File:Campaigns of the civil war (1881) (14759525591).jpg

Identifier: campaignsofcivil01newy (find matches)
Title: Campaigns of the civil war
Year: 1881 (1880s)
Authors:
Subjects: United States -- History Civil War, 1861-1865 Campaigns
Publisher: New York, Scribner
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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it wouldseem that, even in highly civilized nations, there lingers aremnant of the savage superstition that insanity is inspira-tion ; for strong minds caught at the suggestion that he hadrecognized in Harpers Ferry a negro Thermopylae. This was apparently the light in which the rebel authori-ties regarded the place, and its occupancy and retention wasmade a prime object at the beginning. Jefferson Davis him-self sent Johnston, one of his best officers, to command it. My conversations with General Lee, in Bichmond, saysJohnston, -and the Presidents (Jefferson Davis) oral in-structions to me in Montgomery, had informed me distinctlythat they regarded Harpers Ferry as a natural fortress, com-manding the entrance into the Valley of Virginia from Penn-sylvania and Maryland, and that it was occupied in that idea,and my command not that of a military district and activearmy, but of a fortress and its garrison. When Johnston arrived, however, and made a personal in- PATTERSONS CAMPAIGN. 159
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Pattersons Campaign. 160 THE OUTBREAK OF REBELLION. spection of the neighborhood, he at once recognized thoerror of this assumption. There is no danger of attack infront, he wrote (May 26th), bnt the position is easilyturned by crossing the river above or below. The presentforce is not sufficient for defence against a superior one at-tacking from the Virginia side. Relief, in case of invest-ment, could not be furnished. Considered as a position, Iregard Harpers Ferry as untenable against a strong enemy.We have outposts at the Point of Bocks, near the ferry atWilliamsport, and the bridge at Shepherdstown, the extremepoints being at least thirty miles apart. Two days later herej>eated his statement, his engineer reporting that to holdthis post, then, either as a fortress, a point dappui, or as acondition of the defence of the Virginia Valley, we require aforce of from twelve to fifteen thousand men. Lee did not relish the alternative ; he sent him two addi-tional regiments, and wrote

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