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[255] of 1859. These Virginians tried to murder Mr. Thompson in the parlor where he was detained a prisoner of war; and were only prevented from doing so by a young lady throwing herself between their rifles and his body. They then dragged him to the bridge, where they killed him in cold blood. They shot him off the bridge; shot him as he was falling the fearful height of forty feet; and, some appearance of life still remaining, riddled him with balls as he was seen crawling at the base of the pier. Contrast the Virginia savages of the olden time with the Virginia gentlemen of the present day. The contrast does not stop here. Miss Foulke, the modern Pochahontas, when asked why she shielded Mr. Thompson, replied, not that she loathed a murder, but that she “didn't want to have the carpet spoiled!” 1 While these gallant young Virginians were murdering an unarmed prisoner, a party of men from Martinsburg arrived, and, led by a railroad conductor, attacked the Armory buildings in the rear. Another detachment of the same company attacked the buildings in front. Seeing them approach on both sides in overwhelming numbers, Captain Brown retreated to the engine house, after exchanging volleys with the advancing forces. The company that attacked the rear broke open several
1 Wendell Phillips, in his great speech recently delivered at New York, in which he so successfully subdued the satraps of Virginia who had assembled to put him down, related another incident of the fight at Harper's Ferry, in which this Miss Foulke was a participatory:
When, in the midst of the battle of Harper's Ferry, the Mayor's body lay within range of the rifles of those northern boys. his friends wanted to bring it off, but none of them would go. At last the porter of the hotel said to a lady, if you will stand between me and the rifles, I will go; and he went. He knew he could trust the gentle sacredness of woman in the eyes of those brain e northern boys. He went and placed the body in a carriage, and, sheltered by her presence, carried it back in safety. That is the difference between Northern blood and Southern.
Thayer and Eldridge, 1860.
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