Summer of 21 - #28 - Harpers Ferry - Town & History

May 21st, 2021 - Part 2 of 2   

On to part 2 of our walk around Harpers Ferry.  This part focuses more on the town part, not so scenic but historic.

We start at John Brown's Fort. Read about it HERE.  It was the armory's fire engine and guard house and was the only armory building to survive the Civil War. Although it has been moved several times.

The War That Ended Slavery

Here's a LINK that explains the above marker and an excerpt from there is below:

""The War That Ended Slavery"

Abolitionist Frederick Douglass, from his 1881 Storer College Commencement speech.

"I want to free all the negroes in this [slave] state ... if the citizens interfere with me I must only burn the town and have blood," declared John Brown at the start of the October 16-18, 1859 raid. Brown and his 18 men captured and held the armory for 36 hours. As the tide turned against the raiders trapped in the fire engine house in front of you, their leader John Brown ordered "take aim, and make every shot count." U.S. Marines battered through the door, wounded and captured Brown, and ended the raid. Brown was hanged for murder, treason and inciting a slave insurrection. Just a few years later, United States Colored Troops marched through Harpers Ferry to fight for the Union and freedom."

John Brown's Fort is shown on the right of the map below. You can follow the walking trail(blue dots) back to the bus stop.

Behind John Browns Fort was Armory Square, the grassy area in the picture above which has the foundations of where the small arsenal building was.

"for the deposit of arms"

The sign says: "The small Arsenal building that stood here from 1806-1861 was one of two warehouses for the nearby United States Armory.  A Harpers Ferry visitor in 1821 described both buildings as "arsenals for the deposit of arms manufactured, consisting of rifle, muskets and some pistols which are handsomely arranged and make a fine show."

The way marking site says, "In 1859 abolitionist John Brown attacked Harpers Ferry hoping to inspire a revolt against slavery. Brown wanted the arsenal's weapons to arm recruits. Brown's raid came to a bloody end, but his actions helped propel the nation into the Civil War. When fighting broke out in 1861, retreating U.S. troops burned both federal arsenal buildings to keep the weapons from falling into Confederate hands,"

What is left of the small arsenal building.

Looking back at John Brown's Fort

Across the street is the John Brown Museum.

Bug or Bird???

It seems Harpers Ferry has been in the midst of civil rights "discussions" for several years.

  

Caroline E. Janney wrote a paper on July 27, 2017 "Why we need Confederate monuments".  Here's a LINK to it if you're interested.  I've copied a section that pertains to Harpers Ferry and the Hayward Shepherd monument. 

"Consider, for example, the controversy stirred over a memorial erected not in the former Confederacy to celebrate a military leader, but rather in a small Union town that honored a black man. In October 1931, descendants of Confederate veterans gathered in Harpers Ferry, W.Va., to unveil their memorial to Heyward Shepherd, a black man who died during the abolitionist John Brown’s 1859 raid. In 1867, former Confederates began calling for a memorial to Shepherd as a victim of Brown’s misguided attempt to destroy the South and incite civil war. For decades, nothing happened. But when the local black college dedicated a tablet to Brown in 1918, the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) renewed their efforts to reclaim the commemorative landscape.

Although they discovered that Shepherd was a free man accidentally killed in the raid, they chose to celebrate him as a loyal and faithful slave who had refused to participate in Brown’s abolitionist plot. With the rising prominence of civil rights groups like the NAACP speaking out against white supremacy, this narrative of Shepherd offered an alternative: a loyal black man who accepted his place in a segregated society.

The monument divided the African American community and exposed different political philosophies on how to confront the pervasive economic and social system of white supremacy. While some hoped that the monument might increase interracial harmony by stressing the fidelity of a black man, others expressed outrage with the UDC’s manipulation of history.

At the dedication, Pearl Tatten, the black music director and daughter of a Union soldier, unexpectedly rose and offered a different narrative. Rather than framing John Brown as a radical abolitionist who killed a faithful slave, she heralded Brown as the valiant defender of freedom who “struck the first blow” against the tyranny of slavery for which her father and other Union soldiers fought.

Condemning the memorial as the “Uncle Tom Slave Monument,” black leaders and the black press followed her lead and launched blistering attacks. But they did not settle for words alone. If whites insisted upon “giving the Confederate point of view” in memorializing a so-called faithful slave, African Americans would counter with their own. The following year, they dedicated another memorial to Brown — one that depicted him as a hero whose traits challenged acceptable black behavior in the Jim Crow South.

Despite continued opposition, the original stone monument to Shepherd remained. Forty years later it sparked renewed conflict between Confederate groups and the NAACP. Removed by the National Park Service (NPS) for renovations in 1976, the memorial was tucked away in storage. After an inquiry by the UDC, the NPS agreed to return it — if it was accompanied by interpretive plaque that explained its controversial history.

Both the UDC and the NAACP vehemently disagreed with this compromise. The UDC saw no need for a sign, while the NAACP saw no need for the memorial. Not wanting to exacerbate tensions, the park elected instead to return the stone memorial to the street but cover it with plywood.

For fourteen years, the memorial remained covered. When another round of queries forced the park to remove the plywood in 1994, administrators agreed only with the provision that an interpretive sign be added giving the memorial’s history and a tribute to Brown written by civil rights activist W.E.B Du Bois.

Neither side was any happier with this compromise than they had been with the proposal 14 years earlier. Confederate heritage groups derided the need for an interpretive sign. Monuments should speak for themselves, they declared. NAACP leaders hoped that the monument might be dumped in the Potomac River, castigating the Confederate heritage groups for implying that Shepherd and “thousands of other” African Americans supported the Confederacy.

Today the Shepherd memorial still stands in its inconspicuous spot along Potomac Street. And while its inscription is at the very least misleading, its presence — along with the NPS plaque — offers valuable lessons about the contested nature of Civil War memory.

If the NPS had not returned the Shepherd monument and provided the interpretive sign, it would have overlooked the African American activists who fought to reclaim their history of the Civil War as part of their quest for equal citizenship. In fact, it would be easier to forget that the Civil War’s legacy has always been contentious. But the war and its symbols have always held different meanings for different groups, and confronting that history is imperative."

The Faithful Slave Memorial - "On the night of October 16, 1859, Hayward Shepherd, an industrious and respected colored freeman, was mortally wounded by John Brown's raiders.  In pursuance of his duties as an employee of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, he became the first victim of this attempted insurrection.

I'm not gong to get into a discussion about this but just found it interesting that statues/memorials have been a subject of contention and requests for removal for many, many years.

"This boulder is erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of Confederate Veterans as a memorial to Heyward Shepherd, exemplifying the character and faithfulness of thousands of negroes who, under many temptations throughout subsequent years of war, so conducted themselves that no stain was left upon a record which is the peculiar heritage of the American people, and an everlasting tribute to the best in both races."

Heyward Shepherd Monument(The Faithful Slave Memorial)

Back to the buildings. 

White Hall Tavern

Across the road was the area where the armory had been.  There were some monuments over there but we didn't go any closer to see them.

General Store

The sign on the General Store said 25th anniversary on the AT & C&O Canal. I looked to see if I could find any more information on this and found out that it is the 25th anniversary of flooding in Harpers Ferry. Click on this LINK to read more about that. I'm not sure if this sign refers to that or the actual store being here.

25th anniversary

Almost Heaven is a pub & grill and has good reviews.  It was quite busy and we didn't stop.

Pub & Grill

Rock Stacks

Harpers Ferry Train Station, this is where we tried to park but there were no spaces.

         

                       

Old Coffee Grinder outside the CoffeeMill Restaurant

A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step. Here's a LINK explaining more about this sign.

"The stone steps to your left are part of the Appalachian Trail - a 2,200 mile footpath from Georgia to Maine. Climb the steps to some of the most scenic views in Harpers Ferry. Walk 300 yards to Jefferson Rock for a view that Thomas Jefferson described as "worth a voyage across the Atlantic."

"Take a side trail to Lockwood House, Storer College, and the Appalachian Trail Visitor Center. Or keep walking 1,000 miles south to Springer Mountain, Georgia. Begin your journey here."

We discussed climbing these and although it doesn't look bad here, they were steep and we really wanted to go to Jefferson Rock which is even higher above the church and wonderful views. There are warnings about being physically fit to do it. We decided not to do it, we were already quite tired from all our walking today and so didn't want to risk it. 

Opposite the stone steps were more "old" stores.

Confectionary Store

Defeat & Victory - 1862 Battle of Harpers Ferry. This exhibit was closed.

This street leads back up to where we get the shuttle bus back to the car. We started the walk back.

Bryan sitting outside the Provost Marshal Building waiting for me.

Reading an Old Building & Bookshop

Walking back to the shuttle bus stop.

How beautiful it is here.

Back at the bus stop I think we had just missed a bus as there was just one other couple waiting.  They have halved the people they allow on the bus because of covid but being second in line meant we would have a seat, yay!! The shuttle is free by the way!!

We waited for what seemed like a long while and when the bus arrived there were a LOT of people waiting. Most people knew where they were in line but there is always ONE isn't there!!!  The "gentleman" in the picture below proceeded to make sure he was FIRST in line to get on the bus. Truthfully, he was probably 10th and would have got on the bus anyway but it just annoyed me!! Wait there is more to come..... His granddaughter, probably in her early 20's, was over looking and taking pictures of the river. He asked the bus driver if he could wait for her. I didn't hear what the driver told him but ultimately the grandparents got on the bus and by the time the granddaughter turned up there was no room for her. Soooo, we all waited while he got off the bus to talk to his granddaughter, presumably to arrange where to meet. He then got back on the bus, leaving the granddaughter there. 

I found an interesting article: "Ten facts about the vital role of the town of Harpers Ferry in the American Civil War".  Here's a LINK to the article.

Here's a map showing the complete walking tour we did today. The first part is in this BLOG in case you missed it.

We had a nice ride back to the Visitor Center and found Tilly car and drove home. We briefly went through Virginia.

The scenery was amazing.

Then through Maryland.

Finally back home in Pennsylvania.

What an amazing day we had yet again, even if a little exhausting.  It will be our last sightseeing trip here as we move on further north in a couple of days.