Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 1.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[142] They were in possession of Richmond, where the convention was in session; they surrounded it, threatening their opponents with death, and extorted from it the ordinance of secession, which, however, was passed by a vote of only eighty-eight to fifty-five. This act was of great importance to the Confederates, for Virginia alone brought more strength to their cause than the seven States which had given the signal of insurrection. It also promised to deliver into their hands the vast establishments which the Federal government possessed in Virginia—the Norfolk navy-yard and arsenal, the largest in the United States, the great armory at Harper's Ferry, and Fort Monroe, situated between the mouths of the James and York Rivers in Chesapeake Bay, and commanding all those inland waters. The Federal government had neglected to adopt the necessary precautions for the protection of those establishments against any sudden attack, or at least for saving the valuable materials they contained. It only thought of this on the 17th, when it was already too late to take any effective measures. The workshops and arsenal of Harper's Ferry, situated at the confluence of the Potomac and the Shenandoah, on a spot which was destined to play an important part during the war, were only guarded by a detachment of sixty-four dismounted dragoons; and the Virginia volunteers, assembled in the valleys of the Blue Ridge, were ready to take possession of them as soon as the ordinance for the secession of Virginia should furnish them a pretext. They were then to cross the Potomac and join the insurgents of Maryland, for the purpose of attempting the capture of Washington, where their accomplices were expecting them. On the morning of the 18th, a portion of them were on their march, in the hope of seizing the prey which was to be of so much value to the future armies of the Confederacy. But Lieutenant Jones, who was in command at Harper's Ferry, had been informed of the approach of the Confederate troops under the lead of Ashby—a chief well known since; notwithstanding their despatch, they only arrived in sight of Harper's Ferry in time to see from a distance a large conflagration that was consuming the workshops, store-houses, and the enormous piles of muskets heaped in the yards, while the Federal soldiers who had just kindled it were crossing the Potomac on