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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #56106 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/56106)
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of John Brown's Raid, by National Park Service
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: John Brown's Raid
-       National Park Service History Series
-
-Author: National Park Service
-
-Release Date: December 3, 2017 [EBook #56106]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN BROWN'S RAID ***
-
-
-
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-Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
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-
-
-                           JOHN BROWN’S RAID
-
-
-                 _National Park Service History Series
-             Office of Publications, National Park Service,
-           U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C._
-
-  John Brown’s Raid                                                     1
-  The Road to Harpers Ferry                                             2
-  Rendezvous for Revolution                                            12
-  To Free the Slaves                                                   25
-  The Tiger Caged                                                      35
-  The Trap is Sprung                                                   43
-  John Brown’s Body                                                    49
-  Epilogue                                                             61
-  Appendix: The Capture of John Brown                                  65
-  Selected Reading List                                                70
-
-    [Illustration: _John Brown's Fort, Harpers Ferry_]
-
-  _The text of this booklet was prepared by the staff of the Office of
-  Publications and is based on National Park Service reports by William
-  C. Everhart and Arthur L. Sullivan._
-
-  _National Park Handbooks are published to support the National Park
-  Service’s management programs and to promote understanding and
-  enjoyment of the more than 350 National Park System sites, which
-  represent important examples of our country’s natural and cultural
-  inheritance. Each handbook is intended to be informative reading and a
-  useful guide before, during, and after a park visit. More than 100
-  titles are in print. They are sold at parks and can be purchased by
-  mail from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing
-  Office, Washington, DC 20402._
-
-  _Harpers Ferry National Historical Park is administered by the
-  National Park Service, US. Department of the Interior. A
-  superintendent, whose address is Harpers Ferry, WV 25425, is in
-  immediate charge._
-
-
-           Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
-
-
-  United States National Park Service.
-  John Brown’s raid.
-  National Park Service history series
-  Supt. of Docs. no.: 129-2: J61/4.
-  1. Harpers Ferry. W. Va. John Brown Raid. 1859.
-    I. Title.
-    II. Series: United States. National Park Service. History series.
-  E451.U58 1974 973.7’116 73-600184
-
-
-  “_All through the conflict, up and down
-  Marched Uncle Tom and Old John Brown,
-  One ghost, one form ideal;
-  And which was false and which was true,
-  And which was mightier of the two,
-  The wisest sibyl never knew.
-  For both alike were real._”
-                                                 _Oliver Wendell Holmes_
-                                                         _June 14, 1882_
-
-    [Illustration: This view of Harpers Ferry from Maryland Heights in
-    1859 appeared in _Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper_ shortly
-    after John Brown’s raid brought the town to national prominence.]
-
-
-
-
-                           JOHN BROWN’^S RAID
-
-
-Through the gloom of the night, Sunday, October 16, 1859, a small band
-of men tramped silently behind a horse-drawn wagon down a winding
-Maryland road leading to Harpers Ferry, Va. From the shoulder of each
-man hung loosely a Sharps rifle, hidden by long gray shawls that
-protected the ghostly figures against the chilling air of approaching
-winter. A slight drizzle of rain veiled the towering Blue Ridge
-Mountains with an eerie mist. Not a sound broke the stillness, save the
-tramping feet and the creaking wagon.
-
-Side by side marched lawyer and farmer, escaped convict and pious
-Quaker, Spiritualist and ex-slave, joined in common cause by a hatred of
-slavery. Some had received their baptism of fire in “Bleeding Kansas,”
-where a bitter 5-year war between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions
-left death and destruction in its wake and foreshadowed a larger
-conflict to come. Most were students of guerrilla tactics; all were
-willing to die to free the slaves.
-
-This strange little force, five Negroes and 14 whites, was the
-“Provisional Army of the United States,” about to launch a fantastic
-scheme to rid the country of its “peculiar institution” once and for
-all, a scheme conjured up by the fierce-eyed, bearded man seated on the
-wagon—“Commander in Chief” John Brown. He was the planner, the
-organizer, the driving force, the reason why these men were trudging
-down this rough Maryland road to an uncertain fate.
-
-
-
-
-                       THE ROAD TO HARPERS FERRY
-
-
-This man who would electrify the Nation and bring it closer to civil war
-by his audacious attack on slavery was born at Torrington, Conn., on May
-9, 1800, the son of Owen and Ruth Mills Brown. The Browns were a simple,
-frugal, and hard-working family. They had a deep and abiding interest in
-religion, and from earliest childhood John Brown was taught the value of
-strong religious habits. He was required, along with his brothers and
-sisters, to participate in daily Bible reading and prayer sessions.
-“Fear God & keep his commandments” was his father’s constant admonition.
-It was also his father who taught him to view the enslavement of Negroes
-as a sin against God.
-
-    [Illustration: Owen Brown]
-
-    [Illustration: The future abolitionist and martyr in the cause of
-    Negro freedom was born in this stark, shutterless farmhouse in
-    Torrington, Conn. He lived here only 5 years. In 1805 his father,
-    Owen Brown (above), sold the farm and moved the family west to
-    Ohio.]
-
-In 1805 the Browns, like many other families of the period, moved west
-to Ohio. There, in the little settlement of Hudson, about 25 miles south
-of Cleveland, John grew to manhood. He received little formal education;
-most of what he learned came from what he afterwards called the “School
-of adversity.” He cared little for studies, preferring life in the open.
-Consistently choosing the “hardest & roughest” kinds of play because
-they afforded him “almost the only compensation for the confinement &
-restraints of school,” he was extremely proud of his ability to
-“wrestle, & Snow ball, & run, & jump, & knock off old seedy Wool hats.”
-
-    [Illustration: John Brown probably never saw a slave auction,
-    portrayed here in an illustration from the 1852 edition of Harriet
-    Beecher Stowe’s _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_, but his horror and hatred of
-    slavery made its destruction the “greatest or principle object” of
-    his life.]
-
-When John was 8 years old his mother died, and for awhile he believed
-that he would never recover from so “complete & permanent” a loss. His
-father remarried, but John never accepted his stepmother emotionally and
-“continued to pine after his own Mother for years.”
-
-An indifferent student, and “not ... much of a schollar” anyway, John
-quit school and went to work at his father’s tannery. Owen Brown, who
-had been a tanner and a shoemaker before moving to Hudson, had already
-taught his son the art of dressing leather from “Squirel, Raccoon, Cat,
-Wolf, or Dog Skins,” and John soon displayed remarkable ability in the
-trade. When the War of 1812 broke out, Owen contracted to supply beef to
-the American forces in Michigan. He gave John the task of rounding up
-wild steers and other cattle in the woods and then driving them, all by
-himself, to army posts more than 100 miles away. Contact with the
-soldiers and their profanity and lack of discipline so disgusted young
-Brown that he later resolved to pay fines rather than take part in the
-militia drills required of all Hudson males of a certain age.
-
-It was during the war, or so Brown later claimed, that he first came to
-understand what his father meant about the evil of slavery. He had just
-completed one of his cattle drives and was staying with a “very
-gentlemanly landlord” who owned a slave about the same age as John. The
-Negro boy was “badly clothed, poorly fed ... & beaten before his eyes
-with Iron Shovels or any other thing that came first to hand.” Outraged
-by this, John returned home “a most determined Abolitionist” swearing
-“Eternal war with Slavery.”
-
-    [Illustration: John Brown had not yet grown his famous beard when
-    this picture was taken in Kansas in 1856. Though 3 years away from
-    the deed that would make his name immortal, he had already begun his
-    private war against slavery.]
-
-    [Illustration: Mary Ann Day, Brown’s loyal and self-sacrificing
-    second wife, stoically endured her husband’s constant wanderings in
-    business and anti-slavery activities. She is shown here about 1851
-    with two of their daughters, Annie and Sarah.]
-
-In 1816 John joined the Congregational Church in Hudson and soon
-developed a strong interest in becoming a minister. For a while he
-attended a divinity school in Plainfield, Mass., then transferred to
-another school in Litchfield, Conn. At that time Litchfield was a center
-of abolitionist sentiment; it was also the birthplace of Harriet Beecher
-Stowe, whose book _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_, published in 1852, would stir
-passions North and South, win international support for the anti-slavery
-cause, and help to bring on civil war in 1861. How much of Litchfield’s
-abolitionist atmosphere young Brown absorbed is not known. A shortage of
-funds and an inflammation of the eyes forced him to return to Ohio in
-the summer of 1817. His dream of becoming a minister was forever
-shattered, but he never lost his religious fervor.
-
-When he was 20 years old, “led by his own inclination & prompted also by
-his Father,” Brown married Dianthe Lusk, a “remarkably plain” and pious
-girl a year younger than himself. She died 12 years later, in August
-1832, following the birth of their seventh child. Brown remarried within
-a year, and fathered 13 children by his second wife, Mary Ann Day. In a
-never-ending struggle to feed and clothe his growing family, Brown
-drifted through Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and
-Massachusetts plying many trades. He worked at tanning, surveying, and
-farming; at times he was shepherd, cattleman, wool merchant, and
-postmaster; for a while he bred race horses and speculated in real
-estate. Uniformly unsuccessful in these ventures, Brown’s debts mounted,
-and he was barely able to keep his large family from starvation.
-
-Despite his frequent business reversals and his strenuous and consuming
-efforts to support his family, Brown never abandoned his intense desire
-to free enslaved Negroes from bondage. His first opportunity to strike a
-blow at the institution he hated so much came in Kansas, where,
-following the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, pro-slavery
-“Border Ruffians” clashed brutally with anti-slavery “Jayhawkers” over
-the extension of slavery to Kansas and Nebraska Territories.
-
-    [Illustration: John Brown, Jr., the oldest of Brown’s sons, fought
-    alongside his father in Kansas. The Pottawatomie murders, in which
-    he took no part, caused him to suffer a mental collapse from which
-    he never fully recovered. Nevertheless, in 1859 he was entrusted
-    with forwarding the weapons for the attack on Harpers Ferry from
-    Ohio to Chambersburg, Pa.]
-
-Five of Brown’s sons—Owen, Jason, Frederick, Salmon, and John, Jr.—had
-emigrated to Kansas and joined the free-soil cause. When they appealed
-to their father for help in May 1855, Brown, another son Oliver, and
-son-in-law Henry Thompson rushed to Kansas and plunged into the conflict
-with a fury. As captain of the “Liberty Guards,” a quasi-militia company
-that he himself formed, Brown shortly gained national notoriety as a
-bold and ruthless leader.
-
-For the next several years, murders, bushwhackings, lynchings, and
-burnings were common occurrences, and the territory was aptly named
-“Bleeding Kansas.” Atrocity matched atrocity. When pro-slavery forces
-sacked and burned the town of Lawrence in May 1856, Brown was outraged.
-Proclaiming himself an instrument of God’s will, he, with four of his
-sons and three others, deliberately and brutally murdered five
-pro-slavery men along the banks of Pottawatomie Creek. In the months
-that followed, Brown terrorized the Missouri-Kansas border by a series
-of bloody guerrilla attacks that brought him to the attention of the
-Nation’s abolitionist faction. In late August 1856, about a month before
-he left Kansas, Brown and his men clashed with pro-slavery Missourians
-at the small settlement of Osawatomie. That action earned him the
-nickname “Osawatomie” and cost him the life of his son Frederick. It
-also hardened his stand against slavery. “I have only a short time to
-live—only one death to die,” he said, “and I will die fighting for this
-cause. There will be no more peace in this land until slavery is done
-for. I will give them something else to do than to extend slave
-territory. I will carry this war into Africa.”
-
-    Three of John Brown’s most trusted lieutenants in the Harpers Ferry
-    raid:
-
-    [Illustration: John E. Cook]
-
-    [Illustration: Aaron D. Stevens]
-
-    [Illustration: John H. Kagi]
-
-The attack on Harpers Ferry was the culmination of a plan Brown had
-evolved many years before he went to Kansas. By the early 1850’s he had
-come to believe that a location within the slave States should be
-selected where raids on slave plantations could be easily carried out
-and the freed bondsmen sent to safety in the North. Convinced that
-mountains throughout history had enabled the few to defend themselves
-against the many, he believed that even against regular Army troops a
-small force operating from a mountain stronghold could hold out
-indefinitely and provide sanctuary for freed slaves, who would be
-supplied with arms to fight for their liberty. Brown had decided, from
-studying European fortifications and military operations, that somewhere
-along the Allegheny Mountain chain a small force could achieve those
-objectives.
-
-In the autumn of 1857, on his second trip to Kansas, Brown began
-recruiting his force for the projected raid. Among the first to join him
-were three young veterans of the Kansas fighting: John E. Cook, Aaron D.
-Stevens, and John H. Kagi. Each would play an important role in the
-attack on Harpers Ferry.
-
-Cook, 27-year-old member of a wealthy Connecticut family, had attended
-Yale University and studied law in New York City before going to Kansas
-in 1855. He stood about 5 feet 5 inches tall, had long, silk-blond hair
-that curled about his neck, and “his deep blue eyes were gentle in
-expression as a woman’s.” Brown’s son Salmon, who knew Cook in Ohio and
-Kansas, characterized him as “highly erratic” in temperament “and not
-overly stocked with morality. He was the best pistol-shot I ever saw ...
-[and] just as much of an expert in getting into the good graces of the
-girls.” He loved to “talk and rattle on about himself.”
-
-Stevens, then 26 years old, was, like Cook, a native of Connecticut. He
-ran away from home at the age of 16 and joined the Massachusetts
-Volunteer Regiment to fight in the Mexican War. Honorably discharged at
-the end of that conflict, he found civilian life so boring that he
-enlisted as a bugler in a United States dragoon regiment in the West and
-took part in several campaigns against the Navaho and Apache Indians.
-Stevens possessed an explosive temper, and at Taos, N. Mex., in the
-mid-1850’s, he nearly killed an officer in a drunken brawl and was
-sentenced to death. President Franklin Pierce commuted the sentence to 3
-years’ hard labor at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In January 1856 Stevens
-escaped and joined the Free-State cause. As colonel of the Second Kansas
-Volunteer Regiment, he fought in some of the territory’s bloodiest
-battles. Standing just over 6 feet tall, Stevens was a powerfully built
-man who could wield a saber with deadly skill. He had black curly hair,
-“black, brooding eyes,” and a full beard. In his youth he had been a
-choir boy (his father and elder brothers taught singing), had a rich
-baritone voice, and liked to sing. Totally dedicated to the overthrow of
-slavery, he once told a Kansas sheriff: “We are in the right, and will
-resist the universe.”
-
-Kagi, an Ohio lad of 22, was largely self-educated and had taught school
-in Virginia until his abolitionist views got him into trouble with local
-officials and he had to flee the State. Traveling to Kansas in 1856, he
-became a lawyer in Nebraska City. Occasionally he served as a court
-stenographer or shorthand reporter. He also functioned as a
-correspondent for several Eastern newspapers and John Brown dubbed him
-“our Horace Greeley.” While riding with Stevens’ Second Kansas Regiment
-in 1856, Kagi was taken prisoner by Federal troops and served 4 months
-in jail before being released on bail. In January 1857 he was shot by a
-pro-slavery judge during a disagreement and was still suffering from his
-wounds when he joined Brown. Tall, with angular features, Kagi was
-usually unkempt, unshaven, and generally unimpressive in appearance; but
-he was articulate and highly intelligent, of serene temperament, and not
-easily aroused. “His fertility of resources made him a tower of strength
-to John Brown,” wrote George B. Gill, an Iowa youth who signed up for
-the raid but defected before it took place. “He was a logician of more
-than ordinary ability. He was full of wonderful vitality and all things
-were fit food for his brain.”
-
-    [Illustration: Brown’s target was the United States Armory and
-    Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, shown here in an 1857 lithograph.]
-
-When he enlisted them, Brown told Cook, Stevens, and Kagi only that he
-was organizing a company of men to resist pro-slavery aggressions. He
-did not tell them where he planned to take them. When seven more
-volunteers joined the group at Tabor, Iowa, he informed his recruits
-that their “ultimate destination was the State of Virginia.” Shortly
-afterwards the men finally learned that Harpers Ferry was the probable
-target. Kagi, who had once taught school in the area, gave Brown
-valuable information about the town. The place fitted Brown’s
-requirements perfectly. It lay near the mountains he counted upon to
-afford a hiding place, and it was on the border of Virginia, a slave
-State, only 40 miles from the free State of Pennsylvania. It also
-contained an United States armory and arsenal, where much-needed arms
-were stored.
-
-After a trip to New England to raise funds, Brown called a
-“Constitutional Convention” of his followers to meet on May 8, 1858, at
-Chatham, Ontario, Canada. Besides Brown’s group, 34 Negroes attended the
-meeting and heard the Kansas guerrilla chieftain outline his plan for
-the deliverance of their enslaved brethren. First, he told them, he
-intended to strike at a point in the South. This blow would be followed
-by a general slave uprising in which even free Negroes in the Northern
-States and Canada would flock to his banner. He would lead them into the
-mountains and “if any hostile action ... were taken against us, either
-by the militia of the separate States or by the armies of the United
-States, we purposed to defeat first the militia, and next, if it were
-possible, the troops of the United States....”
-
-The convention unanimously adopted a “Provisional Constitution and
-Ordinances for the People of the United States” to serve as the law of
-the land while the army of liberation instituted a new government—one
-that would not supplant but exist side-by-side with the U.S. Government
-and which would explicitly prohibit slavery. John Brown was elected
-“Commander in Chief” of the new provisional army to be formed, other
-officers were appointed, and the convention adjourned. Before leaving
-again for New England to gather supplies and money for the attack, Brown
-sent Cook to Harpers Ferry to act as a spy; the others scattered,
-seeking employment to maintain themselves until called together for the
-march into Virginia.
-
-    The moral and financial backing of these men, known as “The Secret
-    Six,” made the raid on Harpers Ferry possible.
-
-    [Illustration: Samuel Gridley Howe]
-
-    [Illustration: Thomas Wentworth Higginson]
-
-    [Illustration: Franklin B. Sanborn]
-
-    [Illustration: George Luther Stearns]
-
-    [Illustration: Gerrit Smith]
-
-    [Illustration: Theodore Parker]
-
-To equip, maintain, and transport the men needed to carry out his plan,
-Brown required a considerable amount of money and weapons. He had
-neither, but because of his Kansas activities, he was able to enlist the
-support of Northern abolitionists in his fight against slavery.
-Philosophers, scholars, religious leaders, philanthropists, and
-businessmen gave freely but discreetly to the cause. Chief among Brown’s
-backers was a secret committee of six: Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, Boston,
-Mass., educator, minister, and reformer; Thomas Wentworth Higginson,
-militant clergyman of Worcester, Mass.; Theodore Parker, Boston’s
-outstanding Unitarian minister; Franklin B. Sanborn, editor and
-schoolmaster of Concord, Mass.; Gerrit Smith, former New York
-Congressman and a great Peterboro, N.Y., landowner; and George L.
-Stearns, industrialist and merchant of Medford, Mass. Through them Brown
-received most of the money and weapons that enabled him to launch his
-attack.
-
-
-
-
-                       RENDEZVOUS FOR REVOLUTION
-
-
-By the summer of 1859 Harpers Ferry was a quietly thriving little
-industrial and transportation community sitting on a narrow shelf of
-land at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers in the Blue
-Ridge Mountains of northern Virginia. Until its selection as the site
-for a Federal armory at the end of the 18th century, the town’s growth
-had been slow. What growth it did experience was due to its location on
-the wilderness route to the Shenandoah Valley. The land on which the
-town sat was first settled in 1733 by a Pennsylvania Dutchman named
-Peter Stephens, who operated a small ferryboat service across the
-rivers. At that time the place was called “Peter’s Hole” because it was
-dominated by three towering bluffs—Maryland Heights to the north,
-Loudoun Heights to the south, and Bolivar Heights to the west. When
-Robert Harper, a skilled Philadelphia architect and millwright, bought
-the land in 1747, he improved the ferry service and built a gristmill.
-Around these facilities at the base of Bolivar Heights the village of
-Harpers Ferry gradually developed.
-
-In 1794, when relations between the United States and England were
-strained, Congress grew uneasy over the country’s military posture.
-Uncertain of the ordnance-producing capabilities of private
-manufacturers in time of need, it directed President George Washington
-to establish a number of armories where guns could be made and stored.
-One of the sites he chose was Harpers Ferry.
-
-Washington was well acquainted with Harpers Ferry. As a young man during
-the middle part of the century, he had accompanied surveying parties
-that inspected the vast holdings of the Virginia aristocracy in this
-area. He considered Harpers Ferry “the most eligible spot on the
-[Potomac] river” for an armory. Abundant water power was available, iron
-ore was plentiful nearby, hardwood forests insured a steady supply of
-charcoal to fuel the forges, and the place was far enough inland to be
-secure from foreign invasion.
-
-In June 1796 the Government purchased from the Harper heirs a 125-acre
-tract of land and began constructing workshops on the benchland between
-the Potomac River and what would later become Potomac Street. Waterpower
-was harnessed by building a dam upstream from the armory and channeling
-the water through a canal into the workshops. Although a critical
-shortage of gunsmiths and ordnance-making machinery restricted
-operations for several years, limited arms production began late in 1798
-under the direction of an English Moravian named Joseph Perkin, the
-armory’s first superintendent.
-
-The first muskets, based on the old French infantry type of 1763, were
-completed in 1801. In 1803 production was expanded to include rifles,
-and 2 years later the manufacture of pistols. (The Model 1805 pistol,
-made at Harpers Ferry, was the first hand weapon to be produced at a
-United States armory.) At first the rate of musket production was
-meager, but by 1810 the armory was turning out 10,000 annually, storing
-them in two arsenal buildings nearby on Shenandoah Street.
-
-In 1819 John Hall, a Maine gunsmith, received a contract from the
-Federal Government to manufacture 1,000 breech-loading flintlock rifles
-of his own design. Sent to Harpers Ferry, he set up the Hall Rifle Works
-in two buildings on Lower Hall Island, which adjoined Virginius Island
-in the Shenandoah River about ½ mile from its junction with the Potomac.
-Hall’s rifles were made on so exact a scale that all the parts were
-interchangeable—a factor that helped to pave the way for modern mass
-production methods. The War Department was elated with Hall’s success
-and his contract was repeatedly renewed. When the Hall rifle was
-discontinued in 1844, the Government tore down the old buildings and
-erected a new rifle factory on the same site. Standard U.S. Model rifles
-were produced there until the industry was destroyed, along with the
-armory complex, at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861.
-
-The abundance of water power that had attracted the arms industry soon
-brought others. Besides the rifle factories on Hall Island, Virginius
-Island boasted an iron foundry, flour mill, cotton mill, and machine
-shop, all powered by water diverted through the island by a dam in the
-Shenandoah River and a series of sluiceways and underground water
-tunnels. More than 200 persons made their home around the prospering
-island industries.
-
-The formation, development, and expansion of the United States Armory
-and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry (its complete, official designation) was
-the chief stimulus for the growth of the town. From a simple beginning
-the armory by 1859 had spread to include 20 workshops and offices, lined
-in a neat double row over an area 600 yards long. At its peak, the
-armory provided employment for more than 400 men, mostly transplanted
-Northerners whom local residents classified as “foreigners.” In the
-65-year history of this major industry, the U.S. Government invested
-nearly $2 million in land, water power improvements, walls and
-embankments, hydraulic machinery, and buildings.
-
-    [Illustration: HARPERS FERRY AND VICINITY 1859]
-
-After 1830 Harpers Ferry, already recognized as an important industrial
-center, attained prominence as a vital link in the transportation and
-communications line between the Ohio and Shenandoah Valleys and the
-East. By 1830 a semi-weekly stagecoach service connected the town with
-Washington, D.C. The one-way trip usually required a full day’s travel.
-That same year a turnpike company was founded to construct a 16-mile
-macadamized toll road from Harpers Ferry to Middleway, 5 miles west of
-Charles Town. A turnpike being built from Frederick, Md., about 20 miles
-to the east, reached the town in 1832. Still another turnpike company,
-organized in 1851, ran a road from Harpers Ferry southeastward to
-Hillsborough, about 10 miles away.
-
-But the signal impetus to the establishment of the town’s commercial
-position was the arrival of canal and railroad. Waging a bitter battle
-to reach the rich Ohio Valley and carry its trade to the East, impeding
-each other’s progress at every opportunity, the Chesapeake and Ohio
-Canal (originating in Washington, D.C.) and the Baltimore and Ohio
-Railroad (originating in Baltimore, Md.) reached Harpers Ferry in the
-early 1830’s. Following the winding Potomac River northward and westward
-from Georgetown, the C & O Canal arrived at Harpers Ferry in November
-1833, more than a year ahead of its rival. But the railroad pushed on to
-the Ohio Valley while the canal stopped at Cumberland, Md. The
-establishment of these two arteries provided shippers with a cheaper
-carrier for their products and assured travelers of a more efficient and
-economical means of reaching their destinations.
-
-With the expansion of industry and the development of superior
-transportation facilities, the population of the community swelled to
-nearly 3,000 by 1859. Of these about 150 were “free coloreds” and 150
-were slaves. The total number of slaves in the entire six-county area
-around Harpers Ferry was just slightly more than 18,000, of which less
-than 5,000 were men. There were no large plantations because the land
-and the climate could not sustain a plantation economy. The few
-slaveholders maintained farms, and their blacks were mainly “well-kept
-house-servants.”
-
-Most of the white residents of Harpers Ferry worked at the armory or at
-the manufacturing plants on Virginius Island. Because land was at a
-premium, the houses, saloons, hotels, and shops were tightly aligned
-along Shenandoah, Potomac, and High Streets, and sprawled up the slopes
-of Bolivar Heights. In some places the rocky cliffs were blasted away to
-make room for another building. Most of the homes were of simple design,
-but the Government-built residences of the armory officials were more
-elaborate.
-
-The inhabitants of the town were chiefly of Irish, English, and German
-descent. Besides building six churches of varying faiths (one of which,
-St. Peter’s Catholic Church, is still standing and in use today), they
-established five private girls’ schools. A man could get a drink at the
-Gault House or take a meal at the Potomac Restaurant or the Wager House.
-If he so desired, he could join the Masons, the Odd Fellows, or the Sons
-of Temperance. Nearly everyone was prosperous. It was a good time for
-the town and its people.
-
-    [Illustration: This photograph of Harpers Ferry from the Maryland
-    side of the Potomac shows the town as it appeared about the time of
-    the raid. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge, by which John
-    Brown and his raiders entered the village, is at the left.]
-
-John Brown arrived amidst this prosperity on July 3, 1859. Not yet 60
-years old, the rigors of frontier living had nevertheless left their
-imprint upon him and there were those who said he looked and walked more
-than ever “like an old man.” In March a Cleveland, Ohio, newspaper had
-described him as “a medium-sized, compactly-built and wiry man, and as
-quick as a cat in his movements. His hair is of a salt and pepper hue
-and as stiff as bristles, he has a long, waving, milk-white goatee,
-which gives him a somewhat patriarchal appearance, his eyes are gray and
-sharp.” He had grown the beard before his last trip to Kansas in 1858,
-and it covered his square chin and straight, firm mouth, changing his
-appearance markedly. When he arrived in Harpers Ferry the beard had been
-shortened to within an inch and a half of his face, because, his
-daughter Annie later recalled, he thought it “more likely to disguise
-him than a clean face or than the long beard.”
-
-With Brown were two of his sons—34-year-old Owen and 20-year-old
-Oliver—and Kansas veteran Jeremiah G. Anderson. The 26-year-old,
-Indiana-born Anderson was the grandson of Southern slaveholders and had
-joined the abolitionist cause in 1857 after working several unproductive
-years as a peddler, farmer, and sawyer. Determined to eliminate slavery,
-Anderson once vowed to “make this land of liberty and equality shake to
-the centre.”
-
-After consulting briefly with Cook, who had been serving as a
-schoolteacher, book salesman, and canal-lock tender, and had even
-married a local girl since being sent to Harpers Ferry the year before,
-Brown and his three companions took up residence in a private home in
-Sandy Hook, a small village about a mile down the Potomac on the
-Maryland shore. The names they gave their landlord were “Isaac Smith &
-Sons.” To anyone asking their business in the area, Brown told them they
-were simple farmers looking for good farmland to develop.
-
-Brown arose early on July 4 and began exploring the Maryland side of the
-Potomac to find a suitable hideout for his raiders. Local inquiry led
-him to a farm owned by the heirs of a Dr. R. F. Kennedy about 5 miles
-north of Harpers Ferry. A cursory inspection convinced him that the
-place, though small, was conveniently located and admirably suited for
-concealment. The farm was remote from other settlements, and it was
-surrounded by woods and hidden by undergrowth—an ideal situation for
-hiding men and supplies from the gaze of inquisitive neighbors.
-
-    [Illustration: John Brown in May 1859.]
-
-For $35 in gold Brown rented the farm, which consisted of two log
-structures, some outbuildings, and a pasture. The main house sat about
-100 yards off the public road connecting Harpers Ferry with
-Boonesborough and Sharpsburg, Md., and contained a basement kitchen and
-storerooms, a second-floor living room and bedrooms, and an attic. The
-second floor was used as kitchen, parlor, and dining room, and the attic
-served as a storeroom, drilling room, and “prison” to keep the men out
-of sight. Near the farmhouse stood a small cabin that later became a
-storage place and sleeping quarters for some of the raiders.
-
-    [Illustration: The isolated character of the Kennedy farm did not
-    prevent curious neighbors from “dropping in” for a visit.]
-
-    [Illustration: To help avert suspicion, Brown’s daughter Annie and
-    Oliver’s wife Martha (shown here with her husband in 1859) lived at
-    the farm while the arms and men were being assembled. Martha did the
-    cooking and helped Annie with household chores.]
-
-Brown’s chief fear was that neighbors would become suspicious of “Isaac
-Smith & Sons” and possibly uncover his revolutionary plans. Reasoning
-that nearby families would be less distrustful with women among the
-group, he appealed to his wife and daughter Annie at their home in North
-Elba, N.Y., to come live with him, saying that “It will be likely to
-prove the most valuable service you can ever render to the world.” Mrs.
-Brown was unable to make the long journey, but Annie and Oliver’s wife
-Martha did join him in mid-July. Their presence proved of inestimable
-value not only in alleviating suspicion but in contributing to the
-morale of the men. Martha served as cook and housekeeper, preparing
-meals on a wood stove in the upstairs living room; Annie kept constant
-watch for prying neighbors. “When I washed dishes,” noted Annie many
-years later,
-
-  I stood at the end of the table where I could see out of the window
-  and open door if any one approached the house. I was constantly on the
-  lookout while carrying the victuals across the porch, and while I was
-  tidying or sweeping the rooms, and always at my post on the porch when
-  the men were eating. My evenings were spent on the porch or sitting on
-  the stairs, watching or listening.
-
-    [Illustration: The Kennedy farmhouse served as the base of
-    operations for John Brown’s raiders.]
-
-    [Illustration: Annie Brown]
-
-His base established, Brown laid plans to assemble his arms and supplies
-and to gather in his followers. On July 10 he wrote to John Kagi at
-Chambersburg, Pa., where an arms depot had been set up, giving him
-directions for forwarding the waiting men and the “freight”—200 Sharps
-rifles, an equal number of pistols, and a thousand pikes. The weapons,
-crated in large wooden boxes marked “Hardware and Castings,” were
-shipped from Ohio to Chambersburg where Kagi sent them by wagon to Brown
-at the Kennedy farm. Supplies were acquired at various places between
-Chambersburg and Harpers Ferry.
-
-Alone and in twos and threes, Brown’s followers began to assemble at the
-farm. Watson Brown arrived on August 6. “Tall and rather fair, with
-finely knit frame, athletic and active,” the 24-year-old Watson brought
-with him two of his brothers-in-law and North Elba neighbors, William
-and Dauphin Thompson. The Thompsons had not previously taken active
-roles in the anti-slavery movement but they were dedicated
-abolitionists. William, 26 years old, was fun-loving and good natured.
-He had started for Kansas in 1856 but turned back before reaching there.
-His 20-year-old brother Dauphin had never been away from home before.
-Handsome, inexperienced, with curly, golden hair and a soft complexion,
-he seemed “more like a girl than a warrior” and was “diffident and
-quiet.” Both had come to the Kennedy farm because they were firmly
-convinced of the justness of John Brown’s cause.
-
-Next came Aaron Stevens and Charles Plummet Tidd, a 25-year-old former
-Maine woodsman. Tidd was a Kansas veteran. He had been one of the first
-to join Brown at Tabor, Iowa, in 1857 and had remained one of his
-closest associates ever since. He was quick-tempered, but according to
-Annie Brown, “His rages soon passed and then he tried all he could to
-repair damages. He was a fine singer and of strong family affections.”
-
-    [Illustration: Edwin Coppoc]
-
-    [Illustration: Dauphin Thompson]
-
-    [Illustration: Charles Plummer Tidd]
-
-Tidd and Stevens were followed by 22-year-old Albert Hazlett, another
-veteran of the Kansas fighting, Canadian-born Stewart Taylor, and two
-brothers from Iowa, Edwin and Barclay Coppoc. Hazlett had worked on his
-brother’s farm in western Pennsylvania before joining Brown at the
-Kennedy farm. He was totally committed to the overthrow of slavery. “I
-am willing to die in the cause of liberty,” he said; “if I had ten
-thousand lives I would willingly lay them all down for the same cause.”
-Taylor, 23 years old, was once a wagonmaker. He had met Brown in Iowa in
-1858 and was “heart and soul in the anti-slavery cause.” Scholarly, a
-good debater, and “very fond of studying history,” Taylor, like Stevens,
-was a spiritualist and had a premonition that he would die at Harpers
-Ferry. The Coppocs were Quakers by birth and training. They were in
-Kansas during the troubles there but took no part in the fighting.
-Edwin, at 24, was 4 years older than his brother Barclay. Both had
-joined Brown initially in 1858 at Springdale, Iowa, where they were
-living with their mother, shortly before the Chatham Convention.
-
-Twenty-year-old William H. Leeman arrived near the end of August. Born
-and educated in Maine, he had worked in a Haverhill, Mass., shoe factory
-before going to Kansas in 1856 where he served in Brown’s “Liberty
-Guards” militia company. Impulsive, hard to control, the 6-foot-tall
-Leeman “smoked a good deal and drank sometimes,” but he had “a good
-intellect with great ingenuity.” Shortly before the raid he wrote his
-mother that he was “warring with slavery, the greatest curse that ever
-infected America. We are determined to strike for freedom, incite the
-slaves to rebellion, and establish a free government. With the help of
-God we will carry it through.”
-
-After Leeman came Dangerfield Newby, a mulatto born a slave but freed by
-his Scotch father, and Osborn P. Anderson, a 33-year-old free Negro who
-had worked as a printer before joining Brown in Canada in 1858. Newby,
-at 44 the oldest of the group save for Brown himself, had a wife and
-several children in bondage in the South. He came to the Kennedy
-farmhouse convinced that the only way to free them was with rifle and
-bullet. Week after week he would read and reread a worn letter from his
-wife in which she begged him to “Buy me and the baby, that has just
-commenced to crawl, as soon as possible, for if you do not get me
-somebody else will.”
-
-“Emperor” Shields Green, a 23-year-old illiterate escaped slave from
-Charleston, S.C., joined up at Chambersburg where Brown had gone in
-mid-August to enlist the aid of the famed Negro abolitionist, orator,
-and journalist, Frederick Douglass. Brown and Douglass had first met at
-Springfield, Mass., in 1847. Since then they had become good friends.
-When the Negro leader learned the details of the planned assault on
-Harpers Ferry, he refused to participate, arguing that an attack on the
-Government would “array the whole country” against him and antagonize
-the very people to whom the abolitionists looked for support. Moreover,
-Douglass believed that the plan could not succeed, that Brown “was going
-into a perfect steel-trap, and that once in he would never get out
-alive.” Before leaving, Douglass asked Shields Green, who had
-accompanied him to the meeting, what he intended to do. Green replied
-simply, “I b’lieve I’ll go wid de ole man.”
-
-Life at the Kennedy farm was wearing and tedious. Brown’s most trying
-task was to keep his slowly increasing force occupied and out of sight.
-Forced to remain in the two small buildings during the day, the men had
-little to do. The long summer days were mostly spent reading magazines,
-telling stories, arguing politics and religion, and playing checkers and
-cards. They drilled frequently and studied the art of guerrilla warfare
-from a specially prepared military manual.
-
-Meals were served downstairs in the farmhouse, with Annie and Martha
-standing guard while the men ate. After breakfast each morning, John
-Brown would read from the Bible and utter a short prayer. Occasionally
-he would travel into Harpers Ferry to pick up a Baltimore newspaper to
-which he subscribed or to purchase flour from the mill on Virginius
-Island. If a neighbor arrived unexpectedly during mealtime, the men
-would gather up the food, dishes, and table cloth and carry them to the
-attic.
-
-    [Illustration: Famed Negro abolitionist Frederick Douglass supported
-    Brown’s Kansas activities but warned him against attacking Harpers
-    Ferry. Douglass refused to participate in the raid, but his friend
-    Shields Green decided to go with Brown.]
-
-    [Illustration: Shields Green.]
-
-At night the men could go outdoors for fresh air and exercise.
-Thunderstorms were especially welcomed, for then they could move about
-with little fear of making noise. These brief interludes served to
-release tensions built up during long periods of confinement and
-inactivity, but the secret living in such close quarters proved almost
-too much to bear. Restiveness and irritations were bound to occur. Twice
-there was a near revolt against the planned raid. On one occasion Tidd
-became so infuriated that he left the farm and stayed with Cook in
-Harpers Ferry for 3 days. So serious was the opposition that Brown
-tendered his resignation as commander in chief. He withdrew it only
-after the men gave him a renewed vote of confidence.
-
-As September ended and the time for the attack approached, Annie and
-Martha were sent back to North Elba. Brown and his men busied themselves
-overhauling the rifles and pistols and attaching pike-heads to shafts.
-The pikes were Brown’s own idea. Preparing for a return to Kansas in
-1857, he had negotiated with a Connecticut blacksmith to manufacture
-1,000 of these weapons—a two-edged dirk with an iron blade 8 inches long
-fastened to a 6-foot ash handle. Originally they were intended for the
-defense of free-soil settlers in Kansas, but Brown was unable to pay for
-them until the spring of 1859, when he made final arrangements to use
-them at Harpers Ferry. Knowing that most of the slaves he expected to
-join him were unskilled in the use of firearms, he decided they could
-handle a pike. A thousand men armed with pikes and backed by Brown’s
-more experienced “soldiers” could constitute a formidable army.
-
-Because so many people knew about Brown’s intentions, it was inevitable
-that the secrecy would be broken. In late August Secretary of War John
-B. Floyd received an unsigned letter reporting “the existence of a
-secret association, having for its object the liberation of the slaves
-at the South by a general insurrection.” Brown was named as its leader
-and “an armory in Maryland” its immediate objective. Because the
-informant mistakenly placed the armory in Maryland instead of Virginia
-and because Floyd could not bring himself to believe such a scheme could
-be entertained by citizens of the United States, the Secretary put the
-letter away and forgot about it until subsequent events reminded him of
-the warning.
-
-October arrived. Still Brown delayed, hoping that more men would come.
-Many upon whom he had counted failed to join him for a variety of
-reasons. Even two of his sons, Jason and Salmon, refused to participate.
-Though disappointed, Brown realized that the longer he delayed, the
-greater were the chances that his plan would be discovered and thwarted.
-Finally, on October 15, with the arrival of 22-year-old Francis J.
-Meriam and two Ohio Negroes, John Copeland and Lewis S. Leary, both 25,
-the ranks of the “Provisional Army of the United States” were completed.
-In all there were 21 men besides the commander in chief. Of these, 19
-were under 30, three not yet 21. Brown could wait no longer. Calling his
-men together, he announced that the attack would take place the next
-night, October 16, and cautioned them about the needless taking of human
-life:
-
-  You all know how dear life is to you ... consider that the lives of
-  others are as dear to them as yours are to you; do not, therefore,
-  take the life of anyone if you can possibly avoid it, but if it is
-  necessary to take life in order to save your own, then make short work
-  of it.
-
-
-
-
-                           TO FREE THE SLAVES
-
-
-The daylight hours of Sunday, October 16, 1859, were quiet ones at the
-Kennedy farm as the long period of inactivity and uncertainty neared its
-climax. Early in the morning John Brown held worship services, the
-impending attack invoking “deep solemnity” upon the gathering. After
-breakfast and roll call a final meeting was held and instructions were
-given. Then everything was in readiness.
-
-About 8 p.m. Brown turned to his followers. “Men,” he said, “get on your
-arms; we will proceed to the Ferry.” The men, ready for hours, slung
-their Sharps rifles over their shoulders, concealing them under long,
-gray shawls that served as overcoats, and waited for the order to march.
-A horse and wagon were brought to the door of the farmhouse. In the
-wagon the men placed a few items that might be needed for the work
-ahead: a sledge hammer, a crowbar, and several pikes. Owen Brown,
-Barclay Coppoc, and Meriam were detailed to remain at the farm as a
-rearguard. In the morning they were to bring the rest of the weapons
-nearer the town where they could be passed out to the slave army Brown
-expected to raise.
-
-Donning his battered old Kansas cap, symbol of the violence to which he
-had contributed in that strife-torn territory, Brown mounted the wagon
-and motioned his men to move out. From the farmhouse the group moved
-down the lane and onto the road leading to Harpers Ferry. Tidd and Cook,
-who were best acquainted with the route, preceded the main body as
-scouts. Upon reaching the town they were to cut the telegraph lines on
-both the Maryland and Virginia sides of the Potomac.
-
-    [Illustration: Owen Brown]
-
-    [Illustration: Francis J. Meriam]
-
-    [Illustration: Barclay Coppoc]
-
-    [Illustration: Brown used this schoolhouse near Harpers Ferry as an
-    arsenal after the raid began. The drawing was made about 1859 by
-    David Hunter Strother, known to readers of _Harper’s New Monthly
-    Magazine_ as “Porte Crayon,” one of the most popular illustrators of
-    mid-19th century America.]
-
-For more than 2 hours the men tramped along behind the wagon, strictly
-adhering to Brown’s order to maintain silence. About 10:30 p.m. they
-reached the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge that would carry them
-into Harpers Ferry. It was a long wooden-covered structure that spanned
-the Potomac River a little upstream from where the Shenandoah comes
-spilling in from the south. Kagi and Stevens entered first and
-encountered watchman William Williams, who approached with a lantern.
-They quickly took Williams prisoner. The rest of the raiders, except for
-Watson Brown and Stewart Taylor who were told to stay on the Maryland
-side as a rearguard, fastened cartridges boxes to the outside of their
-clothing for ready access and followed the wagon onto the bridge.
-
-Crossing quickly, the raiders stepped from the tunnel’s black throat
-into the slumbering town. Before them lay a large structure that doubled
-as the railroad depot and the Wager House. Just beyond, to the left, was
-the U.S. Arsenal buildings where thousands of guns were stored. To the
-right the armory shops stretched in a double row along the Potomac.
-Brown turned the horse and wagon toward the armory.
-
-Daniel Whelan, the armory’s nightwatchman, heard the wagon coming down
-the street from the depot. Thinking it was the head watchman, he came
-out from his station in the fire enginehouse (a one-story, two-room
-brick building that doubled as a guard post just inside the armory
-grounds) to find several rifles pointed at him. “Open the gate!” someone
-yelled. Out of sheer cussedness, or perhaps fright, Whelan refused. One
-of the raiders took the crowbar from the wagon and twisted it in the
-chain until the lock snapped. The gate was thrown open and the wagon
-rolled into the yard. To his prisoners, Whelan and Williams, Brown
-announced his purpose:
-
-  I came here from Kansas, and this is a slave state; I want to free all
-  the Negroes in this state; I have possession now of the United States
-  armory, and if the citizens interfere with me I must only burn the
-  town and have blood.
-
-Once in control of the armory, Brown detailed his men to other
-objectives. Oliver Brown and William Thompson were sent to watch the
-bridge across the Shenandoah River, while Hazlett and Edwin Coppoc moved
-into the unguarded arsenal. Another group of raiders under Stevens made
-its way down Shenandoah Street to the rifle factory on Lower Hall
-Island. Again the watchman was surprised and easily captured. Telling
-Kagi and Copeland to watch the rifle works—Leary would join them
-later—Stevens marched the watchman and several young men picked up on
-the street back to the armory grounds.
-
-So far Brown’s occupation of the town had been quiet and peaceful. It
-did not last. About midnight another watchman, Patrick Higgins, a Sandy
-Hook resident, arrived at the Maryland end of the B & O bridge to
-relieve Williams. Finding the structure dark he called out loudly; he
-was answered quietly by Taylor and Watson Brown, who took him prisoner.
-As he was being escorted across the bridge, Higgins suddenly lashed out,
-struck Brown in the face, and raced toward the town. Taylor fired after
-him. The ball grazed the watchman’s scalp, but he reached the Wager
-House safely. The first shot of the raid had been fired.
-
-About this same time Stevens led several raiders on a special mission to
-capture Col. Lewis W. Washington, the 46-year-old great-grandnephew of
-George Washington. The colonel, a small but prosperous planter, lived
-near Halltown just off the Charles Town Turnpike about 5 miles west of
-Harpers Ferry. He owned a pistol presented to General Washington by the
-Marquis de Lafayette and a sword reportedly presented by the Prussian
-King Frederick the Great. Brown wanted these weapons. When he struck the
-first blow to free the slaves he rather fancied the idea of wearing the
-sword and brandishing the pistol once owned by the man who had led the
-fight to free the American colonists from a similar kind of tyranny.
-
-Battering down Washington’s door, Stevens, Tidd, Cook, and three
-Negroes—Anderson, Leary, and Green—summoned the colonel from his bed.
-Washington offered no resistance. Calmly surrendering the sword and
-pistol, he then dressed and climbed into his carriage for the trip to
-Harpers Ferry. The raiders and Washington’s three slaves crammed into
-the colonel’s four-horse farm wagon and followed along behind the
-carriage.
-
-    [Illustration: “Beallair,” the home of Col. Lewis Washington. Late
-    on the night of October 16, several raiders broke into this house in
-    search of a pistol and sword once owned by the colonel’s great
-    grand-uncle, George Washington. Colonel Washington (inset) was taken
-    hostage.]
-
-    [Illustration: HARPERS FERRY 1859]
-
-    [Illustration: HARPERS FERRY 1859]
-
-
-  LEGEND
-    A Armory Employee Dwellings
-    P Private Dwellings
-    V Vacant at Time of Raid
-
-
-On the way the procession stopped at the home of another slaveholder,
-John Allstadt, just west of Bolivar Heights. Again using a fence rail to
-gain entrance, the raiders forced Allstadt and his 18-year-old son into
-the wagon while the terror-stricken women of the house shrieked
-“Murder!” from the upstairs windows. Allstadt’s four slaves were also
-added to the group.
-
-While Stevens’ party was gathering hostages, the first note of tragedy
-was sounded. At 1:25 a.m. the Baltimore and Ohio passenger train
-eastbound for Baltimore arrived at Harpers Ferry and was stopped by a
-clerk from the Wager House who told conductor A. J. Phelps of the recent
-“startling” events. Phelps refused to allow the train to cross the
-bridge until it had been checked, and he sent engineer William McKay and
-baggagemaster Jacob Cromwell out to investigate. They were halted by
-Brown’s guards, who turned them back at gunpoint.
-
-Hayward Shepherd, the station baggageman, heard the commotion and walked
-out to see what was going on. Shepherd, a free Negro, was highly
-respected and well-liked by all who knew him. As he approached the
-bridge a raider told him to halt. Instead, Shepherd turned around and
-started back toward the station. A shot rang out and he fell gravely
-wounded. He dragged himself back to the station where he died the next
-afternoon. The first person to die at the hands of the men who had come
-to free the slaves was, in fact, a Negro already free.
-
-    [Illustration: “Porte Crayon’s” drawing of Hayward Shepherd, the
-    free Negro baggageman killed by one of Brown’s men on October 17, is
-    the only known portrait of this tragic figure.]
-
-Between 4 and 5 a.m. the caravan containing Colonel Washington and the
-Allstadts arrived at the armory. Brown armed the frightened slaves with
-pikes and told them to guard the prisoners, who were placed in the
-enginehouse and now numbered about a half-dozen. “Keep these white men
-inside,” he said. Turning to Washington, Brown explained that he had
-taken him hostage because “as the aid to the Governor of Virginia, I
-knew you would endeavor to perform your duty, and perhaps you would have
-been a troublesome customer to me; and, apart from that, I wanted you
-particularly for the moral effect it would give our cause, having one of
-your name our prisoner.” As dawn approached the number of Brown’s
-prisoners increased as unsuspecting armory employees reporting for work
-were seized as they passed through the gate. Perhaps as many as 40
-hostages were eventually jammed into the two rooms of the enginehouse.
-
-    [Illustration: Brown kept his growing number of hostages in the fire
-    enginehouse at left, just inside the entrance to the U.S. Armory
-    grounds. The machine shops where the muskets were assembled are at
-    the right.]
-
-Near dawn, John Cook, with two raiders and a handful of pike-carrying
-Negroes, took the wagon across the bridge into Maryland to bring the
-weapons closer to the town to arm the hundreds of slaves soon expected
-to join the fight. The rest of Brown’s “army” settled down at their
-posts in the waning darkness to await the coming of day, the last for
-many of them.
-
-Thus far the citizens of Harpers Ferry had offered no resistance to the
-invasion of their town, primarily because most of the townspeople knew
-nothing of what was taking place. At the first streak of daylight, Dr.
-John Starry, a 35-year-old local physician who had maintained an
-all-night vigil beside the dying Hayward Shepherd, began to alert the
-people to the danger. After arousing the residents of Virginius Island,
-he rode to warn Acting Armory Superintendent A. M. Kitzmiller. Next he
-ordered the Lutheran Church bell rung to assemble the citizens and
-ascertain what arms were available for defense. Then he sent a messenger
-off to Shepherdstown and another to Charles Town to alert their militia
-companies of the armed occupation of Harpers Ferry.
-
-Among the townspeople there were only one or two squirrel rifles and a
-few shotguns, none of which were really fit for use. All other weapons
-were in the arsenal buildings, and they were occupied by the raiders.
-Knowing it would be futile to confront Brown’s men unarmed, Dr. Starry
-headed for Charles Town, 8 miles away, to hurry its militia along. But
-no prompting was necessary. To Charles Town residents the news from
-Harpers Ferry was frightening, for it awakened memories of the 1831 Nat
-Turner slave rebellion in Virginia’s tidewater region when more than 50
-whites, mostly women and children, were murdered before the bloody
-uprising was put down. The Jefferson Guards and another hastily formed
-company would march as soon as possible.
-
-At daylight on October 17 Brown allowed the B & O passenger train to
-continue its journey to Baltimore. Conductor Phelps wasted no time in
-sounding the alarm. At Monocacy, Md., at 7:05 a.m. he telegraphed his
-superiors about the night’s events, adding:
-
-  They say they have come to free the slaves and intend to do it at all
-  hazards. The leader of those men requested me to say to you that this
-  is the last train that shall pass the bridge either East or West. If
-  it is attempted it will be at the peril of the lives of those having
-  them in charge.... It has been suggested you had better notify the
-  Secretary of War at once. The telegraph lines are cut East and West of
-  Harper’s Ferry and this is the first station that I could send a
-  dispatch from.
-
-John W. Garrett, president of the railroad, saw the message when it came
-in and immediately sent word to President James Buchanan and Virginia
-Governor Henry A. Wise. At the same time he alerted Maj. Gen. George H.
-Stewart, commanding Baltimore’s First Light Division of the Maryland
-Volunteers. Word was also flashed to Frederick, Md., and that town’s
-militia was soon under arms.
-
-By 7 a.m. the residents of Harpers Ferry had discovered a supply of guns
-in a building overlooked by the raiders, and some of the townspeople
-began to move against Brown and his men. Alexander Kelly, armed with a
-shotgun, approached the corner of High and Shenandoah Streets, about 100
-yards from the armory. Before he could fire, several bullets whizzed
-past his head, one putting a hole through his hat. Shortly afterwards,
-groceryman Thomas Boerly, a man of great physical strength and courage,
-approached the same corner and opened fire on a group of Brown’s men
-standing in the arsenal yard, diagonally across the street from the
-armory gate. A return bullet knocked him down with a “ghastly” wound,
-from which he soon died.
-
-A lull followed the shooting of Boerly. Brown, having made no provision
-to feed his men and hostages, released Walter Kemp, an infirm Wager
-House bartender captured earlier, in exchange for 45 breakfasts. But
-when the food came, few ate it. Many, including Washington, Allstadt,
-and Brown himself, feared it had been drugged or poisoned.
-
-Meanwhile, Kagi, still at the rifle factory, was anxiously sending
-messages to Brown urging him to leave Harpers Ferry while they still had
-the chance. Brown ignored the pleas and continued to direct operations
-with no apparent thought that outside forces would be moving against him
-once the alarm had spread. Why, is anybody’s guess. Up until noon of
-October 17, despite the erratic fire from the townspeople, the raiders
-could have fought their way to safety in the mountains. Instead, Brown
-waited, doing nothing. By mid-day it was too late, and the jaws of the
-“steel-trap” foreseen by Frederick Douglass closed swiftly.
-
-
-
-
-                            THE TIGER CAGED
-
-
-The Charles Town militia, consisting of the regular company of the
-Jefferson Guards and a specially formed volunteer company, was armed and
-on its way by train to Harpers Ferry by 10 a.m. The militia commander,
-Col. John T. Gibson, had not waited for orders from Richmond but had set
-out as soon as the men could be gotten ready. Arriving at Halltown,
-about midway between Charles Town and Harpers Ferry, Gibson, fearing the
-track ahead might be torn up, took the militia off the train and marched
-by road to Allstadt’s Crossroads west of Bolivar Heights.
-
-    [Illustration: Watson Brown]
-
-    [Illustration: William Thompson]
-
-At Allstadt’s, Gibson divided his force. He sent Mexican War veteran
-Capt. J. W. Rowan with the Jefferson Guards in a wide sweep to the west
-of Harpers Ferry to capture the B & O bridge. Gibson himself would take
-the volunteer company on into town. Rowan’s men crossed the Potomac
-about a mile above Harpers Ferry and, advancing along the towpath of the
-Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, arrived at the Maryland end of the bridge by
-noon. With little difficulty they drove its defenders—Oliver Brown,
-William Thompson, and Dangerfield Newby—back toward the armory yard.
-Only Brown and Thompson made it. Newby, the ex-slave who had joined John
-Brown to free his wife and children, was killed by a 6-inch spike fired
-from a smoothbore musket. He was the first of the raiders to die.
-
-In the meantime, Colonel Gibson’s force had arrived in Harpers Ferry and
-he sent a detachment of citizens under Capt. Lawson Botts, a Charles
-Town attorney, to secure the Gault House Saloon at the rear of the
-arsenal and commanding the Shenandoah bridge and the entrance to the
-armory yard. Another detachment under Capt. John Avis, the Charles Town
-jailer, took up positions in houses along Shenandoah Street from which
-to fire into the arsenal grounds.
-
-The attack of the Charles Town militia cut off Brown’s escape route and
-separated him from his men in Maryland and those still holding the rifle
-factory. At last, perhaps realizing the hopelessness of his situation,
-Brown sought a truce. But when hostage Rezin Cross and raider William
-Thompson emerged from the enginehouse under a white flag, the
-townspeople ignored the flag, seized Thompson, and dragged him off to
-the Wager House where he was kept under guard.
-
-Still not convinced, Brown tried again. This time he sent his son Watson
-and Aaron Stevens with Acting Armory Superintendent Kitzmiller, taken
-hostage earlier in the day. As the trio marched onto the street and came
-opposite the Galt House, several shots rang out and both raiders fell.
-Stevens, severely wounded, lay bleeding in the street; Watson Brown,
-mortally wounded, dragged himself back to the enginehouse. Joseph Brua,
-one of the hostages, volunteered to aid the wounded Stevens. As bullets
-richocheted off the flagstone walk, Brua walked out, lifted up the
-wounded raider, and carried him to the Wager House for medical
-attention. Then, incredibly, he strolled back to the enginehouse and
-again took his place among Brown’s prisoners. Kitzmiller escaped.
-
-About the time Stevens and Watson Brown were shot, raider William Leeman
-attempted to escape. Dashing through the upper end of the armory yard,
-he plunged into the frigid Potomac, comparatively shallow at this point,
-and made for the Maryland shore. Soon spotted, a shower of bullets hit
-the water around him and he was forced to take refuge on an islet in the
-river. G. A. Schoppert, a Harpers Ferry resident, waded out to where
-Leeman lay marooned, pointed a pistol at his head, and pulled the
-trigger. For the rest of the day Leeman’s body was a target for the
-undisciplined militia and townspeople.
-
-    [Illustration: Oliver Brown, William Thompson, and Dangerfield Newby
-    were forced to abandon their post at the Maryland end of the
-    Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge when they were attacked by the
-    Jefferson Guards. Brown and Thompson reached the armory grounds
-    safely, but Newby (below) was shot and killed as he came off the
-    bridge.]
-
-    [Illustration: Dangerfield Newby]
-
-When a raider shot and killed George W. Turner about 2 p.m., the crowd
-grew ugly. Turner, a West Point graduate, was a prominent and highly
-respected area planter. When Fontaine Beckham, the mayor of Harpers
-Ferry and agent for the B & O Railroad, was killed, the townspeople
-turned into a howling, raging mob.
-
-Beckham, a well-liked man of somewhat high-strung temperament, had been
-greatly disturbed by the earlier shooting of Hayward Shepherd, his
-friend and faithful helper at the depot. Despite warnings from friends
-to keep away, Beckham, unarmed, walked out on the railroad to see what
-was going on. He paced up and down the B & O trestle bordering the
-armory yard about 30 yards from the enginehouse. Several raiders spotted
-him peering around the water tower in front of their stronghold and
-thought that he was placing himself in position to fire through the
-doors. Edwin Coppoc, posted at the doorway of the enginehouse, leveled
-his rifle at the mayor.
-
-“Don’t fire, man, for God’s sake!” screamed one of the hostages.
-“They’ll shoot in here and kill us all.”
-
-Coppoc ignored the warning and pulled the trigger. Beckham fell, a
-bullet through his heart. Oliver Brown, standing beside Coppoc in the
-partly opened doorway, aimed his rifle at another man on the trestle,
-but before he could fire he keeled over with “a mortal wound that gave
-horrible pain.” Both of Brown’s sons now lay dying at their father’s
-feet.
-
-Enraged by the shooting of Beckham, the townspeople turned on prisoner
-William Thompson. Led by Harry Hunter, a young Charles Town volunteer
-and the grandnephew of the murdered mayor, a group of men stormed into
-the Wager House, grabbed Thompson, and dragged him out onto the B & O
-bridge. “You may kill me but it will be revenged,” Thompson yelled;
-“there are eighty thousand persons sworn to carry out this work.” These
-were his last words. The mob shot him several times and tossed his body
-into the Potomac to serve, like Leeman’s, as a target for the remainder
-of the day.
-
-While Brown’s situation at the fire enginehouse was growing
-progressively worse, his three-man detachment holding the rifle works
-came under fire. Under Kagi’s leadership these men had held the works
-uncontested during the morning and early afternoon. About 2:30 p.m. Dr.
-Starry organized a party of “citizens and neighbors” and launched an
-attack against the raiders from Shenandoah Street. After a brief
-exchange of shots, Kagi, Lewis Leary, and John Copeland dashed out the
-back of the building, scrambled across the Winchester and Potomac
-Railroad tracks, and waded into the shallow Shenandoah River. Some
-townspeople posted on the opposite bank spotted the fleeing men and
-opened fire. The raiders, caught in a crossfire, made for a large flat
-rock in the middle of the river. Kagi, Brown’s most trusted and able
-lieutenant, was killed in the attempt and Leary was mortally wounded.
-Copeland reached the rock only to be dragged ashore, where the excited
-crowd screamed “Lynch him! Lynch him!” But Dr. Starry intervened, and
-the frightened Negro was hustled off to jail.
-
-At the enginehouse, the raiders continued to exchange occasional shots
-with the Charles Town militia and the townspeople. By now Brown had
-separated his prisoners. Eleven of the more important hostages who might
-be used for bargaining purposes were moved into the engineroom with his
-dwindling band, while the others remained crowded into the tiny
-guardroom. The two rooms were separated by a solid brick wall.
-
-    [Illustration: Lewis S. Leary]
-
-    [Illustration: William H. Leeman]
-
-About 3 p.m., shortly after the raiders were driven out of the rifle
-works, a militia company arrived by train from Martinsburg, Va. Headed
-by Capt. E. G. Alburtis and comprised mostly of B & O Railroad
-employees, this company marched on the enginehouse from the upper end of
-the armory yard and came close to ending the raid. Brown positioned his
-men in front of the building to meet the attack. Alburtis’ contingent,
-advancing briskly and maintaining a steady fire, forced the raiders back
-inside. Smashing the windows of the guardroom, the militiamen freed the
-prisoners but were forced to withdraw after eight of their number were
-wounded from the constant fire pouring from the partly opened
-enginehouse door. Alburtis later complained that had his men been
-supported by the other militia companies present, John Brown’s raid
-would have been ended.
-
-Other militia units now began to arrive. Between 3 and 4 p.m. the
-Hamtramck Guards and the Shepherdstown Troop, both from Shepherdstown,
-Va., came in. At dusk three uniformed companies from Frederick, Md.,
-appeared, followed later in the evening by a Winchester, Va., company
-under R. B. Washington, and five companies of the Maryland Volunteers
-under General Stewart from Baltimore. None of them made any attempt to
-dislodge Brown and his men from the enginehouse, but all added to the
-general confusion and hysteria gripping the town.
-
-    [Illustration: The attack on the enginehouse by Baltimore and Ohio
-    Railroad employees led by Capt. E. G. Alburtis is shown in this
-    contemporary engraving from _Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper_.
-    Alburtis’ attack failed to dislodge the raiders, but his men did
-    manage to free several of Brown’s hostages.]
-
-On the other side of the Potomac, Cook, Owen Brown, Barclay Coppoc,
-Meriam, Tidd, and several Negroes had been transferring weapons to a
-tiny schoolhouse midway between Harpers Ferry and the Kennedy farm. As
-the day wore on and the firing from town became heavier, they began to
-suspect that something might have gone wrong. At about 4 p.m. Cook
-headed for the B & O bridge to see what was happening. To get a better
-vantage point, he climbed the craggy face of Maryland Heights where he
-could look directly into the center of the town. Seeing that his
-compatriots were “completely surrounded,” he decided to try to take some
-of the pressure off by firing across the river at men posted in the
-houses along High Street overlooking the armory. His shot was instantly
-answered by a volley of bullets that severed a branch he was clutching
-for support and sent him tumbling down the rocky cliff. Badly cut and
-bruised from the fall, he limped back to the schoolhouse and joined the
-others. Realizing there was nothing they could do to aid their comrades
-trapped in the enginehouse, they reluctantly gathered their belongings,
-climbed the mountain and headed north.
-
-    [Illustration: Stewart Taylor]
-
-    [Illustration: John A. Copeland]
-
-    [Illustration: Jeremiah G. Anderson]
-
-Time was quickly running out for John Brown. As resistance became
-partially organized at Harpers Ferry, steps were taken to seal off any
-possibility of support reaching the raiders. Fearing that Brown’s raid
-might be part of a general uprising, all approaches to the town were
-guarded, and all travelers not familiar to residents of the area were
-immediately arrested and shipped off to the county jail at Charles Town.
-
-As night approached, the firing sputtered out. Brown, knowing escape was
-impossible, again attempted to bargain for freedom. In verbal and
-written pleas he offered to release his hostages if he and his men were
-allowed to leave unmolested. Col. Robert W. Taylor, now commanding the
-Virginia militia units at Harpers Ferry, rejected the offers, sending
-back word that if the prisoners were immediately released he would let
-the Government deal with Brown and his men. But the old abolitionist
-would not yield, and prisoners, slaves, and raiders alike settled down,
-as best they could, to what would be a long and depressing night.
-
-Brown paced up and down like a caged tiger. It had been hours since he
-or any of them had tasted food or drink. The cold night air chilled
-their bones and the pungent odor of gunpowder stung their nostrils. The
-large-scale slave support that he had counted upon and for which the
-pikes were intended had not materialized. This was largely his own
-doing, however, for in his desire for absolute secrecy he had given no
-advance word that he was coming. The slaves had no idea that a raid was
-in progress. The few his men had picked up at the Washington and
-Allstadt farms were of no use to him. They were frightened and preferred
-to remain with the white hostages rather than take an active part in
-their own salvation. Most likely they would not have joined him at all
-had they not been taken from their homes at gunpoint.
-
-From time to time Brown called out, “Men, are you awake?” Only five of
-the raiders were still unwounded and able to hold a rifle: Brown
-himself, Edwin Coppoc, J. G. Anderson, Dauphin Thompson, and Shields
-Green. Stewart Taylor, the Canadian soldier of fortune, lay dead in a
-corner, his presentiment of death come true. He had been shot like
-Oliver Brown while standing at the enginehouse doorway. Oliver himself,
-writhing in pain, begged to be killed and put out of his misery. “If you
-must die, then die like a man,” snapped his father. After awhile Oliver
-was quiet. “I guess he is dead,” Brown said. Nearby, Watson Brown lay
-quietly breathing his last. The attack that had begun but 24 hours
-before was fast coming to an end.
-
-
-
-
-                           THE TRAP IS SPRUNG
-
-
-The somberness that permeated the fire enginehouse contrasted sharply
-with the din outside. Hundreds of militiamen and townspeople jammed the
-streets, which echoed with whoops and yells. Anxious and hysterical
-friends and relatives of Brown’s hostages added to the confusion. While
-the quasi-military operations ended at nightfall, the non-military
-activities continued with increasing fervor. The bars in the Wager House
-and Gault House Saloon were enjoying an unprecedented business. Many men
-were intoxicated, and they fired their guns wildly into the air and
-occasionally at the enginehouse. All semblance of order was gone and the
-“wildest excitement” prevailed throughout the night.
-
-    [Illustration: Albert Hazlett]
-
-    [Illustration: Osborn P. Anderson]
-
-During this confusion two of Brown’s men made their escape. Of the
-raiders caught in Harpers Ferry when the Jefferson Guards seized the B &
-O bridge at midday on October 17, Albert Hazlett and Osborn P. Anderson,
-occupying the arsenal, went unnoticed during the day. At night they
-crept out, mingled with the disorderly crowds, crossed the Potomac into
-Maryland, and fled north.
-
-Into the midst of the chaos created by the drunken and disorderly
-militia and townspeople marched 90 U.S. Marines led by a 52-year-old
-Army colonel, Robert E. Lee. Lee had been at his home in Arlington, Va.,
-that afternoon when Lt. J. E. B. Stuart brought him secret orders to
-report to the War Department at once. There President Buchanan and
-Secretary of War Floyd told him of Brown’s attack and ordered him to
-leave immediately for Harpers Ferry with the only Federal troops readily
-available, a detachment of Marines at the Washington Navy Yard. Upon his
-arrival at Harpers Ferry, Lee was to take command of all forces in the
-town. Lieutenant Stuart, scenting excitement, asked for and received
-permission to accompany Lee, who, in the hurry of departure, had no time
-to return home and don his uniform.
-
-The Marines, under the immediate command of Lt. Israel Green, left
-Washington before Lee and arrived at Sandy Hook in late afternoon. Lee
-and Stuart joined them at 10:30 p.m. Marching into Harpers Ferry, the
-Marines entered the armory yard about 11 p.m. and replaced the
-disorganized militia. Lee would have ordered an immediate attack on the
-enginehouse “But for the fear of sacrificing the lives of some of the
-gentlemen held ... as prisoners....”
-
-About 2:30 a.m., October 18, Lee wrote a surrender demand and handed it
-to Stuart for delivery to Brown under a white flag when so directed. He
-hoped that the raider chieftain could be persuaded to surrender
-peaceably and avoid further bloodshed, but he expected that he would be
-taken only by force and laid his plans accordingly. In the early morning
-hours, Lee, believing the raid to be chiefly aimed against State
-authority and not the Federal Government, offered the honor of
-assaulting the enginehouse to Colonel Shriver of the Maryland
-Volunteers. Shriver declined. “These men of mine have wives and
-children,” he said. “I will not expose them to such risks. You are paid
-for doing this kind of work.” Lee then offered the task to Colonel
-Baylor of the Virginia militia. Baylor promptly declined it for the same
-reasons. Lieutenant Green was then asked if he wished “the honor of
-taking those men out.” Green lifted his cap, thanked Lee, and picked a
-storming party of 12 men. He instructed them to use only their bayonets,
-as bullets might injure some of the hostages.
-
-    [Illustration: Trapped inside the armory enginehouse, the raiders
-    and their hostages await the attack by U.S. Marines under Col.
-    Robert E. Lee.]
-
-By 7 a.m. there was enough light for operations. All arrangements for
-the assault had been completed. The militia formed up outside the armory
-wall to keep the street clear of spectators and to prevent
-indiscriminate firing that might injure the storming party. The Marines
-took position at the northwest corner of the enginehouse, just out of
-the line of fire from the door. Then Lieutenant Stuart moved forward
-with the surrender demand. Brown opened the door a few inches and placed
-his body against the crack so the lieutenant could not see inside. He
-held a cocked rifle in one hand. Stuart read the terms offered by Lee:
-
-  Colonel Lee, United States Army, commanding troops sent by the
-  President of the United States to suppress the insurrection at this
-  place, demands the surrender of the persons in the Armory buildings.
-  If they will peaceably surrender themselves and restore the pillaged
-  property, they shall be kept in safety to await the orders of the
-  President. Col. Lee represents to them, in all frankness, that it is
-  impossible for them to escape; that the Armory is surrounded on all
-  sides by troops; and that if he is compelled to take them by force he
-  cannot answer for their safety.
-
-    Robert E. Lee and J. E. B. Stuart are pictured here about the time
-    of the raid.
-
-    [Illustration: Robert E. Lee]
-
-    [Illustration: This little-known portrait of Stuart shows him in
-    civilian dress and with trimmed beard.]
-
-According to Stuart, the parley was “a long one.” Brown refused to
-surrender. Instead he presented his own propositions “in every possible
-shape, and with admirable tact,” insisting that he, his men, and his
-hostages be permitted to cross the river unmolested.
-
-Stuart, instructed not to accept any counter-proposals, sensed that
-further discussion was useless. Stepping back from the door, he waved
-his hat, a pre-arranged signal for the Marines to attack. Brown slammed
-the door shut and the troops came on. Three men with sledge hammers
-pounded the center door of the enginehouse, but it would not yield; the
-raiders had placed the fire engines against it. Spotting a heavy ladder
-nearby, Lieutenant Green directed his men to use it as a battering-ram.
-On the second blow the door splintered and a small opening was effected.
-
-    [Illustration: Lt. Israel Green led the Marine attack on the
-    enginehouse and was the first man to enter the building.]
-
-    [Illustration: The engraving below shows the Marines battering the
-    enginehouse door while under fire from raiders inside.]
-
-Lieutenant Green was the first man through. Maj. W. W. Russell, armed
-only with a rattan cane, followed immediately. Pvt. Luke Quinn squeezed
-through behind Russell and fell dead at the door, shot through his
-groin. Another Marine, Pvt. Mathew Ruppert, stepped over Quinn, then
-dropped his gun and clawed his face in pain where a bullet had torn
-through his cheek. The rest of the storming party entered without
-injury.
-
-The hostages cowered at the rear of the building; Brown knelt between
-the fire engines, rifle in hand. As Green came through the row of
-engines, Colonel Washington greeted him and pointed at Brown. Green
-raised his sword and brought it down with all his strength, cutting a
-deep wound in the back of the raider chieftain’s neck. As Brown fell,
-Green lunged with his sword, striking part of the raider’s accouterments
-and bending the blade double. Green then showered blow after blow upon
-Brown’s head until he fell unconscious. Two of the raiders were killed
-almost immediately after the Marines entered the building: Dauphin
-Thompson, pinned against the rear wall by a bayonet, and Jeremiah
-Anderson, run through by a saber as he sought refuge under one of the
-fire engines. Edwin Coppoc and Shields Green surrendered. The fight was
-over in about 3 minutes.
-
-    [Illustration: After their capture, Brown and his surviving men were
-    placed under guard outside the enginehouse, where they were
-    subjected to taunts and threats of angry militia and townspeople.]
-
-None of the hostages was injured, although Lieutenant Green considered
-them the “sorriest lot of people I ever saw.” The dead, dying, and
-wounded raiders were carried outside and laid in a row on the grass. As
-Brown slowly regained consciousness, the Marines had trouble keeping
-back the throngs of militia and townspeople who wanted to see the
-wounded raider leader. After noon, Brown and Stevens, still suffering
-from the wounds he received on October 17, were carried to the
-paymaster’s office where a group of inquisitors, including Virginia’s
-Governor Henry A. Wise and Senator James M. Mason, and Ohio Congressman
-Clement L. Vallandigham, questioned them for 3 hours in an effort to
-learn their purpose and the names of their supporters in the North.
-
-During the interrogation Brown lay on the floor, his hair matted and
-tangled, his face, hands, and clothes soiled and smeared with blood. He
-talked freely, and while he readily admitted his intention to free the
-slaves, “and only that,” he refused to divulge the names of his Northern
-backers. “No man sent me here,” he said; “it was my own prompting and
-that of my Maker, or that of the devil, whichever you ascribe it to. I
-acknowledge no man in human form.” He continued:
-
-  I want you to understand, gentlemen ... that I respect the rights of
-  the poorest and weakest of colored people, oppressed by the slave
-  system, just as much as I do those of the most wealthy and powerful.
-  That is the idea that has moved me, and that alone. We expect no
-  reward, except the satisfaction of endeavoring to do for those in
-  distress and greatly oppressed, as we would be done by. The cry of
-  distress of the oppressed is my reason, and the only thing that has
-  prompted me to come here.
-
-Brown then issued a prophetic warning:
-
-  I wish to say furthermore, that you had better—all you people at the
-  South—prepare yourselves for a settlement of that question that must
-  come up for settlement sooner than you are prepared for it. The sooner
-  you are prepared the better. You may dispose of me very easily; I am
-  nearly disposed of now; but this question is still to be settled—this
-  negro question I mean—the end of that is not yet.
-
-
-
-
-                           JOHN BROWN’S BODY
-
-
-The day after their capture, Brown and his surviving followers—Stevens,
-Edwin Coppoc, Shields Green, and John Copeland—were taken to Charles
-Town under heavy guard and lodged in the county jail. The cell doors had
-hardly banged shut when they learned that they were to receive speedy
-trials. The grand jury was then in session, and the semiannual term of
-the circuit court, presided over by Judge Richard Parker, had begun.
-
-The five raiders were arraigned on October 25, just one week after their
-capture. The next day they were indicted for treason against the
-Commonwealth of Virginia, for conspiring with slaves to rebel, and for
-murder. Each defendant pleaded “Not guilty” and each asked for a
-separate trial. The court consented and elected to try Brown first. Two
-court-appointed attorneys, 36-year-old Lawson Botts, who had helped to
-capture the raiders, and Thomas C. Green, the 39-year-old Mayor of
-Charles Town, were called upon to defend him. Charles Harding,
-Commonwealth Attorney for Jefferson County, and Andrew Hunter, a veteran
-Charles Town lawyer, served as prosecutors for the State.
-
-The trial began on October 27. It lasted 3½ days. Still suffering from
-his wounds, Brown was carried back and forth from jail to courthouse,
-and lay on a cot during much of the proceedings. Judge Parker had hardly
-brought the court to order when defense counsel Botts astounded the
-packed courtroom (including Brown himself) by reading a telegram from A.
-H. Lewis of Akron, Ohio, dated October 26:
-
-  John Brown, leader of the insurrection at Harper’s Ferry, and several
-  of his family, have resided in this county for many years. Insanity is
-  hereditary in that family. His mother’s sister died with it, and a
-  daughter of that sister has been two years in a Lunatic Asylum. A son
-  and daughter of his mother’s brother have also been confined in the
-  lunatic asylum, and another son of that brother is now insane and
-  under close restraint. These facts can be conclusively proven by
-  witnesses residing here, who will doubtless attend the trial if
-  desired.
-
-    [Illustration: John Brown was tried in the courthouse at Charles
-    Town, about 10 miles from Harpers Ferry. The trial was presided over
-    by the Hon. Richard Parker (below), circuit judge for Jefferson
-    County.]
-
-    [Illustration: Richard Parker]
-
-After receiving the telegram, Botts had gone to the jail to talk with
-Brown about it. The raider leader had readily admitted that there were
-instances of insanity in his mother’s side of the family (in fact, his
-mother had died insane), but asserted that there was none at all on his
-father’s side. He said his first wife had shown symptoms of it, as had
-two of their sons, Frederick and John, Jr. Clearly, by introducing the
-Lewis telegram, the defense hoped to save Brown’s life by having him
-declared insane and committed to an institution. But the old
-abolitionist refused to sanction such a plea. Rising up on his cot, he
-exclaimed:
-
-  I will add, if the Court will allow me, that I look upon it as a
-  miserable artifice and pretext of those who ought to take a different
-  course in regard to me, if they took any at all, and I view it with
-  contempt more than otherwise. As I remarked to Mr. Green, insane
-  persons, so far as my experience goes, have but little ability to
-  judge of their own sanity; and, if I am insane, of course I should
-  think I know more than all the rest of the world. But I do not think
-  so. I am perfectly unconscious of insanity, and I reject, so far as I
-  am capable, any attempt to interfere in my behalf on that score.
-
-    Lawson Botts and Thomas C. Green were appointed by the court to
-    defend the raider leader. Brown, however, did not trust them to
-    provide him an adequate defense.
-
-    [Illustration: Lawson Botts.]
-
-    [Illustration: Thomas C. Green.]
-
-    Brown had more faith in the three lawyers provided by his Northern
-    friends. Their efforts to save him from the gallows, however, proved
-    fruitless.
-
-    [Illustration: George Hoyt, shown here as an officer during the
-    Civil War.]
-
-    [Illustration: Samuel Chilton.]
-
-    [Illustration: Hiram Griswold.]
-
-Judge Parker ruled out the insanity plea on the basis that the evidence
-had not been presented in a reliable form. He also rejected Bott’s
-request for a delay in the proceedings to allow new counsel of Brown’s
-own choosing to come from Ohio. The trial continued.
-
-The defense lawyers were increased to three when George Hoyt joined
-Botts and Green. Hoyt, a 21-year-old Boston lawyer, was sent to Charles
-Town by some of Brown’s Northern supporters ostensibly to defend the
-raider chieftain; his real mission was to gather information that might
-be useful to those plotting Brown’s escape.
-
-As the trial progressed, Brown became more and more irritated with his
-court-appointed lawyers and openly expressed his lack of confidence in
-them. Botts and Green thereupon withdrew, leaving Hoyt, the woefully
-inexperienced “beardless boy” who was entirely unacquainted with the
-code and procedure of the Virginia courts and knowing very little about
-the case, burdened with the sole responsibility for conducting the
-defense in one of the most sensational trials the country had ever
-witnessed. He was soon reinforced, however, by more seasoned counsel.
-Samuel Chilton of Washington, D.C., and Hiram Griswold of Cleveland,
-Ohio, were persuaded by Brown’s influential friends to join the fight to
-save the abolitionist’s life. But their arrival made little difference;
-the outcome of the trial was inevitable.
-
-The prosecution’s parade of witnesses recounted the story of the attack
-on Harpers Ferry, the arming of the slaves, and the deaths of Hayward
-Shepherd, Fontaine Beckham, and George W. Turner. Brown’s contention
-that, as commander in chief of a provisional army, he should be tried
-according to the laws of war and not as a common criminal was rejected.
-Other arguments offered by the defense met with equally fruitless
-results. Finally, on October 31, closing arguments by the prosecution
-and the defense were heard and at 1:45 p.m. the case went to the jury.
-Deliberations lasted for 45 minutes. The verdict: guilty on all three
-counts. A newspaper correspondent described the reaction:
-
-  Not the slightest sound was heard in the vast crowd as this verdict
-  was thus returned and read. Not the slightest expression of elation or
-  triumph was uttered from the hundreds present, who, a moment before,
-  outside the court, joined in heaping threats and imprecations upon his
-  head; nor was this strange silence interrupted during the whole of the
-  time occupied by the forms of the Court. Old Brown himself said not
-  even a word, but, as on previous days, turned to adjust his pallet,
-  and then composedly stretched himself upon it.
-
-    [Illustration: Andrew Hunter, special prosecutor for the State of
-    Virginia, vowed to see Brown “arraigned, tried, found guilty,
-    sentenced and hung, all within ten days.”]
-
-    [Illustration: The courtroom in which Brown was tried was not as
-    large as this drawing would indicate, but it was packed with
-    witnesses and spectators. Brown lay on a cot during most of the
-    proceedings, rising only occasionally to make a point in his
-    defense.]
-
-    [Illustration: Jefferson County Sheriff James Campbell.]
-
-    [Illustration: The jailer, John Avis.]
-
-Sentence was passed on November 2: John Brown would hang on Friday,
-December 2, 1859. The other raiders—Coppoc, Stevens, Copeland, and
-Green—were tried subsequently, found guilty, and received like
-sentences. Of the seven raiders who escaped from Harpers Ferry, John
-Cook and Albert Hazlett were captured in Pennsylvania, brought to
-Charles Town for trial, convicted, and hanged.
-
-In the days following Brown’s sentencing, Virginia’s Governor Wise was
-swamped with mail. Many letters pleaded for clemency, some contained
-outright threats, while others warned of fantastic plots to effect the
-abolitionist’s escape. Martial law was declared in Charles Town.
-Militiamen were everywhere, and armed patrols kept a vigilant watch on
-all roads leading into town. The day of execution came, and not one of
-the schemes to free Brown materialized.
-
-    [Illustration: Henry A. Wise, Governor of Virginia]
-
-    [Illustration: Proclamation]
-
-
-
-
-                             PROCLAMATION!
-
-IN pursuance of instructions from the Governor of Virginia, notice is
-hereby given to all whom it may concern,
-
-
-That, as heretofore, particularly from now until after Friday next the
-2nd of December, STRANGERS found within the County of Jefferson, and
-Counties adjacent, having no known and proper business here, and who
-cannot give a satisfactory account of themselves, will be at once
-arrested.
-
-That on, and for a proper period before that day, stangers[sic] and
-especially parties, approaching under the pretext of being present at
-the execution of John Brown, whether by Railroad or otherwise, will be
-met by the Military and turned back or arrested without regard to the
-amount of force, that may be required to effect this, and during the
-said period and especially on the 2nd of December, the citizens of
-Jefferson and the surrounding country are _EMPHATICALLY_ warned to
-remain at their homes armed and guard their own property.
-
-On the afternoon before the execution, Brown’s grief-stricken wife was
-allowed to visit him in his cell. They spent several hours talking.
-Toward evening they parted, and Mary Brown went to Harpers Ferry to
-await the delivery of her husband’s body. It would be her agonizing duty
-to return Brown’s remains to their North Elba home for burial.
-
-A few minutes after 11 a.m. on December 2, 1859, John Brown walked down
-the steps of the Charles Town jail, climbed into the back of a
-horse-drawn wagon, and sat down on his own coffin. Flanked by files of
-soldiers, the wagon moved off toward a field a short distance from the
-town where a scaffold had been erected. No civilians were permitted near
-the execution site. The field was ringed by 1,500 soldiers, among them a
-company of Virginia Military Institute cadets commanded by a
-stern-looking professor who would soon gain fame and immortality as the
-Confederate Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson. In the ranks of a Richmond company
-stood another man who, in a few short years, would also achieve
-immortality by committing one of the most infamous deeds in American
-history—John Wilkes Booth.
-
-    [Illustration: With soldiers lining the streets, John Brown comes
-    down the steps of the Charles Town jail on the way to his execution,
-    December 2, 1859. The wagon containing his coffin stands nearby.]
-
-As the hushed military watched, Brown climbed the scaffold steps.
-Sheriff John W. Campbell pulled a white linen hood over the prisoner’s
-head and set the noose. John Avis, the jailer, asked Brown to step
-forward onto the trap. “You must lead me,” Brown replied, “for I cannot
-see.” The abolitionist’s last words were directed to Avis as one final
-adjustment of the noose was made. “Be quick,” he said.
-
-At 11:30 a hatchet stroke sprung the trap and John Brown died. The voice
-of a militia colonel broke the stillness: “So perish all such enemies of
-Virginia! All such enemies of the Union! All such enemies of the human
-race!”
-
-But the end was not yet. True, Brown was dead; but he had helped to
-arouse popular passions both North and South to the point where
-compromise would be impossible. The raid created a national furor and
-generated a wave of emotionalism that widened the sectional breach that
-had divided the country for so many years. Although conservative
-Northern opinion quickly condemned the raid as the work of a madman, the
-more radical hailed it as “the best news America ever had” and glorified
-Brown as “the new saint” whose martyrdom in the cause of human freedom
-would make the gallows “glorious like the cross.”
-
-    [Illustration: The hanging of John Brown took place at 11:30 a.m.,
-    December 2, 1859, in a field just outside Charles Town. The field no
-    longer exists, but the site is identified by a simple stone marker.]
-
-Southerners shuddered. For decades they had been defending their
-“peculiar institution” of slavery against the ever-increasing attacks of
-Northern abolitionists, but anti-slavery agitation had always followed a
-course of non-violence. Then Brown had come with his pikes and guns to
-change all that. In the false atmosphere of crisis that gripped the
-South in the wake of the raid, the small voices of moderates were lost
-in the din of extremists who saw Brown’s act as part of a vast Northern
-conspiracy to instigate servile insurrections throughout the slave
-States.
-
-To meet this threat, real or imagined, vigilance committees were formed,
-volunteer military companies were organized, and more and more
-Southerners began to echo the sentiments of the Richmond Enquirer: “if
-under the form of a Confederacy our peace is disturbed, our State
-invaded, its peaceful citizens cruelly murdered ... by those who should
-be our warmest friends ... and the people of the North sustain the
-outrage, then let disunion come.”
-
-Disunion sentiment increased during the presidential campaign of 1860,
-stimulated by a split in the Democratic Party that practically
-guaranteed a Republican victory in the November elections. When Abraham
-Lincoln was elected President, the secessionist movement could no longer
-be contained. On December 20, unable to tolerate a President “whose
-opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery,” South Carolina severed
-her ties with the Union. By February 1, 1861, Mississippi, Florida,
-Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas had followed her lead. One week
-later the Confederate States of America was formed at Montgomery, Ala.,
-and the country drifted slowly toward civil war. Before many months had
-passed, soldiers in blue would be marching south to the tune of “John
-Brown’s Body” as if to fulfill the prophecy Brown had left in a note to
-one of his Charles Town guards shortly before the execution:
-
-    [Illustration: Charlestown, Va, 2^d, december, 1859 I John Brown am
-    now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty, land: will never
-    be purged away; but with Blood. I had as I now think: vainly
-    flattered myself that without very much bloodshed; it might be
-    done.]
-
-
-
-
-                                EPILOGUE
-
-
-The war that John Brown predicted would come, and which his raid helped
-to precipitate, began in April 1861. When it ended almost 4 years to the
-day later, slavery had been destroyed along with some 600,000 lives and
-millions of dollars worth of property. Among the casualties of the war
-was Harpers Ferry. The town’s strategic position on the Baltimore and
-Ohio Railroad at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley made it a
-prime target for both Union and Confederate forces. It changed hands
-again and again, and by war’s end in 1865 the place was a shambles.
-
-As early as February 1862 a young Union staff officer assigned to the
-Harpers Ferry area could write of the town: “The appearance of ruin by
-war and fire was awful. Charred ruins were all that remain of the
-splendid public works, arsenals, workshops and railroads, stores,
-hotels, and dwelling houses all mingled in one common destruction.” Much
-the same observation was made 3 years later in the summer of 1865 by
-John T. Trowbridge, a New England writer, during a tour of the South:
-“[T]he town is the reverse of agreeable. It is said to have been a
-pleasant and picturesque place formerly. The streets were well graded,
-and the hill-sides above were graced with terraces and trees. But war
-has changed all. Freshets tear down the centre of the streets, and the
-hill-sides present only ragged growths of weeds. The town itself lies
-half in ruins.... Of the bridge across the Shenandoah only the ruined
-piers are left; still less remains of the old bridge over the Potomac.
-And all about the town are rubbish, filth and stench.”
-
-The once-imposing armory complex along the Potomac River and the rifle
-works on Hall Island in the Shenandoah were burned-out hulks. Only the
-armory enginehouse remained basically intact, “like a monument which no
-Rebel hands were permitted to demolish.” Large sections of the town had
-been burned by various troop contingents to prevent their use by enemy
-soldiers. Many homes, churches, schools, and business establishments
-were damaged beyond repair by shot and shell fired from the surrounding
-heights. Still other buildings, subjected to long military use, were on
-the verge of ruin. The industries on Virginius Island—the iron foundry,
-the flour mill, the sawmill, the machine shops, the cotton mill—were
-also gone, and Harpers Ferry no longer had the activity and bustle of an
-economically healthy community.
-
-Besides the material damage inflicted by powerful weaponry and by the
-seemingly endless procession of soldiers who filched or requisitioned
-everything that could be carried away, the town suffered an even greater
-loss—its people. During the war most of the townspeople moved away, some
-to escape the dangers of military operations, some to seek employment
-elsewhere after the armory and the industries were destroyed, and some
-to join one or the other opposing armies. Many never came back. Those
-who did return found their town in ruins and themselves the citizens of
-a new State.
-
-In 1861 the people in the mountainous western counties of Virginia
-strongly opposed secession. When the rest of the State voted
-overwhelmingly in a statewide referendum on May 23, 1861, to withdraw
-from the Federal Union, the loyal western residents, in a series of
-conventions at Wheeling, voted to “secede” from Virginia and set up
-their own State. The bill for admission passed Congress on December 11,
-1862, and on June 30, 1863, by Presidential proclamation, West Virginia
-became the 35th State. For years, however, many Jefferson County
-residents refused to use “West” as part of the designation.
-
-Harpers Ferry never recovered from the devastation of the Civil War.
-Staring at the stark chimneys and charred remains of once impressive
-buildings, one of the townspeople concluded: “This place will never be
-anything again unless the government rebuilds the armory—and it is
-doubtful if that is ever done.” The Government never did, and the ground
-on which it stood was auctioned off in 1869. Mills and factories
-remained closed. The railroad did a small percentage of its previous
-business. Hopes for a renewal of the town’s former prosperity were
-dashed in 1870 when a flood destroyed or badly damaged nearly every
-building on Virginius Island and along the south side of Shenandoah
-Street. Subsequent floods destroyed still more of the town and ruined
-the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. The canal was finally abandoned after the
-flood of 1924.
-
-Inundated too often by high water, the residents of Harpers Ferry
-eventually left the old buildings in the lower town and moved up the
-heights to the high ground of Camp Hill and toward Bolivar. For years
-the old shops and stores, those that remained, stood empty, neglected,
-and deteriorating. When Harpers Ferry became a national historical area,
-the National Park Service began an intensive campaign to preserve the
-fragile remains of the 18th- and 19th-century industries, homes,
-churches, stores, and shops, and to restore much of the old town to its
-pre-Civil War appearance, a time when it was at its peak as a thriving,
-bustling industrial community and transportation center.
-
-Today, while much of the old historical town remains, few of the
-structures that figured prominently in John Brown’s raid survive. (See
-maps on pp. 29 and 30.) The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge across
-the Potomac, by which Brown and his raiders entered Harpers Ferry in
-October 1859, was destroyed by Confederate soldiers early in the Civil
-War. More modern structures span the river now, but the stone supports
-of the old bridge can still be seen. Nothing at all remains of the
-bridge across the Shenandoah. The stone piers now standing in the river
-near the Point section of the town are from a later structure.
-
-The ruins of the armory buildings stood for many years after the war and
-eventually disappeared. In 1893 the site itself disappeared under 30
-feet of fill when the B & O Railroad changed the line of its tracks. The
-outlines of two of the armory buildings have been marked by flat stones
-and the spot where the enginehouse was located is marked by a small
-monument. The enginehouse itself (now called “John Brown’s Fort”) stands
-nearby on the old arsenal grounds, and is little changed from its
-appearance at the time of the raid. Here also can be seen the excavated
-remains of the small U.S. arsenal and some of the partially exposed
-burned muskets destroyed when the building was gutted by Federal troops
-in April 1861.
-
-In February 1862 Federal soldiers burned the Point area of Harpers Ferry
-to keep Confederate sharpshooters from using the buildings. Among the
-structures destroyed were the railroad depot, the water tower around
-which Mayor Fontaine Beckham was peering when he was shot by one of the
-raiders, several stores and shops, the Potomac Restaurant, the Wager
-House Hotel, and the Gault House Saloon. The Wager House (not to be
-confused with another structure of the same name that still exists) was
-the scene of several notable events. It was here that many of the
-wounded were carried, including two of the raiders, Aaron Stevens and
-William Thompson. Many of the militiamen did their “best fighting” at
-its bar. From the Wager House porch, Gov. Henry Wise of Virginia read
-letters taken from Brown’s men to the angered townspeople. Wise also
-lived here during his brief stay in Harpers Ferry. Mrs. John Brown
-stayed here when she came to Harpers Ferry in December 1859 for her last
-visit with her husband, and it was here that she received his body after
-the execution.
-
-The Shenandoah islands are deserted today except for the line of the
-Winchester and Potomac Railroad. All of the buildings are gone now
-except for the foundations of some of the mills and the retaining walls
-of the rifle factory, nestled in among the weeds, brush, and trees. Many
-disappeared through neglect after the industries were destroyed during
-the Civil War, some washed away in the many floods with which Harpers
-Ferry has been plagued, and others, like Herr’s flour mill and the rifle
-works, were deliberately destroyed by Union and Confederate troops.
-
-Several structures associated with the raid still exist outside Harpers
-Ferry. The courthouse at Charles Town, W. Va., is little changed since
-John Brown was tried and sentenced there more than a century ago. The
-Kennedy farm, Brown’s headquarters during the months he was planning the
-raid, lies in the Maryland countryside about 5 miles from Harpers Ferry.
-Col. Lewis Washington’s home, “Beallair,” which several raiders broke
-into on the night of October 16 and took its owner hostage, stands near
-Halltown, about 4 miles west of Harpers Ferry. And nearby, at the foot
-of Alstadt Hill, west of Bolivar, is the home of John H. Alstadt,
-another hostage taken by Brown’s men on October 16.
-
-
-
-
-                                APPENDIX
-                      The Capture of John Brown[1]
-                            by Israel Green
-
-
-At noon of Monday, October 18, 1859, Chief Clerk Walsh, of the Navy
-Department, drove rapidly into the Washington Navy-yard, and, meeting
-me, asked me how many marines we had stationed at the barracks available
-for immediate duty. I happened to be the senior officer present and in
-command that day. I instantly replied to Mr. Walsh that we had ninety
-men available, and then asked him what was the trouble. He told me that
-Ossawatomie Brown, of Kansas, with a number of men, had taken the
-arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, and was then besieged there by the Virginia
-State troops. Mr. Walsh returned speedily to the Navy Department
-building, and, in the course of an hour, orders came to me from
-Secretary Tousey to proceed at once to Harper’s Ferry and report to the
-senior officer; and, if there should be no such officer at the Ferry, to
-take charge and protect the government property. With a detachment of
-ninety marines, I started for Harper’s Ferry that afternoon on the 3:30
-train, taking with me two howitzers. It was a beautiful, clear autumn
-day, and the men, exhilarated by the excitement of the occasion, which
-came after a long, dull season of confinement in the barracks, enjoyed
-the trip exceedingly.
-
-At Frederick Junction I received a dispatch from Colonel Robert E. Lee,
-who turned out to be the army officer to whom I was to report. He
-directed me to proceed to Sandy Hook, a small place about a mile this
-side of the Ferry, and there await his arrival. At ten o’clock in the
-evening he came up on a special train from Washington. His first order
-was to form the marines out of the car, and march from the bridge to
-Harper’s Ferry. This we did, entering the enclosure of the arsenal
-grounds through a back gate. At eleven o’clock Colonel Lee ordered the
-volunteers to march out of the grounds, and gave the control inside to
-the marines, with instructions to see that none of the insurgents
-escaped during the night. There had been hard fighting all the preceding
-day, and Brown and his men kept quiet during the night. At half-past six
-in the morning Colonel Lee gave me orders to select a detail of twelve
-men for a storming party, and place them near the engine-house in which
-Brown and his men had intrenched themselves. I selected twelve of my
-best men, and a second twelve to be employed as a reserve. The
-engine-house was a strong stone [actually brick] building, which is
-still in a good state of preservation at the Ferry, in spite of the
-three days’ fighting in the building by Brown and his men, and the
-ravages of the recent war between the States. The building was ...
-perhaps thirty feet by thirty-five. In the front were two large double
-doors, between which was a stone abutment. Within were two
-old-fashioned, heavy fire-engines, with a hose-cart and reel standing
-between them, and just back of the abutment between the doors. They were
-double-battened doors, very strongly made, with heavy wrought-iron
-nails. Lieutenant J. E. B. Stewart [Stuart], afterwards famous as a
-cavalry commander on the side of the South, accompanied Colonel Lee as a
-volunteer aid. He was ordered to go with a part of the troops to the
-front of the engine-house and demand the surrender of the insurgent
-party. Colonel Lee directed him to offer protection to Brown and his
-men, but to receive no counter-proposition from Brown in regard to the
-surrender. On the way to the engine-house, Stewart and myself agreed
-upon a signal for attack in the event that Brown should refuse to
-surrender. It was simply that Lieutenant Stewart would wave his hat,
-which was then, I believe, one very similar to the famous chapeau which
-he wore throughout the war. I had my storming party ranged alongside of
-the engine-house, and a number of men were provided with sledge-hammers
-with which to batter in the doors. I stood in front of the abutment
-between the doors. Stewart hailed Brown and called for his surrender,
-but Brown at once began to make a proposition that he and his men should
-be allowed to come out of the engine-house and be given the length of
-the bridge start, so that they might escape. Suddenly Lieutenant Stewart
-waved his hat, and I gave the order to my men to batter in the door.
-Those inside fired rapidly at the point where the blows were given upon
-the door. Very little impression was made with the hammers, as the doors
-were tied on the inside with ropes and braced by the hand-brakes of the
-fire-engines, and in a few minutes I gave the order to desist. Just then
-my eye caught sight of a ladder, lying a few feet from the engine-house,
-in the yard, and I ordered my men to catch it up and use it as a
-battering-ram. The reserve of twelve men I employed as a supporting
-column for the assaulting party. The men took hold bravely and made a
-tremendous assault upon the door. The second blow broke it in. This
-entrance was a ragged hole low down in the right-hand door, the door
-being splintered and cracked some distance upward. I instantly stepped
-from my position in front of the stone abutment, and entered the opening
-made by the ladder. At the time I did not stop to think of it, but upon
-reflection I should say that Brown had just emptied his carbine at the
-point broken by the ladder, and so I passed in safely. Getting to my
-feet, I ran to the right of the engine which stood behind the door,
-passed quickly to the rear of the house, and came up between the two
-engines. The first person I saw was Colonel Lewis Washington, who was
-standing near the hose-cart, at the front of the engine-house. On one
-knee, a few feet to the left, knelt a man with a carbine in his hand,
-just pulling the lever to reload.
-
-“Hello, Green,” said Colonel Washington, and he reached out his hand to
-me. I grasped it with my left hand, having my saber uplifted in my
-right, and he said, pointing to the kneeling figure, “This is
-Ossawatomie.”
-
-As he said this, Brown turned his head to see who it was to whom Colonel
-Washington was speaking. Quicker than thought I brought my saber down
-with all my strength upon his head. He was moving as the blow fell, and
-I suppose I did not strike him where I intended, for he received a deep
-saber cut in the back of the neck. He fell senseless on his side, then
-rolled over on his back. He had in his hand a short Sharpe’s-cavalry
-carbine. I think he had just fired as I reached Colonel Washington, for
-the marine who followed me into the aperture made by the ladder received
-a bullet in the abdomen, from which he died in a few minutes. The shot
-might have been fired by some one else in the insurgent party, but I
-think it was from Brown. Instinctively as Brown fell I gave him a saber
-thrust in the left breast. The sword I carried was a light uniform
-weapon, and, either not having a point or striking something hard in
-Brown’s accouterments, did not penetrate. The blade bent double.
-
-By that time three or four of my men were inside. They came rushing in
-like tigers, as a storming assault is not a play-day sport. They
-bayoneted one man skulking under the engine, and pinned another fellow
-up against the rear wall, both being instantly killed. I ordered the men
-to spill no more blood. The other insurgents were at once taken under
-arrest, and the contest ended. The whole fight had not lasted over three
-minutes. My only thought was to capture, or, if necessary, kill, the
-insurgents, and take possession of the engine-house.
-
-I saw very little of the situation within until the fight was over. Then
-I observed that the engine-house was thick with smoke, and it was with
-difficulty that a person could be seen across the room. In the rear,
-behind the left-hand engine, were huddled the prisoners whom Brown had
-captured and held as hostages for the safety of himself and his men.
-Colonel Washington was one of these. All during the fight, as I
-understood afterward, he kept to the front of the engine-house. When I
-met him he was as cool as he would have been on his own veranda
-entertaining guests. He was naturally a very brave man. I remember that
-he would not come out of the engine-house, begrimed and soiled as he was
-from his long imprisonment, until he had put a pair of kid gloves upon
-his hands. The other prisoners were the sorriest lot of people I ever
-saw. They had been without food for over sixty hours, in constant dread
-of being shot, and were huddled up in the corner where lay the body of
-Brown’s son and one or two others of the insurgents who had been killed.
-Some of them have endeavored to give an account of the storming of the
-engine-house and the capture of Brown, but none of the reports have been
-free from a great many misstatements, and I suppose that Colonel
-Washington and myself were the only persons really able to say what was
-done. Other stories have been printed by people on the outside,
-describing the fight within. What they say must be taken with a great
-deal of allowance, for they could not have been witnesses of what
-occurred within the engine-house. One recent account describes me as
-jumping over the right-hand engine more like a wild beast than a
-soldier. Of course nothing of the kind happened. The report made by
-Colonel Lee at the time, which is now on file in the War department,
-gives a more succinct and detailed account than any I have seen.
-
-I can see Colonel Lee now, as he stood on a slight elevation about forty
-feet from the engine-house, during the assault. He was in civilian
-dress, and looked then very little as he did during the war. He wore no
-beard, except a dark mustache, and his hair was slightly gray. He had no
-arms upon his person, and treated the affair as one of no very great
-consequence, which would be speedily settled by the marines. A part of
-the scene, giving color and life to the picture, was the bright blue
-uniform of the marines. They wore blue trousers then, as they do now,
-and a dark-blue frock-coat. Their belts were white, and they wore French
-fatigue caps. I do not remember the names of the twelve men in the
-storming party, nor can I tell what became of them in later life. We had
-no use for the howitzers, and, in fact, they were not taken from the
-car.
-
-Immediately after the fight, Brown was carried out of the engine-house,
-and recovered consciousness while lying on the ground in front. A detail
-of men carried him up to the paymaster’s office, where he was attended
-to and his wants supplied. On the following day, Wednesday, with an
-escort, I removed him to Charleston [Charles Town], and turned him over
-to the civil authorities. No handcuffs were placed upon him, and he
-supported himself with a self-reliance and independence which were
-characteristic of the man. He had recovered a great deal from the
-effects of the blow from my saber, the injury of which was principally
-the shock, as he only received a flesh wound. I had little conversation
-with him, and spent very little time with him.
-
-I have often been asked to describe Brown’s appearance at the instant he
-lifted his head to see who was talking with Colonel Washington. It would
-be impossible for me to do so. The whole scene passed so rapidly that it
-hardly made a distinct impression upon my mind. I can only recall the
-fleeting picture of an old man kneeling with a carbine in his hand, with
-a long gray beard falling away from his face, looking quickly and keenly
-toward the danger that he was aware had come upon him. He was not a
-large man, being perhaps five feet ten inches when he straightened up in
-full. His dress, even, I do not remember distinctly. I should say that
-he had his trousers tucked in his boots, and that he wore clothes of
-gray—probably no more than trousers and shirt. I think he had no hat
-upon his head.
-
-None of the prisoners were hurt. They were badly frightened and somewhat
-starved. I received no wounds except a slight scratch on one hand as I
-was getting through the hole in the door. Colonel Lee and the people on
-the outside thought I was wounded. Brown had, at the time, only five or
-six fighting men, and I think he himself was the only one who showed
-fight after I entered the engine-house. There were no provisions in the
-building, and it would have been only a question of time when Brown
-would have had to surrender. Colonel Washington was the only person
-inside the house that I knew.
-
-I have been asked what became of Brown’s carbine. That I do not know. My
-sword was left in Washington, among people with whom I lived, and I lost
-trace of it. A few years ago, after having come out of the war and gone
-west to Dakota, where I now live, I received a letter from a gentleman
-in Washington, saying that he knew where the sword was, and that it was
-still bent double, as it was left by the thrust upon Brown’s breast. He
-said that it was now a relic of great historic value, and asked me to
-assent to the selling of it upon the condition that I should receive a
-portion of the price of the weapon. To me the matter had very little
-interest, and I replied indifferently. Since then I have heard nothing
-of the matter. I presume the saber could be found somewhere in
-Washington.
-
-
-
-
-                         SELECTED READING LIST
-
-
-Joseph Barry, _The Strange Story of Harper’s Ferry With Legends of The
-Surrounding Country_, Martinsburg, W. Va., 1903.
-
-Richard O. Boyer, _The Legend of John Brown: A Biography and A History_,
-New York, 1973.
-
-Louis Filler, _The Crusade Against Slavery, 1830-1860_, New York, 1960.
-
-Stephen B. Oates, _To Purge This Land With Blood: A Biography of John
-Brown_, New York, 1970.
-
-Louis Ruchames, ed., _John Brown: The Making of a Revolutionary_, New
-York, 1969. (Originally published under the title _A John Brown
-Reader_.)
-
-Franklin B. Sanborn, _Life and Letters of John Brown_, Boston, 1885.
-
-Kenneth M. Stampp, _The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum
-South_, New York, 1956.
-
-Edward Stone, ed., _Incident at Harper’s Ferry_, Englewood Cliffs, 1956.
-
-Oswald Garrison Villard, _John Brown, 1800-1859: A Biography Fifty Years
-After_, Boston and New York, 1911 (2d edition, 1943).
-
-
-                            PICTURE CREDITS
-
-Harpers Ferry National Historical Park: Title page, 8-9, 16-17, 24
-(right), 26 (drawing), 28 (inset), 31, 32-33, 37 (drawing), 40-41, 45,
-47 (drawing), 48, 53, 54-55, 56, 58-59; Library of Congress: 2, 3, 6,
-19, 20, 21, 22 (left & center), 24 (left), 26 (portraits), 28, 36, 37
-(inset), 39, 42, 44, 46, 50, 51, 52, 57; Kansas State Historical
-Society, Topeka: 4, 5, 22 (right); U.S. Marine Corps Museum: 47
-(portrait); Boyd B. Stutler Collection, through the courtesy of Stephen
-B. Oates: 11 (Howe & Stearns); John Brown Collection, Columbus
-University Libraries: 11 (Sanborn & Parker); Public Library, City of
-Boston: 11 (Smith); Boston Atheneum: 11 (Higginson); Robert Lautman:
-cover (John Brown’s Fort).
-
-
-                         ★U.S. Government Printing Office 1973 0 521 267
-                                                            Reprint 1990
-
-
-
-
-                               Footnotes
-
-
-[1]Originally published in _The North American Review_, December 1885.
-
-
-
-
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-  images, removing redundant references like “preceding page”.
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-
-—This book was printed mostly in italic, with emphasized text in roman;
-  the eBook reverses those fonts.
-
-—In the text versions only, text in roman is delimited by _underscores_.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
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-
-The Project Gutenberg EBook of John Brown's Raid, by National Park Service
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: John Brown's Raid
-       National Park Service History Series
-
-Author: National Park Service
-
-Release Date: December 3, 2017 [EBook #56106]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN BROWN'S RAID ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
-
-
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-
-
-
-</pre>
-
-<div id="cover" class="img">
-<img id="coverpage" src="images/cover.jpg" alt="John Brown&rsquo;s Raid" width="500" height="786" />
-</div>
-<h1>JOHN BROWN&rsquo;S RAID</h1>
-<p class="center"><i>National Park Service History Series
-<br />Office of Publications, National Park Service,
-<br />U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C.</i></p>
-<dl class="toc">
-<dt><a href="#c1">John Brown&rsquo;s Raid</a> 1</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c2">The Road to Harpers Ferry</a> 2</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c3">Rendezvous for Revolution</a> 12</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c4">To Free the Slaves</a> 25</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c5">The Tiger Caged</a> 35</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c6">The Trap is Sprung</a> 43</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c7">John Brown&rsquo;s Body</a> 49</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c8">Epilogue</a> 61</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c9">Appendix: The Capture of John Brown</a> 65</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c10">Selected Reading List</a> 70</dt>
-</dl>
-<div class="img" id="fig1">
-<img src="images/i01.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="779" />
-<p class="pcap"><i>John Brown's Fort, Harpers Ferry</i></p>
-</div>
-<blockquote>
-<p><i>The text of this booklet was prepared by the staff of the Office
-of Publications and is based on National Park Service reports
-by William C. Everhart and Arthur L. Sullivan.</i></p>
-<p><i>National Park Handbooks are published to support the National
-Park Service&rsquo;s management programs and to promote understanding
-and enjoyment of the more than 350 National Park
-System sites, which represent important examples of our country&rsquo;s
-natural and cultural inheritance. Each handbook is
-intended to be informative reading and a useful guide before,
-during, and after a park visit. More than 100 titles are in print.
-They are sold at parks and can be purchased by mail from
-the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing
-Office, Washington, DC 20402.</i></p>
-<p><i>Harpers Ferry National Historical Park is administered by the
-National Park Service, US. Department of the Interior. A superintendent,
-whose address is Harpers Ferry, WV 25425, is in
-immediate charge.</i></p>
-</blockquote>
-<h4>Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data</h4>
-<dl class="undent"><dt>United States National Park Service.</dt>
-<dt>John Brown&rsquo;s raid.</dt>
-<dt>National Park Service history series</dt>
-<dt>Supt. of Docs. no.: 129-2: J61/4.</dt>
-<dt>1. Harpers Ferry. W. Va. John Brown Raid. 1859.</dt>
-<dd>I. Title.</dd>
-<dd>II. Series: United States. National Park Service. History series.</dd>
-<dt><span class="wgs">E451.U58 1974 973.7&rsquo;116 73-600184</span></dt></dl>
-<div class="verse">
-<p class="t0">&ldquo;<i>All through the conflict, up and down</i></p>
-<p class="t0"><i>Marched Uncle Tom and Old John Brown,</i></p>
-<p class="t0"><i>One ghost, one form ideal;</i></p>
-<p class="t0"><i>And which was false and which was true,</i></p>
-<p class="t0"><i>And which was mightier of the two,</i></p>
-<p class="t0"><i>The wisest sibyl never knew.</i></p>
-<p class="t0"><i>For both alike were real.</i>&rdquo;</p>
-<p class="lr"><i><span class="small">Oliver Wendell Holmes</span></i></p>
-<p class="lr"><i><span class="small">June 14, 1882</span></i></p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig2">
-<img src="images/i02.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="886" />
-<p class="pcap">This view of Harpers Ferry from Maryland
-Heights in 1859 appeared in <span class="noti">Frank Leslie&rsquo;s
-Illustrated Newspaper</span> shortly after John Brown&rsquo;s
-raid brought the town to national prominence.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_1">1</div>
-<h2 id="c1"><span class="small">JOHN BROWN&rsquo;<sup>S</sup> RAID</span></h2>
-<p>Through the gloom of the night, Sunday, October 16, 1859, a small
-band of men tramped silently behind a horse-drawn wagon down a
-winding Maryland road leading to Harpers Ferry, Va. From the shoulder
-of each man hung loosely a Sharps rifle, hidden by long gray shawls that
-protected the ghostly figures against the chilling air of approaching winter.
-A slight drizzle of rain veiled the towering Blue Ridge Mountains with
-an eerie mist. Not a sound broke the stillness, save the tramping feet
-and the creaking wagon.</p>
-<p>Side by side marched lawyer and farmer, escaped convict and pious
-Quaker, Spiritualist and ex-slave, joined in common cause by a hatred of
-slavery. Some had received their baptism of fire in &ldquo;Bleeding Kansas,&rdquo;
-where a bitter 5-year war between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions left
-death and destruction in its wake and foreshadowed a larger conflict to
-come. Most were students of guerrilla tactics; all were willing to die to
-free the slaves.</p>
-<p>This strange little force, five Negroes and 14 whites, was the
-&ldquo;Provisional Army of the United States,&rdquo; about to launch a fantastic
-scheme to rid the country of its &ldquo;peculiar institution&rdquo; once and for all,
-a scheme conjured up by the fierce-eyed, bearded man seated on the
-wagon&mdash;&ldquo;Commander in Chief&rdquo; John Brown. He was the planner, the
-organizer, the driving force, the reason why these men were trudging down
-this rough Maryland road to an uncertain fate.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_2">2</div>
-<h2 id="c2"><span class="small">THE ROAD TO HARPERS FERRY</span></h2>
-<p>This man who would electrify the Nation and bring it closer to civil
-war by his audacious attack on slavery was born at Torrington, Conn.,
-on May 9, 1800, the son of Owen and Ruth Mills Brown. The Browns
-were a simple, frugal, and hard-working family. They had a deep and
-abiding interest in religion, and from earliest childhood John Brown was
-taught the value of strong religious habits. He was required, along with
-his brothers and sisters, to participate in daily Bible reading and prayer
-sessions. &ldquo;Fear God &amp; keep his commandments&rdquo; was his father&rsquo;s constant
-admonition. It was also his father who taught him to view the enslavement
-of Negroes as a sin against God.</p>
-<div class="img">
-<img src="images/i03.jpg" alt="Owen Brown" width="474" height="600" />
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig3">
-<img src="images/i03a.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="544" />
-<p class="pcap">The future abolitionist and martyr in the cause
-of Negro freedom was born in this stark, shutterless
-farmhouse in Torrington, Conn. He lived
-here only 5 years. In 1805 his father, Owen
-Brown (above), sold the farm and moved the
-family west to Ohio.</p>
-</div>
-<p>In 1805 the Browns, like many other families of the period, moved
-west to Ohio. There, in the little settlement of Hudson, about 25 miles
-south of Cleveland, John grew to manhood. He received little formal
-education; most of what he learned came from what he afterwards called
-the &ldquo;School of adversity.&rdquo; He cared little for studies, preferring life in
-the open. Consistently choosing the &ldquo;hardest &amp; roughest&rdquo; kinds of play
-because they afforded him &ldquo;almost the only compensation for the
-confinement &amp; restraints of school,&rdquo; he was extremely proud of his
-<span class="pb" id="Page_3">3</span>
-ability to &ldquo;wrestle, &amp; Snow ball, &amp; run, &amp; jump, &amp; knock off old seedy
-Wool hats.&rdquo;</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig4">
-<img src="images/i03c.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="361" />
-<p class="pcap">John Brown probably never saw a slave auction, portrayed
-here in an illustration from the 1852 edition of Harriet
-Beecher Stowe&rsquo;s <span class="noti">Uncle Tom&rsquo;s Cabin</span>, but his horror and
-hatred of slavery made its destruction the &ldquo;greatest or
-principle object&rdquo; of his life.</p>
-</div>
-<p>When John was 8 years old his mother died, and for awhile he believed
-that he would never recover from so &ldquo;complete &amp; permanent&rdquo; a loss.
-His father remarried, but John never accepted his stepmother emotionally
-and &ldquo;continued to pine after his own Mother for years.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>An indifferent student, and &ldquo;not ... much of a schollar&rdquo; anyway,
-John quit school and went to work at his father&rsquo;s tannery. Owen Brown,
-who had been a tanner and a shoemaker before moving to Hudson, had
-already taught his son the art of dressing leather from &ldquo;Squirel, Raccoon,
-Cat, Wolf, or Dog Skins,&rdquo; and John soon displayed remarkable ability
-in the trade. When the War of 1812 broke out, Owen contracted to supply
-beef to the American forces in Michigan. He gave John the task of
-rounding up wild steers and other cattle in the woods and then driving
-them, all by himself, to army posts more than 100 miles away. Contact
-with the soldiers and their profanity and lack of discipline so disgusted
-young Brown that he later resolved to pay fines rather than take part in
-the militia drills required of all Hudson males of a certain age.</p>
-<p>It was during the war, or so Brown later claimed, that he first came to
-understand what his father meant about the evil of slavery. He had just
-completed one of his cattle drives and was staying with a &ldquo;very
-gentlemanly landlord&rdquo; who owned a slave about the same age as John.
-The Negro boy was &ldquo;badly clothed, poorly fed ... &amp; beaten before his
-eyes with Iron Shovels or any other thing that came first to hand.&rdquo;
-<span class="pb" id="Page_4">4</span>
-Outraged by this, John returned home &ldquo;a most determined Abolitionist&rdquo;
-swearing &ldquo;Eternal war with Slavery.&rdquo;</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig5">
-<img src="images/i04.jpg" alt="" width="479" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">John Brown had not yet grown his
-famous beard when this picture was
-taken in Kansas in 1856. Though 3 years
-away from the deed that would make
-his name immortal, he had already
-begun his private war against slavery.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig6">
-<img src="images/i04a.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="549" />
-<p class="pcap">Mary Ann Day, Brown&rsquo;s
-loyal and self-sacrificing
-second wife, stoically endured
-her husband&rsquo;s constant
-wanderings in business and
-anti-slavery activities. She
-is shown here about 1851
-with two of their daughters,
-Annie and Sarah.</p>
-</div>
-<p>In 1816 John joined the Congregational Church in Hudson and soon
-developed a strong interest in becoming a minister. For a while he attended
-a divinity school in Plainfield, Mass., then transferred to another school
-in Litchfield, Conn. At that time Litchfield was a center of abolitionist
-sentiment; it was also the birthplace of Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose book
-<span class="noti">Uncle Tom&rsquo;s Cabin</span>, published in 1852, would stir passions North and
-South, win international support for the anti-slavery cause, and help to
-bring on civil war in 1861. How much of Litchfield&rsquo;s abolitionist
-atmosphere young Brown absorbed is not known. A shortage of funds
-and an inflammation of the eyes forced him to return to Ohio in the
-summer of 1817. His dream of becoming a minister was forever shattered,
-but he never lost his religious fervor.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_5">5</div>
-<p>When he was 20 years old, &ldquo;led by his own inclination &amp; prompted
-also by his Father,&rdquo; Brown married Dianthe Lusk, a &ldquo;remarkably plain&rdquo;
-and pious girl a year younger than himself. She died 12 years later, in
-August 1832, following the birth of their seventh child. Brown remarried
-within a year, and fathered 13 children by his second wife, Mary Ann Day.
-In a never-ending struggle to feed and clothe his growing family, Brown
-drifted through Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and
-Massachusetts plying many trades. He worked at tanning, surveying, and
-farming; at times he was shepherd, cattleman, wool merchant, and
-postmaster; for a while he bred race horses and speculated in real estate.
-Uniformly unsuccessful in these ventures, Brown&rsquo;s debts mounted, and
-he was barely able to keep his large family from starvation.</p>
-<p>Despite his frequent business reversals and his strenuous and consuming
-efforts to support his family, Brown never abandoned his intense desire
-to free enslaved Negroes from bondage. His first opportunity to strike a
-blow at the institution he hated so much came in Kansas, where, following
-the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, pro-slavery &ldquo;Border
-Ruffians&rdquo; clashed brutally with anti-slavery &ldquo;Jayhawkers&rdquo; over the
-extension of slavery to Kansas and Nebraska Territories.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig7">
-<img src="images/i04c.jpg" alt="" width="532" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">John Brown, Jr., the oldest of
-Brown&rsquo;s sons, fought alongside his
-father in Kansas. The Pottawatomie
-murders, in which he took no part,
-caused him to suffer a mental collapse
-from which he never fully recovered.
-Nevertheless, in 1859 he was entrusted
-with forwarding the weapons
-for the attack on Harpers Ferry
-from Ohio to Chambersburg, Pa.</p>
-</div>
-<p>Five of Brown&rsquo;s sons&mdash;Owen, Jason, Frederick, Salmon, and John,
-Jr.&mdash;had emigrated to Kansas and joined the free-soil cause. When they
-appealed to their father for help in May 1855, Brown, another son Oliver,
-and son-in-law Henry Thompson rushed to Kansas and plunged into the
-conflict with a fury. As captain of the &ldquo;Liberty Guards,&rdquo; a quasi-militia
-company that he himself formed, Brown shortly gained national notoriety
-as a bold and ruthless leader.</p>
-<p>For the next several years, murders, bushwhackings, lynchings, and
-burnings were common occurrences, and the territory was aptly named
-&ldquo;Bleeding Kansas.&rdquo; Atrocity matched atrocity. When pro-slavery forces
-sacked and burned the town of Lawrence in May 1856, Brown was outraged.
-<span class="pb" id="Page_6">6</span>
-Proclaiming himself an instrument of God&rsquo;s will, he, with four of his
-sons and three others, deliberately and brutally murdered five pro-slavery
-men along the banks of Pottawatomie Creek. In the months that followed,
-Brown terrorized the Missouri-Kansas border by a series of bloody
-guerrilla attacks that brought him to the attention of the Nation&rsquo;s
-abolitionist faction. In late August 1856, about a month before he left
-Kansas, Brown and his men clashed with pro-slavery Missourians at the
-small settlement of Osawatomie. That action earned him the nickname
-&ldquo;Osawatomie&rdquo; and cost him the life of his son Frederick. It also hardened
-his stand against slavery. &ldquo;I have only a short time to live&mdash;only one
-death to die,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and I will die fighting for this cause. There will be
-no more peace in this land until slavery is done for. I will give them
-something else to do than to extend slave territory. I will carry this war
-into Africa.&rdquo;</p>
-<div class="img"><p class="pcap">Three of John Brown&rsquo;s most trusted
-lieutenants in the Harpers Ferry raid:</p></div>
-<div class="img" id="fig8">
-<img src="images/i05.jpg" alt="" width="363" height="500" />
-<p class="pcap">John E. Cook</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig9">
-<img src="images/i05a.jpg" alt="" width="391" height="500" />
-<p class="pcap">Aaron D. Stevens</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig10">
-<img src="images/i05b.jpg" alt="" width="378" height="501" />
-<p class="pcap">John H. Kagi</p>
-</div>
-<p>The attack on Harpers Ferry was the culmination of a plan Brown
-had evolved many years before he went to Kansas. By the early 1850&rsquo;s
-he had come to believe that a location within the slave States should be
-selected where raids on slave plantations could be easily carried out and
-the freed bondsmen sent to safety in the North. Convinced that mountains
-throughout history had enabled the few to defend themselves against the
-many, he believed that even against regular Army troops a small force
-operating from a mountain stronghold could hold out indefinitely and
-provide sanctuary for freed slaves, who would be supplied with arms to
-<span class="pb" id="Page_7">7</span>
-fight for their liberty. Brown had decided, from studying European
-fortifications and military operations, that somewhere along the Allegheny
-Mountain chain a small force could achieve those objectives.</p>
-<p>In the autumn of 1857, on his second trip to Kansas, Brown began
-recruiting his force for the projected raid. Among the first to join him
-were three young veterans of the Kansas fighting: John E. Cook, Aaron D.
-Stevens, and John H. Kagi. Each would play an important role in the
-attack on Harpers Ferry.</p>
-<p>Cook, 27-year-old member of a wealthy Connecticut family, had
-attended Yale University and studied law in New York City before going
-to Kansas in 1855. He stood about 5 feet 5 inches tall, had long, silk-blond
-hair that curled about his neck, and &ldquo;his deep blue eyes were gentle in
-expression as a woman&rsquo;s.&rdquo; Brown&rsquo;s son Salmon, who knew Cook in Ohio
-and Kansas, characterized him as &ldquo;highly erratic&rdquo; in temperament &ldquo;and
-not overly stocked with morality. He was the best pistol-shot I ever
-saw ... [and] just as much of an expert in getting into the good graces
-of the girls.&rdquo; He loved to &ldquo;talk and rattle on about himself.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>Stevens, then 26 years old, was, like Cook, a native of Connecticut.
-He ran away from home at the age of 16 and joined the Massachusetts
-Volunteer Regiment to fight in the Mexican War. Honorably discharged
-at the end of that conflict, he found civilian life so boring that he enlisted
-as a bugler in a United States dragoon regiment in the West and took
-part in several campaigns against the Navaho and Apache Indians. Stevens
-possessed an explosive temper, and at Taos, N. Mex., in the mid-1850&rsquo;s,
-he nearly killed an officer in a drunken brawl and was sentenced to death.
-President Franklin Pierce commuted the sentence to 3 years&rsquo; hard labor
-at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In January 1856 Stevens escaped and
-joined the Free-State cause. As colonel of the Second Kansas Volunteer
-Regiment, he fought in some of the territory&rsquo;s bloodiest battles. Standing
-just over 6 feet tall, Stevens was a powerfully built man who could wield
-a saber with deadly skill. He had black curly hair, &ldquo;black, brooding eyes,&rdquo;
-and a full beard. In his youth he had been a choir boy (his father and
-elder brothers taught singing), had a rich baritone voice, and liked to sing.
-Totally dedicated to the overthrow of slavery, he once told a Kansas
-sheriff: &ldquo;We are in the right, and will resist the universe.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>Kagi, an Ohio lad of 22, was largely self-educated and had taught
-school in Virginia until his abolitionist views got him into trouble with
-local officials and he had to flee the State. Traveling to Kansas in 1856,
-he became a lawyer in Nebraska City. Occasionally he served as a court
-stenographer or shorthand reporter. He also functioned as a correspondent
-for several Eastern newspapers and John Brown dubbed him &ldquo;our Horace
-Greeley.&rdquo; While riding with Stevens&rsquo; Second Kansas Regiment in 1856,
-Kagi was taken prisoner by Federal troops and served 4 months in jail
-before being released on bail. In January 1857 he was shot by a
-pro-slavery judge during a disagreement and was still suffering from his
-wounds when he joined Brown. Tall, with angular features, Kagi was
-usually unkempt, unshaven, and generally unimpressive in appearance;
-but he was articulate and highly intelligent, of serene temperament, and
-not easily aroused. &ldquo;His fertility of resources made him a tower of
-strength to John Brown,&rdquo; wrote George B. Gill, an Iowa youth who signed
-up for the raid but defected before it took place. &ldquo;He was a logician of
-more than ordinary ability. He was full of wonderful vitality and all
-things were fit food for his brain.&rdquo;</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_8">8</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig11">
-<img src="images/i06.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="777" />
-<p class="pcap">Brown&rsquo;s target was the United States
-Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry,
-shown here in an 1857 lithograph.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_10">10</div>
-<p>When he enlisted them, Brown told Cook, Stevens, and Kagi only that
-he was organizing a company of men to resist pro-slavery aggressions.
-He did not tell them where he planned to take them. When seven more
-volunteers joined the group at Tabor, Iowa, he informed his recruits that
-their &ldquo;ultimate destination was the State of Virginia.&rdquo; Shortly afterwards
-the men finally learned that Harpers Ferry was the probable target.
-Kagi, who had once taught school in the area, gave Brown valuable
-information about the town. The place fitted Brown&rsquo;s requirements
-perfectly. It lay near the mountains he counted upon to afford a hiding
-place, and it was on the border of Virginia, a slave State, only 40 miles
-from the free State of Pennsylvania. It also contained an United States
-armory and arsenal, where much-needed arms were stored.</p>
-<p>After a trip to New England to raise funds, Brown called a
-&ldquo;Constitutional Convention&rdquo; of his followers to meet on May 8, 1858, at
-Chatham, Ontario, Canada. Besides Brown&rsquo;s group, 34 Negroes attended
-the meeting and heard the Kansas guerrilla chieftain outline his plan for
-the deliverance of their enslaved brethren. First, he told them, he intended
-to strike at a point in the South. This blow would be followed by a general
-slave uprising in which even free Negroes in the Northern States and
-Canada would flock to his banner. He would lead them into the mountains
-and &ldquo;if any hostile action ... were taken against us, either by the militia
-of the separate States or by the armies of the United States, we purposed
-to defeat first the militia, and next, if it were possible, the troops of the
-United States....&rdquo;</p>
-<p>The convention unanimously adopted a &ldquo;Provisional Constitution
-and Ordinances for the People of the United States&rdquo; to serve as the law
-of the land while the army of liberation instituted a new government&mdash;one
-that would not supplant but exist side-by-side with the U.S. Government
-and which would explicitly prohibit slavery. John Brown was elected
-&ldquo;Commander in Chief&rdquo; of the new provisional army to be formed, other
-officers were appointed, and the convention adjourned. Before leaving
-again for New England to gather supplies and money for the attack,
-Brown sent Cook to Harpers Ferry to act as a spy; the others scattered,
-seeking employment to maintain themselves until called together for the
-march into Virginia.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_11">11</div>
-<div class="img"><p class="pcap">The moral and financial
-backing of these men, known
-as &ldquo;The Secret Six,&rdquo; made
-the raid on Harpers Ferry
-possible.</p></div>
-<div class="img" id="fig12">
-<img src="images/i07.jpg" alt="" width="496" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">Samuel Gridley Howe</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig13">
-<img src="images/i07a.jpg" alt="" width="495" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">Thomas Wentworth Higginson</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig14">
-<img src="images/i07c.jpg" alt="" width="496" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">Franklin B. Sanborn</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig15">
-<img src="images/i07d.jpg" alt="" width="460" height="700" />
-<p class="pcap">George Luther Stearns</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig16">
-<img src="images/i07e.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="601" />
-<p class="pcap">Gerrit Smith</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig17">
-<img src="images/i07f.jpg" alt="" width="504" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">Theodore Parker</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_12">12</div>
-<p>To equip, maintain, and transport the men needed to carry out his
-plan, Brown required a considerable amount of money and weapons. He
-had neither, but because of his Kansas activities, he was able to enlist
-the support of Northern abolitionists in his fight against slavery.
-Philosophers, scholars, religious leaders, philanthropists, and businessmen
-gave freely but discreetly to the cause. Chief among Brown&rsquo;s backers was
-a secret committee of six: Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, Boston, Mass.,
-educator, minister, and reformer; Thomas Wentworth Higginson, militant
-clergyman of Worcester, Mass.; Theodore Parker, Boston&rsquo;s outstanding
-Unitarian minister; Franklin B. Sanborn, editor and schoolmaster of
-Concord, Mass.; Gerrit Smith, former New York Congressman and a great
-Peterboro, N.Y., landowner; and George L. Stearns, industrialist and
-merchant of Medford, Mass. Through them Brown received most of the
-money and weapons that enabled him to launch his attack.</p>
-<h2 id="c3"><span class="small">RENDEZVOUS FOR REVOLUTION</span></h2>
-<p>By the summer of 1859 Harpers Ferry was a quietly thriving little
-industrial and transportation community sitting on a narrow shelf of land
-at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers in the Blue
-Ridge Mountains of northern Virginia. Until its selection as the site for
-a Federal armory at the end of the 18th century, the town&rsquo;s growth had
-been slow. What growth it did experience was due to its location on the
-wilderness route to the Shenandoah Valley. The land on which the town
-sat was first settled in 1733 by a Pennsylvania Dutchman named Peter
-Stephens, who operated a small ferryboat service across the rivers. At that
-time the place was called &ldquo;Peter&rsquo;s Hole&rdquo; because it was dominated by
-three towering bluffs&mdash;Maryland Heights to the north, Loudoun Heights
-to the south, and Bolivar Heights to the west. When Robert Harper, a
-skilled Philadelphia architect and millwright, bought the land in 1747,
-he improved the ferry service and built a gristmill. Around these facilities
-at the base of Bolivar Heights the village of Harpers Ferry gradually
-developed.</p>
-<p>In 1794, when relations between the United States and England were
-strained, Congress grew uneasy over the country&rsquo;s military posture.
-Uncertain of the ordnance-producing capabilities of private manufacturers
-in time of need, it directed President George Washington to establish a
-number of armories where guns could be made and stored. One of the
-sites he chose was Harpers Ferry.</p>
-<p>Washington was well acquainted with Harpers Ferry. As a young man
-during the middle part of the century, he had accompanied surveying
-parties that inspected the vast holdings of the Virginia aristocracy in this
-area. He considered Harpers Ferry &ldquo;the most eligible spot on the
-[Potomac] river&rdquo; for an armory. Abundant water power was available,
-iron ore was plentiful nearby, hardwood forests insured a steady supply
-of charcoal to fuel the forges, and the place was far enough inland to be
-secure from foreign invasion.</p>
-<p>In June 1796 the Government purchased from the Harper heirs a 125-acre
-tract of land and began constructing workshops on the benchland
-between the Potomac River and what would later become Potomac Street.
-Waterpower was harnessed by building a dam upstream from the armory
-<span class="pb" id="Page_13">13</span>
-and channeling the water through a canal into the workshops. Although
-a critical shortage of gunsmiths and ordnance-making machinery restricted
-operations for several years, limited arms production began late in 1798
-under the direction of an English Moravian named Joseph Perkin, the
-armory&rsquo;s first superintendent.</p>
-<p>The first muskets, based on the old French infantry type of 1763,
-were completed in 1801. In 1803 production was expanded to include rifles,
-and 2 years later the manufacture of pistols. (The Model 1805 pistol,
-made at Harpers Ferry, was the first hand weapon to be produced at a
-United States armory.) At first the rate of musket production was meager,
-but by 1810 the armory was turning out 10,000 annually, storing them in
-two arsenal buildings nearby on Shenandoah Street.</p>
-<p>In 1819 John Hall, a Maine gunsmith, received a contract from the
-Federal Government to manufacture 1,000 breech-loading flintlock rifles
-of his own design. Sent to Harpers Ferry, he set up the Hall Rifle Works
-in two buildings on Lower Hall Island, which adjoined Virginius
-Island in the Shenandoah River about &frac12; mile from its junction with the
-Potomac. Hall&rsquo;s rifles were made on so exact a scale that all the parts
-were interchangeable&mdash;a factor that helped to pave the way for modern
-mass production methods. The War Department was elated with Hall&rsquo;s
-success and his contract was repeatedly renewed. When the Hall rifle was
-discontinued in 1844, the Government tore down the old buildings and
-erected a new rifle factory on the same site. Standard U.S. Model rifles
-were produced there until the industry was destroyed, along with the
-armory complex, at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861.</p>
-<p>The abundance of water power that had attracted the arms industry
-soon brought others. Besides the rifle factories on Hall Island, Virginius
-Island boasted an iron foundry, flour mill, cotton mill, and machine shop,
-all powered by water diverted through the island by a dam in the
-Shenandoah River and a series of sluiceways and underground water
-tunnels. More than 200 persons made their home around the prospering
-island industries.</p>
-<p>The formation, development, and expansion of the United States
-Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry (its complete, official designation)
-was the chief stimulus for the growth of the town. From a simple
-beginning the armory by 1859 had spread to include 20 workshops and
-offices, lined in a neat double row over an area 600 yards long. At its
-peak, the armory provided employment for more than 400 men, mostly
-transplanted Northerners whom local residents classified as &ldquo;foreigners.&rdquo;
-In the 65-year history of this major industry, the U.S. Government
-invested nearly $2 million in land, water power improvements, walls and
-embankments, hydraulic machinery, and buildings.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_14">14</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig18">
-<img src="images/i08.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="504" />
-<p class="pcap">HARPERS FERRY AND VICINITY
-1859</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_15">15</div>
-<p>After 1830 Harpers Ferry, already recognized as an important
-industrial center, attained prominence as a vital link in the transportation
-and communications line between the Ohio and Shenandoah Valleys and
-the East. By 1830 a semi-weekly stagecoach service connected the town
-with Washington, D.C. The one-way trip usually required a full day&rsquo;s
-travel. That same year a turnpike company was founded to construct a
-16-mile macadamized toll road from Harpers Ferry to Middleway, 5 miles
-west of Charles Town. A turnpike being built from Frederick, Md., about
-20 miles to the east, reached the town in 1832. Still another turnpike
-company, organized in 1851, ran a road from Harpers Ferry southeastward
-to Hillsborough, about 10 miles away.</p>
-<p>But the signal impetus to the establishment of the town&rsquo;s commercial
-position was the arrival of canal and railroad. Waging a bitter battle to
-reach the rich Ohio Valley and carry its trade to the East, impeding each
-other&rsquo;s progress at every opportunity, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal
-(originating in Washington, D.C.) and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
-(originating in Baltimore, Md.) reached Harpers Ferry in the early 1830&rsquo;s.
-Following the winding Potomac River northward and westward from
-Georgetown, the C &amp; O Canal arrived at Harpers Ferry in November 1833,
-more than a year ahead of its rival. But the railroad pushed on to
-the Ohio Valley while the canal stopped at Cumberland, Md. The
-establishment of these two arteries provided shippers with a cheaper
-carrier for their products and assured travelers of a more efficient and
-economical means of reaching their destinations.</p>
-<p>With the expansion of industry and the development of superior
-transportation facilities, the population of the community swelled to nearly
-3,000 by 1859. Of these about 150 were &ldquo;free coloreds&rdquo; and 150 were
-slaves. The total number of slaves in the entire six-county area around
-Harpers Ferry was just slightly more than 18,000, of which less than
-5,000 were men. There were no large plantations because the land and the
-climate could not sustain a plantation economy. The few slaveholders
-maintained farms, and their blacks were mainly &ldquo;well-kept house-servants.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>Most of the white residents of Harpers Ferry worked at the armory or
-at the manufacturing plants on Virginius Island. Because land was at a
-premium, the houses, saloons, hotels, and shops were tightly aligned along
-Shenandoah, Potomac, and High Streets, and sprawled up the slopes of
-Bolivar Heights. In some places the rocky cliffs were blasted away to
-make room for another building. Most of the homes were of simple design,
-but the Government-built residences of the armory officials were more
-elaborate.</p>
-<p>The inhabitants of the town were chiefly of Irish, English, and German
-descent. Besides building six churches of varying faiths (one of which,
-St. Peter&rsquo;s Catholic Church, is still standing and in use today), they
-established five private girls&rsquo; schools. A man could get a drink at the Gault
-House or take a meal at the Potomac Restaurant or the Wager House.
-If he so desired, he could join the Masons, the Odd Fellows, or the Sons of
-Temperance. Nearly everyone was prosperous. It was a good time for the
-town and its people.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_16">16</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig19">
-<img src="images/i09.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="791" />
-<p class="pcap">This photograph of Harpers Ferry from the Maryland side
-of the Potomac shows the town as it appeared about the
-time of the raid. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge,
-by which John Brown and his raiders entered the village,
-is at the left.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_18">18</div>
-<p>John Brown arrived amidst this prosperity on July 3, 1859. Not yet
-60 years old, the rigors of frontier living had nevertheless left their imprint
-upon him and there were those who said he looked and walked more than
-ever &ldquo;like an old man.&rdquo; In March a Cleveland, Ohio, newspaper had
-described him as &ldquo;a medium-sized, compactly-built and wiry man, and
-as quick as a cat in his movements. His hair is of a salt and pepper hue
-and as stiff as bristles, he has a long, waving, milk-white goatee, which
-gives him a somewhat patriarchal appearance, his eyes are gray and sharp.&rdquo;
-He had grown the beard before his last trip to Kansas in 1858, and it
-covered his square chin and straight, firm mouth, changing his appearance
-markedly. When he arrived in Harpers Ferry the beard had been shortened
-to within an inch and a half of his face, because, his daughter Annie later
-recalled, he thought it &ldquo;more likely to disguise him than a clean face or
-than the long beard.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>With Brown were two of his sons&mdash;34-year-old Owen and 20-year-old
-Oliver&mdash;and Kansas veteran Jeremiah G. Anderson. The 26-year-old,
-Indiana-born Anderson was the grandson of Southern slaveholders and
-had joined the abolitionist cause in 1857 after working several unproductive
-years as a peddler, farmer, and sawyer. Determined to eliminate slavery,
-Anderson once vowed to &ldquo;make this land of liberty and equality shake to
-the centre.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>After consulting briefly with Cook, who had been serving as a
-schoolteacher, book salesman, and canal-lock tender, and had even married
-a local girl since being sent to Harpers Ferry the year before, Brown and
-his three companions took up residence in a private home in Sandy Hook,
-a small village about a mile down the Potomac on the Maryland shore.
-The names they gave their landlord were &ldquo;Isaac Smith &amp; Sons.&rdquo; To
-anyone asking their business in the area, Brown told them they were
-simple farmers looking for good farmland to develop.</p>
-<p>Brown arose early on July 4 and began exploring the Maryland side
-of the Potomac to find a suitable hideout for his raiders. Local inquiry
-led him to a farm owned by the heirs of a Dr. R. F. Kennedy about 5
-miles north of Harpers Ferry. A cursory inspection convinced him that
-the place, though small, was conveniently located and admirably suited
-for concealment. The farm was remote from other settlements, and it was
-surrounded by woods and hidden by undergrowth&mdash;an ideal situation
-for hiding men and supplies from the gaze of inquisitive neighbors.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_19">19</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig20">
-<img src="images/i10.jpg" alt="" width="504" height="800" />
-<p class="pcap">John Brown in May 1859.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_20">20</div>
-<p>For $35 in gold Brown rented the farm, which consisted of two log
-structures, some outbuildings, and a pasture. The main house sat about
-100 yards off the public road connecting Harpers Ferry with
-Boonesborough and Sharpsburg, Md., and contained a basement kitchen
-and storerooms, a second-floor living room and bedrooms, and an attic.
-The second floor was used as kitchen, parlor, and dining room, and the
-attic served as a storeroom, drilling room, and &ldquo;prison&rdquo; to keep the men
-out of sight. Near the farmhouse stood a small cabin that later became a
-storage place and sleeping quarters for some of the raiders.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig21">
-<img src="images/i11.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="535" />
-<p class="pcap">The isolated character of the Kennedy
-farm did not prevent curious
-neighbors from &ldquo;dropping in&rdquo; for a visit.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig22">
-<img src="images/i11a.jpg" alt="" width="438" height="601" />
-<p class="pcap">To help avert suspicion, Brown&rsquo;s
-daughter Annie and Oliver&rsquo;s wife Martha
-(shown here with her husband in 1859)
-lived at the farm while the arms and
-men were being assembled. Martha did
-the cooking and helped Annie with
-household chores.</p>
-</div>
-<p>Brown&rsquo;s chief fear was that neighbors would become suspicious of
-&ldquo;Isaac Smith &amp; Sons&rdquo; and possibly uncover his revolutionary plans.
-Reasoning that nearby families would be less distrustful with women
-<span class="pb" id="Page_21">21</span>
-among the group, he appealed to his wife and daughter Annie at their
-home in North Elba, N.Y., to come live with him, saying that &ldquo;It will be
-likely to prove the most valuable service you can ever render to the world.&rdquo;
-Mrs. Brown was unable to make the long journey, but Annie and Oliver&rsquo;s
-wife Martha did join him in mid-July. Their presence proved of
-inestimable value not only in alleviating suspicion but in contributing to
-the morale of the men. Martha served as cook and housekeeper, preparing
-meals on a wood stove in the upstairs living room; Annie kept constant
-watch for prying neighbors. &ldquo;When I washed dishes,&rdquo; noted Annie many
-years later,</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>I stood at the end of the table where I could see out of the window
-and open door if any one approached the house. I was constantly on
-the lookout while carrying the victuals across the porch, and while
-I was tidying or sweeping the rooms, and always at my post on the
-porch when the men were eating. My evenings were spent on the porch
-or sitting on the stairs, watching or listening.</p>
-</blockquote>
-<div class="img" id="fig23">
-<img src="images/i11c.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="598" />
-<p class="pcap">The Kennedy farmhouse served as the base of operations for
-John Brown&rsquo;s raiders.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig24">
-<img src="images/i11d.jpg" alt="" width="420" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">Annie Brown</p>
-</div>
-<p>His base established, Brown laid plans to assemble his arms and
-supplies and to gather in his followers. On July 10 he wrote to John Kagi
-at Chambersburg, Pa., where an arms depot had been set up, giving him
-directions for forwarding the waiting men and the &ldquo;freight&rdquo;&mdash;200 Sharps
-rifles, an equal number of pistols, and a thousand pikes. The weapons,
-crated in large wooden boxes marked &ldquo;Hardware and Castings,&rdquo; were
-shipped from Ohio to Chambersburg where Kagi sent them by wagon to
-Brown at the Kennedy farm. Supplies were acquired at various places
-between Chambersburg and Harpers Ferry.</p>
-<p>Alone and in twos and threes, Brown&rsquo;s followers began to assemble at
-the farm. Watson Brown arrived on August 6. &ldquo;Tall and rather fair, with
-finely knit frame, athletic and active,&rdquo; the 24-year-old Watson brought
-with him two of his brothers-in-law and North Elba neighbors, William
-and Dauphin Thompson. The Thompsons had not previously taken active
-roles in the anti-slavery movement but they were dedicated abolitionists.
-<span class="pb" id="Page_22">22</span>
-William, 26 years old, was fun-loving and good natured. He had started
-for Kansas in 1856 but turned back before reaching there. His 20-year-old
-brother Dauphin had never been away from home before. Handsome,
-inexperienced, with curly, golden hair and a soft complexion, he seemed
-&ldquo;more like a girl than a warrior&rdquo; and was &ldquo;diffident and quiet.&rdquo; Both
-had come to the Kennedy farm because they were firmly convinced of
-the justness of John Brown&rsquo;s cause.</p>
-<p>Next came Aaron Stevens and Charles Plummet Tidd, a 25-year-old
-former Maine woodsman. Tidd was a Kansas veteran. He had been one
-of the first to join Brown at Tabor, Iowa, in 1857 and had remained one
-of his closest associates ever since. He was quick-tempered, but according
-to Annie Brown, &ldquo;His rages soon passed and then he tried all he could to
-repair damages. He was a fine singer and of strong family affections.&rdquo;</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig25">
-<img src="images/i12.jpg" alt="" width="443" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">Edwin Coppoc</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig26">
-<img src="images/i12a.jpg" alt="" width="439" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">Dauphin Thompson</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig27">
-<img src="images/i12c.jpg" alt="" width="469" height="599" />
-<p class="pcap">Charles Plummer Tidd</p>
-</div>
-<p>Tidd and Stevens were followed by 22-year-old Albert Hazlett, another
-veteran of the Kansas fighting, Canadian-born Stewart Taylor, and two
-brothers from Iowa, Edwin and Barclay Coppoc. Hazlett had worked on
-his brother&rsquo;s farm in western Pennsylvania before joining Brown at the
-Kennedy farm. He was totally committed to the overthrow of slavery.
-&ldquo;I am willing to die in the cause of liberty,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;if I had ten thousand
-lives I would willingly lay them all down for the same cause.&rdquo; Taylor,
-23 years old, was once a wagonmaker. He had met Brown in Iowa in 1858
-and was &ldquo;heart and soul in the anti-slavery cause.&rdquo; Scholarly, a good
-debater, and &ldquo;very fond of studying history,&rdquo; Taylor, like Stevens, was a
-spiritualist and had a premonition that he would die at Harpers Ferry.
-The Coppocs were Quakers by birth and training. They were in Kansas
-during the troubles there but took no part in the fighting. Edwin, at 24,
-<span class="pb" id="Page_23">23</span>
-was 4 years older than his brother Barclay. Both had joined Brown
-initially in 1858 at Springdale, Iowa, where they were living with their
-mother, shortly before the Chatham Convention.</p>
-<p>Twenty-year-old William H. Leeman arrived near the end of August.
-Born and educated in Maine, he had worked in a Haverhill, Mass., shoe
-factory before going to Kansas in 1856 where he served in Brown&rsquo;s
-&ldquo;Liberty Guards&rdquo; militia company. Impulsive, hard to control, the 6-foot-tall
-Leeman &ldquo;smoked a good deal and drank sometimes,&rdquo; but he had &ldquo;a
-good intellect with great ingenuity.&rdquo; Shortly before the raid he wrote his
-mother that he was &ldquo;warring with slavery, the greatest curse that ever
-infected America. We are determined to strike for freedom, incite the slaves
-to rebellion, and establish a free government. With the help of God we
-will carry it through.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>After Leeman came Dangerfield Newby, a mulatto born a slave but
-freed by his Scotch father, and Osborn P. Anderson, a 33-year-old free
-Negro who had worked as a printer before joining Brown in Canada in
-1858. Newby, at 44 the oldest of the group save for Brown himself, had
-a wife and several children in bondage in the South. He came to the
-Kennedy farmhouse convinced that the only way to free them was with
-rifle and bullet. Week after week he would read and reread a worn letter
-from his wife in which she begged him to &ldquo;Buy me and the baby, that
-has just commenced to crawl, as soon as possible, for if you do not get me
-somebody else will.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Emperor&rdquo; Shields Green, a 23-year-old illiterate escaped slave from
-Charleston, S.C., joined up at Chambersburg where Brown had gone in
-mid-August to enlist the aid of the famed Negro abolitionist, orator, and
-journalist, Frederick Douglass. Brown and Douglass had first met at
-Springfield, Mass., in 1847. Since then they had become good friends.
-When the Negro leader learned the details of the planned assault on
-Harpers Ferry, he refused to participate, arguing that an attack on the
-Government would &ldquo;array the whole country&rdquo; against him and antagonize
-the very people to whom the abolitionists looked for support. Moreover,
-Douglass believed that the plan could not succeed, that Brown &ldquo;was going
-into a perfect steel-trap, and that once in he would never get out alive.&rdquo;
-Before leaving, Douglass asked Shields Green, who had accompanied him
-to the meeting, what he intended to do. Green replied simply, &ldquo;I b&rsquo;lieve
-I&rsquo;ll go wid de ole man.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>Life at the Kennedy farm was wearing and tedious. Brown&rsquo;s most
-trying task was to keep his slowly increasing force occupied and out of
-sight. Forced to remain in the two small buildings during the day, the
-men had little to do. The long summer days were mostly spent reading
-magazines, telling stories, arguing politics and religion, and playing
-checkers and cards. They drilled frequently and studied the art of guerrilla
-warfare from a specially prepared military manual.</p>
-<p>Meals were served downstairs in the farmhouse, with Annie and
-Martha standing guard while the men ate. After breakfast each morning,
-John Brown would read from the Bible and utter a short prayer.
-<span class="pb" id="Page_24">24</span>
-Occasionally he would travel into Harpers Ferry to pick up a Baltimore
-newspaper to which he subscribed or to purchase flour from the mill on
-Virginius Island. If a neighbor arrived unexpectedly during mealtime,
-the men would gather up the food, dishes, and table cloth and carry them
-to the attic.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig28">
-<img src="images/i13.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="509" />
-<p class="pcap">Famed Negro abolitionist Frederick Douglass supported Brown&rsquo;s
-Kansas activities but warned him against attacking Harpers Ferry.
-Douglass refused to participate in the raid, but his friend Shields Green
-decided to go with Brown.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig29">
-<img src="images/i13a.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="524" />
-<p class="pcap">Shields Green.</p>
-</div>
-<p>At night the men could go outdoors for fresh air and exercise.
-Thunderstorms were especially welcomed, for then they could move about
-with little fear of making noise. These brief interludes served to release
-tensions built up during long periods of confinement and inactivity, but
-the secret living in such close quarters proved almost too much to bear.
-Restiveness and irritations were bound to occur. Twice there was a near
-revolt against the planned raid. On one occasion Tidd became so infuriated
-that he left the farm and stayed with Cook in Harpers Ferry for 3 days.
-So serious was the opposition that Brown tendered his resignation as
-commander in chief. He withdrew it only after the men gave him a renewed
-vote of confidence.</p>
-<p>As September ended and the time for the attack approached, Annie
-and Martha were sent back to North Elba. Brown and his men busied
-themselves overhauling the rifles and pistols and attaching pike-heads to
-shafts. The pikes were Brown&rsquo;s own idea. Preparing for a return to Kansas
-in 1857, he had negotiated with a Connecticut blacksmith to manufacture
-1,000 of these weapons&mdash;a two-edged dirk with an iron blade 8 inches
-long fastened to a 6-foot ash handle. Originally they were intended for
-the defense of free-soil settlers in Kansas, but Brown was unable to pay
-for them until the spring of 1859, when he made final arrangements to use
-them at Harpers Ferry. Knowing that most of the slaves he expected to
-join him were unskilled in the use of firearms, he decided they could
-<span class="pb" id="Page_25">25</span>
-handle a pike. A thousand men armed with pikes and backed by Brown&rsquo;s
-more experienced &ldquo;soldiers&rdquo; could constitute a formidable army.</p>
-<p>Because so many people knew about Brown&rsquo;s intentions, it was
-inevitable that the secrecy would be broken. In late August Secretary of
-War John B. Floyd received an unsigned letter reporting &ldquo;the existence
-of a secret association, having for its object the liberation of the slaves at
-the South by a general insurrection.&rdquo; Brown was named as its leader and
-&ldquo;an armory in Maryland&rdquo; its immediate objective. Because the informant
-mistakenly placed the armory in Maryland instead of Virginia and
-because Floyd could not bring himself to believe such a scheme could be
-entertained by citizens of the United States, the Secretary put the letter
-away and forgot about it until subsequent events reminded him of the
-warning.</p>
-<p>October arrived. Still Brown delayed, hoping that more men would
-come. Many upon whom he had counted failed to join him for a variety
-of reasons. Even two of his sons, Jason and Salmon, refused to participate.
-Though disappointed, Brown realized that the longer he delayed, the
-greater were the chances that his plan would be discovered and thwarted.
-Finally, on October 15, with the arrival of 22-year-old Francis J. Meriam
-and two Ohio Negroes, John Copeland and Lewis S. Leary, both 25, the
-ranks of the &ldquo;Provisional Army of the United States&rdquo; were completed.
-In all there were 21 men besides the commander in chief. Of these, 19
-were under 30, three not yet 21. Brown could wait no longer. Calling his
-men together, he announced that the attack would take place the next
-night, October 16, and cautioned them about the needless taking of human
-life:</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>You all know how dear life is to you ... consider that the lives of
-others are as dear to them as yours are to you; do not, therefore, take
-the life of anyone if you can possibly avoid it, but if it is necessary
-to take life in order to save your own, then make short work of it.</p>
-</blockquote>
-<h2 id="c4"><span class="small">TO FREE THE SLAVES</span></h2>
-<p>The daylight hours of Sunday, October 16, 1859, were quiet ones at
-the Kennedy farm as the long period of inactivity and uncertainty neared
-its climax. Early in the morning John Brown held worship services, the
-impending attack invoking &ldquo;deep solemnity&rdquo; upon the gathering. After
-breakfast and roll call a final meeting was held and instructions were
-given. Then everything was in readiness.</p>
-<p>About 8 p.m. Brown turned to his followers. &ldquo;Men,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;get on
-your arms; we will proceed to the Ferry.&rdquo; The men, ready for hours, slung
-their Sharps rifles over their shoulders, concealing them under long, gray
-shawls that served as overcoats, and waited for the order to march. A
-horse and wagon were brought to the door of the farmhouse. In the wagon
-the men placed a few items that might be needed for the work ahead:
-a sledge hammer, a crowbar, and several pikes. Owen Brown, Barclay
-Coppoc, and Meriam were detailed to remain at the farm as a rearguard.
-<span class="pb" id="Page_26">26</span>
-In the morning they were to bring the rest of the weapons nearer the
-town where they could be passed out to the slave army Brown expected
-to raise.</p>
-<p>Donning his battered old Kansas cap, symbol of the violence to which
-he had contributed in that strife-torn territory, Brown mounted the wagon
-and motioned his men to move out. From the farmhouse the group moved
-down the lane and onto the road leading to Harpers Ferry. Tidd and
-Cook, who were best acquainted with the route, preceded the main body
-as scouts. Upon reaching the town they were to cut the telegraph lines on
-both the Maryland and Virginia sides of the Potomac.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig30">
-<img src="images/i14.jpg" alt="" width="446" height="601" />
-<p class="pcap">Owen Brown</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig31">
-<img src="images/i14a.jpg" alt="" width="447" height="610" />
-<p class="pcap">Francis J. Meriam</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig32">
-<img src="images/i14e.jpg" alt="" width="437" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">Barclay Coppoc</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig33">
-<img src="images/i14f.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="385" />
-<p class="pcap">Brown used this schoolhouse near Harpers
-Ferry as an arsenal after the raid began.
-The drawing was made about 1859 by
-David Hunter Strother, known to
-readers of <span class="noti">Harper&rsquo;s New Monthly Magazine</span>
-as &ldquo;Porte Crayon,&rdquo; one of the most popular
-illustrators of mid-19th century America.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_27">27</div>
-<p>For more than 2 hours the men tramped along behind the wagon,
-strictly adhering to Brown&rsquo;s order to maintain silence. About 10:30 p.m.
-they reached the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge that would carry
-them into Harpers Ferry. It was a long wooden-covered structure that
-spanned the Potomac River a little upstream from where the Shenandoah
-comes spilling in from the south. Kagi and Stevens entered first and
-encountered watchman William Williams, who approached with a lantern.
-They quickly took Williams prisoner. The rest of the raiders, except for
-Watson Brown and Stewart Taylor who were told to stay on the Maryland
-side as a rearguard, fastened cartridges boxes to the outside of their
-clothing for ready access and followed the wagon onto the bridge.</p>
-<p>Crossing quickly, the raiders stepped from the tunnel&rsquo;s black throat
-into the slumbering town. Before them lay a large structure that doubled
-as the railroad depot and the Wager House. Just beyond, to the left, was
-the U.S. Arsenal buildings where thousands of guns were stored. To the
-right the armory shops stretched in a double row along the Potomac.
-Brown turned the horse and wagon toward the armory.</p>
-<p>Daniel Whelan, the armory&rsquo;s nightwatchman, heard the wagon coming
-down the street from the depot. Thinking it was the head watchman, he
-came out from his station in the fire enginehouse (a one-story, two-room
-brick building that doubled as a guard post just inside the armory
-grounds) to find several rifles pointed at him. &ldquo;Open the gate!&rdquo; someone
-yelled. Out of sheer cussedness, or perhaps fright, Whelan refused. One
-of the raiders took the crowbar from the wagon and twisted it in the chain
-until the lock snapped. The gate was thrown open and the wagon rolled
-into the yard. To his prisoners, Whelan and Williams, Brown announced
-his purpose:</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>I came here from Kansas, and this is a slave state; I want to free
-all the Negroes in this state; I have possession now of the United
-States armory, and if the citizens interfere with me I must only burn
-the town and have blood.</p>
-</blockquote>
-<p>Once in control of the armory, Brown detailed his men to other
-objectives. Oliver Brown and William Thompson were sent to watch the
-bridge across the Shenandoah River, while Hazlett and Edwin Coppoc
-moved into the unguarded arsenal. Another group of raiders under Stevens
-made its way down Shenandoah Street to the rifle factory on Lower Hall
-Island. Again the watchman was surprised and easily captured. Telling
-Kagi and Copeland to watch the rifle works&mdash;Leary would join them
-later&mdash;Stevens marched the watchman and several young men picked up
-on the street back to the armory grounds.</p>
-<p>So far Brown&rsquo;s occupation of the town had been quiet and peaceful.
-It did not last. About midnight another watchman, Patrick Higgins, a
-Sandy Hook resident, arrived at the Maryland end of the B &amp; O bridge
-to relieve Williams. Finding the structure dark he called out loudly; he
-was answered quietly by Taylor and Watson Brown, who took him
-prisoner. As he was being escorted across the bridge, Higgins suddenly
-<span class="pb" id="Page_28">28</span>
-lashed out, struck Brown in the face, and raced toward the town. Taylor
-fired after him. The ball grazed the watchman&rsquo;s scalp, but he reached
-the Wager House safely. The first shot of the raid had been fired.</p>
-<p>About this same time Stevens led several raiders on a special mission to
-capture Col. Lewis W. Washington, the 46-year-old great-grandnephew
-of George Washington. The colonel, a small but prosperous planter, lived
-near Halltown just off the Charles Town Turnpike about 5 miles west of
-Harpers Ferry. He owned a pistol presented to General Washington by
-the Marquis de Lafayette and a sword reportedly presented by the
-Prussian King Frederick the Great. Brown wanted these weapons. When
-he struck the first blow to free the slaves he rather fancied the idea of
-wearing the sword and brandishing the pistol once owned by the man who
-had led the fight to free the American colonists from a similar kind of
-tyranny.</p>
-<p>Battering down Washington&rsquo;s door, Stevens, Tidd, Cook, and three
-Negroes&mdash;Anderson, Leary, and Green&mdash;summoned the colonel from his
-bed. Washington offered no resistance. Calmly surrendering the sword and
-pistol, he then dressed and climbed into his carriage for the trip to Harpers
-Ferry. The raiders and Washington&rsquo;s three slaves crammed into the
-colonel&rsquo;s four-horse farm wagon and followed along behind the carriage.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig34">
-<img src="images/i15.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="629" />
-<p class="pcap">&ldquo;Beallair,&rdquo; the home of Col. Lewis Washington.
-Late on the night of October 16, several raiders broke
-into this house in search of a pistol and sword
-once owned by the colonel&rsquo;s great grand-uncle,
-George Washington. Colonel Washington (inset) was taken hostage.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_29">29</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig35">
-<img src="images/i15a.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="628" />
-<p class="pcap">HARPERS FERRY 1859</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_30">30</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig36">
-<img src="images/i16.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="636" />
-<p class="pcap">HARPERS FERRY 1859</p>
-</div>
-<dl class="undent pcap"><dt>LEGEND</dt>
-<dd>A Armory Employee Dwellings</dd>
-<dd>P Private Dwellings</dd>
-<dd>V Vacant at Time of Raid</dd></dl>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_31">31</div>
-<p>On the way the procession stopped at the home of another slaveholder,
-John Allstadt, just west of Bolivar Heights. Again using a fence rail to
-gain entrance, the raiders forced Allstadt and his 18-year-old son into the
-wagon while the terror-stricken women of the house shrieked &ldquo;Murder!&rdquo;
-from the upstairs windows. Allstadt&rsquo;s four slaves were also added to the
-group.</p>
-<p>While Stevens&rsquo; party was gathering hostages, the first note of
-tragedy was sounded. At 1:25 a.m. the Baltimore and Ohio passenger train
-eastbound for Baltimore arrived at Harpers Ferry and was stopped by a
-clerk from the Wager House who told conductor A. J. Phelps of the recent
-&ldquo;startling&rdquo; events. Phelps refused to allow the train to cross the bridge
-until it had been checked, and he sent engineer William McKay and
-baggagemaster Jacob Cromwell out to investigate. They were halted by
-Brown&rsquo;s guards, who turned them back at gunpoint.</p>
-<p>Hayward Shepherd, the station baggageman, heard the commotion and
-walked out to see what was going on. Shepherd, a free Negro, was highly
-respected and well-liked by all who knew him. As he approached the
-bridge a raider told him to halt. Instead, Shepherd turned around and
-started back toward the station. A shot rang out and he fell gravely
-wounded. He dragged himself back to the station where he died the next
-afternoon. The first person to die at the hands of the men who had come to
-free the slaves was, in fact, a Negro already free.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig37">
-<img src="images/i16a.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="526" />
-<p class="pcap">&ldquo;Porte Crayon&rsquo;s&rdquo; drawing of Hayward Shepherd,
-the free Negro baggageman killed by one of
-Brown&rsquo;s men on October 17, is the only known
-portrait of this tragic figure.</p>
-</div>
-<p>Between 4 and 5 a.m. the caravan containing Colonel Washington and
-the Allstadts arrived at the armory. Brown armed the frightened slaves
-with pikes and told them to guard the prisoners, who were placed in the
-enginehouse and now numbered about a half-dozen. &ldquo;Keep these white
-men inside,&rdquo; he said. Turning to Washington, Brown explained that he had
-taken him hostage because &ldquo;as the aid to the Governor of Virginia, I knew
-you would endeavor to perform your duty, and perhaps you would have
-been a troublesome customer to me; and, apart from that, I wanted you
-particularly for the moral effect it would give our cause, having one of your
-name our prisoner.&rdquo; As dawn approached the number of Brown&rsquo;s prisoners
-increased as unsuspecting armory employees reporting for work were
-seized as they passed through the gate. Perhaps as many as 40 hostages
-were eventually jammed into the two rooms of the enginehouse.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_32">32</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig38">
-<img src="images/i17.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="795" />
-<p class="pcap">Brown kept his growing number of hostages in the fire
-enginehouse at left, just inside the entrance to the U.S.
-Armory grounds. The machine shops where the muskets
-were assembled are at the right.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_34">34</div>
-<p>Near dawn, John Cook, with two raiders and a handful of pike-carrying
-Negroes, took the wagon across the bridge into Maryland to bring the
-weapons closer to the town to arm the hundreds of slaves soon expected
-to join the fight. The rest of Brown&rsquo;s &ldquo;army&rdquo; settled down at their posts
-in the waning darkness to await the coming of day, the last for many
-of them.</p>
-<p>Thus far the citizens of Harpers Ferry had offered no resistance to the
-invasion of their town, primarily because most of the townspeople knew
-nothing of what was taking place. At the first streak of daylight, Dr. John
-Starry, a 35-year-old local physician who had maintained an all-night
-vigil beside the dying Hayward Shepherd, began to alert the people to the
-danger. After arousing the residents of Virginius Island, he rode to warn
-Acting Armory Superintendent A. M. Kitzmiller. Next he ordered the
-Lutheran Church bell rung to assemble the citizens and ascertain what
-arms were available for defense. Then he sent a messenger off to
-Shepherdstown and another to Charles Town to alert their militia
-companies of the armed occupation of Harpers Ferry.</p>
-<p>Among the townspeople there were only one or two squirrel rifles and
-a few shotguns, none of which were really fit for use. All other weapons
-were in the arsenal buildings, and they were occupied by the raiders.
-Knowing it would be futile to confront Brown&rsquo;s men unarmed, Dr.
-Starry headed for Charles Town, 8 miles away, to hurry its militia along.
-But no prompting was necessary. To Charles Town residents the news
-from Harpers Ferry was frightening, for it awakened memories of the 1831
-Nat Turner slave rebellion in Virginia&rsquo;s tidewater region when more than
-50 whites, mostly women and children, were murdered before the bloody
-uprising was put down. The Jefferson Guards and another hastily formed
-company would march as soon as possible.</p>
-<p>At daylight on October 17 Brown allowed the B &amp; O passenger train
-to continue its journey to Baltimore. Conductor Phelps wasted no time in
-sounding the alarm. At Monocacy, Md., at 7:05 a.m. he telegraphed his
-superiors about the night&rsquo;s events, adding:</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>They say they have come to free the slaves and intend to do it
-<span class="pb" id="Page_35">35</span>
-at all hazards. The leader of those men requested me to say to
-you that this is the last train that shall pass the bridge either East
-or West. If it is attempted it will be at the peril of the lives of
-those having them in charge.... It has been suggested you had
-better notify the Secretary of War at once. The telegraph lines are
-cut East and West of Harper&rsquo;s Ferry and this is the first station
-that I could send a dispatch from.</p>
-</blockquote>
-<p>John W. Garrett, president of the railroad, saw the message when it came
-in and immediately sent word to President James Buchanan and Virginia
-Governor Henry A. Wise. At the same time he alerted Maj. Gen. George
-H. Stewart, commanding Baltimore&rsquo;s First Light Division of the Maryland
-Volunteers. Word was also flashed to Frederick, Md., and that town&rsquo;s
-militia was soon under arms.</p>
-<p>By 7 a.m. the residents of Harpers Ferry had discovered a supply of
-guns in a building overlooked by the raiders, and some of the townspeople
-began to move against Brown and his men. Alexander Kelly, armed with
-a shotgun, approached the corner of High and Shenandoah Streets, about
-100 yards from the armory. Before he could fire, several bullets whizzed
-past his head, one putting a hole through his hat. Shortly afterwards,
-groceryman Thomas Boerly, a man of great physical strength and
-courage, approached the same corner and opened fire on a group of
-Brown&rsquo;s men standing in the arsenal yard, diagonally across the street
-from the armory gate. A return bullet knocked him down with a &ldquo;ghastly&rdquo;
-wound, from which he soon died.</p>
-<p>A lull followed the shooting of Boerly. Brown, having made no
-provision to feed his men and hostages, released Walter Kemp, an infirm
-Wager House bartender captured earlier, in exchange for 45 breakfasts.
-But when the food came, few ate it. Many, including Washington, Allstadt,
-and Brown himself, feared it had been drugged or poisoned.</p>
-<p>Meanwhile, Kagi, still at the rifle factory, was anxiously sending
-messages to Brown urging him to leave Harpers Ferry while they still had
-the chance. Brown ignored the pleas and continued to direct operations
-with no apparent thought that outside forces would be moving against him
-once the alarm had spread. Why, is anybody&rsquo;s guess. Up until noon of
-October 17, despite the erratic fire from the townspeople, the raiders could
-have fought their way to safety in the mountains. Instead, Brown waited,
-doing nothing. By mid-day it was too late, and the jaws of the &ldquo;steel-trap&rdquo;
-foreseen by Frederick Douglass closed swiftly.</p>
-<h2 id="c5"><span class="small">THE TIGER CAGED</span></h2>
-<p>The Charles Town militia, consisting of the regular company of the
-Jefferson Guards and a specially formed volunteer company, was armed
-and on its way by train to Harpers Ferry by 10 a.m. The militia
-commander, Col. John T. Gibson, had not waited for orders from
-Richmond but had set out as soon as the men could be gotten ready.
-<span class="pb" id="Page_36">36</span>
-Arriving at Halltown, about midway between Charles Town and Harpers
-Ferry, Gibson, fearing the track ahead might be torn up, took the militia
-off the train and marched by road to Allstadt&rsquo;s Crossroads west of
-Bolivar Heights.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig39">
-<img src="images/i18.jpg" alt="" width="373" height="500" />
-<p class="pcap">Watson Brown</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig40">
-<img src="images/i18a.jpg" alt="" width="434" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">William Thompson</p>
-</div>
-<p>At Allstadt&rsquo;s, Gibson divided his force. He sent Mexican War veteran
-Capt. J. W. Rowan with the Jefferson Guards in a wide sweep to the west
-of Harpers Ferry to capture the B &amp; O bridge. Gibson himself would take
-the volunteer company on into town. Rowan&rsquo;s men crossed the Potomac
-about a mile above Harpers Ferry and, advancing along the towpath of the
-Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, arrived at the Maryland end of the bridge
-by noon. With little difficulty they drove its defenders&mdash;Oliver Brown,
-William Thompson, and Dangerfield Newby&mdash;back toward the armory
-yard. Only Brown and Thompson made it. Newby, the ex-slave who had
-joined John Brown to free his wife and children, was killed by a 6-inch
-spike fired from a smoothbore musket. He was the first of the raiders to die.</p>
-<p>In the meantime, Colonel Gibson&rsquo;s force had arrived in Harpers Ferry
-and he sent a detachment of citizens under Capt. Lawson Botts, a Charles
-Town attorney, to secure the Gault House Saloon at the rear of the arsenal
-and commanding the Shenandoah bridge and the entrance to the armory
-yard. Another detachment under Capt. John Avis, the Charles Town jailer,
-took up positions in houses along Shenandoah Street from which to fire
-into the arsenal grounds.</p>
-<p>The attack of the Charles Town militia cut off Brown&rsquo;s escape route
-and separated him from his men in Maryland and those still holding the
-rifle factory. At last, perhaps realizing the hopelessness of his situation,
-Brown sought a truce. But when hostage Rezin Cross and raider William
-<span class="pb" id="Page_37">37</span>
-Thompson emerged from the enginehouse under a white flag, the
-townspeople ignored the flag, seized Thompson, and dragged him off to the
-Wager House where he was kept under guard.</p>
-<p>Still not convinced, Brown tried again. This time he sent his son
-Watson and Aaron Stevens with Acting Armory Superintendent Kitzmiller,
-taken hostage earlier in the day. As the trio marched onto the street and
-came opposite the Galt House, several shots rang out and both raiders fell.
-Stevens, severely wounded, lay bleeding in the street; Watson Brown,
-mortally wounded, dragged himself back to the enginehouse. Joseph Brua,
-one of the hostages, volunteered to aid the wounded Stevens. As bullets
-richocheted off the flagstone walk, Brua walked out, lifted up the wounded
-raider, and carried him to the Wager House for medical attention. Then,
-incredibly, he strolled back to the enginehouse and again took his place
-among Brown&rsquo;s prisoners. Kitzmiller escaped.</p>
-<p>About the time Stevens and Watson Brown were shot, raider William
-Leeman attempted to escape. Dashing through the upper end of the
-armory yard, he plunged into the frigid Potomac, comparatively shallow
-at this point, and made for the Maryland shore. Soon spotted, a shower
-of bullets hit the water around him and he was forced to take refuge on
-an islet in the river. G. A. Schoppert, a Harpers Ferry resident, waded
-out to where Leeman lay marooned, pointed a pistol at his head, and
-pulled the trigger. For the rest of the day Leeman&rsquo;s body was a target for
-the undisciplined militia and townspeople.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig41">
-<img src="images/i18e.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="448" />
-<p class="pcap">Oliver Brown, William Thompson, and Dangerfield Newby
-were forced to abandon their post at the Maryland end of
-the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge when they were
-attacked by the Jefferson Guards. Brown and Thompson
-reached the armory grounds safely, but Newby (below) was
-shot and killed as he came off the bridge.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img">
-<img src="images/i18f.jpg" alt="Dangerfield Newby" width="436" height="601" />
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_38">38</div>
-<p>When a raider shot and killed George W. Turner about 2 p.m., the
-crowd grew ugly. Turner, a West Point graduate, was a prominent and
-highly respected area planter. When Fontaine Beckham, the mayor of
-Harpers Ferry and agent for the B &amp; O Railroad, was killed, the
-townspeople turned into a howling, raging mob.</p>
-<p>Beckham, a well-liked man of somewhat high-strung temperament, had
-been greatly disturbed by the earlier shooting of Hayward Shepherd, his
-friend and faithful helper at the depot. Despite warnings from friends to
-keep away, Beckham, unarmed, walked out on the railroad to see what
-was going on. He paced up and down the B &amp; O trestle bordering the
-armory yard about 30 yards from the enginehouse. Several raiders spotted
-him peering around the water tower in front of their stronghold and
-thought that he was placing himself in position to fire through the doors.
-Edwin Coppoc, posted at the doorway of the enginehouse, leveled his
-rifle at the mayor.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t fire, man, for God&rsquo;s sake!&rdquo; screamed one of the hostages.
-&ldquo;They&rsquo;ll shoot in here and kill us all.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>Coppoc ignored the warning and pulled the trigger. Beckham fell, a
-bullet through his heart. Oliver Brown, standing beside Coppoc in the
-partly opened doorway, aimed his rifle at another man on the trestle, but
-before he could fire he keeled over with &ldquo;a mortal wound that gave horrible
-pain.&rdquo; Both of Brown&rsquo;s sons now lay dying at their father&rsquo;s feet.</p>
-<p>Enraged by the shooting of Beckham, the townspeople turned on
-prisoner William Thompson. Led by Harry Hunter, a young Charles Town
-volunteer and the grandnephew of the murdered mayor, a group of men
-stormed into the Wager House, grabbed Thompson, and dragged him out
-onto the B &amp; O bridge. &ldquo;You may kill me but it will be revenged,&rdquo;
-Thompson yelled; &ldquo;there are eighty thousand persons sworn to carry out
-this work.&rdquo; These were his last words. The mob shot him several times and
-tossed his body into the Potomac to serve, like Leeman&rsquo;s, as a target for
-the remainder of the day.</p>
-<p>While Brown&rsquo;s situation at the fire enginehouse was growing
-progressively worse, his three-man detachment holding the rifle works came
-under fire. Under Kagi&rsquo;s leadership these men had held the works
-uncontested during the morning and early afternoon. About 2:30 p.m.
-Dr. Starry organized a party of &ldquo;citizens and neighbors&rdquo; and launched
-an attack against the raiders from Shenandoah Street. After a brief
-exchange of shots, Kagi, Lewis Leary, and John Copeland dashed out the
-back of the building, scrambled across the Winchester and Potomac
-Railroad tracks, and waded into the shallow Shenandoah River. Some
-townspeople posted on the opposite bank spotted the fleeing men and
-opened fire. The raiders, caught in a crossfire, made for a large flat rock
-in the middle of the river. Kagi, Brown&rsquo;s most trusted and able
-lieutenant, was killed in the attempt and Leary was mortally wounded.
-<span class="pb" id="Page_39">39</span>
-Copeland reached the rock only to be dragged ashore, where the excited
-crowd screamed &ldquo;Lynch him! Lynch him!&rdquo; But Dr. Starry intervened,
-and the frightened Negro was hustled off to jail.</p>
-<p>At the enginehouse, the raiders continued to exchange occasional shots
-with the Charles Town militia and the townspeople. By now Brown had
-separated his prisoners. Eleven of the more important hostages who might
-be used for bargaining purposes were moved into the engineroom with his
-dwindling band, while the others remained crowded into the tiny guardroom.
-The two rooms were separated by a solid brick wall.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig42">
-<img src="images/i19.jpg" alt="" width="442" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">Lewis S. Leary</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig43">
-<img src="images/i19a.jpg" alt="" width="455" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">William H. Leeman</p>
-</div>
-<p>About 3 p.m., shortly after the raiders were driven out of the rifle
-works, a militia company arrived by train from Martinsburg, Va. Headed
-by Capt. E. G. Alburtis and comprised mostly of B &amp; O Railroad
-employees, this company marched on the enginehouse from the upper end
-of the armory yard and came close to ending the raid. Brown positioned
-his men in front of the building to meet the attack. Alburtis&rsquo; contingent,
-advancing briskly and maintaining a steady fire, forced the raiders back
-inside. Smashing the windows of the guardroom, the militiamen freed the
-prisoners but were forced to withdraw after eight of their number were
-wounded from the constant fire pouring from the partly opened
-enginehouse door. Alburtis later complained that had his men been
-supported by the other militia companies present, John Brown&rsquo;s raid
-would have been ended.</p>
-<p>Other militia units now began to arrive. Between 3 and 4 p.m. the
-Hamtramck Guards and the Shepherdstown Troop, both from
-Shepherdstown, Va., came in. At dusk three uniformed companies from
-Frederick, Md., appeared, followed later in the evening by a Winchester,
-Va., company under R. B. Washington, and five companies of the
-Maryland Volunteers under General Stewart from Baltimore. None of
-them made any attempt to dislodge Brown and his men from the
-enginehouse, but all added to the general confusion and hysteria gripping
-the town.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_40">40</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig44">
-<img src="images/i20.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="799" />
-<p class="pcap">The attack on the enginehouse by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
-employees led by Capt. E. G. Alburtis is shown in this contemporary
-engraving from <span class="noti">Frank Leslie&rsquo;s Illustrated Newspaper</span>. Alburtis&rsquo;
-attack failed to dislodge the raiders, but his men did manage to
-free several of Brown&rsquo;s hostages.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_42">42</div>
-<p>On the other side of the Potomac, Cook, Owen Brown, Barclay Coppoc,
-Meriam, Tidd, and several Negroes had been transferring weapons to a
-tiny schoolhouse midway between Harpers Ferry and the Kennedy farm.
-As the day wore on and the firing from town became heavier, they began
-to suspect that something might have gone wrong. At about 4 p.m. Cook
-headed for the B &amp; O bridge to see what was happening. To get a better
-vantage point, he climbed the craggy face of Maryland Heights where he
-could look directly into the center of the town. Seeing that his compatriots
-were &ldquo;completely surrounded,&rdquo; he decided to try to take some of the
-pressure off by firing across the river at men posted in the houses along
-High Street overlooking the armory. His shot was instantly answered by a
-volley of bullets that severed a branch he was clutching for support and
-sent him tumbling down the rocky cliff. Badly cut and bruised from the
-fall, he limped back to the schoolhouse and joined the others. Realizing
-there was nothing they could do to aid their comrades trapped in the
-enginehouse, they reluctantly gathered their belongings, climbed the
-mountain and headed north.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig45">
-<img src="images/i21a.jpg" alt="" width="432" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">Stewart Taylor</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig46">
-<img src="images/i21b.jpg" alt="" width="436" height="599" />
-<p class="pcap">John A. Copeland</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig47">
-<img src="images/i21d.jpg" alt="" width="444" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">Jeremiah G. Anderson</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_43">43</div>
-<p>Time was quickly running out for John Brown. As resistance became
-partially organized at Harpers Ferry, steps were taken to seal off any
-possibility of support reaching the raiders. Fearing that Brown&rsquo;s raid might
-be part of a general uprising, all approaches to the town were guarded,
-and all travelers not familiar to residents of the area were immediately
-arrested and shipped off to the county jail at Charles Town.</p>
-<p>As night approached, the firing sputtered out. Brown, knowing escape
-was impossible, again attempted to bargain for freedom. In verbal and
-written pleas he offered to release his hostages if he and his
-men were allowed to leave unmolested. Col. Robert W. Taylor, now
-commanding the Virginia militia units at Harpers Ferry, rejected the
-offers, sending back word that if the prisoners were immediately released
-he would let the Government deal with Brown and his men. But the old
-abolitionist would not yield, and prisoners, slaves, and raiders alike settled
-down, as best they could, to what would be a long and depressing night.</p>
-<p>Brown paced up and down like a caged tiger. It had been hours since
-he or any of them had tasted food or drink. The cold night air chilled
-their bones and the pungent odor of gunpowder stung their nostrils. The
-large-scale slave support that he had counted upon and for which the
-pikes were intended had not materialized. This was largely his own doing,
-however, for in his desire for absolute secrecy he had given no advance
-word that he was coming. The slaves had no idea that a raid was in
-progress. The few his men had picked up at the Washington and Allstadt
-farms were of no use to him. They were frightened and preferred to
-remain with the white hostages rather than take an active part in their own
-salvation. Most likely they would not have joined him at all had they not
-been taken from their homes at gunpoint.</p>
-<p>From time to time Brown called out, &ldquo;Men, are you awake?&rdquo; Only
-five of the raiders were still unwounded and able to hold a rifle: Brown
-himself, Edwin Coppoc, J. G. Anderson, Dauphin Thompson, and Shields
-Green. Stewart Taylor, the Canadian soldier of fortune, lay dead in a
-corner, his presentiment of death come true. He had been shot like Oliver
-Brown while standing at the enginehouse doorway. Oliver himself, writhing
-in pain, begged to be killed and put out of his misery. &ldquo;If you must die,
-then die like a man,&rdquo; snapped his father. After awhile Oliver was quiet.
-&ldquo;I guess he is dead,&rdquo; Brown said. Nearby, Watson Brown lay quietly
-breathing his last. The attack that had begun but 24 hours before was
-fast coming to an end.</p>
-<h2 id="c6"><span class="small">THE TRAP IS SPRUNG</span></h2>
-<p>The somberness that permeated the fire enginehouse contrasted sharply
-with the din outside. Hundreds of militiamen and townspeople jammed the
-streets, which echoed with whoops and yells. Anxious and hysterical
-friends and relatives of Brown&rsquo;s hostages added to the confusion. While
-the quasi-military operations ended at nightfall, the non-military activities
-<span class="pb" id="Page_44">44</span>
-continued with increasing fervor. The bars in the Wager House and Gault
-House Saloon were enjoying an unprecedented business. Many men were
-intoxicated, and they fired their guns wildly into the air and occasionally at
-the enginehouse. All semblance of order was gone and the &ldquo;wildest
-excitement&rdquo; prevailed throughout the night.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig48">
-<img src="images/i22.jpg" alt="" width="448" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">Albert Hazlett</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig49">
-<img src="images/i22a.jpg" alt="" width="442" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">Osborn P. Anderson</p>
-</div>
-<p>During this confusion two of Brown&rsquo;s men made their escape. Of the
-raiders caught in Harpers Ferry when the Jefferson Guards seized the
-B &amp; O bridge at midday on October 17, Albert Hazlett and Osborn P.
-Anderson, occupying the arsenal, went unnoticed during the day. At night
-they crept out, mingled with the disorderly crowds, crossed the Potomac
-into Maryland, and fled north.</p>
-<p>Into the midst of the chaos created by the drunken and disorderly
-militia and townspeople marched 90 U.S. Marines led by a 52-year-old
-Army colonel, Robert E. Lee. Lee had been at his home in Arlington, Va.,
-that afternoon when Lt. J. E. B. Stuart brought him secret orders to report
-to the War Department at once. There President Buchanan and
-Secretary of War Floyd told him of Brown&rsquo;s attack and ordered him to
-leave immediately for Harpers Ferry with the only Federal troops readily
-available, a detachment of Marines at the Washington Navy Yard. Upon
-his arrival at Harpers Ferry, Lee was to take command of all forces in the
-<span class="pb" id="Page_45">45</span>
-town. Lieutenant Stuart, scenting excitement, asked for and received
-permission to accompany Lee, who, in the hurry of departure, had no time
-to return home and don his uniform.</p>
-<p>The Marines, under the immediate command of Lt. Israel Green, left
-Washington before Lee and arrived at Sandy Hook in late afternoon. Lee
-and Stuart joined them at 10:30 p.m. Marching into Harpers Ferry, the
-Marines entered the armory yard about 11 p.m. and replaced the
-disorganized militia. Lee would have ordered an immediate attack on the
-enginehouse &ldquo;But for the fear of sacrificing the lives of some of the
-gentlemen held ... as prisoners....&rdquo;</p>
-<p>About 2:30 a.m., October 18, Lee wrote a surrender demand and
-handed it to Stuart for delivery to Brown under a white flag when so
-directed. He hoped that the raider chieftain could be persuaded to
-surrender peaceably and avoid further bloodshed, but he expected that he
-would be taken only by force and laid his plans accordingly. In the early
-morning hours, Lee, believing the raid to be chiefly aimed against State
-authority and not the Federal Government, offered the honor of assaulting
-the enginehouse to Colonel Shriver of the Maryland Volunteers. Shriver
-declined. &ldquo;These men of mine have wives and children,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I will not
-expose them to such risks. You are paid for doing this kind of work.&rdquo; Lee
-then offered the task to Colonel Baylor of the Virginia militia. Baylor
-promptly declined it for the same reasons. Lieutenant Green was then
-asked if he wished &ldquo;the honor of taking those men out.&rdquo; Green lifted his
-cap, thanked Lee, and picked a storming party of 12 men. He instructed
-them to use only their bayonets, as bullets might injure some of the
-hostages.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig50">
-<img src="images/i22c.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="390" />
-<p class="pcap">Trapped inside the armory enginehouse, the raiders and
-their hostages await the attack by U.S. Marines under Col.
-Robert E. Lee.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_46">46</div>
-<p>By 7 a.m. there was enough light for operations. All arrangements for
-the assault had been completed. The militia formed up outside the armory
-wall to keep the street clear of spectators and to prevent indiscriminate
-firing that might injure the storming party. The Marines took position
-at the northwest corner of the enginehouse, just out of the line of fire from
-the door. Then Lieutenant Stuart moved forward with the surrender
-demand. Brown opened the door a few inches and placed his body against
-the crack so the lieutenant could not see inside. He held a cocked rifle in
-one hand. Stuart read the terms offered by Lee:</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>Colonel Lee, United States Army, commanding troops sent by the
-President of the United States to suppress the insurrection at this
-place, demands the surrender of the persons in the Armory buildings.
-If they will peaceably surrender themselves and restore the pillaged
-property, they shall be kept in safety to await the orders of the
-President. Col. Lee represents to them, in all frankness, that it is
-impossible for them to escape; that the Armory is surrounded on
-all sides by troops; and that if he is compelled to take them by force
-he cannot answer for their safety.</p>
-</blockquote>
-<div class="img"><p class="pcap">Robert E. Lee and J. E. B. Stuart
-are pictured here about the time of the raid.</p></div>
-<div class="img">
-<img src="images/i23.jpg" alt="Robert E. Lee" width="560" height="600" />
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig51">
-<img src="images/i23a.jpg" alt="" width="419" height="565" />
-<p class="pcap">This little-known portrait
-of Stuart shows him in civilian
-dress and with trimmed beard.</p>
-</div>
-<p>According to Stuart, the parley was &ldquo;a long one.&rdquo; Brown refused to
-surrender. Instead he presented his own propositions &ldquo;in every possible
-shape, and with admirable tact,&rdquo; insisting that he, his men, and his
-hostages be permitted to cross the river unmolested.</p>
-<p>Stuart, instructed not to accept any counter-proposals, sensed that
-further discussion was useless. Stepping back from the door, he waved his
-hat, a pre-arranged signal for the Marines to attack. Brown slammed the
-<span class="pb" id="Page_47">47</span>
-door shut and the troops came on. Three men with sledge hammers
-pounded the center door of the enginehouse, but it would not yield; the
-raiders had placed the fire engines against it. Spotting a heavy ladder
-nearby, Lieutenant Green directed his men to use it as a battering-ram. On
-the second blow the door splintered and a small opening was effected.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig52">
-<img src="images/i23e.jpg" alt="" width="547" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">Lt. Israel Green led the Marine attack
-on the enginehouse and was the first man to
-enter the building.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig53">
-<img src="images/i23f.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="375" />
-<p class="pcap">The engraving below shows
-the Marines battering the enginehouse door
-while under fire from raiders inside.</p>
-</div>
-<p>Lieutenant Green was the first man through. Maj. W. W. Russell,
-armed only with a rattan cane, followed immediately. Pvt. Luke Quinn
-squeezed through behind Russell and fell dead at the door, shot through
-his groin. Another Marine, Pvt. Mathew Ruppert, stepped over Quinn,
-then dropped his gun and clawed his face in pain where a bullet had torn
-through his cheek. The rest of the storming party entered without injury.</p>
-<p>The hostages cowered at the rear of the building; Brown knelt between
-the fire engines, rifle in hand. As Green came through the row of engines,
-Colonel Washington greeted him and pointed at Brown. Green raised his
-sword and brought it down with all his strength, cutting a deep wound in
-<span class="pb" id="Page_48">48</span>
-the back of the raider chieftain&rsquo;s neck. As Brown fell, Green lunged with
-his sword, striking part of the raider&rsquo;s accouterments and bending the
-blade double. Green then showered blow after blow upon Brown&rsquo;s head
-until he fell unconscious. Two of the raiders were killed almost
-immediately after the Marines entered the building: Dauphin Thompson,
-pinned against the rear wall by a bayonet, and Jeremiah Anderson, run
-through by a saber as he sought refuge under one of the fire engines.
-Edwin Coppoc and Shields Green surrendered. The fight was over in
-about 3 minutes.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig54">
-<img src="images/i24.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="306" />
-<p class="pcap">After their capture, Brown and his surviving men were placed
-under guard outside the enginehouse, where they were subjected
-to taunts and threats of angry militia and townspeople.</p>
-</div>
-<p>None of the hostages was injured, although Lieutenant Green
-considered them the &ldquo;sorriest lot of people I ever saw.&rdquo; The dead, dying,
-and wounded raiders were carried outside and laid in a row on the grass.
-As Brown slowly regained consciousness, the Marines had trouble keeping
-back the throngs of militia and townspeople who wanted to see the
-wounded raider leader. After noon, Brown and Stevens, still suffering from
-the wounds he received on October 17, were carried to the paymaster&rsquo;s
-office where a group of inquisitors, including Virginia&rsquo;s Governor Henry A.
-Wise and Senator James M. Mason, and Ohio Congressman Clement L.
-Vallandigham, questioned them for 3 hours in an effort to learn their
-purpose and the names of their supporters in the North.</p>
-<p>During the interrogation Brown lay on the floor, his hair matted and
-tangled, his face, hands, and clothes soiled and smeared with blood. He
-talked freely, and while he readily admitted his intention to free the
-slaves, &ldquo;and only that,&rdquo; he refused to divulge the names of his Northern
-backers. &ldquo;No man sent me here,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;it was my own prompting and
-that of my Maker, or that of the devil, whichever you ascribe it to. I
-<span class="pb" id="Page_49">49</span>
-acknowledge no man in human form.&rdquo; He continued:</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>I want you to understand, gentlemen ... that I respect the rights of
-the poorest and weakest of colored people, oppressed by the slave
-system, just as much as I do those of the most wealthy and powerful.
-That is the idea that has moved me, and that alone. We expect no
-reward, except the satisfaction of endeavoring to do for those in distress
-and greatly oppressed, as we would be done by. The cry of distress of
-the oppressed is my reason, and the only thing that has prompted
-me to come here.</p>
-</blockquote>
-<p>Brown then issued a prophetic warning:</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>I wish to say furthermore, that you had better&mdash;all you people at the
-South&mdash;prepare yourselves for a settlement of that question that must
-come up for settlement sooner than you are prepared for it. The sooner
-you are prepared the better. You may dispose of me very easily; I am
-nearly disposed of now; but this question is still to be settled&mdash;this
-negro question I mean&mdash;the end of that is not yet.</p>
-</blockquote>
-<h2 id="c7"><span class="small">JOHN BROWN&rsquo;S BODY</span></h2>
-<p>The day after their capture, Brown and his surviving followers&mdash;Stevens,
-Edwin Coppoc, Shields Green, and John Copeland&mdash;were taken
-to Charles Town under heavy guard and lodged in the county jail. The
-cell doors had hardly banged shut when they learned that they were to
-receive speedy trials. The grand jury was then in session, and the
-semiannual term of the circuit court, presided over by Judge Richard
-Parker, had begun.</p>
-<p>The five raiders were arraigned on October 25, just one week after their
-capture. The next day they were indicted for treason against the
-Commonwealth of Virginia, for conspiring with slaves to rebel, and for
-murder. Each defendant pleaded &ldquo;Not guilty&rdquo; and each asked for a separate
-trial. The court consented and elected to try Brown first. Two court-appointed
-attorneys, 36-year-old Lawson Botts, who had helped to capture
-the raiders, and Thomas C. Green, the 39-year-old Mayor of Charles
-Town, were called upon to defend him. Charles Harding, Commonwealth
-Attorney for Jefferson County, and Andrew Hunter, a veteran Charles
-Town lawyer, served as prosecutors for the State.</p>
-<p>The trial began on October 27. It lasted 3&frac12; days. Still suffering from his
-wounds, Brown was carried back and forth from jail to courthouse, and
-lay on a cot during much of the proceedings. Judge Parker had hardly
-brought the court to order when defense counsel Botts astounded the
-packed courtroom (including Brown himself) by reading a telegram from
-A. H. Lewis of Akron, Ohio, dated October 26:</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>John Brown, leader of the insurrection at Harper&rsquo;s Ferry, and several
-of his family, have resided in this county for many years. Insanity is
-hereditary in that family. His mother&rsquo;s sister died with it, and a
-daughter of that sister has been two years in a Lunatic Asylum. A son
-and daughter of his mother&rsquo;s brother have also been confined in the
-lunatic asylum, and another son of that brother is now insane and
-under close restraint. These facts can be conclusively proven by
-witnesses residing here, who will doubtless attend the trial if desired.</p>
-</blockquote>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_50">50</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig55">
-<img src="images/i25.jpg" alt="" width="651" height="1000" />
-<p class="pcap">John Brown was tried in the courthouse at Charles Town,
-about 10 miles from Harpers Ferry. The trial was presided
-over by the Hon. Richard Parker (below), circuit judge for Jefferson County.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img">
-<img src="images/i25a.jpg" alt="Richard Parker" width="441" height="600" />
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_51">51</div>
-<p>After receiving the telegram, Botts had gone to the jail to talk with Brown
-about it. The raider leader had readily admitted that there were instances
-of insanity in his mother&rsquo;s side of the family (in fact, his mother had died
-insane), but asserted that there was none at all on his father&rsquo;s side. He
-said his first wife had shown symptoms of it, as had two of their sons,
-Frederick and John, Jr. Clearly, by introducing the Lewis telegram, the
-defense hoped to save Brown&rsquo;s life by having him declared insane and
-committed to an institution. But the old abolitionist refused to sanction
-such a plea. Rising up on his cot, he exclaimed:</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>I will add, if the Court will allow me, that I look upon it as a
-miserable artifice and pretext of those who ought to take a different
-course in regard to me, if they took any at all, and I view it with
-contempt more than otherwise. As I remarked to Mr. Green, insane
-persons, so far as my experience goes, have but little ability to judge
-of their own sanity; and, if I am insane, of course I should think
-I know more than all the rest of the world. But I do not think so. I am
-perfectly unconscious of insanity, and I reject, so far as I am capable,
-any attempt to interfere in my behalf on that score.</p>
-</blockquote>
-<div class="img"><p class="pcap">Lawson Botts and Thomas C. Green were appointed
-by the court to defend the raider leader. Brown, however,
-did not trust them to provide him an adequate defense.</p></div>
-<div class="img" id="fig56">
-<img src="images/i25c.jpg" alt="" width="535" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">Lawson Botts.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig57">
-<img src="images/i25d.jpg" alt="" width="434" height="601" />
-<p class="pcap">Thomas C. Green.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_52">52</div>
-<div class="img"><p class="pcap">Brown had more faith in the three
-lawyers provided by his Northern friends. Their efforts to save
-him from the gallows, however, proved fruitless.</p></div>
-<div class="img" id="fig58">
-<img src="images/i26.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="791" />
-<p class="pcap">George Hoyt, shown here as an officer during the Civil War.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig59">
-<img src="images/i26a.jpg" alt="" width="540" height="726" />
-<p class="pcap">Samuel Chilton.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig60">
-<img src="images/i26c.jpg" alt="" width="439" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">Hiram Griswold.</p>
-</div>
-<p>Judge Parker ruled out the insanity plea on the basis that the evidence
-had not been presented in a reliable form. He also rejected Bott&rsquo;s request
-for a delay in the proceedings to allow new counsel of Brown&rsquo;s own
-choosing to come from Ohio. The trial continued.</p>
-<p>The defense lawyers were increased to three when George Hoyt joined
-Botts and Green. Hoyt, a 21-year-old Boston lawyer, was sent to Charles
-Town by some of Brown&rsquo;s Northern supporters ostensibly to defend the
-raider chieftain; his real mission was to gather information that might be
-useful to those plotting Brown&rsquo;s escape.</p>
-<p>As the trial progressed, Brown became more and more irritated with his
-court-appointed lawyers and openly expressed his lack of confidence in
-<span class="pb" id="Page_53">53</span>
-them. Botts and Green thereupon withdrew, leaving Hoyt, the woefully
-inexperienced &ldquo;beardless boy&rdquo; who was entirely unacquainted with the
-code and procedure of the Virginia courts and knowing very little about
-the case, burdened with the sole responsibility for conducting the defense
-in one of the most sensational trials the country had ever witnessed. He
-was soon reinforced, however, by more seasoned counsel. Samuel Chilton
-of Washington, D.C., and Hiram Griswold of Cleveland, Ohio, were
-persuaded by Brown&rsquo;s influential friends to join the fight to save the
-abolitionist&rsquo;s life. But their arrival made little difference; the outcome of
-the trial was inevitable.</p>
-<p>The prosecution&rsquo;s parade of witnesses recounted the story of the attack
-on Harpers Ferry, the arming of the slaves, and the deaths of Hayward
-Shepherd, Fontaine Beckham, and George W. Turner. Brown&rsquo;s contention
-that, as commander in chief of a provisional army, he should be tried
-according to the laws of war and not as a common criminal was rejected.
-Other arguments offered by the defense met with equally fruitless results.
-Finally, on October 31, closing arguments by the prosecution and the
-defense were heard and at 1:45 p.m. the case went to the jury.
-Deliberations lasted for 45 minutes. The verdict: guilty on all three counts.
-A newspaper correspondent described the reaction:</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>Not the slightest sound was heard in the vast crowd as this verdict
-was thus returned and read. Not the slightest expression of elation
-or triumph was uttered from the hundreds present, who, a moment
-before, outside the court, joined in heaping threats and imprecations
-upon his head; nor was this strange silence interrupted during the
-whole of the time occupied by the forms of the Court. Old Brown
-himself said not even a word, but, as on previous days, turned to
-adjust his pallet, and then composedly stretched himself upon it.</p>
-</blockquote>
-<div class="img" id="fig61">
-<img src="images/i26e.jpg" alt="" width="440" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">Andrew Hunter, special prosecutor for the
-State of Virginia, vowed to see Brown
-&ldquo;arraigned, tried, found guilty, sentenced
-and hung, all within ten days.&rdquo;</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_54">54</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig62">
-<img src="images/i27.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="793" />
-<p class="pcap">The courtroom in which Brown was tried was not as large as this drawing
-would indicate, but it was packed with witnesses and spectators. Brown
-lay on a cot during most of the proceedings, rising only occasionally to
-make a point in his defense.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig63">
-<img src="images/i27a.jpg" alt="" width="431" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">Jefferson County Sheriff James Campbell.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig64">
-<img src="images/i27b.jpg" alt="" width="425" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">The jailer, John Avis.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_56">56</div>
-<p>Sentence was passed on November 2: John Brown would hang on
-Friday, December 2, 1859. The other raiders&mdash;Coppoc, Stevens, Copeland,
-and Green&mdash;were tried subsequently, found guilty, and received like
-sentences. Of the seven raiders who escaped from Harpers Ferry, John
-Cook and Albert Hazlett were captured in Pennsylvania, brought to
-Charles Town for trial, convicted, and hanged.</p>
-<p>In the days following Brown&rsquo;s sentencing, Virginia&rsquo;s Governor Wise
-was swamped with mail. Many letters pleaded for clemency, some
-contained outright threats, while others warned of fantastic plots to effect
-the abolitionist&rsquo;s escape. Martial law was declared in Charles Town.
-Militiamen were everywhere, and armed patrols kept a vigilant watch on
-all roads leading into town. The day of execution came, and not one of the
-schemes to free Brown materialized.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig65">
-<img src="images/i28.jpg" alt="" width="484" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">Henry A. Wise, Governor of Virginia</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img">
-<img src="images/i28a.jpg" alt="Proclamation" width="600" height="487" />
-</div>
-<div class="box">
-<p class="center"><b><span class="larger">PROCLAMATION!</span></b></p>
-<p><b>IN pursuance of instructions from the Governor of Virginia,
-notice is hereby given to all whom it may concern,</b></p>
-<p class="tb"><b>That, as heretofore, particularly from now until after Friday
-next the 2nd of December, STRANGERS found within
-the County of Jefferson, and Counties adjacent, having no
-known and proper business here, and who cannot give a satisfactory
-account of themselves, will be at once arrested.</b></p>
-<p><b>That on, and for a proper period before that day, stangers[sic]
-and especially parties, approaching under the pretext of being
-present at the execution of John Brown, whether by Railroad
-or otherwise, will be met by the Military and turned back or
-arrested without regard to the amount of force, that may be
-required to effect this, and during the said period and especially
-on the 2nd of December, the citizens of Jefferson and the
-surrounding country are <i>EMPHATICALLY</i> warned to
-remain at their homes armed and guard their own property.</b></p>
-</div>
-<p>On the afternoon before the execution, Brown&rsquo;s grief-stricken wife was
-allowed to visit him in his cell. They spent several hours talking. Toward
-evening they parted, and Mary Brown went to Harpers Ferry to await
-the delivery of her husband&rsquo;s body. It would be her agonizing duty to
-return Brown&rsquo;s remains to their North Elba home for burial.</p>
-<p>A few minutes after 11 a.m. on December 2, 1859, John Brown walked
-down the steps of the Charles Town jail, climbed into the back of a
-horse-drawn wagon, and sat down on his own coffin. Flanked by files of
-soldiers, the wagon moved off toward a field a short distance from the town
-where a scaffold had been erected. No civilians were permitted near the
-execution site. The field was ringed by 1,500 soldiers, among them a
-company of Virginia Military Institute cadets commanded by a stern-looking
-<span class="pb" id="Page_57">57</span>
-professor who would soon gain fame and immortality as the
-Confederate Gen. &ldquo;Stonewall&rdquo; Jackson. In the ranks of a Richmond
-company stood another man who, in a few short years, would also
-achieve immortality by committing one of the most infamous deeds in
-American history&mdash;John Wilkes Booth.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig66">
-<img src="images/i28c.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="497" />
-<p class="pcap">With soldiers lining the streets, John Brown comes down the
-steps of the Charles Town jail on the way to his execution,
-December 2, 1859. The wagon containing his coffin stands
-nearby.</p>
-</div>
-<p>As the hushed military watched, Brown climbed the scaffold steps.
-Sheriff John W. Campbell pulled a white linen hood over the prisoner&rsquo;s
-head and set the noose. John Avis, the jailer, asked Brown to step forward
-onto the trap. &ldquo;You must lead me,&rdquo; Brown replied, &ldquo;for I cannot see.&rdquo;
-The abolitionist&rsquo;s last words were directed to Avis as one final adjustment
-of the noose was made. &ldquo;Be quick,&rdquo; he said.</p>
-<p>At 11:30 a hatchet stroke sprung the trap and John Brown died. The
-voice of a militia colonel broke the stillness: &ldquo;So perish all such enemies
-of Virginia! All such enemies of the Union! All such enemies of the
-human race!&rdquo;</p>
-<p>But the end was not yet. True, Brown was dead; but he had helped
-to arouse popular passions both North and South to the point where
-compromise would be impossible. The raid created a national furor and
-generated a wave of emotionalism that widened the sectional breach that
-had divided the country for so many years. Although conservative
-Northern opinion quickly condemned the raid as the work of a madman,
-the more radical hailed it as &ldquo;the best news America ever had&rdquo; and
-glorified Brown as &ldquo;the new saint&rdquo; whose martyrdom in the cause of
-human freedom would make the gallows &ldquo;glorious like the cross.&rdquo;</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_58">58</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig67">
-<img src="images/i29.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="786" />
-<p class="pcap">The hanging of John Brown took place at 11:30 a.m.,
-December 2, 1859, in a field just outside Charles Town. The
-field no longer exists, but the site is identified by a simple
-stone marker.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_60">60</div>
-<p>Southerners shuddered. For decades they had been defending their
-&ldquo;peculiar institution&rdquo; of slavery against the ever-increasing attacks of
-Northern abolitionists, but anti-slavery agitation had always followed a
-course of non-violence. Then Brown had come with his pikes and guns
-to change all that. In the false atmosphere of crisis that gripped the South
-in the wake of the raid, the small voices of moderates were lost in the din
-of extremists who saw Brown&rsquo;s act as part of a vast Northern conspiracy
-to instigate servile insurrections throughout the slave States.</p>
-<p>To meet this threat, real or imagined, vigilance committees were
-formed, volunteer military companies were organized, and more and more
-Southerners began to echo the sentiments of the Richmond Enquirer:
-&ldquo;if under the form of a Confederacy our peace is disturbed, our State
-invaded, its peaceful citizens cruelly murdered ... by those who should
-be our warmest friends ... and the people of the North sustain the
-outrage, then let disunion come.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>Disunion sentiment increased during the presidential campaign of
-1860, stimulated by a split in the Democratic Party that practically
-guaranteed a Republican victory in the November elections. When
-Abraham Lincoln was elected President, the secessionist movement could
-no longer be contained. On December 20, unable to tolerate a President
-&ldquo;whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery,&rdquo; South Carolina
-severed her ties with the Union. By February 1, 1861, Mississippi, Florida,
-Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas had followed her lead. One week
-later the Confederate States of America was formed at Montgomery, Ala.,
-and the country drifted slowly toward civil war. Before many months had
-passed, soldiers in blue would be marching south to the tune of &ldquo;John
-Brown&rsquo;s Body&rdquo; as if to fulfill the prophecy Brown had left in a note to one
-of his Charles Town guards shortly before the execution:</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig68">
-<img src="images/i30.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="182" />
-<p class="pcap">Charlestown, Va, 2<sup>d</sup>, december, 1859
-I John Brown am now quite <span class="u">certain</span> that
-the crimes of this <span class="u">guilty</span>, <span class="u">land</span>: <span class="u">will</span> never be
-purged <span class="u">away</span>; but with Blood. I had <span class="u">as I now
-think</span>: <span class="u">vainly</span> flattered myself that without <span class="u">very
-much</span> bloodshed; it might be done.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_61">61</div>
-<h2 id="c8"><span class="small">EPILOGUE</span></h2>
-<p>The war that John Brown predicted would come, and which his raid
-helped to precipitate, began in April 1861. When it ended almost 4 years
-to the day later, slavery had been destroyed along with some 600,000
-lives and millions of dollars worth of property. Among the casualties of
-the war was Harpers Ferry. The town&rsquo;s strategic position on the Baltimore
-and Ohio Railroad at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley made
-it a prime target for both Union and Confederate forces. It changed
-hands again and again, and by war&rsquo;s end in 1865 the place was a shambles.</p>
-<p>As early as February 1862 a young Union staff officer assigned to
-the Harpers Ferry area could write of the town: &ldquo;The appearance of ruin
-by war and fire was awful. Charred ruins were all that remain of the
-splendid public works, arsenals, workshops and railroads, stores, hotels,
-and dwelling houses all mingled in one common destruction.&rdquo; Much the
-same observation was made 3 years later in the summer of 1865 by John
-T. Trowbridge, a New England writer, during a tour of the South: &ldquo;[T]he
-town is the reverse of agreeable. It is said to have been a pleasant and
-picturesque place formerly. The streets were well graded, and the hill-sides
-above were graced with terraces and trees. But war has changed all.
-Freshets tear down the centre of the streets, and the hill-sides present
-only ragged growths of weeds. The town itself lies half in ruins.... Of the
-bridge across the Shenandoah only the ruined piers are left; still less
-remains of the old bridge over the Potomac. And all about the town are
-rubbish, filth and stench.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>The once-imposing armory complex along the Potomac River and the
-rifle works on Hall Island in the Shenandoah were burned-out hulks.
-Only the armory enginehouse remained basically intact, &ldquo;like a monument
-which no Rebel hands were permitted to demolish.&rdquo; Large sections of the
-town had been burned by various troop contingents to prevent their use by
-enemy soldiers. Many homes, churches, schools, and business establishments
-were damaged beyond repair by shot and shell fired from the
-surrounding heights. Still other buildings, subjected to long military use,
-were on the verge of ruin. The industries on Virginius Island&mdash;the iron
-foundry, the flour mill, the sawmill, the machine shops, the cotton mill&mdash;were
-also gone, and Harpers Ferry no longer had the activity and bustle
-of an economically healthy community.</p>
-<p>Besides the material damage inflicted by powerful weaponry and by
-the seemingly endless procession of soldiers who filched or requisitioned
-everything that could be carried away, the town suffered an even greater
-loss&mdash;its people. During the war most of the townspeople moved away,
-some to escape the dangers of military operations, some to seek employment
-elsewhere after the armory and the industries were destroyed, and
-some to join one or the other opposing armies. Many never came back.
-Those who did return found their town in ruins and themselves the
-citizens of a new State.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_62">62</div>
-<p>In 1861 the people in the mountainous western counties of Virginia
-strongly opposed secession. When the rest of the State voted overwhelmingly
-in a statewide referendum on May 23, 1861, to withdraw from the
-Federal Union, the loyal western residents, in a series of conventions at
-Wheeling, voted to &ldquo;secede&rdquo; from Virginia and set up their own State. The
-bill for admission passed Congress on December 11, 1862, and on June 30,
-1863, by Presidential proclamation, West Virginia became the 35th State.
-For years, however, many Jefferson County residents refused to use
-&ldquo;West&rdquo; as part of the designation.</p>
-<p>Harpers Ferry never recovered from the devastation of the Civil War.
-Staring at the stark chimneys and charred remains of once impressive
-buildings, one of the townspeople concluded: &ldquo;This place will never be
-anything again unless the government rebuilds the armory&mdash;and it is
-doubtful if that is ever done.&rdquo; The Government never did, and the ground
-on which it stood was auctioned off in 1869. Mills and factories remained
-closed. The railroad did a small percentage of its previous business. Hopes
-for a renewal of the town&rsquo;s former prosperity were dashed in 1870 when
-a flood destroyed or badly damaged nearly every building on Virginius
-Island and along the south side of Shenandoah Street. Subsequent floods
-destroyed still more of the town and ruined the Chesapeake and Ohio
-Canal. The canal was finally abandoned after the flood of 1924.</p>
-<p>Inundated too often by high water, the residents of Harpers Ferry
-eventually left the old buildings in the lower town and moved up the
-heights to the high ground of Camp Hill and toward Bolivar. For years
-the old shops and stores, those that remained, stood empty, neglected, and
-deteriorating. When Harpers Ferry became a national historical area, the
-National Park Service began an intensive campaign to preserve the fragile
-remains of the 18th- and 19th-century industries, homes, churches, stores,
-and shops, and to restore much of the old town to its pre-Civil War
-appearance, a time when it was at its peak as a thriving, bustling
-industrial community and transportation center.</p>
-<p>Today, while much of the old historical town remains, few of the
-structures that figured prominently in John Brown&rsquo;s raid survive. (See
-maps on pp. <a class="pgref" href="#Page_29">29</a> and <a class="pgref" href="#Page_30">30</a>.) The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge across the
-Potomac, by which Brown and his raiders entered Harpers Ferry in
-October 1859, was destroyed by Confederate soldiers early in the Civil
-War. More modern structures span the river now, but the stone supports
-of the old bridge can still be seen. Nothing at all remains of the bridge
-across the Shenandoah. The stone piers now standing in the river near the
-Point section of the town are from a later structure.</p>
-<p>The ruins of the armory buildings stood for many years after the war
-and eventually disappeared. In 1893 the site itself disappeared under 30
-feet of fill when the B &amp; O Railroad changed the line of its tracks. The
-outlines of two of the armory buildings have been marked by flat stones
-and the spot where the enginehouse was located is marked by a small
-monument. The enginehouse itself (now called &ldquo;John Brown&rsquo;s Fort&rdquo;)
-stands nearby on the old arsenal grounds, and is little changed from its
-<span class="pb" id="Page_63">63</span>
-appearance at the time of the raid. Here also can be seen the excavated
-remains of the small U.S. arsenal and some of the partially exposed burned
-muskets destroyed when the building was gutted by Federal troops in
-April 1861.</p>
-<p>In February 1862 Federal soldiers burned the Point area of Harpers
-Ferry to keep Confederate sharpshooters from using the buildings. Among
-the structures destroyed were the railroad depot, the water tower around
-which Mayor Fontaine Beckham was peering when he was shot by one of
-the raiders, several stores and shops, the Potomac Restaurant, the Wager
-House Hotel, and the Gault House Saloon. The Wager House (not to be
-confused with another structure of the same name that still exists) was
-the scene of several notable events. It was here that many of the wounded
-were carried, including two of the raiders, Aaron Stevens and William
-Thompson. Many of the militiamen did their &ldquo;best fighting&rdquo; at its bar.
-From the Wager House porch, Gov. Henry Wise of Virginia read letters
-taken from Brown&rsquo;s men to the angered townspeople. Wise also lived here
-during his brief stay in Harpers Ferry. Mrs. John Brown stayed here when
-she came to Harpers Ferry in December 1859 for her last visit with her
-husband, and it was here that she received his body after the execution.</p>
-<p>The Shenandoah islands are deserted today except for the line of the
-Winchester and Potomac Railroad. All of the buildings are gone now
-except for the foundations of some of the mills and the retaining walls of
-the rifle factory, nestled in among the weeds, brush, and trees. Many
-disappeared through neglect after the industries were destroyed during the
-Civil War, some washed away in the many floods with which Harpers
-Ferry has been plagued, and others, like Herr&rsquo;s flour mill and the rifle
-works, were deliberately destroyed by Union and Confederate troops.</p>
-<p>Several structures associated with the raid still exist outside Harpers
-Ferry. The courthouse at Charles Town, W. Va., is little changed since
-John Brown was tried and sentenced there more than a century ago. The
-Kennedy farm, Brown&rsquo;s headquarters during the months he was planning
-the raid, lies in the Maryland countryside about 5 miles from Harpers
-Ferry. Col. Lewis Washington&rsquo;s home, &ldquo;Beallair,&rdquo; which several raiders
-broke into on the night of October 16 and took its owner hostage, stands
-near Halltown, about 4 miles west of Harpers Ferry. And nearby, at the
-foot of Alstadt Hill, west of Bolivar, is the home of John H. Alstadt,
-another hostage taken by Brown&rsquo;s men on October 16.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_65">65</div>
-<h2 id="c9"><span class="small">APPENDIX</span>
-<br />The Capture of John Brown<a class="fn" id="fr_1" href="#fn_1">[1]</a>
-<br />by Israel Green</h2>
-<p>At noon of Monday, October 18, 1859, Chief Clerk Walsh, of the Navy
-Department, drove rapidly into the Washington Navy-yard, and, meeting
-me, asked me how many marines we had stationed at the barracks
-available for immediate duty. I happened to be the senior officer present
-and in command that day. I instantly replied to Mr. Walsh that we had
-ninety men available, and then asked him what was the trouble. He told
-me that Ossawatomie Brown, of Kansas, with a number of men, had taken
-the arsenal at Harper&rsquo;s Ferry, and was then besieged there by the Virginia
-State troops. Mr. Walsh returned speedily to the Navy Department
-building, and, in the course of an hour, orders came to me from
-Secretary Tousey to proceed at once to Harper&rsquo;s Ferry and report to the
-senior officer; and, if there should be no such officer at the Ferry, to take
-charge and protect the government property. With a detachment of ninety
-marines, I started for Harper&rsquo;s Ferry that afternoon on the 3:30 train,
-taking with me two howitzers. It was a beautiful, clear autumn day, and
-the men, exhilarated by the excitement of the occasion, which came after
-a long, dull season of confinement in the barracks, enjoyed the trip
-exceedingly.</p>
-<p>At Frederick Junction I received a dispatch from Colonel Robert E.
-Lee, who turned out to be the army officer to whom I was to report. He
-directed me to proceed to Sandy Hook, a small place about a mile this
-side of the Ferry, and there await his arrival. At ten o&rsquo;clock in the evening
-he came up on a special train from Washington. His first order was to
-form the marines out of the car, and march from the bridge to Harper&rsquo;s
-Ferry. This we did, entering the enclosure of the arsenal grounds through
-a back gate. At eleven o&rsquo;clock Colonel Lee ordered the volunteers to march
-out of the grounds, and gave the control inside to the marines, with
-instructions to see that none of the insurgents escaped during the night.
-There had been hard fighting all the preceding day, and Brown and his
-men kept quiet during the night. At half-past six in the morning Colonel
-Lee gave me orders to select a detail of twelve men for a storming party,
-and place them near the engine-house in which Brown and his men had
-intrenched themselves. I selected twelve of my best men, and a second
-twelve to be employed as a reserve. The engine-house was a strong stone
-[actually brick] building, which is still in a good state of preservation at
-the Ferry, in spite of the three days&rsquo; fighting in the building by Brown and
-his men, and the ravages of the recent war between the States. The building
-was ... perhaps thirty feet by thirty-five. In the front were two large
-double doors, between which was a stone abutment. Within were two
-old-fashioned, heavy fire-engines, with a hose-cart and reel standing
-between them, and just back of the abutment between the doors. They were
-double-battened doors, very strongly made, with heavy wrought-iron nails.
-<span class="pb" id="Page_66">66</span>
-Lieutenant J. E. B. Stewart [Stuart], afterwards famous as a cavalry
-commander on the side of the South, accompanied Colonel Lee as a
-volunteer aid. He was ordered to go with a part of the troops to the front
-of the engine-house and demand the surrender of the insurgent party.
-Colonel Lee directed him to offer protection to Brown and his men, but to
-receive no counter-proposition from Brown in regard to the surrender.
-On the way to the engine-house, Stewart and myself agreed upon a signal
-for attack in the event that Brown should refuse to surrender. It was
-simply that Lieutenant Stewart would wave his hat, which was then, I
-believe, one very similar to the famous chapeau which he wore throughout
-the war. I had my storming party ranged alongside of the engine-house,
-and a number of men were provided with sledge-hammers with which to
-batter in the doors. I stood in front of the abutment between the
-doors. Stewart hailed Brown and called for his surrender, but Brown at
-once began to make a proposition that he and his men should be allowed
-to come out of the engine-house and be given the length of the bridge
-start, so that they might escape. Suddenly Lieutenant Stewart waved his
-hat, and I gave the order to my men to batter in the door. Those
-inside fired rapidly at the point where the blows were given upon the door.
-Very little impression was made with the hammers, as the doors were
-tied on the inside with ropes and braced by the hand-brakes of the fire-engines,
-and in a few minutes I gave the order to desist. Just then
-my eye caught sight of a ladder, lying a few feet from the engine-house,
-in the yard, and I ordered my men to catch it up and use it as a
-battering-ram. The reserve of twelve men I employed as a supporting
-column for the assaulting party. The men took hold bravely and made a
-tremendous assault upon the door. The second blow broke it in.
-This entrance was a ragged hole low down in the right-hand door, the
-door being splintered and cracked some distance upward. I instantly
-stepped from my position in front of the stone abutment, and entered the
-opening made by the ladder. At the time I did not stop to think of
-it, but upon reflection I should say that Brown had just emptied his
-carbine at the point broken by the ladder, and so I passed in safely.
-Getting to my feet, I ran to the right of the engine which stood behind the
-door, passed quickly to the rear of the house, and came up between
-the two engines. The first person I saw was Colonel Lewis Washington,
-who was standing near the hose-cart, at the front of the engine-house.
-On one knee, a few feet to the left, knelt a man with a carbine in his hand,
-just pulling the lever to reload.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Hello, Green,&rdquo; said Colonel Washington, and he reached out his
-hand to me. I grasped it with my left hand, having my saber uplifted in
-my right, and he said, pointing to the kneeling figure, &ldquo;This is
-Ossawatomie.&rdquo;</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_67">67</div>
-<p>As he said this, Brown turned his head to see who it was to whom
-Colonel Washington was speaking. Quicker than thought I brought my
-saber down with all my strength upon his head. He was moving as
-the blow fell, and I suppose I did not strike him where I intended, for he
-received a deep saber cut in the back of the neck. He fell senseless on
-his side, then rolled over on his back. He had in his hand a short Sharpe&rsquo;s-cavalry
-carbine. I think he had just fired as I reached Colonel
-Washington, for the marine who followed me into the aperture made by
-the ladder received a bullet in the abdomen, from which he died in a
-few minutes. The shot might have been fired by some one else in the
-insurgent party, but I think it was from Brown. Instinctively as Brown fell
-I gave him a saber thrust in the left breast. The sword I carried was a
-light uniform weapon, and, either not having a point or striking something
-hard in Brown&rsquo;s accouterments, did not penetrate. The blade bent double.</p>
-<p>By that time three or four of my men were inside. They came
-rushing in like tigers, as a storming assault is not a play-day sport. They
-bayoneted one man skulking under the engine, and pinned another
-fellow up against the rear wall, both being instantly killed. I ordered the
-men to spill no more blood. The other insurgents were at once taken
-under arrest, and the contest ended. The whole fight had not lasted over
-three minutes. My only thought was to capture, or, if necessary, kill,
-the insurgents, and take possession of the engine-house.</p>
-<p>I saw very little of the situation within until the fight was over. Then
-I observed that the engine-house was thick with smoke, and it was
-with difficulty that a person could be seen across the room. In the rear,
-behind the left-hand engine, were huddled the prisoners whom Brown
-had captured and held as hostages for the safety of himself and his
-men. Colonel Washington was one of these. All during the fight, as I
-understood afterward, he kept to the front of the engine-house. When I
-met him he was as cool as he would have been on his own veranda
-entertaining guests. He was naturally a very brave man. I remember that
-he would not come out of the engine-house, begrimed and soiled as
-he was from his long imprisonment, until he had put a pair of kid gloves
-upon his hands. The other prisoners were the sorriest lot of people I
-ever saw. They had been without food for over sixty hours, in constant
-dread of being shot, and were huddled up in the corner where lay the
-body of Brown&rsquo;s son and one or two others of the insurgents who had been
-killed. Some of them have endeavored to give an account of the storming
-of the engine-house and the capture of Brown, but none of the reports
-have been free from a great many misstatements, and I suppose that
-Colonel Washington and myself were the only persons really able to say
-what was done. Other stories have been printed by people on the outside,
-describing the fight within. What they say must be taken with a great
-deal of allowance, for they could not have been witnesses of what
-occurred within the engine-house. One recent account describes me as
-jumping over the right-hand engine more like a wild beast than a
-soldier. Of course nothing of the kind happened. The report made by
-<span class="pb" id="Page_68">68</span>
-Colonel Lee at the time, which is now on file in the War department,
-gives a more succinct and detailed account than any I have seen.</p>
-<p>I can see Colonel Lee now, as he stood on a slight elevation about
-forty feet from the engine-house, during the assault. He was in civilian
-dress, and looked then very little as he did during the war. He wore no
-beard, except a dark mustache, and his hair was slightly gray. He had no
-arms upon his person, and treated the affair as one of no very great
-consequence, which would be speedily settled by the marines. A part of the
-scene, giving color and life to the picture, was the bright blue uniform
-of the marines. They wore blue trousers then, as they do now, and a dark-blue
-frock-coat. Their belts were white, and they wore French fatigue
-caps. I do not remember the names of the twelve men in the storming
-party, nor can I tell what became of them in later life. We had no use for
-the howitzers, and, in fact, they were not taken from the car.</p>
-<p>Immediately after the fight, Brown was carried out of the engine-house,
-and recovered consciousness while lying on the ground in front. A
-detail of men carried him up to the paymaster&rsquo;s office, where he was
-attended to and his wants supplied. On the following day, Wednesday,
-with an escort, I removed him to Charleston [Charles Town], and
-turned him over to the civil authorities. No handcuffs were placed upon
-him, and he supported himself with a self-reliance and independence
-which were characteristic of the man. He had recovered a great deal from
-the effects of the blow from my saber, the injury of which was
-principally the shock, as he only received a flesh wound. I had little
-conversation with him, and spent very little time with him.</p>
-<p>I have often been asked to describe Brown&rsquo;s appearance at the instant
-he lifted his head to see who was talking with Colonel Washington. It
-would be impossible for me to do so. The whole scene passed so rapidly
-that it hardly made a distinct impression upon my mind. I can only
-recall the fleeting picture of an old man kneeling with a carbine in his
-hand, with a long gray beard falling away from his face, looking quickly
-and keenly toward the danger that he was aware had come upon
-him. He was not a large man, being perhaps five feet ten inches when he
-straightened up in full. His dress, even, I do not remember distinctly.
-I should say that he had his trousers tucked in his boots, and that he wore
-clothes of gray&mdash;probably no more than trousers and shirt. I think he
-had no hat upon his head.</p>
-<p>None of the prisoners were hurt. They were badly frightened and
-somewhat starved. I received no wounds except a slight scratch on one
-hand as I was getting through the hole in the door. Colonel Lee and the
-people on the outside thought I was wounded. Brown had, at the
-time, only five or six fighting men, and I think he himself was the only
-one who showed fight after I entered the engine-house. There were no
-provisions in the building, and it would have been only a question of time
-when Brown would have had to surrender. Colonel Washington was
-the only person inside the house that I knew.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_69">69</div>
-<p>I have been asked what became of Brown&rsquo;s carbine. That I do not
-know. My sword was left in Washington, among people with whom I
-lived, and I lost trace of it. A few years ago, after having come out of the
-war and gone west to Dakota, where I now live, I received a letter
-from a gentleman in Washington, saying that he knew where the sword
-was, and that it was still bent double, as it was left by the thrust upon
-Brown&rsquo;s breast. He said that it was now a relic of great historic value, and
-asked me to assent to the selling of it upon the condition that I should
-receive a portion of the price of the weapon. To me the matter had very
-little interest, and I replied indifferently. Since then I have heard
-nothing of the matter. I presume the saber could be found somewhere in
-Washington.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_70">70</div>
-<h2 id="c10"><span class="small">SELECTED READING LIST</span></h2>
-<p>Joseph Barry, <i>The Strange Story of Harper&rsquo;s Ferry With Legends of The
-Surrounding Country</i>, Martinsburg, W. Va., 1903.</p>
-<p>Richard O. Boyer, <i>The Legend of John Brown: A Biography and A
-History</i>, New York, 1973.</p>
-<p>Louis Filler, <i>The Crusade Against Slavery, 1830-1860</i>, New York, 1960.</p>
-<p>Stephen B. Oates, <i>To Purge This Land With Blood: A Biography of
-John Brown</i>, New York, 1970.</p>
-<p>Louis Ruchames, ed., <i>John Brown: The Making of a Revolutionary</i>, New
-York, 1969. (Originally published under the title <i>A John Brown Reader</i>.)</p>
-<p>Franklin B. Sanborn, <i>Life and Letters of John Brown</i>, Boston, 1885.</p>
-<p>Kenneth M. Stampp, <i>The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the
-Ante-Bellum South</i>, New York, 1956.</p>
-<p>Edward Stone, ed., <i>Incident at Harper&rsquo;s Ferry</i>, Englewood Cliffs, 1956.</p>
-<p>Oswald Garrison Villard, <i>John Brown, 1800-1859: A Biography Fifty
-Years After</i>, Boston and New York, 1911 (2d edition, 1943).</p>
-<h4>PICTURE CREDITS</h4>
-<p>Harpers Ferry National Historical Park: Title page, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_8">8</a>-9, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_16">16</a>-17, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_24">24</a> (right), <a class="pgref" href="#Page_26">26</a>
-(drawing), <a class="pgref" href="#Page_28">28</a> (inset), <a class="pgref" href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_32">32</a>-33, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_37">37</a> (drawing), <a class="pgref" href="#Page_40">40</a>-41, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_47">47</a> (drawing), <a class="pgref" href="#Page_48">48</a>,
-<a class="pgref" href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_54">54</a>-55, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_58">58</a>-59;
-Library of Congress: <a class="pgref" href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_22">22</a> (left &amp; center),
-<a class="pgref" href="#Page_24">24</a> (left), <a class="pgref" href="#Page_26">26</a> (portraits), <a class="pgref" href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_37">37</a> (inset), <a class="pgref" href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_57">57</a>;
-Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka: <a class="pgref" href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a class="pgref" href="#Page_22">22</a> (right);
-U.S. Marine Corps Museum: <a class="pgref" href="#Page_47">47</a> (portrait);
-Boyd B. Stutler Collection, through the courtesy of Stephen B. Oates: <a class="pgref" href="#Page_11">11</a> (Howe &amp; Stearns);
-John Brown Collection, Columbus University Libraries: <a class="pgref" href="#Page_11">11</a> (Sanborn &amp; Parker);
-Public Library, City of Boston: <a class="pgref" href="#Page_11">11</a> (Smith);
-Boston Atheneum: <a class="pgref" href="#Page_11">11</a> (Higginson);
-Robert Lautman: <a href="#cover">cover</a> (John Brown&rsquo;s Fort).</p>
-<p class="tb"><span class="lr">&#9733;U.S. Government Printing Office 1973 0 521 267</span>
-<span class="lr">Reprint 1990</span></p>
-<h2 id="c11"><span class="small">Footnotes</span></h2>
-<div class="fnblock"><div class="fndef"><a class="fn"  id="fn_1" href="#fr_1">[1]</a>Originally published in <i>The North American Review</i>, December 1885.
-</div>
-</div>
-<h2>Transcriber&rsquo;s Notes</h2>
-<ul>
-<li>Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook is public-domain in the country of publication.</li>
-<li>Added a Table of Contents.</li>
-<li>Relocated all image captions to be immediately under the corresponding images, removing redundant references like &ldquo;preceding page&rdquo;.</li>
-<li>Silently corrected a few palpable typos.</li>
-<li>This book was printed mostly in italic, with emphasized text in roman; the eBook reverses those fonts.</li>
-<li>In the text versions only, text in roman is delimited by _underscores_.</li>
-</ul>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of John Brown's Raid, by National Park Service
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: John Brown's Raid
-       National Park Service History Series
-
-Author: National Park Service
-
-Release Date: December 3, 2017 [EBook #56106]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ASCII
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN BROWN'S RAID ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-                           JOHN BROWN'S RAID
-
-
-                 _National Park Service History Series
-             Office of Publications, National Park Service,
-           U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C._
-
-  John Brown's Raid                                                     1
-  The Road to Harpers Ferry                                             2
-  Rendezvous for Revolution                                            12
-  To Free the Slaves                                                   25
-  The Tiger Caged                                                      35
-  The Trap is Sprung                                                   43
-  John Brown's Body                                                    49
-  Epilogue                                                             61
-  Appendix: The Capture of John Brown                                  65
-  Selected Reading List                                                70
-
-    [Illustration: _John Brown's Fort, Harpers Ferry_]
-
-  _The text of this booklet was prepared by the staff of the Office of
-  Publications and is based on National Park Service reports by William
-  C. Everhart and Arthur L. Sullivan._
-
-  _National Park Handbooks are published to support the National Park
-  Service's management programs and to promote understanding and
-  enjoyment of the more than 350 National Park System sites, which
-  represent important examples of our country's natural and cultural
-  inheritance. Each handbook is intended to be informative reading and a
-  useful guide before, during, and after a park visit. More than 100
-  titles are in print. They are sold at parks and can be purchased by
-  mail from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing
-  Office, Washington, DC 20402._
-
-  _Harpers Ferry National Historical Park is administered by the
-  National Park Service, US. Department of the Interior. A
-  superintendent, whose address is Harpers Ferry, WV 25425, is in
-  immediate charge._
-
-
-           Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
-
-
-  United States National Park Service.
-  John Brown's raid.
-  National Park Service history series
-  Supt. of Docs. no.: 129-2: J61/4.
-  1. Harpers Ferry. W. Va. John Brown Raid. 1859.
-    I. Title.
-    II. Series: United States. National Park Service. History series.
-  E451.U58 1974 973.7'116 73-600184
-
-
-  "_All through the conflict, up and down
-  Marched Uncle Tom and Old John Brown,
-  One ghost, one form ideal;
-  And which was false and which was true,
-  And which was mightier of the two,
-  The wisest sibyl never knew.
-  For both alike were real._"
-                                                 _Oliver Wendell Holmes_
-                                                         _June 14, 1882_
-
-    [Illustration: This view of Harpers Ferry from Maryland Heights in
-    1859 appeared in _Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper_ shortly
-    after John Brown's raid brought the town to national prominence.]
-
-
-
-
-                           JOHN BROWN'^S RAID
-
-
-Through the gloom of the night, Sunday, October 16, 1859, a small band
-of men tramped silently behind a horse-drawn wagon down a winding
-Maryland road leading to Harpers Ferry, Va. From the shoulder of each
-man hung loosely a Sharps rifle, hidden by long gray shawls that
-protected the ghostly figures against the chilling air of approaching
-winter. A slight drizzle of rain veiled the towering Blue Ridge
-Mountains with an eerie mist. Not a sound broke the stillness, save the
-tramping feet and the creaking wagon.
-
-Side by side marched lawyer and farmer, escaped convict and pious
-Quaker, Spiritualist and ex-slave, joined in common cause by a hatred of
-slavery. Some had received their baptism of fire in "Bleeding Kansas,"
-where a bitter 5-year war between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions
-left death and destruction in its wake and foreshadowed a larger
-conflict to come. Most were students of guerrilla tactics; all were
-willing to die to free the slaves.
-
-This strange little force, five Negroes and 14 whites, was the
-"Provisional Army of the United States," about to launch a fantastic
-scheme to rid the country of its "peculiar institution" once and for
-all, a scheme conjured up by the fierce-eyed, bearded man seated on the
-wagon--"Commander in Chief" John Brown. He was the planner, the
-organizer, the driving force, the reason why these men were trudging
-down this rough Maryland road to an uncertain fate.
-
-
-
-
-                       THE ROAD TO HARPERS FERRY
-
-
-This man who would electrify the Nation and bring it closer to civil war
-by his audacious attack on slavery was born at Torrington, Conn., on May
-9, 1800, the son of Owen and Ruth Mills Brown. The Browns were a simple,
-frugal, and hard-working family. They had a deep and abiding interest in
-religion, and from earliest childhood John Brown was taught the value of
-strong religious habits. He was required, along with his brothers and
-sisters, to participate in daily Bible reading and prayer sessions.
-"Fear God & keep his commandments" was his father's constant admonition.
-It was also his father who taught him to view the enslavement of Negroes
-as a sin against God.
-
-    [Illustration: Owen Brown]
-
-    [Illustration: The future abolitionist and martyr in the cause of
-    Negro freedom was born in this stark, shutterless farmhouse in
-    Torrington, Conn. He lived here only 5 years. In 1805 his father,
-    Owen Brown (above), sold the farm and moved the family west to
-    Ohio.]
-
-In 1805 the Browns, like many other families of the period, moved west
-to Ohio. There, in the little settlement of Hudson, about 25 miles south
-of Cleveland, John grew to manhood. He received little formal education;
-most of what he learned came from what he afterwards called the "School
-of adversity." He cared little for studies, preferring life in the open.
-Consistently choosing the "hardest & roughest" kinds of play because
-they afforded him "almost the only compensation for the confinement &
-restraints of school," he was extremely proud of his ability to
-"wrestle, & Snow ball, & run, & jump, & knock off old seedy Wool hats."
-
-    [Illustration: John Brown probably never saw a slave auction,
-    portrayed here in an illustration from the 1852 edition of Harriet
-    Beecher Stowe's _Uncle Tom's Cabin_, but his horror and hatred of
-    slavery made its destruction the "greatest or principle object" of
-    his life.]
-
-When John was 8 years old his mother died, and for awhile he believed
-that he would never recover from so "complete & permanent" a loss. His
-father remarried, but John never accepted his stepmother emotionally and
-"continued to pine after his own Mother for years."
-
-An indifferent student, and "not ... much of a schollar" anyway, John
-quit school and went to work at his father's tannery. Owen Brown, who
-had been a tanner and a shoemaker before moving to Hudson, had already
-taught his son the art of dressing leather from "Squirel, Raccoon, Cat,
-Wolf, or Dog Skins," and John soon displayed remarkable ability in the
-trade. When the War of 1812 broke out, Owen contracted to supply beef to
-the American forces in Michigan. He gave John the task of rounding up
-wild steers and other cattle in the woods and then driving them, all by
-himself, to army posts more than 100 miles away. Contact with the
-soldiers and their profanity and lack of discipline so disgusted young
-Brown that he later resolved to pay fines rather than take part in the
-militia drills required of all Hudson males of a certain age.
-
-It was during the war, or so Brown later claimed, that he first came to
-understand what his father meant about the evil of slavery. He had just
-completed one of his cattle drives and was staying with a "very
-gentlemanly landlord" who owned a slave about the same age as John. The
-Negro boy was "badly clothed, poorly fed ... & beaten before his eyes
-with Iron Shovels or any other thing that came first to hand." Outraged
-by this, John returned home "a most determined Abolitionist" swearing
-"Eternal war with Slavery."
-
-    [Illustration: John Brown had not yet grown his famous beard when
-    this picture was taken in Kansas in 1856. Though 3 years away from
-    the deed that would make his name immortal, he had already begun his
-    private war against slavery.]
-
-    [Illustration: Mary Ann Day, Brown's loyal and self-sacrificing
-    second wife, stoically endured her husband's constant wanderings in
-    business and anti-slavery activities. She is shown here about 1851
-    with two of their daughters, Annie and Sarah.]
-
-In 1816 John joined the Congregational Church in Hudson and soon
-developed a strong interest in becoming a minister. For a while he
-attended a divinity school in Plainfield, Mass., then transferred to
-another school in Litchfield, Conn. At that time Litchfield was a center
-of abolitionist sentiment; it was also the birthplace of Harriet Beecher
-Stowe, whose book _Uncle Tom's Cabin_, published in 1852, would stir
-passions North and South, win international support for the anti-slavery
-cause, and help to bring on civil war in 1861. How much of Litchfield's
-abolitionist atmosphere young Brown absorbed is not known. A shortage of
-funds and an inflammation of the eyes forced him to return to Ohio in
-the summer of 1817. His dream of becoming a minister was forever
-shattered, but he never lost his religious fervor.
-
-When he was 20 years old, "led by his own inclination & prompted also by
-his Father," Brown married Dianthe Lusk, a "remarkably plain" and pious
-girl a year younger than himself. She died 12 years later, in August
-1832, following the birth of their seventh child. Brown remarried within
-a year, and fathered 13 children by his second wife, Mary Ann Day. In a
-never-ending struggle to feed and clothe his growing family, Brown
-drifted through Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and
-Massachusetts plying many trades. He worked at tanning, surveying, and
-farming; at times he was shepherd, cattleman, wool merchant, and
-postmaster; for a while he bred race horses and speculated in real
-estate. Uniformly unsuccessful in these ventures, Brown's debts mounted,
-and he was barely able to keep his large family from starvation.
-
-Despite his frequent business reversals and his strenuous and consuming
-efforts to support his family, Brown never abandoned his intense desire
-to free enslaved Negroes from bondage. His first opportunity to strike a
-blow at the institution he hated so much came in Kansas, where,
-following the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, pro-slavery
-"Border Ruffians" clashed brutally with anti-slavery "Jayhawkers" over
-the extension of slavery to Kansas and Nebraska Territories.
-
-    [Illustration: John Brown, Jr., the oldest of Brown's sons, fought
-    alongside his father in Kansas. The Pottawatomie murders, in which
-    he took no part, caused him to suffer a mental collapse from which
-    he never fully recovered. Nevertheless, in 1859 he was entrusted
-    with forwarding the weapons for the attack on Harpers Ferry from
-    Ohio to Chambersburg, Pa.]
-
-Five of Brown's sons--Owen, Jason, Frederick, Salmon, and John, Jr.--had
-emigrated to Kansas and joined the free-soil cause. When they appealed
-to their father for help in May 1855, Brown, another son Oliver, and
-son-in-law Henry Thompson rushed to Kansas and plunged into the conflict
-with a fury. As captain of the "Liberty Guards," a quasi-militia company
-that he himself formed, Brown shortly gained national notoriety as a
-bold and ruthless leader.
-
-For the next several years, murders, bushwhackings, lynchings, and
-burnings were common occurrences, and the territory was aptly named
-"Bleeding Kansas." Atrocity matched atrocity. When pro-slavery forces
-sacked and burned the town of Lawrence in May 1856, Brown was outraged.
-Proclaiming himself an instrument of God's will, he, with four of his
-sons and three others, deliberately and brutally murdered five
-pro-slavery men along the banks of Pottawatomie Creek. In the months
-that followed, Brown terrorized the Missouri-Kansas border by a series
-of bloody guerrilla attacks that brought him to the attention of the
-Nation's abolitionist faction. In late August 1856, about a month before
-he left Kansas, Brown and his men clashed with pro-slavery Missourians
-at the small settlement of Osawatomie. That action earned him the
-nickname "Osawatomie" and cost him the life of his son Frederick. It
-also hardened his stand against slavery. "I have only a short time to
-live--only one death to die," he said, "and I will die fighting for this
-cause. There will be no more peace in this land until slavery is done
-for. I will give them something else to do than to extend slave
-territory. I will carry this war into Africa."
-
-    Three of John Brown's most trusted lieutenants in the Harpers Ferry
-    raid:
-
-    [Illustration: John E. Cook]
-
-    [Illustration: Aaron D. Stevens]
-
-    [Illustration: John H. Kagi]
-
-The attack on Harpers Ferry was the culmination of a plan Brown had
-evolved many years before he went to Kansas. By the early 1850's he had
-come to believe that a location within the slave States should be
-selected where raids on slave plantations could be easily carried out
-and the freed bondsmen sent to safety in the North. Convinced that
-mountains throughout history had enabled the few to defend themselves
-against the many, he believed that even against regular Army troops a
-small force operating from a mountain stronghold could hold out
-indefinitely and provide sanctuary for freed slaves, who would be
-supplied with arms to fight for their liberty. Brown had decided, from
-studying European fortifications and military operations, that somewhere
-along the Allegheny Mountain chain a small force could achieve those
-objectives.
-
-In the autumn of 1857, on his second trip to Kansas, Brown began
-recruiting his force for the projected raid. Among the first to join him
-were three young veterans of the Kansas fighting: John E. Cook, Aaron D.
-Stevens, and John H. Kagi. Each would play an important role in the
-attack on Harpers Ferry.
-
-Cook, 27-year-old member of a wealthy Connecticut family, had attended
-Yale University and studied law in New York City before going to Kansas
-in 1855. He stood about 5 feet 5 inches tall, had long, silk-blond hair
-that curled about his neck, and "his deep blue eyes were gentle in
-expression as a woman's." Brown's son Salmon, who knew Cook in Ohio and
-Kansas, characterized him as "highly erratic" in temperament "and not
-overly stocked with morality. He was the best pistol-shot I ever saw ...
-[and] just as much of an expert in getting into the good graces of the
-girls." He loved to "talk and rattle on about himself."
-
-Stevens, then 26 years old, was, like Cook, a native of Connecticut. He
-ran away from home at the age of 16 and joined the Massachusetts
-Volunteer Regiment to fight in the Mexican War. Honorably discharged at
-the end of that conflict, he found civilian life so boring that he
-enlisted as a bugler in a United States dragoon regiment in the West and
-took part in several campaigns against the Navaho and Apache Indians.
-Stevens possessed an explosive temper, and at Taos, N. Mex., in the
-mid-1850's, he nearly killed an officer in a drunken brawl and was
-sentenced to death. President Franklin Pierce commuted the sentence to 3
-years' hard labor at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In January 1856 Stevens
-escaped and joined the Free-State cause. As colonel of the Second Kansas
-Volunteer Regiment, he fought in some of the territory's bloodiest
-battles. Standing just over 6 feet tall, Stevens was a powerfully built
-man who could wield a saber with deadly skill. He had black curly hair,
-"black, brooding eyes," and a full beard. In his youth he had been a
-choir boy (his father and elder brothers taught singing), had a rich
-baritone voice, and liked to sing. Totally dedicated to the overthrow of
-slavery, he once told a Kansas sheriff: "We are in the right, and will
-resist the universe."
-
-Kagi, an Ohio lad of 22, was largely self-educated and had taught school
-in Virginia until his abolitionist views got him into trouble with local
-officials and he had to flee the State. Traveling to Kansas in 1856, he
-became a lawyer in Nebraska City. Occasionally he served as a court
-stenographer or shorthand reporter. He also functioned as a
-correspondent for several Eastern newspapers and John Brown dubbed him
-"our Horace Greeley." While riding with Stevens' Second Kansas Regiment
-in 1856, Kagi was taken prisoner by Federal troops and served 4 months
-in jail before being released on bail. In January 1857 he was shot by a
-pro-slavery judge during a disagreement and was still suffering from his
-wounds when he joined Brown. Tall, with angular features, Kagi was
-usually unkempt, unshaven, and generally unimpressive in appearance; but
-he was articulate and highly intelligent, of serene temperament, and not
-easily aroused. "His fertility of resources made him a tower of strength
-to John Brown," wrote George B. Gill, an Iowa youth who signed up for
-the raid but defected before it took place. "He was a logician of more
-than ordinary ability. He was full of wonderful vitality and all things
-were fit food for his brain."
-
-    [Illustration: Brown's target was the United States Armory and
-    Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, shown here in an 1857 lithograph.]
-
-When he enlisted them, Brown told Cook, Stevens, and Kagi only that he
-was organizing a company of men to resist pro-slavery aggressions. He
-did not tell them where he planned to take them. When seven more
-volunteers joined the group at Tabor, Iowa, he informed his recruits
-that their "ultimate destination was the State of Virginia." Shortly
-afterwards the men finally learned that Harpers Ferry was the probable
-target. Kagi, who had once taught school in the area, gave Brown
-valuable information about the town. The place fitted Brown's
-requirements perfectly. It lay near the mountains he counted upon to
-afford a hiding place, and it was on the border of Virginia, a slave
-State, only 40 miles from the free State of Pennsylvania. It also
-contained an United States armory and arsenal, where much-needed arms
-were stored.
-
-After a trip to New England to raise funds, Brown called a
-"Constitutional Convention" of his followers to meet on May 8, 1858, at
-Chatham, Ontario, Canada. Besides Brown's group, 34 Negroes attended the
-meeting and heard the Kansas guerrilla chieftain outline his plan for
-the deliverance of their enslaved brethren. First, he told them, he
-intended to strike at a point in the South. This blow would be followed
-by a general slave uprising in which even free Negroes in the Northern
-States and Canada would flock to his banner. He would lead them into the
-mountains and "if any hostile action ... were taken against us, either
-by the militia of the separate States or by the armies of the United
-States, we purposed to defeat first the militia, and next, if it were
-possible, the troops of the United States...."
-
-The convention unanimously adopted a "Provisional Constitution and
-Ordinances for the People of the United States" to serve as the law of
-the land while the army of liberation instituted a new government--one
-that would not supplant but exist side-by-side with the U.S. Government
-and which would explicitly prohibit slavery. John Brown was elected
-"Commander in Chief" of the new provisional army to be formed, other
-officers were appointed, and the convention adjourned. Before leaving
-again for New England to gather supplies and money for the attack, Brown
-sent Cook to Harpers Ferry to act as a spy; the others scattered,
-seeking employment to maintain themselves until called together for the
-march into Virginia.
-
-    The moral and financial backing of these men, known as "The Secret
-    Six," made the raid on Harpers Ferry possible.
-
-    [Illustration: Samuel Gridley Howe]
-
-    [Illustration: Thomas Wentworth Higginson]
-
-    [Illustration: Franklin B. Sanborn]
-
-    [Illustration: George Luther Stearns]
-
-    [Illustration: Gerrit Smith]
-
-    [Illustration: Theodore Parker]
-
-To equip, maintain, and transport the men needed to carry out his plan,
-Brown required a considerable amount of money and weapons. He had
-neither, but because of his Kansas activities, he was able to enlist the
-support of Northern abolitionists in his fight against slavery.
-Philosophers, scholars, religious leaders, philanthropists, and
-businessmen gave freely but discreetly to the cause. Chief among Brown's
-backers was a secret committee of six: Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, Boston,
-Mass., educator, minister, and reformer; Thomas Wentworth Higginson,
-militant clergyman of Worcester, Mass.; Theodore Parker, Boston's
-outstanding Unitarian minister; Franklin B. Sanborn, editor and
-schoolmaster of Concord, Mass.; Gerrit Smith, former New York
-Congressman and a great Peterboro, N.Y., landowner; and George L.
-Stearns, industrialist and merchant of Medford, Mass. Through them Brown
-received most of the money and weapons that enabled him to launch his
-attack.
-
-
-
-
-                       RENDEZVOUS FOR REVOLUTION
-
-
-By the summer of 1859 Harpers Ferry was a quietly thriving little
-industrial and transportation community sitting on a narrow shelf of
-land at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers in the Blue
-Ridge Mountains of northern Virginia. Until its selection as the site
-for a Federal armory at the end of the 18th century, the town's growth
-had been slow. What growth it did experience was due to its location on
-the wilderness route to the Shenandoah Valley. The land on which the
-town sat was first settled in 1733 by a Pennsylvania Dutchman named
-Peter Stephens, who operated a small ferryboat service across the
-rivers. At that time the place was called "Peter's Hole" because it was
-dominated by three towering bluffs--Maryland Heights to the north,
-Loudoun Heights to the south, and Bolivar Heights to the west. When
-Robert Harper, a skilled Philadelphia architect and millwright, bought
-the land in 1747, he improved the ferry service and built a gristmill.
-Around these facilities at the base of Bolivar Heights the village of
-Harpers Ferry gradually developed.
-
-In 1794, when relations between the United States and England were
-strained, Congress grew uneasy over the country's military posture.
-Uncertain of the ordnance-producing capabilities of private
-manufacturers in time of need, it directed President George Washington
-to establish a number of armories where guns could be made and stored.
-One of the sites he chose was Harpers Ferry.
-
-Washington was well acquainted with Harpers Ferry. As a young man during
-the middle part of the century, he had accompanied surveying parties
-that inspected the vast holdings of the Virginia aristocracy in this
-area. He considered Harpers Ferry "the most eligible spot on the
-[Potomac] river" for an armory. Abundant water power was available, iron
-ore was plentiful nearby, hardwood forests insured a steady supply of
-charcoal to fuel the forges, and the place was far enough inland to be
-secure from foreign invasion.
-
-In June 1796 the Government purchased from the Harper heirs a 125-acre
-tract of land and began constructing workshops on the benchland between
-the Potomac River and what would later become Potomac Street. Waterpower
-was harnessed by building a dam upstream from the armory and channeling
-the water through a canal into the workshops. Although a critical
-shortage of gunsmiths and ordnance-making machinery restricted
-operations for several years, limited arms production began late in 1798
-under the direction of an English Moravian named Joseph Perkin, the
-armory's first superintendent.
-
-The first muskets, based on the old French infantry type of 1763, were
-completed in 1801. In 1803 production was expanded to include rifles,
-and 2 years later the manufacture of pistols. (The Model 1805 pistol,
-made at Harpers Ferry, was the first hand weapon to be produced at a
-United States armory.) At first the rate of musket production was
-meager, but by 1810 the armory was turning out 10,000 annually, storing
-them in two arsenal buildings nearby on Shenandoah Street.
-
-In 1819 John Hall, a Maine gunsmith, received a contract from the
-Federal Government to manufacture 1,000 breech-loading flintlock rifles
-of his own design. Sent to Harpers Ferry, he set up the Hall Rifle Works
-in two buildings on Lower Hall Island, which adjoined Virginius Island
-in the Shenandoah River about 1/2 mile from its junction with the
-Potomac. Hall's rifles were made on so exact a scale that all the parts
-were interchangeable--a factor that helped to pave the way for modern
-mass production methods. The War Department was elated with Hall's
-success and his contract was repeatedly renewed. When the Hall rifle was
-discontinued in 1844, the Government tore down the old buildings and
-erected a new rifle factory on the same site. Standard U.S. Model rifles
-were produced there until the industry was destroyed, along with the
-armory complex, at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861.
-
-The abundance of water power that had attracted the arms industry soon
-brought others. Besides the rifle factories on Hall Island, Virginius
-Island boasted an iron foundry, flour mill, cotton mill, and machine
-shop, all powered by water diverted through the island by a dam in the
-Shenandoah River and a series of sluiceways and underground water
-tunnels. More than 200 persons made their home around the prospering
-island industries.
-
-The formation, development, and expansion of the United States Armory
-and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry (its complete, official designation) was
-the chief stimulus for the growth of the town. From a simple beginning
-the armory by 1859 had spread to include 20 workshops and offices, lined
-in a neat double row over an area 600 yards long. At its peak, the
-armory provided employment for more than 400 men, mostly transplanted
-Northerners whom local residents classified as "foreigners." In the
-65-year history of this major industry, the U.S. Government invested
-nearly $2 million in land, water power improvements, walls and
-embankments, hydraulic machinery, and buildings.
-
-    [Illustration: HARPERS FERRY AND VICINITY 1859]
-
-After 1830 Harpers Ferry, already recognized as an important industrial
-center, attained prominence as a vital link in the transportation and
-communications line between the Ohio and Shenandoah Valleys and the
-East. By 1830 a semi-weekly stagecoach service connected the town with
-Washington, D.C. The one-way trip usually required a full day's travel.
-That same year a turnpike company was founded to construct a 16-mile
-macadamized toll road from Harpers Ferry to Middleway, 5 miles west of
-Charles Town. A turnpike being built from Frederick, Md., about 20 miles
-to the east, reached the town in 1832. Still another turnpike company,
-organized in 1851, ran a road from Harpers Ferry southeastward to
-Hillsborough, about 10 miles away.
-
-But the signal impetus to the establishment of the town's commercial
-position was the arrival of canal and railroad. Waging a bitter battle
-to reach the rich Ohio Valley and carry its trade to the East, impeding
-each other's progress at every opportunity, the Chesapeake and Ohio
-Canal (originating in Washington, D.C.) and the Baltimore and Ohio
-Railroad (originating in Baltimore, Md.) reached Harpers Ferry in the
-early 1830's. Following the winding Potomac River northward and westward
-from Georgetown, the C & O Canal arrived at Harpers Ferry in November
-1833, more than a year ahead of its rival. But the railroad pushed on to
-the Ohio Valley while the canal stopped at Cumberland, Md. The
-establishment of these two arteries provided shippers with a cheaper
-carrier for their products and assured travelers of a more efficient and
-economical means of reaching their destinations.
-
-With the expansion of industry and the development of superior
-transportation facilities, the population of the community swelled to
-nearly 3,000 by 1859. Of these about 150 were "free coloreds" and 150
-were slaves. The total number of slaves in the entire six-county area
-around Harpers Ferry was just slightly more than 18,000, of which less
-than 5,000 were men. There were no large plantations because the land
-and the climate could not sustain a plantation economy. The few
-slaveholders maintained farms, and their blacks were mainly "well-kept
-house-servants."
-
-Most of the white residents of Harpers Ferry worked at the armory or at
-the manufacturing plants on Virginius Island. Because land was at a
-premium, the houses, saloons, hotels, and shops were tightly aligned
-along Shenandoah, Potomac, and High Streets, and sprawled up the slopes
-of Bolivar Heights. In some places the rocky cliffs were blasted away to
-make room for another building. Most of the homes were of simple design,
-but the Government-built residences of the armory officials were more
-elaborate.
-
-The inhabitants of the town were chiefly of Irish, English, and German
-descent. Besides building six churches of varying faiths (one of which,
-St. Peter's Catholic Church, is still standing and in use today), they
-established five private girls' schools. A man could get a drink at the
-Gault House or take a meal at the Potomac Restaurant or the Wager House.
-If he so desired, he could join the Masons, the Odd Fellows, or the Sons
-of Temperance. Nearly everyone was prosperous. It was a good time for
-the town and its people.
-
-    [Illustration: This photograph of Harpers Ferry from the Maryland
-    side of the Potomac shows the town as it appeared about the time of
-    the raid. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge, by which John
-    Brown and his raiders entered the village, is at the left.]
-
-John Brown arrived amidst this prosperity on July 3, 1859. Not yet 60
-years old, the rigors of frontier living had nevertheless left their
-imprint upon him and there were those who said he looked and walked more
-than ever "like an old man." In March a Cleveland, Ohio, newspaper had
-described him as "a medium-sized, compactly-built and wiry man, and as
-quick as a cat in his movements. His hair is of a salt and pepper hue
-and as stiff as bristles, he has a long, waving, milk-white goatee,
-which gives him a somewhat patriarchal appearance, his eyes are gray and
-sharp." He had grown the beard before his last trip to Kansas in 1858,
-and it covered his square chin and straight, firm mouth, changing his
-appearance markedly. When he arrived in Harpers Ferry the beard had been
-shortened to within an inch and a half of his face, because, his
-daughter Annie later recalled, he thought it "more likely to disguise
-him than a clean face or than the long beard."
-
-With Brown were two of his sons--34-year-old Owen and 20-year-old
-Oliver--and Kansas veteran Jeremiah G. Anderson. The 26-year-old,
-Indiana-born Anderson was the grandson of Southern slaveholders and had
-joined the abolitionist cause in 1857 after working several unproductive
-years as a peddler, farmer, and sawyer. Determined to eliminate slavery,
-Anderson once vowed to "make this land of liberty and equality shake to
-the centre."
-
-After consulting briefly with Cook, who had been serving as a
-schoolteacher, book salesman, and canal-lock tender, and had even
-married a local girl since being sent to Harpers Ferry the year before,
-Brown and his three companions took up residence in a private home in
-Sandy Hook, a small village about a mile down the Potomac on the
-Maryland shore. The names they gave their landlord were "Isaac Smith &
-Sons." To anyone asking their business in the area, Brown told them they
-were simple farmers looking for good farmland to develop.
-
-Brown arose early on July 4 and began exploring the Maryland side of the
-Potomac to find a suitable hideout for his raiders. Local inquiry led
-him to a farm owned by the heirs of a Dr. R. F. Kennedy about 5 miles
-north of Harpers Ferry. A cursory inspection convinced him that the
-place, though small, was conveniently located and admirably suited for
-concealment. The farm was remote from other settlements, and it was
-surrounded by woods and hidden by undergrowth--an ideal situation for
-hiding men and supplies from the gaze of inquisitive neighbors.
-
-    [Illustration: John Brown in May 1859.]
-
-For $35 in gold Brown rented the farm, which consisted of two log
-structures, some outbuildings, and a pasture. The main house sat about
-100 yards off the public road connecting Harpers Ferry with
-Boonesborough and Sharpsburg, Md., and contained a basement kitchen and
-storerooms, a second-floor living room and bedrooms, and an attic. The
-second floor was used as kitchen, parlor, and dining room, and the attic
-served as a storeroom, drilling room, and "prison" to keep the men out
-of sight. Near the farmhouse stood a small cabin that later became a
-storage place and sleeping quarters for some of the raiders.
-
-    [Illustration: The isolated character of the Kennedy farm did not
-    prevent curious neighbors from "dropping in" for a visit.]
-
-    [Illustration: To help avert suspicion, Brown's daughter Annie and
-    Oliver's wife Martha (shown here with her husband in 1859) lived at
-    the farm while the arms and men were being assembled. Martha did the
-    cooking and helped Annie with household chores.]
-
-Brown's chief fear was that neighbors would become suspicious of "Isaac
-Smith & Sons" and possibly uncover his revolutionary plans. Reasoning
-that nearby families would be less distrustful with women among the
-group, he appealed to his wife and daughter Annie at their home in North
-Elba, N.Y., to come live with him, saying that "It will be likely to
-prove the most valuable service you can ever render to the world." Mrs.
-Brown was unable to make the long journey, but Annie and Oliver's wife
-Martha did join him in mid-July. Their presence proved of inestimable
-value not only in alleviating suspicion but in contributing to the
-morale of the men. Martha served as cook and housekeeper, preparing
-meals on a wood stove in the upstairs living room; Annie kept constant
-watch for prying neighbors. "When I washed dishes," noted Annie many
-years later,
-
-  I stood at the end of the table where I could see out of the window
-  and open door if any one approached the house. I was constantly on the
-  lookout while carrying the victuals across the porch, and while I was
-  tidying or sweeping the rooms, and always at my post on the porch when
-  the men were eating. My evenings were spent on the porch or sitting on
-  the stairs, watching or listening.
-
-    [Illustration: The Kennedy farmhouse served as the base of
-    operations for John Brown's raiders.]
-
-    [Illustration: Annie Brown]
-
-His base established, Brown laid plans to assemble his arms and supplies
-and to gather in his followers. On July 10 he wrote to John Kagi at
-Chambersburg, Pa., where an arms depot had been set up, giving him
-directions for forwarding the waiting men and the "freight"--200 Sharps
-rifles, an equal number of pistols, and a thousand pikes. The weapons,
-crated in large wooden boxes marked "Hardware and Castings," were
-shipped from Ohio to Chambersburg where Kagi sent them by wagon to Brown
-at the Kennedy farm. Supplies were acquired at various places between
-Chambersburg and Harpers Ferry.
-
-Alone and in twos and threes, Brown's followers began to assemble at the
-farm. Watson Brown arrived on August 6. "Tall and rather fair, with
-finely knit frame, athletic and active," the 24-year-old Watson brought
-with him two of his brothers-in-law and North Elba neighbors, William
-and Dauphin Thompson. The Thompsons had not previously taken active
-roles in the anti-slavery movement but they were dedicated
-abolitionists. William, 26 years old, was fun-loving and good natured.
-He had started for Kansas in 1856 but turned back before reaching there.
-His 20-year-old brother Dauphin had never been away from home before.
-Handsome, inexperienced, with curly, golden hair and a soft complexion,
-he seemed "more like a girl than a warrior" and was "diffident and
-quiet." Both had come to the Kennedy farm because they were firmly
-convinced of the justness of John Brown's cause.
-
-Next came Aaron Stevens and Charles Plummet Tidd, a 25-year-old former
-Maine woodsman. Tidd was a Kansas veteran. He had been one of the first
-to join Brown at Tabor, Iowa, in 1857 and had remained one of his
-closest associates ever since. He was quick-tempered, but according to
-Annie Brown, "His rages soon passed and then he tried all he could to
-repair damages. He was a fine singer and of strong family affections."
-
-    [Illustration: Edwin Coppoc]
-
-    [Illustration: Dauphin Thompson]
-
-    [Illustration: Charles Plummer Tidd]
-
-Tidd and Stevens were followed by 22-year-old Albert Hazlett, another
-veteran of the Kansas fighting, Canadian-born Stewart Taylor, and two
-brothers from Iowa, Edwin and Barclay Coppoc. Hazlett had worked on his
-brother's farm in western Pennsylvania before joining Brown at the
-Kennedy farm. He was totally committed to the overthrow of slavery. "I
-am willing to die in the cause of liberty," he said; "if I had ten
-thousand lives I would willingly lay them all down for the same cause."
-Taylor, 23 years old, was once a wagonmaker. He had met Brown in Iowa in
-1858 and was "heart and soul in the anti-slavery cause." Scholarly, a
-good debater, and "very fond of studying history," Taylor, like Stevens,
-was a spiritualist and had a premonition that he would die at Harpers
-Ferry. The Coppocs were Quakers by birth and training. They were in
-Kansas during the troubles there but took no part in the fighting.
-Edwin, at 24, was 4 years older than his brother Barclay. Both had
-joined Brown initially in 1858 at Springdale, Iowa, where they were
-living with their mother, shortly before the Chatham Convention.
-
-Twenty-year-old William H. Leeman arrived near the end of August. Born
-and educated in Maine, he had worked in a Haverhill, Mass., shoe factory
-before going to Kansas in 1856 where he served in Brown's "Liberty
-Guards" militia company. Impulsive, hard to control, the 6-foot-tall
-Leeman "smoked a good deal and drank sometimes," but he had "a good
-intellect with great ingenuity." Shortly before the raid he wrote his
-mother that he was "warring with slavery, the greatest curse that ever
-infected America. We are determined to strike for freedom, incite the
-slaves to rebellion, and establish a free government. With the help of
-God we will carry it through."
-
-After Leeman came Dangerfield Newby, a mulatto born a slave but freed by
-his Scotch father, and Osborn P. Anderson, a 33-year-old free Negro who
-had worked as a printer before joining Brown in Canada in 1858. Newby,
-at 44 the oldest of the group save for Brown himself, had a wife and
-several children in bondage in the South. He came to the Kennedy
-farmhouse convinced that the only way to free them was with rifle and
-bullet. Week after week he would read and reread a worn letter from his
-wife in which she begged him to "Buy me and the baby, that has just
-commenced to crawl, as soon as possible, for if you do not get me
-somebody else will."
-
-"Emperor" Shields Green, a 23-year-old illiterate escaped slave from
-Charleston, S.C., joined up at Chambersburg where Brown had gone in
-mid-August to enlist the aid of the famed Negro abolitionist, orator,
-and journalist, Frederick Douglass. Brown and Douglass had first met at
-Springfield, Mass., in 1847. Since then they had become good friends.
-When the Negro leader learned the details of the planned assault on
-Harpers Ferry, he refused to participate, arguing that an attack on the
-Government would "array the whole country" against him and antagonize
-the very people to whom the abolitionists looked for support. Moreover,
-Douglass believed that the plan could not succeed, that Brown "was going
-into a perfect steel-trap, and that once in he would never get out
-alive." Before leaving, Douglass asked Shields Green, who had
-accompanied him to the meeting, what he intended to do. Green replied
-simply, "I b'lieve I'll go wid de ole man."
-
-Life at the Kennedy farm was wearing and tedious. Brown's most trying
-task was to keep his slowly increasing force occupied and out of sight.
-Forced to remain in the two small buildings during the day, the men had
-little to do. The long summer days were mostly spent reading magazines,
-telling stories, arguing politics and religion, and playing checkers and
-cards. They drilled frequently and studied the art of guerrilla warfare
-from a specially prepared military manual.
-
-Meals were served downstairs in the farmhouse, with Annie and Martha
-standing guard while the men ate. After breakfast each morning, John
-Brown would read from the Bible and utter a short prayer. Occasionally
-he would travel into Harpers Ferry to pick up a Baltimore newspaper to
-which he subscribed or to purchase flour from the mill on Virginius
-Island. If a neighbor arrived unexpectedly during mealtime, the men
-would gather up the food, dishes, and table cloth and carry them to the
-attic.
-
-    [Illustration: Famed Negro abolitionist Frederick Douglass supported
-    Brown's Kansas activities but warned him against attacking Harpers
-    Ferry. Douglass refused to participate in the raid, but his friend
-    Shields Green decided to go with Brown.]
-
-    [Illustration: Shields Green.]
-
-At night the men could go outdoors for fresh air and exercise.
-Thunderstorms were especially welcomed, for then they could move about
-with little fear of making noise. These brief interludes served to
-release tensions built up during long periods of confinement and
-inactivity, but the secret living in such close quarters proved almost
-too much to bear. Restiveness and irritations were bound to occur. Twice
-there was a near revolt against the planned raid. On one occasion Tidd
-became so infuriated that he left the farm and stayed with Cook in
-Harpers Ferry for 3 days. So serious was the opposition that Brown
-tendered his resignation as commander in chief. He withdrew it only
-after the men gave him a renewed vote of confidence.
-
-As September ended and the time for the attack approached, Annie and
-Martha were sent back to North Elba. Brown and his men busied themselves
-overhauling the rifles and pistols and attaching pike-heads to shafts.
-The pikes were Brown's own idea. Preparing for a return to Kansas in
-1857, he had negotiated with a Connecticut blacksmith to manufacture
-1,000 of these weapons--a two-edged dirk with an iron blade 8 inches
-long fastened to a 6-foot ash handle. Originally they were intended for
-the defense of free-soil settlers in Kansas, but Brown was unable to pay
-for them until the spring of 1859, when he made final arrangements to
-use them at Harpers Ferry. Knowing that most of the slaves he expected
-to join him were unskilled in the use of firearms, he decided they could
-handle a pike. A thousand men armed with pikes and backed by Brown's
-more experienced "soldiers" could constitute a formidable army.
-
-Because so many people knew about Brown's intentions, it was inevitable
-that the secrecy would be broken. In late August Secretary of War John
-B. Floyd received an unsigned letter reporting "the existence of a
-secret association, having for its object the liberation of the slaves
-at the South by a general insurrection." Brown was named as its leader
-and "an armory in Maryland" its immediate objective. Because the
-informant mistakenly placed the armory in Maryland instead of Virginia
-and because Floyd could not bring himself to believe such a scheme could
-be entertained by citizens of the United States, the Secretary put the
-letter away and forgot about it until subsequent events reminded him of
-the warning.
-
-October arrived. Still Brown delayed, hoping that more men would come.
-Many upon whom he had counted failed to join him for a variety of
-reasons. Even two of his sons, Jason and Salmon, refused to participate.
-Though disappointed, Brown realized that the longer he delayed, the
-greater were the chances that his plan would be discovered and thwarted.
-Finally, on October 15, with the arrival of 22-year-old Francis J.
-Meriam and two Ohio Negroes, John Copeland and Lewis S. Leary, both 25,
-the ranks of the "Provisional Army of the United States" were completed.
-In all there were 21 men besides the commander in chief. Of these, 19
-were under 30, three not yet 21. Brown could wait no longer. Calling his
-men together, he announced that the attack would take place the next
-night, October 16, and cautioned them about the needless taking of human
-life:
-
-  You all know how dear life is to you ... consider that the lives of
-  others are as dear to them as yours are to you; do not, therefore,
-  take the life of anyone if you can possibly avoid it, but if it is
-  necessary to take life in order to save your own, then make short work
-  of it.
-
-
-
-
-                           TO FREE THE SLAVES
-
-
-The daylight hours of Sunday, October 16, 1859, were quiet ones at the
-Kennedy farm as the long period of inactivity and uncertainty neared its
-climax. Early in the morning John Brown held worship services, the
-impending attack invoking "deep solemnity" upon the gathering. After
-breakfast and roll call a final meeting was held and instructions were
-given. Then everything was in readiness.
-
-About 8 p.m. Brown turned to his followers. "Men," he said, "get on your
-arms; we will proceed to the Ferry." The men, ready for hours, slung
-their Sharps rifles over their shoulders, concealing them under long,
-gray shawls that served as overcoats, and waited for the order to march.
-A horse and wagon were brought to the door of the farmhouse. In the
-wagon the men placed a few items that might be needed for the work
-ahead: a sledge hammer, a crowbar, and several pikes. Owen Brown,
-Barclay Coppoc, and Meriam were detailed to remain at the farm as a
-rearguard. In the morning they were to bring the rest of the weapons
-nearer the town where they could be passed out to the slave army Brown
-expected to raise.
-
-Donning his battered old Kansas cap, symbol of the violence to which he
-had contributed in that strife-torn territory, Brown mounted the wagon
-and motioned his men to move out. From the farmhouse the group moved
-down the lane and onto the road leading to Harpers Ferry. Tidd and Cook,
-who were best acquainted with the route, preceded the main body as
-scouts. Upon reaching the town they were to cut the telegraph lines on
-both the Maryland and Virginia sides of the Potomac.
-
-    [Illustration: Owen Brown]
-
-    [Illustration: Francis J. Meriam]
-
-    [Illustration: Barclay Coppoc]
-
-    [Illustration: Brown used this schoolhouse near Harpers Ferry as an
-    arsenal after the raid began. The drawing was made about 1859 by
-    David Hunter Strother, known to readers of _Harper's New Monthly
-    Magazine_ as "Porte Crayon," one of the most popular illustrators of
-    mid-19th century America.]
-
-For more than 2 hours the men tramped along behind the wagon, strictly
-adhering to Brown's order to maintain silence. About 10:30 p.m. they
-reached the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge that would carry them
-into Harpers Ferry. It was a long wooden-covered structure that spanned
-the Potomac River a little upstream from where the Shenandoah comes
-spilling in from the south. Kagi and Stevens entered first and
-encountered watchman William Williams, who approached with a lantern.
-They quickly took Williams prisoner. The rest of the raiders, except for
-Watson Brown and Stewart Taylor who were told to stay on the Maryland
-side as a rearguard, fastened cartridges boxes to the outside of their
-clothing for ready access and followed the wagon onto the bridge.
-
-Crossing quickly, the raiders stepped from the tunnel's black throat
-into the slumbering town. Before them lay a large structure that doubled
-as the railroad depot and the Wager House. Just beyond, to the left, was
-the U.S. Arsenal buildings where thousands of guns were stored. To the
-right the armory shops stretched in a double row along the Potomac.
-Brown turned the horse and wagon toward the armory.
-
-Daniel Whelan, the armory's nightwatchman, heard the wagon coming down
-the street from the depot. Thinking it was the head watchman, he came
-out from his station in the fire enginehouse (a one-story, two-room
-brick building that doubled as a guard post just inside the armory
-grounds) to find several rifles pointed at him. "Open the gate!" someone
-yelled. Out of sheer cussedness, or perhaps fright, Whelan refused. One
-of the raiders took the crowbar from the wagon and twisted it in the
-chain until the lock snapped. The gate was thrown open and the wagon
-rolled into the yard. To his prisoners, Whelan and Williams, Brown
-announced his purpose:
-
-  I came here from Kansas, and this is a slave state; I want to free all
-  the Negroes in this state; I have possession now of the United States
-  armory, and if the citizens interfere with me I must only burn the
-  town and have blood.
-
-Once in control of the armory, Brown detailed his men to other
-objectives. Oliver Brown and William Thompson were sent to watch the
-bridge across the Shenandoah River, while Hazlett and Edwin Coppoc moved
-into the unguarded arsenal. Another group of raiders under Stevens made
-its way down Shenandoah Street to the rifle factory on Lower Hall
-Island. Again the watchman was surprised and easily captured. Telling
-Kagi and Copeland to watch the rifle works--Leary would join them
-later--Stevens marched the watchman and several young men picked up on
-the street back to the armory grounds.
-
-So far Brown's occupation of the town had been quiet and peaceful. It
-did not last. About midnight another watchman, Patrick Higgins, a Sandy
-Hook resident, arrived at the Maryland end of the B & O bridge to
-relieve Williams. Finding the structure dark he called out loudly; he
-was answered quietly by Taylor and Watson Brown, who took him prisoner.
-As he was being escorted across the bridge, Higgins suddenly lashed out,
-struck Brown in the face, and raced toward the town. Taylor fired after
-him. The ball grazed the watchman's scalp, but he reached the Wager
-House safely. The first shot of the raid had been fired.
-
-About this same time Stevens led several raiders on a special mission to
-capture Col. Lewis W. Washington, the 46-year-old great-grandnephew of
-George Washington. The colonel, a small but prosperous planter, lived
-near Halltown just off the Charles Town Turnpike about 5 miles west of
-Harpers Ferry. He owned a pistol presented to General Washington by the
-Marquis de Lafayette and a sword reportedly presented by the Prussian
-King Frederick the Great. Brown wanted these weapons. When he struck the
-first blow to free the slaves he rather fancied the idea of wearing the
-sword and brandishing the pistol once owned by the man who had led the
-fight to free the American colonists from a similar kind of tyranny.
-
-Battering down Washington's door, Stevens, Tidd, Cook, and three
-Negroes--Anderson, Leary, and Green--summoned the colonel from his bed.
-Washington offered no resistance. Calmly surrendering the sword and
-pistol, he then dressed and climbed into his carriage for the trip to
-Harpers Ferry. The raiders and Washington's three slaves crammed into
-the colonel's four-horse farm wagon and followed along behind the
-carriage.
-
-    [Illustration: "Beallair," the home of Col. Lewis Washington. Late
-    on the night of October 16, several raiders broke into this house in
-    search of a pistol and sword once owned by the colonel's great
-    grand-uncle, George Washington. Colonel Washington (inset) was taken
-    hostage.]
-
-    [Illustration: HARPERS FERRY 1859]
-
-    [Illustration: HARPERS FERRY 1859]
-
-
-  LEGEND
-    A Armory Employee Dwellings
-    P Private Dwellings
-    V Vacant at Time of Raid
-
-
-On the way the procession stopped at the home of another slaveholder,
-John Allstadt, just west of Bolivar Heights. Again using a fence rail to
-gain entrance, the raiders forced Allstadt and his 18-year-old son into
-the wagon while the terror-stricken women of the house shrieked
-"Murder!" from the upstairs windows. Allstadt's four slaves were also
-added to the group.
-
-While Stevens' party was gathering hostages, the first note of tragedy
-was sounded. At 1:25 a.m. the Baltimore and Ohio passenger train
-eastbound for Baltimore arrived at Harpers Ferry and was stopped by a
-clerk from the Wager House who told conductor A. J. Phelps of the recent
-"startling" events. Phelps refused to allow the train to cross the
-bridge until it had been checked, and he sent engineer William McKay and
-baggagemaster Jacob Cromwell out to investigate. They were halted by
-Brown's guards, who turned them back at gunpoint.
-
-Hayward Shepherd, the station baggageman, heard the commotion and walked
-out to see what was going on. Shepherd, a free Negro, was highly
-respected and well-liked by all who knew him. As he approached the
-bridge a raider told him to halt. Instead, Shepherd turned around and
-started back toward the station. A shot rang out and he fell gravely
-wounded. He dragged himself back to the station where he died the next
-afternoon. The first person to die at the hands of the men who had come
-to free the slaves was, in fact, a Negro already free.
-
-    [Illustration: "Porte Crayon's" drawing of Hayward Shepherd, the
-    free Negro baggageman killed by one of Brown's men on October 17, is
-    the only known portrait of this tragic figure.]
-
-Between 4 and 5 a.m. the caravan containing Colonel Washington and the
-Allstadts arrived at the armory. Brown armed the frightened slaves with
-pikes and told them to guard the prisoners, who were placed in the
-enginehouse and now numbered about a half-dozen. "Keep these white men
-inside," he said. Turning to Washington, Brown explained that he had
-taken him hostage because "as the aid to the Governor of Virginia, I
-knew you would endeavor to perform your duty, and perhaps you would have
-been a troublesome customer to me; and, apart from that, I wanted you
-particularly for the moral effect it would give our cause, having one of
-your name our prisoner." As dawn approached the number of Brown's
-prisoners increased as unsuspecting armory employees reporting for work
-were seized as they passed through the gate. Perhaps as many as 40
-hostages were eventually jammed into the two rooms of the enginehouse.
-
-    [Illustration: Brown kept his growing number of hostages in the fire
-    enginehouse at left, just inside the entrance to the U.S. Armory
-    grounds. The machine shops where the muskets were assembled are at
-    the right.]
-
-Near dawn, John Cook, with two raiders and a handful of pike-carrying
-Negroes, took the wagon across the bridge into Maryland to bring the
-weapons closer to the town to arm the hundreds of slaves soon expected
-to join the fight. The rest of Brown's "army" settled down at their
-posts in the waning darkness to await the coming of day, the last for
-many of them.
-
-Thus far the citizens of Harpers Ferry had offered no resistance to the
-invasion of their town, primarily because most of the townspeople knew
-nothing of what was taking place. At the first streak of daylight, Dr.
-John Starry, a 35-year-old local physician who had maintained an
-all-night vigil beside the dying Hayward Shepherd, began to alert the
-people to the danger. After arousing the residents of Virginius Island,
-he rode to warn Acting Armory Superintendent A. M. Kitzmiller. Next he
-ordered the Lutheran Church bell rung to assemble the citizens and
-ascertain what arms were available for defense. Then he sent a messenger
-off to Shepherdstown and another to Charles Town to alert their militia
-companies of the armed occupation of Harpers Ferry.
-
-Among the townspeople there were only one or two squirrel rifles and a
-few shotguns, none of which were really fit for use. All other weapons
-were in the arsenal buildings, and they were occupied by the raiders.
-Knowing it would be futile to confront Brown's men unarmed, Dr. Starry
-headed for Charles Town, 8 miles away, to hurry its militia along. But
-no prompting was necessary. To Charles Town residents the news from
-Harpers Ferry was frightening, for it awakened memories of the 1831 Nat
-Turner slave rebellion in Virginia's tidewater region when more than 50
-whites, mostly women and children, were murdered before the bloody
-uprising was put down. The Jefferson Guards and another hastily formed
-company would march as soon as possible.
-
-At daylight on October 17 Brown allowed the B & O passenger train to
-continue its journey to Baltimore. Conductor Phelps wasted no time in
-sounding the alarm. At Monocacy, Md., at 7:05 a.m. he telegraphed his
-superiors about the night's events, adding:
-
-  They say they have come to free the slaves and intend to do it at all
-  hazards. The leader of those men requested me to say to you that this
-  is the last train that shall pass the bridge either East or West. If
-  it is attempted it will be at the peril of the lives of those having
-  them in charge.... It has been suggested you had better notify the
-  Secretary of War at once. The telegraph lines are cut East and West of
-  Harper's Ferry and this is the first station that I could send a
-  dispatch from.
-
-John W. Garrett, president of the railroad, saw the message when it came
-in and immediately sent word to President James Buchanan and Virginia
-Governor Henry A. Wise. At the same time he alerted Maj. Gen. George H.
-Stewart, commanding Baltimore's First Light Division of the Maryland
-Volunteers. Word was also flashed to Frederick, Md., and that town's
-militia was soon under arms.
-
-By 7 a.m. the residents of Harpers Ferry had discovered a supply of guns
-in a building overlooked by the raiders, and some of the townspeople
-began to move against Brown and his men. Alexander Kelly, armed with a
-shotgun, approached the corner of High and Shenandoah Streets, about 100
-yards from the armory. Before he could fire, several bullets whizzed
-past his head, one putting a hole through his hat. Shortly afterwards,
-groceryman Thomas Boerly, a man of great physical strength and courage,
-approached the same corner and opened fire on a group of Brown's men
-standing in the arsenal yard, diagonally across the street from the
-armory gate. A return bullet knocked him down with a "ghastly" wound,
-from which he soon died.
-
-A lull followed the shooting of Boerly. Brown, having made no provision
-to feed his men and hostages, released Walter Kemp, an infirm Wager
-House bartender captured earlier, in exchange for 45 breakfasts. But
-when the food came, few ate it. Many, including Washington, Allstadt,
-and Brown himself, feared it had been drugged or poisoned.
-
-Meanwhile, Kagi, still at the rifle factory, was anxiously sending
-messages to Brown urging him to leave Harpers Ferry while they still had
-the chance. Brown ignored the pleas and continued to direct operations
-with no apparent thought that outside forces would be moving against him
-once the alarm had spread. Why, is anybody's guess. Up until noon of
-October 17, despite the erratic fire from the townspeople, the raiders
-could have fought their way to safety in the mountains. Instead, Brown
-waited, doing nothing. By mid-day it was too late, and the jaws of the
-"steel-trap" foreseen by Frederick Douglass closed swiftly.
-
-
-
-
-                            THE TIGER CAGED
-
-
-The Charles Town militia, consisting of the regular company of the
-Jefferson Guards and a specially formed volunteer company, was armed and
-on its way by train to Harpers Ferry by 10 a.m. The militia commander,
-Col. John T. Gibson, had not waited for orders from Richmond but had set
-out as soon as the men could be gotten ready. Arriving at Halltown,
-about midway between Charles Town and Harpers Ferry, Gibson, fearing the
-track ahead might be torn up, took the militia off the train and marched
-by road to Allstadt's Crossroads west of Bolivar Heights.
-
-    [Illustration: Watson Brown]
-
-    [Illustration: William Thompson]
-
-At Allstadt's, Gibson divided his force. He sent Mexican War veteran
-Capt. J. W. Rowan with the Jefferson Guards in a wide sweep to the west
-of Harpers Ferry to capture the B & O bridge. Gibson himself would take
-the volunteer company on into town. Rowan's men crossed the Potomac
-about a mile above Harpers Ferry and, advancing along the towpath of the
-Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, arrived at the Maryland end of the bridge by
-noon. With little difficulty they drove its defenders--Oliver Brown,
-William Thompson, and Dangerfield Newby--back toward the armory yard.
-Only Brown and Thompson made it. Newby, the ex-slave who had joined John
-Brown to free his wife and children, was killed by a 6-inch spike fired
-from a smoothbore musket. He was the first of the raiders to die.
-
-In the meantime, Colonel Gibson's force had arrived in Harpers Ferry and
-he sent a detachment of citizens under Capt. Lawson Botts, a Charles
-Town attorney, to secure the Gault House Saloon at the rear of the
-arsenal and commanding the Shenandoah bridge and the entrance to the
-armory yard. Another detachment under Capt. John Avis, the Charles Town
-jailer, took up positions in houses along Shenandoah Street from which
-to fire into the arsenal grounds.
-
-The attack of the Charles Town militia cut off Brown's escape route and
-separated him from his men in Maryland and those still holding the rifle
-factory. At last, perhaps realizing the hopelessness of his situation,
-Brown sought a truce. But when hostage Rezin Cross and raider William
-Thompson emerged from the enginehouse under a white flag, the
-townspeople ignored the flag, seized Thompson, and dragged him off to
-the Wager House where he was kept under guard.
-
-Still not convinced, Brown tried again. This time he sent his son Watson
-and Aaron Stevens with Acting Armory Superintendent Kitzmiller, taken
-hostage earlier in the day. As the trio marched onto the street and came
-opposite the Galt House, several shots rang out and both raiders fell.
-Stevens, severely wounded, lay bleeding in the street; Watson Brown,
-mortally wounded, dragged himself back to the enginehouse. Joseph Brua,
-one of the hostages, volunteered to aid the wounded Stevens. As bullets
-richocheted off the flagstone walk, Brua walked out, lifted up the
-wounded raider, and carried him to the Wager House for medical
-attention. Then, incredibly, he strolled back to the enginehouse and
-again took his place among Brown's prisoners. Kitzmiller escaped.
-
-About the time Stevens and Watson Brown were shot, raider William Leeman
-attempted to escape. Dashing through the upper end of the armory yard,
-he plunged into the frigid Potomac, comparatively shallow at this point,
-and made for the Maryland shore. Soon spotted, a shower of bullets hit
-the water around him and he was forced to take refuge on an islet in the
-river. G. A. Schoppert, a Harpers Ferry resident, waded out to where
-Leeman lay marooned, pointed a pistol at his head, and pulled the
-trigger. For the rest of the day Leeman's body was a target for the
-undisciplined militia and townspeople.
-
-    [Illustration: Oliver Brown, William Thompson, and Dangerfield Newby
-    were forced to abandon their post at the Maryland end of the
-    Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge when they were attacked by the
-    Jefferson Guards. Brown and Thompson reached the armory grounds
-    safely, but Newby (below) was shot and killed as he came off the
-    bridge.]
-
-    [Illustration: Dangerfield Newby]
-
-When a raider shot and killed George W. Turner about 2 p.m., the crowd
-grew ugly. Turner, a West Point graduate, was a prominent and highly
-respected area planter. When Fontaine Beckham, the mayor of Harpers
-Ferry and agent for the B & O Railroad, was killed, the townspeople
-turned into a howling, raging mob.
-
-Beckham, a well-liked man of somewhat high-strung temperament, had been
-greatly disturbed by the earlier shooting of Hayward Shepherd, his
-friend and faithful helper at the depot. Despite warnings from friends
-to keep away, Beckham, unarmed, walked out on the railroad to see what
-was going on. He paced up and down the B & O trestle bordering the
-armory yard about 30 yards from the enginehouse. Several raiders spotted
-him peering around the water tower in front of their stronghold and
-thought that he was placing himself in position to fire through the
-doors. Edwin Coppoc, posted at the doorway of the enginehouse, leveled
-his rifle at the mayor.
-
-"Don't fire, man, for God's sake!" screamed one of the hostages.
-"They'll shoot in here and kill us all."
-
-Coppoc ignored the warning and pulled the trigger. Beckham fell, a
-bullet through his heart. Oliver Brown, standing beside Coppoc in the
-partly opened doorway, aimed his rifle at another man on the trestle,
-but before he could fire he keeled over with "a mortal wound that gave
-horrible pain." Both of Brown's sons now lay dying at their father's
-feet.
-
-Enraged by the shooting of Beckham, the townspeople turned on prisoner
-William Thompson. Led by Harry Hunter, a young Charles Town volunteer
-and the grandnephew of the murdered mayor, a group of men stormed into
-the Wager House, grabbed Thompson, and dragged him out onto the B & O
-bridge. "You may kill me but it will be revenged," Thompson yelled;
-"there are eighty thousand persons sworn to carry out this work." These
-were his last words. The mob shot him several times and tossed his body
-into the Potomac to serve, like Leeman's, as a target for the remainder
-of the day.
-
-While Brown's situation at the fire enginehouse was growing
-progressively worse, his three-man detachment holding the rifle works
-came under fire. Under Kagi's leadership these men had held the works
-uncontested during the morning and early afternoon. About 2:30 p.m. Dr.
-Starry organized a party of "citizens and neighbors" and launched an
-attack against the raiders from Shenandoah Street. After a brief
-exchange of shots, Kagi, Lewis Leary, and John Copeland dashed out the
-back of the building, scrambled across the Winchester and Potomac
-Railroad tracks, and waded into the shallow Shenandoah River. Some
-townspeople posted on the opposite bank spotted the fleeing men and
-opened fire. The raiders, caught in a crossfire, made for a large flat
-rock in the middle of the river. Kagi, Brown's most trusted and able
-lieutenant, was killed in the attempt and Leary was mortally wounded.
-Copeland reached the rock only to be dragged ashore, where the excited
-crowd screamed "Lynch him! Lynch him!" But Dr. Starry intervened, and
-the frightened Negro was hustled off to jail.
-
-At the enginehouse, the raiders continued to exchange occasional shots
-with the Charles Town militia and the townspeople. By now Brown had
-separated his prisoners. Eleven of the more important hostages who might
-be used for bargaining purposes were moved into the engineroom with his
-dwindling band, while the others remained crowded into the tiny
-guardroom. The two rooms were separated by a solid brick wall.
-
-    [Illustration: Lewis S. Leary]
-
-    [Illustration: William H. Leeman]
-
-About 3 p.m., shortly after the raiders were driven out of the rifle
-works, a militia company arrived by train from Martinsburg, Va. Headed
-by Capt. E. G. Alburtis and comprised mostly of B & O Railroad
-employees, this company marched on the enginehouse from the upper end of
-the armory yard and came close to ending the raid. Brown positioned his
-men in front of the building to meet the attack. Alburtis' contingent,
-advancing briskly and maintaining a steady fire, forced the raiders back
-inside. Smashing the windows of the guardroom, the militiamen freed the
-prisoners but were forced to withdraw after eight of their number were
-wounded from the constant fire pouring from the partly opened
-enginehouse door. Alburtis later complained that had his men been
-supported by the other militia companies present, John Brown's raid
-would have been ended.
-
-Other militia units now began to arrive. Between 3 and 4 p.m. the
-Hamtramck Guards and the Shepherdstown Troop, both from Shepherdstown,
-Va., came in. At dusk three uniformed companies from Frederick, Md.,
-appeared, followed later in the evening by a Winchester, Va., company
-under R. B. Washington, and five companies of the Maryland Volunteers
-under General Stewart from Baltimore. None of them made any attempt to
-dislodge Brown and his men from the enginehouse, but all added to the
-general confusion and hysteria gripping the town.
-
-    [Illustration: The attack on the enginehouse by Baltimore and Ohio
-    Railroad employees led by Capt. E. G. Alburtis is shown in this
-    contemporary engraving from _Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper_.
-    Alburtis' attack failed to dislodge the raiders, but his men did
-    manage to free several of Brown's hostages.]
-
-On the other side of the Potomac, Cook, Owen Brown, Barclay Coppoc,
-Meriam, Tidd, and several Negroes had been transferring weapons to a
-tiny schoolhouse midway between Harpers Ferry and the Kennedy farm. As
-the day wore on and the firing from town became heavier, they began to
-suspect that something might have gone wrong. At about 4 p.m. Cook
-headed for the B & O bridge to see what was happening. To get a better
-vantage point, he climbed the craggy face of Maryland Heights where he
-could look directly into the center of the town. Seeing that his
-compatriots were "completely surrounded," he decided to try to take some
-of the pressure off by firing across the river at men posted in the
-houses along High Street overlooking the armory. His shot was instantly
-answered by a volley of bullets that severed a branch he was clutching
-for support and sent him tumbling down the rocky cliff. Badly cut and
-bruised from the fall, he limped back to the schoolhouse and joined the
-others. Realizing there was nothing they could do to aid their comrades
-trapped in the enginehouse, they reluctantly gathered their belongings,
-climbed the mountain and headed north.
-
-    [Illustration: Stewart Taylor]
-
-    [Illustration: John A. Copeland]
-
-    [Illustration: Jeremiah G. Anderson]
-
-Time was quickly running out for John Brown. As resistance became
-partially organized at Harpers Ferry, steps were taken to seal off any
-possibility of support reaching the raiders. Fearing that Brown's raid
-might be part of a general uprising, all approaches to the town were
-guarded, and all travelers not familiar to residents of the area were
-immediately arrested and shipped off to the county jail at Charles Town.
-
-As night approached, the firing sputtered out. Brown, knowing escape was
-impossible, again attempted to bargain for freedom. In verbal and
-written pleas he offered to release his hostages if he and his men were
-allowed to leave unmolested. Col. Robert W. Taylor, now commanding the
-Virginia militia units at Harpers Ferry, rejected the offers, sending
-back word that if the prisoners were immediately released he would let
-the Government deal with Brown and his men. But the old abolitionist
-would not yield, and prisoners, slaves, and raiders alike settled down,
-as best they could, to what would be a long and depressing night.
-
-Brown paced up and down like a caged tiger. It had been hours since he
-or any of them had tasted food or drink. The cold night air chilled
-their bones and the pungent odor of gunpowder stung their nostrils. The
-large-scale slave support that he had counted upon and for which the
-pikes were intended had not materialized. This was largely his own
-doing, however, for in his desire for absolute secrecy he had given no
-advance word that he was coming. The slaves had no idea that a raid was
-in progress. The few his men had picked up at the Washington and
-Allstadt farms were of no use to him. They were frightened and preferred
-to remain with the white hostages rather than take an active part in
-their own salvation. Most likely they would not have joined him at all
-had they not been taken from their homes at gunpoint.
-
-From time to time Brown called out, "Men, are you awake?" Only five of
-the raiders were still unwounded and able to hold a rifle: Brown
-himself, Edwin Coppoc, J. G. Anderson, Dauphin Thompson, and Shields
-Green. Stewart Taylor, the Canadian soldier of fortune, lay dead in a
-corner, his presentiment of death come true. He had been shot like
-Oliver Brown while standing at the enginehouse doorway. Oliver himself,
-writhing in pain, begged to be killed and put out of his misery. "If you
-must die, then die like a man," snapped his father. After awhile Oliver
-was quiet. "I guess he is dead," Brown said. Nearby, Watson Brown lay
-quietly breathing his last. The attack that had begun but 24 hours
-before was fast coming to an end.
-
-
-
-
-                           THE TRAP IS SPRUNG
-
-
-The somberness that permeated the fire enginehouse contrasted sharply
-with the din outside. Hundreds of militiamen and townspeople jammed the
-streets, which echoed with whoops and yells. Anxious and hysterical
-friends and relatives of Brown's hostages added to the confusion. While
-the quasi-military operations ended at nightfall, the non-military
-activities continued with increasing fervor. The bars in the Wager House
-and Gault House Saloon were enjoying an unprecedented business. Many men
-were intoxicated, and they fired their guns wildly into the air and
-occasionally at the enginehouse. All semblance of order was gone and the
-"wildest excitement" prevailed throughout the night.
-
-    [Illustration: Albert Hazlett]
-
-    [Illustration: Osborn P. Anderson]
-
-During this confusion two of Brown's men made their escape. Of the
-raiders caught in Harpers Ferry when the Jefferson Guards seized the B &
-O bridge at midday on October 17, Albert Hazlett and Osborn P. Anderson,
-occupying the arsenal, went unnoticed during the day. At night they
-crept out, mingled with the disorderly crowds, crossed the Potomac into
-Maryland, and fled north.
-
-Into the midst of the chaos created by the drunken and disorderly
-militia and townspeople marched 90 U.S. Marines led by a 52-year-old
-Army colonel, Robert E. Lee. Lee had been at his home in Arlington, Va.,
-that afternoon when Lt. J. E. B. Stuart brought him secret orders to
-report to the War Department at once. There President Buchanan and
-Secretary of War Floyd told him of Brown's attack and ordered him to
-leave immediately for Harpers Ferry with the only Federal troops readily
-available, a detachment of Marines at the Washington Navy Yard. Upon his
-arrival at Harpers Ferry, Lee was to take command of all forces in the
-town. Lieutenant Stuart, scenting excitement, asked for and received
-permission to accompany Lee, who, in the hurry of departure, had no time
-to return home and don his uniform.
-
-The Marines, under the immediate command of Lt. Israel Green, left
-Washington before Lee and arrived at Sandy Hook in late afternoon. Lee
-and Stuart joined them at 10:30 p.m. Marching into Harpers Ferry, the
-Marines entered the armory yard about 11 p.m. and replaced the
-disorganized militia. Lee would have ordered an immediate attack on the
-enginehouse "But for the fear of sacrificing the lives of some of the
-gentlemen held ... as prisoners...."
-
-About 2:30 a.m., October 18, Lee wrote a surrender demand and handed it
-to Stuart for delivery to Brown under a white flag when so directed. He
-hoped that the raider chieftain could be persuaded to surrender
-peaceably and avoid further bloodshed, but he expected that he would be
-taken only by force and laid his plans accordingly. In the early morning
-hours, Lee, believing the raid to be chiefly aimed against State
-authority and not the Federal Government, offered the honor of
-assaulting the enginehouse to Colonel Shriver of the Maryland
-Volunteers. Shriver declined. "These men of mine have wives and
-children," he said. "I will not expose them to such risks. You are paid
-for doing this kind of work." Lee then offered the task to Colonel
-Baylor of the Virginia militia. Baylor promptly declined it for the same
-reasons. Lieutenant Green was then asked if he wished "the honor of
-taking those men out." Green lifted his cap, thanked Lee, and picked a
-storming party of 12 men. He instructed them to use only their bayonets,
-as bullets might injure some of the hostages.
-
-    [Illustration: Trapped inside the armory enginehouse, the raiders
-    and their hostages await the attack by U.S. Marines under Col.
-    Robert E. Lee.]
-
-By 7 a.m. there was enough light for operations. All arrangements for
-the assault had been completed. The militia formed up outside the armory
-wall to keep the street clear of spectators and to prevent
-indiscriminate firing that might injure the storming party. The Marines
-took position at the northwest corner of the enginehouse, just out of
-the line of fire from the door. Then Lieutenant Stuart moved forward
-with the surrender demand. Brown opened the door a few inches and placed
-his body against the crack so the lieutenant could not see inside. He
-held a cocked rifle in one hand. Stuart read the terms offered by Lee:
-
-  Colonel Lee, United States Army, commanding troops sent by the
-  President of the United States to suppress the insurrection at this
-  place, demands the surrender of the persons in the Armory buildings.
-  If they will peaceably surrender themselves and restore the pillaged
-  property, they shall be kept in safety to await the orders of the
-  President. Col. Lee represents to them, in all frankness, that it is
-  impossible for them to escape; that the Armory is surrounded on all
-  sides by troops; and that if he is compelled to take them by force he
-  cannot answer for their safety.
-
-    Robert E. Lee and J. E. B. Stuart are pictured here about the time
-    of the raid.
-
-    [Illustration: Robert E. Lee]
-
-    [Illustration: This little-known portrait of Stuart shows him in
-    civilian dress and with trimmed beard.]
-
-According to Stuart, the parley was "a long one." Brown refused to
-surrender. Instead he presented his own propositions "in every possible
-shape, and with admirable tact," insisting that he, his men, and his
-hostages be permitted to cross the river unmolested.
-
-Stuart, instructed not to accept any counter-proposals, sensed that
-further discussion was useless. Stepping back from the door, he waved
-his hat, a pre-arranged signal for the Marines to attack. Brown slammed
-the door shut and the troops came on. Three men with sledge hammers
-pounded the center door of the enginehouse, but it would not yield; the
-raiders had placed the fire engines against it. Spotting a heavy ladder
-nearby, Lieutenant Green directed his men to use it as a battering-ram.
-On the second blow the door splintered and a small opening was effected.
-
-    [Illustration: Lt. Israel Green led the Marine attack on the
-    enginehouse and was the first man to enter the building.]
-
-    [Illustration: The engraving below shows the Marines battering the
-    enginehouse door while under fire from raiders inside.]
-
-Lieutenant Green was the first man through. Maj. W. W. Russell, armed
-only with a rattan cane, followed immediately. Pvt. Luke Quinn squeezed
-through behind Russell and fell dead at the door, shot through his
-groin. Another Marine, Pvt. Mathew Ruppert, stepped over Quinn, then
-dropped his gun and clawed his face in pain where a bullet had torn
-through his cheek. The rest of the storming party entered without
-injury.
-
-The hostages cowered at the rear of the building; Brown knelt between
-the fire engines, rifle in hand. As Green came through the row of
-engines, Colonel Washington greeted him and pointed at Brown. Green
-raised his sword and brought it down with all his strength, cutting a
-deep wound in the back of the raider chieftain's neck. As Brown fell,
-Green lunged with his sword, striking part of the raider's accouterments
-and bending the blade double. Green then showered blow after blow upon
-Brown's head until he fell unconscious. Two of the raiders were killed
-almost immediately after the Marines entered the building: Dauphin
-Thompson, pinned against the rear wall by a bayonet, and Jeremiah
-Anderson, run through by a saber as he sought refuge under one of the
-fire engines. Edwin Coppoc and Shields Green surrendered. The fight was
-over in about 3 minutes.
-
-    [Illustration: After their capture, Brown and his surviving men were
-    placed under guard outside the enginehouse, where they were
-    subjected to taunts and threats of angry militia and townspeople.]
-
-None of the hostages was injured, although Lieutenant Green considered
-them the "sorriest lot of people I ever saw." The dead, dying, and
-wounded raiders were carried outside and laid in a row on the grass. As
-Brown slowly regained consciousness, the Marines had trouble keeping
-back the throngs of militia and townspeople who wanted to see the
-wounded raider leader. After noon, Brown and Stevens, still suffering
-from the wounds he received on October 17, were carried to the
-paymaster's office where a group of inquisitors, including Virginia's
-Governor Henry A. Wise and Senator James M. Mason, and Ohio Congressman
-Clement L. Vallandigham, questioned them for 3 hours in an effort to
-learn their purpose and the names of their supporters in the North.
-
-During the interrogation Brown lay on the floor, his hair matted and
-tangled, his face, hands, and clothes soiled and smeared with blood. He
-talked freely, and while he readily admitted his intention to free the
-slaves, "and only that," he refused to divulge the names of his Northern
-backers. "No man sent me here," he said; "it was my own prompting and
-that of my Maker, or that of the devil, whichever you ascribe it to. I
-acknowledge no man in human form." He continued:
-
-  I want you to understand, gentlemen ... that I respect the rights of
-  the poorest and weakest of colored people, oppressed by the slave
-  system, just as much as I do those of the most wealthy and powerful.
-  That is the idea that has moved me, and that alone. We expect no
-  reward, except the satisfaction of endeavoring to do for those in
-  distress and greatly oppressed, as we would be done by. The cry of
-  distress of the oppressed is my reason, and the only thing that has
-  prompted me to come here.
-
-Brown then issued a prophetic warning:
-
-  I wish to say furthermore, that you had better--all you people at the
-  South--prepare yourselves for a settlement of that question that must
-  come up for settlement sooner than you are prepared for it. The sooner
-  you are prepared the better. You may dispose of me very easily; I am
-  nearly disposed of now; but this question is still to be settled--this
-  negro question I mean--the end of that is not yet.
-
-
-
-
-                           JOHN BROWN'S BODY
-
-
-The day after their capture, Brown and his surviving followers--Stevens,
-Edwin Coppoc, Shields Green, and John Copeland--were taken to Charles
-Town under heavy guard and lodged in the county jail. The cell doors had
-hardly banged shut when they learned that they were to receive speedy
-trials. The grand jury was then in session, and the semiannual term of
-the circuit court, presided over by Judge Richard Parker, had begun.
-
-The five raiders were arraigned on October 25, just one week after their
-capture. The next day they were indicted for treason against the
-Commonwealth of Virginia, for conspiring with slaves to rebel, and for
-murder. Each defendant pleaded "Not guilty" and each asked for a
-separate trial. The court consented and elected to try Brown first. Two
-court-appointed attorneys, 36-year-old Lawson Botts, who had helped to
-capture the raiders, and Thomas C. Green, the 39-year-old Mayor of
-Charles Town, were called upon to defend him. Charles Harding,
-Commonwealth Attorney for Jefferson County, and Andrew Hunter, a veteran
-Charles Town lawyer, served as prosecutors for the State.
-
-The trial began on October 27. It lasted 3-1/2 days. Still suffering
-from his wounds, Brown was carried back and forth from jail to
-courthouse, and lay on a cot during much of the proceedings. Judge
-Parker had hardly brought the court to order when defense counsel Botts
-astounded the packed courtroom (including Brown himself) by reading a
-telegram from A. H. Lewis of Akron, Ohio, dated October 26:
-
-  John Brown, leader of the insurrection at Harper's Ferry, and several
-  of his family, have resided in this county for many years. Insanity is
-  hereditary in that family. His mother's sister died with it, and a
-  daughter of that sister has been two years in a Lunatic Asylum. A son
-  and daughter of his mother's brother have also been confined in the
-  lunatic asylum, and another son of that brother is now insane and
-  under close restraint. These facts can be conclusively proven by
-  witnesses residing here, who will doubtless attend the trial if
-  desired.
-
-    [Illustration: John Brown was tried in the courthouse at Charles
-    Town, about 10 miles from Harpers Ferry. The trial was presided over
-    by the Hon. Richard Parker (below), circuit judge for Jefferson
-    County.]
-
-    [Illustration: Richard Parker]
-
-After receiving the telegram, Botts had gone to the jail to talk with
-Brown about it. The raider leader had readily admitted that there were
-instances of insanity in his mother's side of the family (in fact, his
-mother had died insane), but asserted that there was none at all on his
-father's side. He said his first wife had shown symptoms of it, as had
-two of their sons, Frederick and John, Jr. Clearly, by introducing the
-Lewis telegram, the defense hoped to save Brown's life by having him
-declared insane and committed to an institution. But the old
-abolitionist refused to sanction such a plea. Rising up on his cot, he
-exclaimed:
-
-  I will add, if the Court will allow me, that I look upon it as a
-  miserable artifice and pretext of those who ought to take a different
-  course in regard to me, if they took any at all, and I view it with
-  contempt more than otherwise. As I remarked to Mr. Green, insane
-  persons, so far as my experience goes, have but little ability to
-  judge of their own sanity; and, if I am insane, of course I should
-  think I know more than all the rest of the world. But I do not think
-  so. I am perfectly unconscious of insanity, and I reject, so far as I
-  am capable, any attempt to interfere in my behalf on that score.
-
-    Lawson Botts and Thomas C. Green were appointed by the court to
-    defend the raider leader. Brown, however, did not trust them to
-    provide him an adequate defense.
-
-    [Illustration: Lawson Botts.]
-
-    [Illustration: Thomas C. Green.]
-
-    Brown had more faith in the three lawyers provided by his Northern
-    friends. Their efforts to save him from the gallows, however, proved
-    fruitless.
-
-    [Illustration: George Hoyt, shown here as an officer during the
-    Civil War.]
-
-    [Illustration: Samuel Chilton.]
-
-    [Illustration: Hiram Griswold.]
-
-Judge Parker ruled out the insanity plea on the basis that the evidence
-had not been presented in a reliable form. He also rejected Bott's
-request for a delay in the proceedings to allow new counsel of Brown's
-own choosing to come from Ohio. The trial continued.
-
-The defense lawyers were increased to three when George Hoyt joined
-Botts and Green. Hoyt, a 21-year-old Boston lawyer, was sent to Charles
-Town by some of Brown's Northern supporters ostensibly to defend the
-raider chieftain; his real mission was to gather information that might
-be useful to those plotting Brown's escape.
-
-As the trial progressed, Brown became more and more irritated with his
-court-appointed lawyers and openly expressed his lack of confidence in
-them. Botts and Green thereupon withdrew, leaving Hoyt, the woefully
-inexperienced "beardless boy" who was entirely unacquainted with the
-code and procedure of the Virginia courts and knowing very little about
-the case, burdened with the sole responsibility for conducting the
-defense in one of the most sensational trials the country had ever
-witnessed. He was soon reinforced, however, by more seasoned counsel.
-Samuel Chilton of Washington, D.C., and Hiram Griswold of Cleveland,
-Ohio, were persuaded by Brown's influential friends to join the fight to
-save the abolitionist's life. But their arrival made little difference;
-the outcome of the trial was inevitable.
-
-The prosecution's parade of witnesses recounted the story of the attack
-on Harpers Ferry, the arming of the slaves, and the deaths of Hayward
-Shepherd, Fontaine Beckham, and George W. Turner. Brown's contention
-that, as commander in chief of a provisional army, he should be tried
-according to the laws of war and not as a common criminal was rejected.
-Other arguments offered by the defense met with equally fruitless
-results. Finally, on October 31, closing arguments by the prosecution
-and the defense were heard and at 1:45 p.m. the case went to the jury.
-Deliberations lasted for 45 minutes. The verdict: guilty on all three
-counts. A newspaper correspondent described the reaction:
-
-  Not the slightest sound was heard in the vast crowd as this verdict
-  was thus returned and read. Not the slightest expression of elation or
-  triumph was uttered from the hundreds present, who, a moment before,
-  outside the court, joined in heaping threats and imprecations upon his
-  head; nor was this strange silence interrupted during the whole of the
-  time occupied by the forms of the Court. Old Brown himself said not
-  even a word, but, as on previous days, turned to adjust his pallet,
-  and then composedly stretched himself upon it.
-
-    [Illustration: Andrew Hunter, special prosecutor for the State of
-    Virginia, vowed to see Brown "arraigned, tried, found guilty,
-    sentenced and hung, all within ten days."]
-
-    [Illustration: The courtroom in which Brown was tried was not as
-    large as this drawing would indicate, but it was packed with
-    witnesses and spectators. Brown lay on a cot during most of the
-    proceedings, rising only occasionally to make a point in his
-    defense.]
-
-    [Illustration: Jefferson County Sheriff James Campbell.]
-
-    [Illustration: The jailer, John Avis.]
-
-Sentence was passed on November 2: John Brown would hang on Friday,
-December 2, 1859. The other raiders--Coppoc, Stevens, Copeland, and
-Green--were tried subsequently, found guilty, and received like
-sentences. Of the seven raiders who escaped from Harpers Ferry, John
-Cook and Albert Hazlett were captured in Pennsylvania, brought to
-Charles Town for trial, convicted, and hanged.
-
-In the days following Brown's sentencing, Virginia's Governor Wise was
-swamped with mail. Many letters pleaded for clemency, some contained
-outright threats, while others warned of fantastic plots to effect the
-abolitionist's escape. Martial law was declared in Charles Town.
-Militiamen were everywhere, and armed patrols kept a vigilant watch on
-all roads leading into town. The day of execution came, and not one of
-the schemes to free Brown materialized.
-
-    [Illustration: Henry A. Wise, Governor of Virginia]
-
-    [Illustration: Proclamation]
-
-
-
-
-                             PROCLAMATION!
-
-IN pursuance of instructions from the Governor of Virginia, notice is
-hereby given to all whom it may concern,
-
-
-That, as heretofore, particularly from now until after Friday next the
-2nd of December, STRANGERS found within the County of Jefferson, and
-Counties adjacent, having no known and proper business here, and who
-cannot give a satisfactory account of themselves, will be at once
-arrested.
-
-That on, and for a proper period before that day, stangers[sic] and
-especially parties, approaching under the pretext of being present at
-the execution of John Brown, whether by Railroad or otherwise, will be
-met by the Military and turned back or arrested without regard to the
-amount of force, that may be required to effect this, and during the
-said period and especially on the 2nd of December, the citizens of
-Jefferson and the surrounding country are _EMPHATICALLY_ warned to
-remain at their homes armed and guard their own property.
-
-On the afternoon before the execution, Brown's grief-stricken wife was
-allowed to visit him in his cell. They spent several hours talking.
-Toward evening they parted, and Mary Brown went to Harpers Ferry to
-await the delivery of her husband's body. It would be her agonizing duty
-to return Brown's remains to their North Elba home for burial.
-
-A few minutes after 11 a.m. on December 2, 1859, John Brown walked down
-the steps of the Charles Town jail, climbed into the back of a
-horse-drawn wagon, and sat down on his own coffin. Flanked by files of
-soldiers, the wagon moved off toward a field a short distance from the
-town where a scaffold had been erected. No civilians were permitted near
-the execution site. The field was ringed by 1,500 soldiers, among them a
-company of Virginia Military Institute cadets commanded by a
-stern-looking professor who would soon gain fame and immortality as the
-Confederate Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson. In the ranks of a Richmond company
-stood another man who, in a few short years, would also achieve
-immortality by committing one of the most infamous deeds in American
-history--John Wilkes Booth.
-
-    [Illustration: With soldiers lining the streets, John Brown comes
-    down the steps of the Charles Town jail on the way to his execution,
-    December 2, 1859. The wagon containing his coffin stands nearby.]
-
-As the hushed military watched, Brown climbed the scaffold steps.
-Sheriff John W. Campbell pulled a white linen hood over the prisoner's
-head and set the noose. John Avis, the jailer, asked Brown to step
-forward onto the trap. "You must lead me," Brown replied, "for I cannot
-see." The abolitionist's last words were directed to Avis as one final
-adjustment of the noose was made. "Be quick," he said.
-
-At 11:30 a hatchet stroke sprung the trap and John Brown died. The voice
-of a militia colonel broke the stillness: "So perish all such enemies of
-Virginia! All such enemies of the Union! All such enemies of the human
-race!"
-
-But the end was not yet. True, Brown was dead; but he had helped to
-arouse popular passions both North and South to the point where
-compromise would be impossible. The raid created a national furor and
-generated a wave of emotionalism that widened the sectional breach that
-had divided the country for so many years. Although conservative
-Northern opinion quickly condemned the raid as the work of a madman, the
-more radical hailed it as "the best news America ever had" and glorified
-Brown as "the new saint" whose martyrdom in the cause of human freedom
-would make the gallows "glorious like the cross."
-
-    [Illustration: The hanging of John Brown took place at 11:30 a.m.,
-    December 2, 1859, in a field just outside Charles Town. The field no
-    longer exists, but the site is identified by a simple stone marker.]
-
-Southerners shuddered. For decades they had been defending their
-"peculiar institution" of slavery against the ever-increasing attacks of
-Northern abolitionists, but anti-slavery agitation had always followed a
-course of non-violence. Then Brown had come with his pikes and guns to
-change all that. In the false atmosphere of crisis that gripped the
-South in the wake of the raid, the small voices of moderates were lost
-in the din of extremists who saw Brown's act as part of a vast Northern
-conspiracy to instigate servile insurrections throughout the slave
-States.
-
-To meet this threat, real or imagined, vigilance committees were formed,
-volunteer military companies were organized, and more and more
-Southerners began to echo the sentiments of the Richmond Enquirer: "if
-under the form of a Confederacy our peace is disturbed, our State
-invaded, its peaceful citizens cruelly murdered ... by those who should
-be our warmest friends ... and the people of the North sustain the
-outrage, then let disunion come."
-
-Disunion sentiment increased during the presidential campaign of 1860,
-stimulated by a split in the Democratic Party that practically
-guaranteed a Republican victory in the November elections. When Abraham
-Lincoln was elected President, the secessionist movement could no longer
-be contained. On December 20, unable to tolerate a President "whose
-opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery," South Carolina severed
-her ties with the Union. By February 1, 1861, Mississippi, Florida,
-Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas had followed her lead. One week
-later the Confederate States of America was formed at Montgomery, Ala.,
-and the country drifted slowly toward civil war. Before many months had
-passed, soldiers in blue would be marching south to the tune of "John
-Brown's Body" as if to fulfill the prophecy Brown had left in a note to
-one of his Charles Town guards shortly before the execution:
-
-    [Illustration: Charlestown, Va, 2^d, december, 1859 I John Brown am
-    now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty, land: will never
-    be purged away; but with Blood. I had as I now think: vainly
-    flattered myself that without very much bloodshed; it might be
-    done.]
-
-
-
-
-                                EPILOGUE
-
-
-The war that John Brown predicted would come, and which his raid helped
-to precipitate, began in April 1861. When it ended almost 4 years to the
-day later, slavery had been destroyed along with some 600,000 lives and
-millions of dollars worth of property. Among the casualties of the war
-was Harpers Ferry. The town's strategic position on the Baltimore and
-Ohio Railroad at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley made it a
-prime target for both Union and Confederate forces. It changed hands
-again and again, and by war's end in 1865 the place was a shambles.
-
-As early as February 1862 a young Union staff officer assigned to the
-Harpers Ferry area could write of the town: "The appearance of ruin by
-war and fire was awful. Charred ruins were all that remain of the
-splendid public works, arsenals, workshops and railroads, stores,
-hotels, and dwelling houses all mingled in one common destruction." Much
-the same observation was made 3 years later in the summer of 1865 by
-John T. Trowbridge, a New England writer, during a tour of the South:
-"[T]he town is the reverse of agreeable. It is said to have been a
-pleasant and picturesque place formerly. The streets were well graded,
-and the hill-sides above were graced with terraces and trees. But war
-has changed all. Freshets tear down the centre of the streets, and the
-hill-sides present only ragged growths of weeds. The town itself lies
-half in ruins.... Of the bridge across the Shenandoah only the ruined
-piers are left; still less remains of the old bridge over the Potomac.
-And all about the town are rubbish, filth and stench."
-
-The once-imposing armory complex along the Potomac River and the rifle
-works on Hall Island in the Shenandoah were burned-out hulks. Only the
-armory enginehouse remained basically intact, "like a monument which no
-Rebel hands were permitted to demolish." Large sections of the town had
-been burned by various troop contingents to prevent their use by enemy
-soldiers. Many homes, churches, schools, and business establishments
-were damaged beyond repair by shot and shell fired from the surrounding
-heights. Still other buildings, subjected to long military use, were on
-the verge of ruin. The industries on Virginius Island--the iron foundry,
-the flour mill, the sawmill, the machine shops, the cotton mill--were
-also gone, and Harpers Ferry no longer had the activity and bustle of an
-economically healthy community.
-
-Besides the material damage inflicted by powerful weaponry and by the
-seemingly endless procession of soldiers who filched or requisitioned
-everything that could be carried away, the town suffered an even greater
-loss--its people. During the war most of the townspeople moved away,
-some to escape the dangers of military operations, some to seek
-employment elsewhere after the armory and the industries were destroyed,
-and some to join one or the other opposing armies. Many never came back.
-Those who did return found their town in ruins and themselves the
-citizens of a new State.
-
-In 1861 the people in the mountainous western counties of Virginia
-strongly opposed secession. When the rest of the State voted
-overwhelmingly in a statewide referendum on May 23, 1861, to withdraw
-from the Federal Union, the loyal western residents, in a series of
-conventions at Wheeling, voted to "secede" from Virginia and set up
-their own State. The bill for admission passed Congress on December 11,
-1862, and on June 30, 1863, by Presidential proclamation, West Virginia
-became the 35th State. For years, however, many Jefferson County
-residents refused to use "West" as part of the designation.
-
-Harpers Ferry never recovered from the devastation of the Civil War.
-Staring at the stark chimneys and charred remains of once impressive
-buildings, one of the townspeople concluded: "This place will never be
-anything again unless the government rebuilds the armory--and it is
-doubtful if that is ever done." The Government never did, and the ground
-on which it stood was auctioned off in 1869. Mills and factories
-remained closed. The railroad did a small percentage of its previous
-business. Hopes for a renewal of the town's former prosperity were
-dashed in 1870 when a flood destroyed or badly damaged nearly every
-building on Virginius Island and along the south side of Shenandoah
-Street. Subsequent floods destroyed still more of the town and ruined
-the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. The canal was finally abandoned after the
-flood of 1924.
-
-Inundated too often by high water, the residents of Harpers Ferry
-eventually left the old buildings in the lower town and moved up the
-heights to the high ground of Camp Hill and toward Bolivar. For years
-the old shops and stores, those that remained, stood empty, neglected,
-and deteriorating. When Harpers Ferry became a national historical area,
-the National Park Service began an intensive campaign to preserve the
-fragile remains of the 18th- and 19th-century industries, homes,
-churches, stores, and shops, and to restore much of the old town to its
-pre-Civil War appearance, a time when it was at its peak as a thriving,
-bustling industrial community and transportation center.
-
-Today, while much of the old historical town remains, few of the
-structures that figured prominently in John Brown's raid survive. (See
-maps on pp. 29 and 30.) The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge across
-the Potomac, by which Brown and his raiders entered Harpers Ferry in
-October 1859, was destroyed by Confederate soldiers early in the Civil
-War. More modern structures span the river now, but the stone supports
-of the old bridge can still be seen. Nothing at all remains of the
-bridge across the Shenandoah. The stone piers now standing in the river
-near the Point section of the town are from a later structure.
-
-The ruins of the armory buildings stood for many years after the war and
-eventually disappeared. In 1893 the site itself disappeared under 30
-feet of fill when the B & O Railroad changed the line of its tracks. The
-outlines of two of the armory buildings have been marked by flat stones
-and the spot where the enginehouse was located is marked by a small
-monument. The enginehouse itself (now called "John Brown's Fort") stands
-nearby on the old arsenal grounds, and is little changed from its
-appearance at the time of the raid. Here also can be seen the excavated
-remains of the small U.S. arsenal and some of the partially exposed
-burned muskets destroyed when the building was gutted by Federal troops
-in April 1861.
-
-In February 1862 Federal soldiers burned the Point area of Harpers Ferry
-to keep Confederate sharpshooters from using the buildings. Among the
-structures destroyed were the railroad depot, the water tower around
-which Mayor Fontaine Beckham was peering when he was shot by one of the
-raiders, several stores and shops, the Potomac Restaurant, the Wager
-House Hotel, and the Gault House Saloon. The Wager House (not to be
-confused with another structure of the same name that still exists) was
-the scene of several notable events. It was here that many of the
-wounded were carried, including two of the raiders, Aaron Stevens and
-William Thompson. Many of the militiamen did their "best fighting" at
-its bar. From the Wager House porch, Gov. Henry Wise of Virginia read
-letters taken from Brown's men to the angered townspeople. Wise also
-lived here during his brief stay in Harpers Ferry. Mrs. John Brown
-stayed here when she came to Harpers Ferry in December 1859 for her last
-visit with her husband, and it was here that she received his body after
-the execution.
-
-The Shenandoah islands are deserted today except for the line of the
-Winchester and Potomac Railroad. All of the buildings are gone now
-except for the foundations of some of the mills and the retaining walls
-of the rifle factory, nestled in among the weeds, brush, and trees. Many
-disappeared through neglect after the industries were destroyed during
-the Civil War, some washed away in the many floods with which Harpers
-Ferry has been plagued, and others, like Herr's flour mill and the rifle
-works, were deliberately destroyed by Union and Confederate troops.
-
-Several structures associated with the raid still exist outside Harpers
-Ferry. The courthouse at Charles Town, W. Va., is little changed since
-John Brown was tried and sentenced there more than a century ago. The
-Kennedy farm, Brown's headquarters during the months he was planning the
-raid, lies in the Maryland countryside about 5 miles from Harpers Ferry.
-Col. Lewis Washington's home, "Beallair," which several raiders broke
-into on the night of October 16 and took its owner hostage, stands near
-Halltown, about 4 miles west of Harpers Ferry. And nearby, at the foot
-of Alstadt Hill, west of Bolivar, is the home of John H. Alstadt,
-another hostage taken by Brown's men on October 16.
-
-
-
-
-                                APPENDIX
-                      The Capture of John Brown[1]
-                            by Israel Green
-
-
-At noon of Monday, October 18, 1859, Chief Clerk Walsh, of the Navy
-Department, drove rapidly into the Washington Navy-yard, and, meeting
-me, asked me how many marines we had stationed at the barracks available
-for immediate duty. I happened to be the senior officer present and in
-command that day. I instantly replied to Mr. Walsh that we had ninety
-men available, and then asked him what was the trouble. He told me that
-Ossawatomie Brown, of Kansas, with a number of men, had taken the
-arsenal at Harper's Ferry, and was then besieged there by the Virginia
-State troops. Mr. Walsh returned speedily to the Navy Department
-building, and, in the course of an hour, orders came to me from
-Secretary Tousey to proceed at once to Harper's Ferry and report to the
-senior officer; and, if there should be no such officer at the Ferry, to
-take charge and protect the government property. With a detachment of
-ninety marines, I started for Harper's Ferry that afternoon on the 3:30
-train, taking with me two howitzers. It was a beautiful, clear autumn
-day, and the men, exhilarated by the excitement of the occasion, which
-came after a long, dull season of confinement in the barracks, enjoyed
-the trip exceedingly.
-
-At Frederick Junction I received a dispatch from Colonel Robert E. Lee,
-who turned out to be the army officer to whom I was to report. He
-directed me to proceed to Sandy Hook, a small place about a mile this
-side of the Ferry, and there await his arrival. At ten o'clock in the
-evening he came up on a special train from Washington. His first order
-was to form the marines out of the car, and march from the bridge to
-Harper's Ferry. This we did, entering the enclosure of the arsenal
-grounds through a back gate. At eleven o'clock Colonel Lee ordered the
-volunteers to march out of the grounds, and gave the control inside to
-the marines, with instructions to see that none of the insurgents
-escaped during the night. There had been hard fighting all the preceding
-day, and Brown and his men kept quiet during the night. At half-past six
-in the morning Colonel Lee gave me orders to select a detail of twelve
-men for a storming party, and place them near the engine-house in which
-Brown and his men had intrenched themselves. I selected twelve of my
-best men, and a second twelve to be employed as a reserve. The
-engine-house was a strong stone [actually brick] building, which is
-still in a good state of preservation at the Ferry, in spite of the
-three days' fighting in the building by Brown and his men, and the
-ravages of the recent war between the States. The building was ...
-perhaps thirty feet by thirty-five. In the front were two large double
-doors, between which was a stone abutment. Within were two
-old-fashioned, heavy fire-engines, with a hose-cart and reel standing
-between them, and just back of the abutment between the doors. They were
-double-battened doors, very strongly made, with heavy wrought-iron
-nails. Lieutenant J. E. B. Stewart [Stuart], afterwards famous as a
-cavalry commander on the side of the South, accompanied Colonel Lee as a
-volunteer aid. He was ordered to go with a part of the troops to the
-front of the engine-house and demand the surrender of the insurgent
-party. Colonel Lee directed him to offer protection to Brown and his
-men, but to receive no counter-proposition from Brown in regard to the
-surrender. On the way to the engine-house, Stewart and myself agreed
-upon a signal for attack in the event that Brown should refuse to
-surrender. It was simply that Lieutenant Stewart would wave his hat,
-which was then, I believe, one very similar to the famous chapeau which
-he wore throughout the war. I had my storming party ranged alongside of
-the engine-house, and a number of men were provided with sledge-hammers
-with which to batter in the doors. I stood in front of the abutment
-between the doors. Stewart hailed Brown and called for his surrender,
-but Brown at once began to make a proposition that he and his men should
-be allowed to come out of the engine-house and be given the length of
-the bridge start, so that they might escape. Suddenly Lieutenant Stewart
-waved his hat, and I gave the order to my men to batter in the door.
-Those inside fired rapidly at the point where the blows were given upon
-the door. Very little impression was made with the hammers, as the doors
-were tied on the inside with ropes and braced by the hand-brakes of the
-fire-engines, and in a few minutes I gave the order to desist. Just then
-my eye caught sight of a ladder, lying a few feet from the engine-house,
-in the yard, and I ordered my men to catch it up and use it as a
-battering-ram. The reserve of twelve men I employed as a supporting
-column for the assaulting party. The men took hold bravely and made a
-tremendous assault upon the door. The second blow broke it in. This
-entrance was a ragged hole low down in the right-hand door, the door
-being splintered and cracked some distance upward. I instantly stepped
-from my position in front of the stone abutment, and entered the opening
-made by the ladder. At the time I did not stop to think of it, but upon
-reflection I should say that Brown had just emptied his carbine at the
-point broken by the ladder, and so I passed in safely. Getting to my
-feet, I ran to the right of the engine which stood behind the door,
-passed quickly to the rear of the house, and came up between the two
-engines. The first person I saw was Colonel Lewis Washington, who was
-standing near the hose-cart, at the front of the engine-house. On one
-knee, a few feet to the left, knelt a man with a carbine in his hand,
-just pulling the lever to reload.
-
-"Hello, Green," said Colonel Washington, and he reached out his hand to
-me. I grasped it with my left hand, having my saber uplifted in my
-right, and he said, pointing to the kneeling figure, "This is
-Ossawatomie."
-
-As he said this, Brown turned his head to see who it was to whom Colonel
-Washington was speaking. Quicker than thought I brought my saber down
-with all my strength upon his head. He was moving as the blow fell, and
-I suppose I did not strike him where I intended, for he received a deep
-saber cut in the back of the neck. He fell senseless on his side, then
-rolled over on his back. He had in his hand a short Sharpe's-cavalry
-carbine. I think he had just fired as I reached Colonel Washington, for
-the marine who followed me into the aperture made by the ladder received
-a bullet in the abdomen, from which he died in a few minutes. The shot
-might have been fired by some one else in the insurgent party, but I
-think it was from Brown. Instinctively as Brown fell I gave him a saber
-thrust in the left breast. The sword I carried was a light uniform
-weapon, and, either not having a point or striking something hard in
-Brown's accouterments, did not penetrate. The blade bent double.
-
-By that time three or four of my men were inside. They came rushing in
-like tigers, as a storming assault is not a play-day sport. They
-bayoneted one man skulking under the engine, and pinned another fellow
-up against the rear wall, both being instantly killed. I ordered the men
-to spill no more blood. The other insurgents were at once taken under
-arrest, and the contest ended. The whole fight had not lasted over three
-minutes. My only thought was to capture, or, if necessary, kill, the
-insurgents, and take possession of the engine-house.
-
-I saw very little of the situation within until the fight was over. Then
-I observed that the engine-house was thick with smoke, and it was with
-difficulty that a person could be seen across the room. In the rear,
-behind the left-hand engine, were huddled the prisoners whom Brown had
-captured and held as hostages for the safety of himself and his men.
-Colonel Washington was one of these. All during the fight, as I
-understood afterward, he kept to the front of the engine-house. When I
-met him he was as cool as he would have been on his own veranda
-entertaining guests. He was naturally a very brave man. I remember that
-he would not come out of the engine-house, begrimed and soiled as he was
-from his long imprisonment, until he had put a pair of kid gloves upon
-his hands. The other prisoners were the sorriest lot of people I ever
-saw. They had been without food for over sixty hours, in constant dread
-of being shot, and were huddled up in the corner where lay the body of
-Brown's son and one or two others of the insurgents who had been killed.
-Some of them have endeavored to give an account of the storming of the
-engine-house and the capture of Brown, but none of the reports have been
-free from a great many misstatements, and I suppose that Colonel
-Washington and myself were the only persons really able to say what was
-done. Other stories have been printed by people on the outside,
-describing the fight within. What they say must be taken with a great
-deal of allowance, for they could not have been witnesses of what
-occurred within the engine-house. One recent account describes me as
-jumping over the right-hand engine more like a wild beast than a
-soldier. Of course nothing of the kind happened. The report made by
-Colonel Lee at the time, which is now on file in the War department,
-gives a more succinct and detailed account than any I have seen.
-
-I can see Colonel Lee now, as he stood on a slight elevation about forty
-feet from the engine-house, during the assault. He was in civilian
-dress, and looked then very little as he did during the war. He wore no
-beard, except a dark mustache, and his hair was slightly gray. He had no
-arms upon his person, and treated the affair as one of no very great
-consequence, which would be speedily settled by the marines. A part of
-the scene, giving color and life to the picture, was the bright blue
-uniform of the marines. They wore blue trousers then, as they do now,
-and a dark-blue frock-coat. Their belts were white, and they wore French
-fatigue caps. I do not remember the names of the twelve men in the
-storming party, nor can I tell what became of them in later life. We had
-no use for the howitzers, and, in fact, they were not taken from the
-car.
-
-Immediately after the fight, Brown was carried out of the engine-house,
-and recovered consciousness while lying on the ground in front. A detail
-of men carried him up to the paymaster's office, where he was attended
-to and his wants supplied. On the following day, Wednesday, with an
-escort, I removed him to Charleston [Charles Town], and turned him over
-to the civil authorities. No handcuffs were placed upon him, and he
-supported himself with a self-reliance and independence which were
-characteristic of the man. He had recovered a great deal from the
-effects of the blow from my saber, the injury of which was principally
-the shock, as he only received a flesh wound. I had little conversation
-with him, and spent very little time with him.
-
-I have often been asked to describe Brown's appearance at the instant he
-lifted his head to see who was talking with Colonel Washington. It would
-be impossible for me to do so. The whole scene passed so rapidly that it
-hardly made a distinct impression upon my mind. I can only recall the
-fleeting picture of an old man kneeling with a carbine in his hand, with
-a long gray beard falling away from his face, looking quickly and keenly
-toward the danger that he was aware had come upon him. He was not a
-large man, being perhaps five feet ten inches when he straightened up in
-full. His dress, even, I do not remember distinctly. I should say that
-he had his trousers tucked in his boots, and that he wore clothes of
-gray--probably no more than trousers and shirt. I think he had no hat
-upon his head.
-
-None of the prisoners were hurt. They were badly frightened and somewhat
-starved. I received no wounds except a slight scratch on one hand as I
-was getting through the hole in the door. Colonel Lee and the people on
-the outside thought I was wounded. Brown had, at the time, only five or
-six fighting men, and I think he himself was the only one who showed
-fight after I entered the engine-house. There were no provisions in the
-building, and it would have been only a question of time when Brown
-would have had to surrender. Colonel Washington was the only person
-inside the house that I knew.
-
-I have been asked what became of Brown's carbine. That I do not know. My
-sword was left in Washington, among people with whom I lived, and I lost
-trace of it. A few years ago, after having come out of the war and gone
-west to Dakota, where I now live, I received a letter from a gentleman
-in Washington, saying that he knew where the sword was, and that it was
-still bent double, as it was left by the thrust upon Brown's breast. He
-said that it was now a relic of great historic value, and asked me to
-assent to the selling of it upon the condition that I should receive a
-portion of the price of the weapon. To me the matter had very little
-interest, and I replied indifferently. Since then I have heard nothing
-of the matter. I presume the saber could be found somewhere in
-Washington.
-
-
-
-
-                         SELECTED READING LIST
-
-
-Joseph Barry, _The Strange Story of Harper's Ferry With Legends of The
-Surrounding Country_, Martinsburg, W. Va., 1903.
-
-Richard O. Boyer, _The Legend of John Brown: A Biography and A History_,
-New York, 1973.
-
-Louis Filler, _The Crusade Against Slavery, 1830-1860_, New York, 1960.
-
-Stephen B. Oates, _To Purge This Land With Blood: A Biography of John
-Brown_, New York, 1970.
-
-Louis Ruchames, ed., _John Brown: The Making of a Revolutionary_, New
-York, 1969. (Originally published under the title _A John Brown
-Reader_.)
-
-Franklin B. Sanborn, _Life and Letters of John Brown_, Boston, 1885.
-
-Kenneth M. Stampp, _The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum
-South_, New York, 1956.
-
-Edward Stone, ed., _Incident at Harper's Ferry_, Englewood Cliffs, 1956.
-
-Oswald Garrison Villard, _John Brown, 1800-1859: A Biography Fifty Years
-After_, Boston and New York, 1911 (2d edition, 1943).
-
-
-                            PICTURE CREDITS
-
-Harpers Ferry National Historical Park: Title page, 8-9, 16-17, 24
-(right), 26 (drawing), 28 (inset), 31, 32-33, 37 (drawing), 40-41, 45,
-47 (drawing), 48, 53, 54-55, 56, 58-59; Library of Congress: 2, 3, 6,
-19, 20, 21, 22 (left & center), 24 (left), 26 (portraits), 28, 36, 37
-(inset), 39, 42, 44, 46, 50, 51, 52, 57; Kansas State Historical
-Society, Topeka: 4, 5, 22 (right); U.S. Marine Corps Museum: 47
-(portrait); Boyd B. Stutler Collection, through the courtesy of Stephen
-B. Oates: 11 (Howe & Stearns); John Brown Collection, Columbus
-University Libraries: 11 (Sanborn & Parker); Public Library, City of
-Boston: 11 (Smith); Boston Atheneum: 11 (Higginson); Robert Lautman:
-cover (John Brown's Fort).
-
-
-                         *U.S. Government Printing Office 1973 0 521 267
-                                                            Reprint 1990
-
-
-
-
-                               Footnotes
-
-
-[1]Originally published in _The North American Review_, December 1885.
-
-
-
-
-                          Transcriber's Notes
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-  images, removing redundant references like "preceding page".
-
---Silently corrected a few palpable typos.
-
---This book was printed mostly in italic, with emphasized text in roman;
-  the eBook reverses those fonts.
-
---In the text versions only, text in roman is delimited by
-  _underscores_.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's John Brown's Raid, by National Park Service
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