I didn't tell my wife where I was taking her for her birthday. We crossed into Virginia and within seconds crossed the Potomac River and into West Virginia. We passed along the convergence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers before making a sharp right. I turned to Lori and her smile was worth all the deception.
Harpers Ferry
Harpers Ferry – the Prize of the War; the Civil War, that is. It was so called because of U.S. Armory, established in 1799 on George Washington orders, produced muskets, rifles, and pistols, and both the Union and Confederate Armies wanted to possess Harpers Ferry and the munitions.
The Hilltop House Hotel perched over Harpers Ferry and, as we arrived that night in the pitch black darkness, we only heard the roar of the rivers below. The large white building with winding hallways from The Shining had famous visitors in the past including Pearl S. Buck, Carl Sandburg, Mark Twain and Bill Clinton. I tried to make reservations for two nights, but a group – a gay square dancing assemble – (seriously!) had booked the place for the weekend. Through a mishap of fortune, we were bumped up the Tower Room. Take a look at the picture. The tower’s on the left. We were on the second floor. A wonderfully, romantic round room.
In the morning, we woke to the sound of a train whistle. Still dark outside. “What’s that?” Lori asked. I asked, what time is it? “Five-twenty.” That’s the five twenty train, I said. Emerging from a tunnel carved into the Blue Ridge Mountains, trains emerge or disappear every hour or so, giving visitors a feel of the Locomotive Age. Ironically, the trains cross over the B & O Canal along the rivers that once tried to compete with the locomotives and failed.
When the sun rose, the view entertained us endlessly from our room. The trains, the bridges, the mountains, the rivers all lay before us. Even as we showered, the spectacular view was visible from the bathroom window.
Even though it was November, the temperature hit eighty degrees, but we always love the weather in the Shenandoah Valley. On the first weekend of January earlier in the year, the temperatures hit the seventies. Trees were actually budding and flowers were blooming. Also, that January, the Hilltop House Inn hosted another group of visitors. Bagpipers. The sounds of the pipes piping echoed through the inn. Lori and I couldn’t help but utter the line from So I Married an Axe Murderer: "We have a piper down. I repeat, we have a piper down."
That morning we ate breakfast on the veranda of the hotel as the waters roared below. A young cheerful waiter with a smile and a soft southern accent served our eggs, coffee and sausages. Life is good.
The National Park Service preserves the lower town, circa 1850s, that Robert Harper established in 1761. The buildings are user friendly. With no tour guides, the buildings are open with displays and well labeled. While walking through buildings, I often thought of old movies and shows such as Little House of the Prairie due to Pa’s buckboard in a field next to what resembled Nellie Olsen’s general store.
John Brown and Jefferson Rock
The heart of the town is the firehouse that John Brown tried to overtake in 1859, an act that many feel precipitated the Civil War. Under the command of Col. Robert E. Lee, the U.S. army stormed the building killing and capturing Brown and abolitionists. Brown and others were hung for treason, but many saw Brown as a martyr. So important was the town, just hours after shots were fired upon Ft. Sumter, the Confederacy seized little Harpers Ferry.
Moving through a multi-media museum in town, one cannot help but feel John Brown’s anguish and pain. He fell into bankruptcy a number of times. Four of his children died within a week’s time. You can see in those wild eyes a man looking for a cause to hang on to.
After wandering about, we stopped at the Amory Pub. Did I mention it was eighty degrees as we sat on the deck in the afternoon sun drinking locally brewed beers and devouring fish and chips? Life is good. We hiked down to the park and hiked up towards St. Peter’s Church. We moved past the church to Jefferson’s Rock. On the huge rock, the great Thomas Jefferson stood and looked over the valley. He said the view was “worth the trip across the Atlantic.”
Later in the day, we headed to Shepardstown, a quaint town housing Shepard University as well as antique, craft, and new age shops. We wandered around letting Lori get her fix of shopping before venturing into the Mecklenberg Inn. The building, rich in history, was built in 1785 and housed a number of businesses through the years, but the bar seems to suit the structure. Grabbing a beverage, we ventured through the building to a garden with benches and swings for patrons to enjoy the weather and fresh air. Lori and I sat on a swing, looked about, took in, and smiled broadly.
Antietam National Battlefield
We returned to Harpers Ferry and, the next day, had breakfast on the veranda and enjoyed the sunny weather. We then made our way to Antietam Battlefield where the single bloodiest day in American history occurred with over 23,000 casualties on September 17, 1862. Look for details of the battle online at the Antietam National Battlefield.
We visited Dunkard Church, which became a makeshift emergency room during the battle. As the medics amputated arms and legs they threw them out the windows. The continually had to move the operating tables because the piles rose and limbs fell back into the building.
The Bloody Lane may be the spookiest place on the battlefield. The Confederates held the ground in the lane, protected by fences and trees. The Union troops marched up over a knoll into the line of fire and one-by-one, over and over, hundreds of men feel to their deaths. Walking through the lane, many say they have felt spirits grabbing their ankles. While we experience no ankle grabbing, we felt a chilly presence.
The final stage of the battle occurred along Antietam Creek when Union General Burnside attempted to cross the bridge and was picked to pieces by Georgian sharpshooters. The creek now flows peacefully through weepy willows.
Gettysburg
We headed for Gettysburg that night, checked into our hotel before wandering around, ending up at the Farnsworth House for dinner. One of our favorite places. It’s haunted, you know. We have reservations to stay in the General Custer room in March. I wonder if we’ll see a ghost.
After a delicious home-cooked meal, we walked uptown for a drink at McClelland’s Tavern, named after the Union general who commanded at the Battle of Gettysburg. From there we headed to the Pub and Restaurant and then on to the Blue Parrot Bistro.
We complete the circle and returned to the Farnsworth House where O’ Be Joyful banged out Civil War tunes such as Battle Hymn of the Republic, Goober Peas and Dixie. One thing – a minor thing -- annoyed us about Gettysburg was that the streets, stores and bars closed at eleven. Only because we wanted to celebrate Gettysburg a bit longer. We headed to our hotel and conked out. The next day, we roamed the battlefield before heading home.
Maybe Lori’s mother said it best: “Only the two of you would find Gettysburg romantic.”
Terry Pruyne - I wrote for my high school and college newspapers on my way to teaching degrees in English and History. Later, I received a Masters Degree ...
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