidency, lobbied for the development of the ferry as one of two national armories. The development of the armory brought with it more inhabitants and the development of the Charles Town, Frederick, and Hillsborough turnpikes to move people and materials to and from the ferry. The B&O, Winchester, and Potomac Railroads ran lines to the ferry, as did the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, to move raw materials to the ferry and finished goods out.
Harper’s Ferry in the Civil War
The armory and its storage of weapons attracted John Brown. With the secession of Virginia, Southern soldiers came to Harper’s Ferry both to move the weapons machinery to Southern factories and to use the ferry to control access to the Shenandoah Valley. The Valley, often called the Breadbasket of the Confederacy, was not only a vital producer of food for Robert E. Lee’s army but also provided an easy corridor for troops to invade the North or march south and west of Richmond in an attempt to capture the rebel capital. Control of Harper’s Ferry granted control of the Valley and a key storage area for supplies. Robert E. Lee was forced to capture Harper’s Ferry in his first invasion of the North. That decision alone likely set the stage for the bloody battle a week later at Antietam. Throughout the war, Harper’s Ferry changed hands more than eight times.
Storer College and National Recognition
Following the war, Harper’s Ferry became home to Storer College, one of the few colleges dedicated to the education of African Americans. In 1944, the federal government formally recognized the importance of the ferry by making it a national monument.
A Microcosm of American History
In short, Harper’s Ferry has stood as a microcosm of American history and growth. What started as a water gap through the mountains became a center for industrial growth. Later, it became a lightning rod for emancipation and a door allowing or blocking movement for Civil War armies marching north or south. Finally, it served as a beacon of hope for equality and a national monument to American history. Its story is more than a footnote to history.
