Guide
Featured
One Day in Harpers Ferry, Hour by Hour
The lower town read in geographical order tells the story backwards. Here is the day arranged chronologically instead, from the armoury grounds at nine to Jefferson Rock at dusk.
9 min read
Loretta Sims
History Editor
Beat: History & the Civil War, Museums & Exhibits, Day Trips
Loretta writes the reason the name is known: the October 1859 raid on the federal armoury, the trial at Charles Town, the 1862 surrender on Bolivar Heights, and Storer College and the Niagara Movement that met on its campus in 1906. She has worked in a county archive, prefers a document to a plaque, and flags where the interpretation is contested.
2 guides · 1 news post
Last updatedLoretta's most recent update to this site was .
Long-form
Guides by Loretta Sims
Reported guides to Harpers Ferry, each with its own publication and last-updated date.
Guide
FeaturedJohn Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry: What Happened and What Remains
Twenty-two men seized a federal armoury on a Sunday night in October 1859. Thirty-six hours later it was over. The argument it started took another six years and 600,000 lives to finish.
10 min read
News desk
News under Loretta Sims's byline
Shorter, dated pieces about what is changing in Harpers Ferry.
How this was written. News published under Loretta Sims's byline was drafted by machine from primary sources — operator notices, government and municipal releases, published schedules — and every factual claim in it was matched to one of those sources before it published. A Harpers Ferry Guide editor can change or pull any of it. Our editorial standards.
Event
Two Anniversaries Fall Here, in the Busiest Month and the Quietest
The raid ran 16 to 18 October. The execution followed on 2 December at Charles Town. Visiting on either date is a different experience, for opposite reasons.
October 16 – October 18