Existing comment:
Martial Law: The People Under Guard:
The people of Harpers Ferry saw their community destroyed and their lives and freedom threatened. Civilians lost their freedom no matter which army controlled the city. Town resident Annie Marmion wrote that life in Harpers Ferry was "... Where the power of one Army ended and the authority of the other began..."
In a time of war, both civilians and soldiers lost rights guaranteed by the civil justice system. They faced imprisonment and trial by military courts. The rights denied the citizens of Harpers Ferry by martial law during the Civil War compared in a small way with the oppressive restrictions suffered daily by African Americans -- whether free or enslaved -- before the war.
Careless weapons firing endangered soldiers and civilians alike. The .58 caliber lead minie balls struck many houses in Harpers Ferry.
Halt! Show Your Pass!
Union sentries in Harpers Ferry demanded identification of all travelers -- both civilian and military. All individuals were suspected spies. A pass did grant some liberty to friends of the Union, however, by permitting controlled movement to and from the town.
Obtaining a pass:
(1) The Question[s] -- What is your business here? What do you intend to see? How long do you expect to remain?
(2) Proof of Loyalty -- Swearing an oath of allegiance to the Union.
(3) Physical Description -- Written on pass to prevent exchange with other people.
"The men were quartered for a day in empty houses. Of these there were plenty -- so many in fact that two were torn down and ten gutted for wood for the regimental fires."
-- George W. Wingate, 22nd New York Militia
"Blackened walls met the eye at every turn; there was no life in town. Now and then we saw a prowling inhabitant strolling [???] around the ghost of a former life."
-- Col. George Gordon, 2nd Massachusetts Vol. Inf.
"We have placed some twenty of our horses in the basement of what was one of the most extensively and elegantly furnished houses in the village."
-- Lt. Col. William S. Lincoln, 34th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
"... lights of every kind being regarded as signals to the Rebels were usually greeted by a volley of guns."
-- Annie P. Marmion was a child during the Civil War and lived at Harpers Ferry with her father, Dr. Nicholas Marmion
"Our unripe experience led us to mistake the glistening of the moonbeams upon the windows of a church opposite for the camplights of the enemy. We fired a volley into it."
-- Sgt. William Barnes, Co. I, 13th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, describing an 1861 volley into St. Peter's Catholic Church |