May 13, 1861
SEIZURE OF CATTLE AT HARPER'S FERRY:On Friday last ten car loads of cattle and a number of horses, which were being shipped over the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, were seized by Letcher's troops at Harper's Ferry. The insurgents suppose the stock to belong to the Government. Several car loads were on the way eastward, east of Grafton, which it is expected will be seized unless recalled.
May 14, 1861
On Friday last, a stock train bound for Baltimore was stopped at Harper's Ferry. The train consisted of five cars of beeves and one of horses, from Ohio.
On the same day, a provision train, which contained freight for Virginia and the Western part of Maryland, was seized by Lincoln's troops at the Relay House, between Harper's Ferry and Baltimore. On the same day, Gen. Butler, in command at the Relay House, captured the centrifugal steam gun of Mr. Chas. Dickinson, of Baltimore, at Ellicott's Mills. Gen. Butler, now in command of the Lincoln forces at the Relay House, was the Breckinridge candidate for Governor in Massachusetts.
Timeline of West Virginia: Civil War and Statehood: May 1861