Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-08-05
HARPER'S FERRY.
As George Alfred Townsend Re-
calls 1t and Reviews 1t.


An Extract
But in an instruction the insurgents
require to be prompt; their victories in
every war have been in the overture
in Bohemia, in Hungary, Poland. In
surrection is like organic assassination,
it is prepared before the act. John
Brown had armed Virginia after Octo-
Der, 1853, three years before Miles sur
rendered at the same place.
After that the government superin-
tendent of Harpers Ferry Arsenal, A.
NJ. Barbour, though elected by the peo-
pie there, who were Unlonists, to Op-
pose secession at Richmond, came back
inscribed for secession and seized The
arsenal he was commissioned to govern.
The nigh Barbour came home the
Virginia troops entered the town 20
find it the bo%a-up ruin it has been
ever since. The next day occurred the
riots in Baiti nore. Harper's Ferry
then became a rowdy-governed place
to insult passengers going through.
Rabbie, like the French Revolutionists,
pointed out passengers and neighbors to
be mobbed. Houses were Quilted by
men and women living next door. The
decentralization has not yet passed away
from this yawning hole, where soldiery
never were required after the machin-
cry of the arsenal was taken south.
John Brown struck place which nature
and man had marked for retribution.
Then came Patterson, Banks, Geary
and finally that Tyndale from Phila
delphia, who had accompanied John
Browns wife to Harpers Ferry. Tyn-
dale burned all the lower part of the
town. Fremont, Halleck, Mcclellan,
scholastic and staff soldiers, Jomini
and Pommery men, played for the old
place here established by Washington
upon bad judgment.
Hyperbole ruins many things. When
Jefferson wrote that it was worth trip
across the Atlantic to see the Potomac
cleave the Blue Ridge ne was doing
damage to the future. When Miles was
left here in command, he was not or
dered away. Mcclellan, always clamor-
ing for more troops, wanted Miles men.
Halleck was looking billiously wise, as
the strategist at Washington. Stanton
and Lincoln thought they would not
interfere. So the surrender and parole
of Miles men took the time to get up
the army from the second Bull Run and
laSo hCO at AHIlctdlll teu LullcS lIOlu
Harper's Ferry. After Antietam Nc
Clellan established brilliant camp at
HrperIs Ferry till November. Bands
played. Gimp was all new. The old
place was black as a toothless mouth
in the mountain jaws. Not a fame
sticks to Harper's Ferry but old
Browns. AS the instruction opened
brilliantly its conclusion was condign;
it fell in like the wings, back and flies
of an act at a theatre, leaving nothing
whatever. 1t had not the growth of a
government, which is a tree and lives
in the roots as well as the air.
st. James Episcopal church, where
Miles is buried is an old brick nave
with recent Lombard tower added to
the front. In this country John Ed
gar Howard joined the American, his
brother in the British army. The Keys,
also, not far off, joined, one the Brit
ish, the other the American army
agreeing to help the loser out with half
the land of the victor. Thus Philip
Barton Key, the Tory, went to Con-
Josiah Quincy against the second Eng
lish war. But his nephew wrote the
Banner piece. Key got hold of Andrew
Jackson and had his brother-in-law
fancy, made secretary of the treasury.
1t is given to few men to stand up
for national principle unassisted by
a patriotism of locality. From this
standpoint George II. Thompson. Cap
tain Drayton and a few others led the
host