HARPER’S FERRY, a post village of Jefferson county, West Virginia, United States, is grandly situated at the foot of Bolivar heights and at the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers, where they intersect the Blue Ridge, 45 miles N.W. of Washington. It is the junction-point of the Baltimore and Ohio and the Winchester and Potomac railways; and the Ohio and Chesapeake canal passes along the Maryland side of the Potomac river. The village since the civil war has been in a decaying condition. It is the seat of Stover college, for students of colour. Previous to the war Harper’s Ferry contained an extensive arsenal and armoury, and during the war it was the scene of several exploits which have given it a name in history. On the 16th October 1859 it was seized by John Brown, the celebrated abolitionist, and a small handful of followers, but as he was unsupported by a rising of the slaves he was overpowered on the morning of the 18th and taken prisoner. On the 18th April 1861 it was captured by the Confederates, who on evacuating it in the following June destroyed the arsenal and armoury and the bridge across the Potomac. The village was afterwards held by a Union garrison of 12,000 men, who, however, on the 15th September 1862, after a brave resistance of several days, surrendered to a strong Confederate force under Jackson and A. P. Hill. After the battle of Antietam, on the 17th of the same month, it was reoccupied by the army of the Potomac under General M'Clellan,who left a strong garrison in the place. In June 1863 it was again abandoned to the Confederates on their march to Pennsylvania. After their defeat at Gettysburg, the town again fell into the hands of the Federal troops, who held it until the demonstration against Washington in July 1864. After the ...