Before the war, Harper’s Ferry was home to the United States Armory and Arsenal, which shipped weapons throughout the country. In 1859, radical abolitionist John Brown launched his famous raid against this armory, hoping that his actions would trigger a large-scale slave insurrection. During the war, Harper’s Ferry switched hands eight times, because of its strategic location on both B&O Railroad and on the Mason-Dixon Line, which divided North and South. This undated, picturesque print presumably shows the town before its exposure to wartime violence. Smoke rising from a chimney in the town signifies that the armory workers are busy producing firearms. A train on the B&O railroad crosses a bridge over the Potomac in the lower left.
The print’s creator, Edward Sachse, moved to America from Germany sometime in the 1840s. He settled in Baltimore, working under E. Weber & Co., one of the city’s most prominent lithography firms. He established E. Sachse & Co. in 1850, specializing in bird’s eye views of Baltimore and Washington D.C. His brother Theodore joined the firm in the mid-1850s and after Edward’s death in 1873, Theodore’s son Adolph headed the company, as A. Sachse & Co., from 1877 to 1887.
