The Raid of John Brown at Harper's Ferry as I Saw It

Transcriber's Notes: No corrections of typographical or other errors have been made to this text. On pages 6 and 7 of the original, a note was typed vertically in the margin. These notes have been treated as footnotes and an anchor has been added in the text. The letter that occurs at the end of the text was not bound into the original book. It was an insert included with the book and has been reproduced here. Click on the page number to see an image of the page.

Author of Ingersoll and The Bible, The Three Inebriates, From West Virginia to Pompeii, Seven Elements in Successful Preaching, Etc.
Copyright by S. V. Leech, 1909.

THE town of Harper's Ferry is located in Jefferson County, West Virginia. Lucerne, in Switzerland does not excel it in romantic grandeur of situation. On its northern front the Potomac sweeps along to pass the national capital, and the tomb of Washington, in its silent flow towards the sea. On its eastern side the Shenandoah hurries to empty its waters into the Potomac, that in perpetual wedlock they may greet the stormy Atlantic. Across the Potomac the Maryland Heights stand out as the tall sentinels of Nature. Beyond the Shenandoah are the Blue Ridge mountains, fringing the westward boundary of Loudon County, Virginia. Between these rivers, and nestling inside of their very confluence, reposes Harper's Ferry. Back of its hills lies the famous Shenandoah Valley, celebrated for its natural scenery, its historic battles and Sheridan's Ride. At Harper's Ferry the United States authorities early located an Arsenal and an Armory.
Before the Civil War, the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church was constituted of five extensive districts in Virginia, stretching from Alexandria to Lewisburg and two great districts north of the Potomac, including the cities of Washington and Baltimore. The first three years of my ministerial life I spent on Shepherdstown, West Loudon and Hillsboro Circuits, being then all in Virginia. The State of West Virginia, now embracing Harper's Ferry, had not been organized by Congress as a war measure out of the territory of the mother State. Our Methodist Episcopal Church was theoretically an