Harpers Ferry Flood, 1870

At Harper’s Ferry the scene is truly appalling, and entirely beyond description, but we will endeavor to make up a summary of the terrible incidents of Friday night and Saturday morning, and the immense loss of life and property at this point. Leaving Baltimore on the accommodation train Friday afternoon, where we had been on business for several days, we reached Weverton a little before eight o’clock at night, were we learned that the tressling and bridges on the W. & P. R. R. above the Ferry had been swept away, and several houses had gone down the surging stream. Moving on cautiously towards the Ferry, we found the river one angry ses of rolling waves, the tow-path on the canal entirely obliterated, and the waters coming up to the very railroad track. In a short time we arrived at the Potomac bridge, and although not entirely sure of its safety, ventured across and gained the Harper’s Ferry saide. Here we were in a dilemma. The angry torrent had flooded Shenandoah street and cut off communication with the mainland, and was rising rapidly every minute. But no time was to be lost, and so we plunged into the stream and waded across, which would have been an impossibility an hour later. We remained in the Ferry until about 2 o’clock in the morning, and the sights and sounds we saw and heard there we shall never forget. Poor women and children were on the streets who had just escaped a watery grave, and every few minutes a low rumble would be heard, the startling signal that one of their once happy homes had sunk beneath the waters together with all their earthly possessions, or perhaps containing loved kindred and friends, whose dying wails could be heard on the midnight air. At intervals all through the night buildings were being swept away. At one time we heard four fall in less than five minutes. The Loss of Life and Property at this point and vicinity was greater than anywhere else within the scope of the flood. […]