During the late 1850s thousands of the older U.S. smoothbore muskets had been rifled at Federal arsenals. U.S. militia law allowed states to draw on surplus arms stored at these arsenals, a provision which Southern governors remembered in the aftermath of Harper's Ferry. Secretary of War John B. Floyd shipped thousands of arms like this to the arsenal at Augusta GA during 1860. Records of types of arms issued to the Georgia arsenal in 1860 are in print.

The 150th anniversary of John Brown's seizure of the Federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry will be next month. In addition to the stock of arms captured at Harper's Ferry, Brown and his followers came to Maryland with cases of of brand-new Sharps rifles, Colt revolvers and pikes to be placed in the hands of slaves once the rebellion began. According to the detailed plan, resistance to civil authorities would gather strength in the Alleghanies, easily defeating poorly armed Virginia militiamen sent against them. More slaves and abolitionist sympathizers would join Brown's army in the moutains, and parts of other states would fall under their control as the rebellion spread. Brown had already written an anti-slavery constitution for his new government.

The extent of public sympathy for Brown following his capture, trial and execution shocked people throughout the South. Citizens found it increasingly difficult to recognize that most Democrats (and many Unionists) in the North still supported slavery where it existed. Republicans like Seward of New York had been warning of an "irrepressible conflict for years, but the line of events leading to Fort Sumter can be traced directly to first blood at Harpers Ferry.