Welsh of Harpers Ferry

Evidence Category: The Shepherdstown Register

  • House Committee Reports Against Harpers Ferry Armory Re-Establishment

    Harper’s Ferry. — It will be seen, from the following special dispatch to the Baltimore Sea, that the House Committee on Military affairs has reported against the re-establishment of the National Armory at Harper’s Ferry.

    We are sincerely sorry at this result— sorry for the people of our entire county, all of whom are interested in having the magnificent water power at Harper’s Ferry utilized for manufacturing purposes, and especially sorry are we for our credulous and long suffering friends at the Ferry, whose expectations have been so unduly excited upon this subject and whose disappointment may be imagined in realizing the unwelcome fact, that “Hope told a flattering tale.”

    WASHINGTON.— The House committee on military affairs has decided adversely as to the expediency of re-establishing a national Armory at Harper’s Ferry. The committee say that they have felt a strong inclination to favor the re-establishment of the armory at Harper’s Ferry, not only because it was selected for that purpose by Washington, but on account of its healthy and delightful location, its vicinity to the capital, its magnificent water-power, and the intelligence, skill and inventive powers which distinguished its mechanics during the time it was in operation. They say every feeling would prompt them to restore the place to its original use if imperative consideration of economy did not now forbid it. Had the application been made immediately after the close of the war it would have been more favorably considered than it can be at this time. But extensive buildings have been erected at Rock Island, Ill., and a national armory established there as a substitute for the public works destroyed at Harper’s Ferry.

    The committee allude to the fact that within the last two years eight or nine of the arsenals of construction east of the Mississippi have been discontinued, and are now used simply as depots for the care, preservation and issue of war-like stores. They say that the opinion of many is that all the national armories might with propriety be dispensed with, and reliance hereafter placed upon supplies furnished from the extensive private manufactories of the country. They do not undertake to coucur in such a policy, but say that it presents a consideration worthy of attention against incurring the expense of an additional armory or arsenal of construction. In reference to the expediency of authorizing the Secretary of War to repurchase the property at Harper’s Ferry when sold under the decree of the court to satisfy the United States for a debt due for the purchase money, the committee are of the opinion that it is not necessary to vest any such power in the Secretary of War, as the existing law gives such a power to the solicitor of the treasury, should he deem it for the interest of the government to exercise that power in this particular case.

  • Narrow Escape at Harper’s Ferry

    NARROW ESCAPE AT HARPER’S FERRY.– We clip the following interesting article from an exchange paper:—

    There was to be a military execution away up above the heads of everybody in Harper’s Ferry, on Bolivar heights, and with about a thousand others I went to see it. Two soldiers had been convicted of desertion, and their death sentence approved by Gen. Sheridan. I skip the details. About twelve o’clock noon they found themselves on their knees in front of two coffins inside three sides of a hollow square of soldiers, with a firing party two rods in front. Their eyes were being bandaged ; three minutes more, I think would have settled their accounts with this world, when an orderly came galloping up that steep, muddy hill with a telegram. Gen. Stevenson, who commanded there, opened it. It was signed ‘A. Lincoln,’ and directed an indefinite suspension of the sentence. A suspicion crossed my mind that we had ben participating in a gotten-up dramatic entertainment, to produce a good moral effect on the soldiers present, particularly the two most interested. In other words, I suspected that this telegram had been received by Gen. Stevenson before the funeral cortege left Harper’s Ferry. I was on the staff in those days, and was privileged to ask questions, so I waited on the general at his headquarters, two hours after and inquired about it. He assured me that my suspicious were unfounded.

    “But the line from here to Baltimore is down and I had no reason to expect a dispatch. How it got here I don’t know. Certainly they would have been dead in a few minutes.”

    The statement of the operator at Baltimore, afterward published, gave intensity to the dramatic situation out on bleak Bolivar heights on that dismal February morning. The President’s dispatch was received about ten o’clock that morning, with the cipher of the War department to hurry it to Harper’s Ferry. For hours the line had been down between that and Baltimore ; there was no train that would be timely. It was the judgement of the operator that this ended the matter ; that the men must die. Yet an effort might be made to reach Harper’s Ferry from the west. He made the trial ; he kept right on making it for an hour and a half. As he failed, and continued to fail, his anxiety grew greater to save the doomed men. I dare not say how many thousand miles those words of the President traveled backward and forward in that ninety minutes. They went to New York, to Buffalo, to Cincinnati, Pittsburg, to Wheeling, and elsewhere, often returning like Noah’s dove of mercy, and as often sent out again. They reached Cumberland at last, and thence flashed down to Harper’s Ferry in time.

  • Making Rifles of Old Muskets

    We extract the following complimentary notice of the inventive genius of A. M. Ball, Esq., of Harper’s Ferry, from the Scientific American:

    At the U.S. Armory, Harper’s Ferry, A. M. Ball, foreman, of the millwrights, has invented and introduced a machine for rifle-grooving old muskets, so as to render them, when fitted with the proper lock, identical with the Minie gun. Each machine turns out daily from fifteen to twenty Minied muskets. He has also invented a breach-tapping machine for cutting the thread into which the barrel is screwed– an operation formerly done by hand. In economy of time and labor, and of course money, Government derives from these two inventions great advantage.

  • Appropriations to Harpers Ferry Armory

    Among the estimates of the appropriations proposed to be made for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1858, the Secretary of the Treasury transmits the following.

    Harpes Ferry Armory.– For iron fence and gates in front of armory offices, $766; for purchase and fabrication of new machinery, $34,204– total of $34,970.

    The building in the armory yard devoted to offices, and in which all the officers of the armory, with their clerks, including the vault of the military storekeeper and paymaster, is without any enclosure. It is proposed to construct an iron fence in front, so as in a great degree to separate it from the business of the yard, and as a better and further protection to the records and papers of the establishment.

    In consequence of the modifications and additions made to the rifle-musket and rifle, additional machines are necessary to their manufacture. Some of the machines required are to replace those now on hand, much dilapidated and badly constructed, and not well adapted to the present mode of manufacture. A main line of shafting is required; additional machinery and fixtures are required for the fabrication of swords and pistols.

  • The Fourth at Harper’s Ferry

    We clip the following paragraphs from the Charlestown “Spirit of Jefferson, of Tuesday last :

    The Fourth At Harper’s Ferry. — The celebration at Harpers-Ferry was one long to be remembered by the thousands who participated in the festivities. At an early hour, crowds were pouring in from all quarters, in carriages, and on horseback, while the humble pedestrian made his pilgrimage also to the spot, to join in the general jubilee. By 11 o’clock, the streets were filled with an impatient multitude, waiting for the excursionists to arrive from Baltimore and Washington. At 12 o’clock, the shrill whistle at a distance announced the approach of the extra train, which in a few moments arrived, decorated with flags and flowers, and crowded with passengers from the cities. A procession was then formed, the Military on the right, consisting of the Independent Greys, Blues and State Guards– next the Sarah Zane Fire Company, of Winchester, their Engine being in the line, decorated with flowers; then followed the citizens generally, to the Armory Yard, where they were received by A. M. Kitsmiller, in an appropriate address which was responded to by Capt. Brush, after which the band performed in a most excellent manner the national air– Hail Columbia– while the military where marched into one of the armory buildings for the purpose of depositing their arms, after which the company was dismissed for dinner and for the purpose of surveying the beauties of this lovely spot, as well as visit the government armory works. After the disposal of the sumptuous feast of edibles served up at the United States Hotel, under the direction of Mrs. Margaret Carroll, aided by Mr. Young and Mr. Reed, the visitors separated for a stroll around and through the town, a large number visiting the rifle factory and other national buildings, through which they were conducted by the gentlemanly superintendent, H. W. Clowe, Esq., Edward Lucas, Esq., paymaster, and Samuel Barrington, Esq., master of the armory.

    The company again assembled at 2 o’clock in the armory yard for the purpose of observing the order of exercises of the day, which were followed by a fervid, impressive, and appropriate prayer by the Rev. J. P. Smeltzer, at the close of which the band performed in excellent style a piece of sacred music. The orator and reader of the day, Z. Collins Lee, was then introduced, who enchained the audience for more than an hour, with his fervid eloquence.

    Andrew Kennedy, Esq., has been appointed President of the Board of Directors of the Bank of the Valley in Virginia at Charlestown to supply the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Thomas Griggs, Esq.

    The Bank of the Valley has declared the handsome semi-annual dividend of 5 1/4 per cent– payable to the stockholders ; and the Bank of Winchester a semi-annual dividend of 3 per cent.

  • Harpers Ferry Armory Efficiency

    A correspondent of the “Spirit of Jefferson” states that the efficiency of the Harper’s Ferry Armory is without parallel; the manufacture of the Model Rifle Musket commenced in October; 730 was the result of its operations; the month following 900 were manufactured; and in December 1000; making a total of 2630 Muskets, surpassing in the perfection of their structure, any and every other arm ever made at this Armory. The Board of Investigation, after a rigid examination and test, pronounced the results of their various investigations into the merits of the present arm as “highly gratifying.” The Machine Department is said to be very complete. There are upwards of 300 operatives in the Armory, exclusive of the officers. The cost of each Rifle Musket, with the rear sight, is $13,04, and the rear sight having been suspended in its manufacture, and an order not to place them upon the muskets in future, reduces the cost to $12,07.

  • List of Delinquents, Year 1856

    A List of Delinquents in the County, and Parish Levy for the Year 1856, in Jefferson County, Virginia.
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    RETURNED BY ROBERT LUCAS, SHERIFF.

  • Improvement in Gun Making

    The small arms now made at Harpers Ferry and Springfield, for the use of the United States, are constructed with such exact similarity in their several parts that a perfect gun can be made out of any number of parts from both armories, and the fitting will be so perfect that the pieces from each armory cannot be distinguished from one another. This has been proved by an examination recently made at the Harpers-Ferry Armory, under the immediate and personal direction of Col. H. R. Kraig, Chief of Ordnance, and conducted by Maj. P. V. Hagner of the Ordnance department, assisted by Messrs. Byington, and Allen, Master Armorers of the two Armories. Guns from both armories were introduced, and every interchange of pieces that ingenuity could devise was resorted to, and in every case the fitting was exact and complete. This system of constructing small arms will totally dispose with the necessity of having a corps of armorers constantly in the field to repair and fit new limbs to broken arms. They can immediately draw from the store keeper the part, or parts required, screw them on and the arm is again ready for use.

    And out of a dozen broken arms, by this system 10 or 11 good guns may be made, if each gun had a different breakage. The examination here alluded to, a correspondent of the Martinsburg Republican states, has resulted highly to the character of the Harpers-Ferry Armory, and the credit of the officers, connected therewith and to the active and intelligent superintendent, H. W. Clowe, Esq., who took charge of the Armory in January, 1855, under adverse circumstances. The skill and intelligence directed upon the operations of this establishment, presents the armory, at this place, in a state of material efficiency unknown to it before, and not surpassed by any manufacturing establishment in this or any other country.

  • B&O Radical Changes at Harpers Ferry and More

    Important Railroad News.
    The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company has awarded to Messrs. Jones & Thorne, of Baltimore, the contract for radical changes at Harper’s Ferry. It will use up about $250,000 of the $300,000 appropriated for the alteration which will strengthen the main line and throw out the awkward reverse curve which now exists on the bridge across the Potomac. It will also do away with the single tracck on the bridge and change the road radically along two miles of its length.

    The work includes a tunnel 875 feet long through the corner of Maryland Heights. From the point where the tunnel emerges they will build eight lofty piers of Gettysburg granite across and in the Potomac river, upon which will be constructed a steel bridge 700 feet long. Its cost will be defrayed out of the remainder of the money appropriated. The work is to be completed in six months, in time for the World’s Fair traffic, and from 600 to 800 workmen, including the quarrymen of the Gettysburg granite, will be employed. The tunnel and the bridge will each be supplied with double tracks and the blocking of trains by the two present signal towers will be obviated.

    Upon the completion of the improvement a train instead of curving off to cross the river will enter the tunnel in the bluff, 1,100 feet east of the old bridge, and, following a straight line, will emerge from the mountain side about 200 feet from the old bridge and about the same distance back from the river’s northern bank and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. It will continue by a straight line directly across the canal and river upon the bridge and strikes the West Virginia side 100 feet west of the old depot in the town of Harper’s Ferry. On that side it will continue until it strikes the bluff along which the tracks are to be laid, on the solid mountain side, 400 feet south of the present tracks. The trains following this course will strike the present tracks a mile above Harper’s Ferry. This arrangement will do away with all the trestle work three-fourths of a mile long at Harper’s Ferry. It will also straighten out every curve and prevent many stoppages that occur because of the single track on the old bridge. The Valley branch of the B. and O., which connects with the main line on the West Virginia end of the bridge instead of striking it by a curve.

    The contractors have already shipped several carloads of lumber and material to the point of operations and they are hastening to get to work at the earliest possible moment. The plans for the bridge are under way. The old bridge was built at the close of the war to take the place of the one that was destroyed in course of the hostilities. The B. & O. management has had the recently-adopted plans under consideration many years.

    We cannot state positively what relation these improvements will bear to the survey made by the B. & O. along the river from Harper’s Ferry to Cherry Run, but it looks as though this company has on hand a very comprehensive system of improvements. The absolutely level route along the river that can be secured is a very tempting thing to a railroad in these days, when all plans are made with reference to getting the maximum results from equipment at the minimum of cost. We anxiously await further developments concerning the new route through Shepherdstown.

  • Lime-kiln accident; fell 25 feet.

    A colored man working at the lime-kiln at Bakerton was seriously hurt last Saturday. The cable caught him, causing him to fall a distance of about 25 feet, head-foremost.