JACKSON AT HARPER'S FERRY IN 1861.
BY JOHN D. IMBODEN, BRIGADIER-GENERAL, C. S. A.

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA IN 1861

THE movement to capture Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and the fire-arms manufactured and stored there was organized at the Exchange Hotel in Richmond on the night of April 16th, 1861. Ex-Governor Henry A. Wise was at the head of this purely impromptu affair. The Virginia Secession Convention, then sitting, was by a large majority "Union" in its sentiment till Sumter was fired on and captured, and Mr. Lincoln called for seventy-five thousand men to enforce the laws in certain Southern States. Virginia was then, as it were, forced to "take sides,"and she did not hesitate. I had been one of the candidates for a seat in that convention from August county, but had been overwhelmingly defeated by the "Union" candidates, because I favored secession as the only "peace measure" Virginia could then adopt, our aim being to put the State in an independent position to negotiate between the United States and the seceded Gulf and Cotton States for a new Union, to be formed on a compromise of the slavery question by a convention to be held for that purpose.

Late on April 15th I received a telegram from "Nat" Tyler, the editor of the "Richmond Enquirer," summoning me to Richmond, where I arrived the next day. Before reaching the Exchange Hotel I met ex-Governor Wise on the street. He asked me to find as many officers of the armed and equipped volunteers of the inland towns and counties as I could, and request them to be at the hotel by 7 in the evening the confer about a military movement which he deemed important. Not many such officers were in town, but I found Captains Turner Ashby and Richard Ashby of Fauquier county, Oliver R. Funsten of Carke county, all commanders of volunteer companies of cavalry; also Captain John A. Harman of Staunton-my home-and Alfred M. Barbour, the latter ex-civil superintendent of the Government works at Harper's Ferry.* These persons, with myself, promptly joined ex-Governor Wise, and a plan

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*See page 125 for a letter of Mr. Barbour, regarding the security of the armory.-EDITORS.
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