Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

[389] aggregates, at Nashville, by the Governor and his confederates, Harris asserted, in a proclamation issued on the 24th of June, that the vote in the State was one hundred and four thousand nine hundred and thirteen for Separation, and forty-seven thousand two hundred and thirty-eight against it, or a majority in favor of disunion of fifty-seven thousand six hundred and seventy-eight.¹ Even this false report showed that East Tennessee--the mountain region of the State, which, like Western Virginia, was not seriously poisoned by the virus of the Slave system — was loyal to the Republic by a heavy majority. It is said that one-half of the votes cast in favor of Separation in East Tennessee were illegal, having been given by soldiers of the insurgent army, who had no right to vote anywhere.² All through the war that ensued East Tennessee remained loyal, but at the cost of fearful suffering, as we shall observe hereafter.

Thus Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, by the treasonable action of their respective governors, their legislatures, and their conventions, were placed in an attitude of hostility to the National Government, positively and offensively, before the people were allowed to say a word on the subject officially. These usurpers raised armies and levied war before the people gave them power to enlist a soldier, to buy an ounce of ammunition, or to move a gun.

The conspirators of Virginia had not only talked boldly and resolved courageously, but had, from the moment of the attack on Fort Sumter, labored zealously and vigorously in preliminary movements for the seizure of Washington and the National Government. Within twenty-four hours after the passage of the Secession Ordinance,

April 17, 1861.

as we have observed, they had set forces in motion for the capture of Harper's Ferry and the arms and ammunition there, and of the Navy Yard at Gosport, near Norfolk, with its vast amount of ordnance and stores.

Harper's Ferry is a small village in Jefferson County, Virginia, clustered around the base of a rugged hill at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, where the conjoined streams pass through the lofty range of the Blue Ridge, between fifty and sixty miles northwest from Washington City. It is on the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, the powerful commercial links which connect Maryland, and especially Baltimore, with the great West. There is the outer gate of the Shenandoah or great Valley of Virginia, and was, at the time we are considering and throughout the war, a point of much strategic importance as a military post. There, for many years, a National Armory and Arsenal had been situated, where ten thousand muskets were made every year, and from eighty to ninety thousand stand of arms were generally stored.