At Harpers Ferry, six acres of the U.S. Armory became the scene of transformations that shaped the nation. In 1795, George Washington chose Harpers Ferry as the site for the nation’s second national armory. In 1803, Meriwether Lewis obtained guns and other goods produced there for the Corps of Discovery. In 1819, inventor John Hall’s method of fabricating arms exactly alike revolutionized industry and set man against machine. In 1836, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ran through the armory grounds as it raced west against the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. In 1859, John Brown attacked the armory in an attempt to end slavery, helping catapult the nation into civil war. In 1861, Virginia militiamen moved on Harpers Ferry to seize arms and equipment from the federal armory, and retreating federal forces burned the armory and arsenal.
