John Brown Sesquicentennial at Harpers Ferry October 16th

October 10, 2009

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and the 150th Quad-State Committee, from West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland, are planning and coordinating a range of commemoration events … dramatic productions, exhibits, academic lectures, special tours and much more.

logo from johnbrownraid.org
(logo from johnbrownraid.org)

SHAF members are encouraged especially to act as volunteers to assist visitors gathering for and attending the “Proceed to the Ferry” event at and near the Harpers Ferry Park on Friday, October 16th.  Please contact SHAF President Tom Clemens if you’d like to help.

This exciting event will precisely coincide in place and hour with John Brown’s 6-mile travel from the Kennedy Farm to the Ferry on the fateful night of 16 October 1862, as his Raid on the Federal Arsenal began.

A complete schedule of commemoration events at the Park are online from the Park Service webpage and more about the special hike from johnbrownraid.org.

SHAF logo in white

SHAF has been preserving and protecting historic sites related to the Battle of Antietam, the Maryland Campaign, and other Civil War activity in the region since 1986. We need your help to keep it going.

Col. Strong's horse

Antietam Witness

The number of dead horses was high. They lay, like the men, in all attitudes. One beautiful milk-white animal had died in so graceful a position that I wished for its photograph. Its legs were doubled under and its arched neck gracefully turned to one side, as if looking back to the ball-hole in its side. Until you got to it, it was hard to believe the horse was dead.


- Alpheus Williams

September 22, 1862