The Strange Story of Harper's Ferry, with Legends of the Surrounding Country

Harper's Ferry sits where the Potomac River tears through the Blue Ridge, a place so beautiful Thomas Jefferson stood on a sandstone ledge and declared it worth a voyage across the Atlantic. But this small town became something far more than a scenic wonder. It witnessed the bloodiest chapters in American history. Joseph Barry weaves together documented history and the living folklore of this place. He traces the story of Robert Harper, the Connecticut blacksmith who floated a crude ferry across the confluence in 1747 and couldn't have imagined what his crossing would become. The town became a powder keg. John Brown's 1859 raid turned this quiet community into the opening shot of the Civil War. The iron bridge, the armory, the hillsides thick with chestnut trees all figure into Barry's layered account of a place that changed hands eight times during the war. Written in the early 20th century when memories of the conflict were still raw, Barry's work captures both the facts and the feeling of a town suspended between legend and history.