u/eleanor_konik

When I picked up The Perfectionists by Simon Winchester, it was partly because I have come to enjoy the history of the exceptional industrialists who have built the modern Western lifestyle and I wanted to learn about the ones who weren't necessarily businessmen -- and partly to understand the men in my life a little better.

I am soooo glad I did.

One of the reasons I really liked The Perfectionists is the clever subheadings for each chapter. The book covers tolerances from 0.1 to 0.0001 to 0.000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 01 — the “near-atomic” level.

Probably the most memorable part for me was the section comparing Henry Ford (of Ford Motors, who is in large part responsible for the concept of a factory) and Henry Royce (of Rolls-Royce luxury cars, which for many years exemplified the concept of perfectionist engineering).

I also really liked reading about John Wilkinson. If he had showed up in a novel so obsessed with iron as to make an iron boat, work at an iron desk, build an iron pulpit, and order that he be buried in an iron coffin would be considered to be absolutely, completely, ridiculously over the top for an example of “afraid of fairies” — but this guy really did all that (and more!) and wasn’t even afraid of fairies!

There are a ton other lovely stories about little-known or forgotten engineers who weren't titans of industry tho. It’s a great book.

After two nights of guard duty, an exhausted William H. Dunlap sat down to write a letter to his sister Elizabeth and tell her goodbye forever. He seems pretty sure he's about to die; Virginia hadn't even ratified secession yet, but his company had been ordered to get ready to march to Harpers Ferry. The Harpers Ferry encampment was already huge, but it was about to get bigger.

The letter spread across two pages. Here it is, more or less in full (with the spelling corrected and updated tho you can read the original if you'd prefer; he apologizes for the bad writing for a reason!):

>My Dear sister

>
>I seat myself this morning to let you know that I am well and we were ordered yesterday evening to be in readiness to march to Harpers Ferry on Tuesday for the purpose to be in readiness to take Harpers Ferry we came here on Friday we have been enjoying ourselves very well since we have been here most all of the company is gone home to bid their friends good by & some of the company don't mind it at all & there is not many ever expects to see Staunton after Tuesday & as for my fare I never expect to see you nor hear of you anymore & I have been on guard last two nights and I am so sleepy that I can't write

>
>So that is all I have to say at this time

>
>So I will write next Sunday if I can & So that is all at present excuse bad writing and
spelling So Good Bye for now and for ever

I couldn't find a record of that Sunday letter, but as far as I know he made it home to his sister. I'm not 100% sure the census records all line up on the same guy, but you can check out the Valley bio on him and made your own call.

Hopefully he had time to write Elizabeth about of his survival instead of leaving her in suspense.

>The Maryland Department of Agriculture, in partnership with the Department of Natural Resources, will treat a targeted area of the Potomac River near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia to control black fly populations in the area. Treatment is scheduled to occur on Tuesday, May 12, 2026 between 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. ET.

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>A green-and-gold Bell 206 Long Ranger helicopter will apply a Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti)-based larvicide throughout the targeted area. The helicopter’s tail number is N637HA. Bti is a bacterial insecticide, not a chemical, that is naturally-occurring in soils. It is harmful to a limited variety of organisms, including midges, black flies, mosquito larvae and a few other species of aquatic insects.

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>The treatment may cause a temporary discoloration of the water but is harmless and will dissipate naturally. The treatment will not impact drinking water supplies, fish, crabs or other aquatic organisms outside the targeted insect groups.

Somebody on Twitter asked about "weird, small, secretly cool cities you can get to from Amtrak" and Harpers Ferry came up a lot in the replies, along with this awesome video.

I recently bought a road bike with 700x32 tires on it and was wondering how doable the section of the trail from Harpers ferry to DC would be on those tires? I’m almost certain I have the clearance to throw some bigger tires on, but if I’m being honest I really just don’t feel like spending the money + I’ll likely be biking up the W&OD to get there, so I’d prefer some road-ier tires for that section.

On a related note, does anyone have any recommendations for getting from the W&OD to Harper’s ferry?

Thanks!

The night of April 18, 1861, a small federal detachment that had no real chance of holding the town against set fire to the Harpers Ferry arsenal buildings and fled north to Pennsylvania. The Confederates reached Harpers Ferry the next morning and salvaged what they could.

David Hunter Strother sketched it. A Martinsburg native, he'd been illustrating travel pieces in Harper's Monthly under the pen name "Porte Crayon" since 1854. He'd later serve as a Union staff officer and topographer through most of the war, taking part in 30 battles and never getting wounded... but on April 18 he was just a civilian artist with a notebook.

His two drawings appeared in Harper's Weekly on May 11, 1861, a little over three weeks later.

\"The Burning of the United States Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, 10 P.M. April 18, 1861.\"

\"The March of the Virginians on Harpers Ferry...\"

The Library of Congress catalog record has some publication details and is most often cited, but you can see the actual newspaper text as well if you scroll to page 293 (#286) on the full Harper's weekly volume 5 1861 newspaper, which is digitized as part of the HathiTrust collection.

>"In the martial colum revealed by the blaze there stood arrayed, with deadly ball and bayonette, the first-born pride of a hundred hithero peaceful and happy families."

By the time Strother's sketches reached subscribers' mailboxes, Confederate forces had been holding the town for three weeks and were already starting to dig in on Maryland Heights.

It's kinda crazy to compare how fast we get news in comparison.

Hey everyone. Doing a road trip with my daughter next week. Starting in Harper’s ferry area, traveling south thru lost river, Seneca rocks, beartown, then the new river gorge, and Beckley

Would love some local recommendations, good eats, fun spots with adventurous kiddos etc!

Really excited to see your state. And I’m sorry for Wyoming county and awful situation you guys have been put in with your water

Smiley was at the time a private in Company D of the 5th Virginia Infantry. His letter is the earliest record I'm aware of about the building of the fort on Maryland Heights:

> I am still at Harpers Ferry enjoying good health and in good spirits. And when these few lines reach you I hope they may find you well along with the rest of our friends We are quartered in a large brick house on boliver street said to be the best quarters in town We do our own cooking and washing sleep on the floor with a blanket for a bed And in short we enjoy all the privileges and luxuries of Soldiers I do not know exactly how many soldiers are stationed here but I suppose there is from five to ten thousand and we are expecting more there is now some 300 Kentuckians here and about 1800 expected There is some Georgia and Alabama troops expected here in a few days. A fort has been commenced on the Maryland heights and batteries are to be placed there and on the Virginia mountain point the rifle companies are to be stationed on the mountain and the light infantry are to stay in the Ferry

You can check out the original letter along with many others at New American History, which "traces history at the ground level, embracing the experiences of soldiers and civilians, men and women, Black people and white."

Personally, I'm curious if the "large brick house" on Bolivar Street is still there, and which one it was. Particularly if it really was "the best quarters in town."

Back in 2021, I asked the folks at r/AskHistorians for a good primer on African history. One of the moderators recommended The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800 by Christopher Ehret. I got it from the library and took extensive notes. I've referenced it often since then, so a friend of mine asked me to write a detailed book report style review for it.

tl;dr is that Civilizations of Africa is framed explicitly as an introductory (but college-level) textbook, but it’s very readable — moreso than a lot of pop history books I’ve picked up over the years. There were a lot of references to obscure things I’d never heard of and had trouble tracking down evidence for, but was eventually able to confirm independently.

I highly recommend Civilizations of Africa to anyone interested in the history of Africa; it’s accessible, reliable, and well-organized.

Release Date: May 7, 2026

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park invites visitors to join our 250th anniversary program, Defend and Protect: Arming the American Soldier on Saturday, May 23, 2026, from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

This special event explores the weapons and technology produced at the Harpers Ferry Armory from the 1790s to 1861 and how these innovations shaped the nation and the world.

** Please Note: historic weapons firing will occur during the event; prepare children and pets for loud noises.

Event Schedule

11:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. – Explore Arsenal Square

Visit the tent on Arsenal Square to meet living history volunteers and view historic weapons produced at Harpers Ferry.

11:00 a.m. – Forging Change: The Industrial Revolution and Harpers Ferry Armory

In the Allies for Freedom Room on the 2nd floor of the John Brown Museum, discover Harpers Ferry’s role in America’s Industrial Revolution with expert Troy Cool. Learn how advances in arms manufacturing helped fuel the “American System” of production.

12:30 p.m. – The Arsenal’s Global Impact

Head over to Arsenal Square to trace the global journeys of Harpers Ferry–made weapons.

2:00 p.m. – Historic Weapons Firing Demonstration

Join a ranger to see how historic weapons functioned and evolved, and experience their sights and sounds.

The 43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry aka Mosby's Rangers were a persistent threat to the Harpers Ferry garrison starting in late 1863. They hit supply lines, cut telegraph wires, captured Union officers out of their beds, and just generally made it impossible for the Harpers Ferry garrison to relax.

Their last fight came on April 6, 1865, when Mosby's men captured the entire Loudoun Rangers command (including over 80 horses) at Keyes Switch, on the B&O Railroad just west of Harpers Ferry. Then, three days later, Lee surrendered at Appomattox.

Mosby chose not to follow suit. On April 21, 1865 he assembled his battalion at Salem (Fauquier County) and read them a farewell address: "I disband your organization in preference to surrendering it to our enemies." He dispersed his men and told them to make their own way. The next day, Lt. Col. William Chapman led the bulk of the rangers to Winchester to sign paroles.

Chester Hearn's account in Six Years of Hell gives May 8 as the surrender date for the remainder:

>The majority of Mosby's command, led by Lieutenant Colonel Chapman, surrendered at Winchester on April 21 and received paroles. The remnants of Mosby's band surrendered on May 8, but the wily leader, with a price of five thousand dollars on his head, did not come in until late in June. After stalling for more than two months, Halleck finally granted Mosby the same liberal terms as Lee and Johnston.

After the Civil War, Mosby became a Republican and worked as an attorney, supporting his former enemy's commander, U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant. He also served as the American consul to Hong Kong and in the U.S. Department of Justice.

James Stubblefield started out as superintendent of the Harpers Ferry Armory in 1807, but after 1815 he didn't really bother running it. He lived on his country plantation and let his brother-in-law, master armorer Armistead Beckham, handle day-to-day operations. The arrangement was the heart of what Merritt Roe Smith calls the armory "Junto" — a four-family oligarchy that controlled HF's roughly $10,000 monthly federal payroll and ran the place as a patronage machine.

Stubblefield had backed John Quincy Adams in the 1828 election, so the new Jackson administration brought him no political cover. In early spring 1829, a delegation of loyal Jacksonian Democrats from Shepherdstown — Sprigg, Forward, and Edward Lucas Jr. — went to the War Department and pressed Secretary of War John H. Eaton on Stubblefield's mismanagement. They claimed government funds were being misapplied, that bad materials were being procured, that unskilled workmen were being hired, and that the muskets coming out of HF were so poorly made they "have to undergo expensive repairs before they can be issued for service."

Eaton ordered Inspector General John E. Wool to conduct a "rigorous scrutiny." On May 7, 1829, with witnesses assembled and a reluctant Roswell Lee (the Springfield Armory superintendent) appointed acting superintendent at HF for the duration, Wool opened the investigation.

After a week of testimony "day and night," Wool wrote to Eaton:

>thus far, nothing has appeared of a criminal nature against Major Stubblefield, though much to satisfy me that he has not been as vigilant, and as energetic in the discharge of his duties as his highly responsible situation required. […] I am not without apprehension that the public interest will require his removal.

The investigation surfaced bribery, falsified records, and corruption — almost all of it traceable to Beckham, the brother-in-law actually running the shop. But Stubblefield, as the man with the title, absorbed the political consequence. He went to Washington and submitted his resignation on June 1, 1829, with a face-saving two-month wind-down engineered by Chief of Ordnance George Bomford. On August 1 he formally relinquished his duties and retired to his Berry Hill plantation.

Beckham — the one who really deserved removal — refused to resign and held on as master armorer until May 1830, when the War Department finally swapped him with Benjamin Moor of the Allegheny Arsenal.

Smith treats this as the inflection point at which the local Junto begins to lose control of HF civic and economic life... a blow "from which it never fully recovered."

Further Reading:

• William G. Gavin, "Politics and Personalities at Harpers Ferry Armory, 1794–1861", American Society of Arms Collectors Bulletin B61 (1989)

On the evening of Tuesday, May 6, 2025, MARC Brunswick Line Train 875 — westbound out of Washington's Union Station, bound for Martinsburg, with roughly a hundred passengers aboard — struck and killed two people on the CSX rails just east of the Harpers Ferry MARC station, near Keep Tryst Road in Sandy Hook, Maryland.

Cian Cassidy grew up in New Market and attended Oakdale High School.

>Summer Reneé Giffin was a 2022 graduate of Boonsboro High School. After high school, she was an admired employee of The Rabbit Hole in Harpers Ferry, WV. Summer was considered a spit fire and had a knack for being the only server to be able to ruffle the cook's feathers. Working at The Rabbit Hole wasn't just a job to Summer, everyone there was her framily.

She had been there more than two and a half years.

A wooden cross went up alongside Sandy Hook Road in the days after.

Please, please do not walk on the train tracks!

> S. 2280 would authorize a land transfer of 71.51 acres in Harpers Ferry from CBP to become part of NPS and Harpers Ferry National Historic Park. The proposed land transfer to NPS would add a site of exceptional historical significance to the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.

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> Additionally, the bill would transfer around 25 acres of federal land at Harpers Ferry from NPS to CBP. The 25 acres borders CBP’s Advanced Training Center and would allow the agency to expand its training capabilities.