Word Celebrity Blog

Hershel Woodrow Williams


Early years

Hershel Woodrow Williams was born in Fairmont, West Virginia, on October 2, 1923, He grew up on a dairy farm in nearby Quiet Dell. Hershel worked a series of odd jobs in the area, including as a truck driver for W. S. Harr Construction Company of Fairmont, West Virginia and as a taxi driver.



















He had no plans to enter the military. He had never heard of Japan. He had never heard of Pearl Harbor. When the war started, he joined the Marines because he liked the look of the “dress blues” some of his neighbors wore.

The first time the five foot six, 19 year old  "Woody" Williams tried to join the Marines, in the fall of 1942, he was too short. The second time he tried, a few months later, he wasn't:  The Marine Corps had relaxed its height requirements.


World War II Service

Private Hershel Williams received his recruit training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California. He was thensent to the Training Center, Camp Elliott, San Diego California, where he joined the Tank Battalion on August 21, 1943.


























The following month he was transferred to the Infantry Battalion at the Training Center, for training as a demolition man and in the use of the flame thrower. On October 30, 1943, he joined the 32nd Replacement Battalion.

Private Williams joined the 32nd Replacement Battalion on October 30, 1943, and left for New Caledonia in the southwest Pacific on December 3. 1943 aboard the M.S. Weltey Reden.  In January 1944, Hershel Williams joined the 3rd Marine Division at Guadalcanal. He was first attached to Company C, 1st Battalion, 21st Marines and then to Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 21st Marines.

During July and August 1944, he participated in action against the Japanese at Guam, and in October he rejoined Company C.  His part in the invasion of Guam, which seemed horrific.That was until he was sent to Iwo Jima the following year. The beach area in Guam was clear and relatively undefended. The Marines could advance into the jungle. At Iwo Jima, all the cover  of jungle vegetation had been blown away, and the beach became a slaughterhouse.























Hershel William's company was supposed to hit the beach on February 20, 1945, but there were so many Marines stuck on the beachhead that there was no place for them. They finally landed the next day on February 21, even though the Marines were still backed up and unable to advance. The island's volcanic ash was so porous that it was impossible to dig foxholes or create cover. The American troops were taking huge casualties. His unit had landed with six flamethrower troops and had lost them all in two days without advancing more than fifty yards.

When the American tanks, tried to open a lane for the infantry, they encountered a network of reinforced concrete pillboxes, buried mines, and black volcanic sand. The pillboxes were arranged in pods of three, connected by a system of tunnels.

























Corporal Williams went forward, alone with his 70-pound  flamethrower in an attempt to reduce the devastating machine gun fire from the Japanese positions. He was covered by only four riflemen. Corporal Williams fought for 4 hours under massive enemy small arms fire.





















The flame thrower is made out of two large tanks and a small one. You can not crawl on the ground with these tanks on your back. You have to maneuver to and fight your enemy while you are standing up in the open. Since the terror and horrow of the painful destruction that a flame thrower can produce in combat, the flame thrower operator can attract a lot of enemy fire.




















The fuel in his tanks did not last long so he also had to leave the fighting, return for re-supply and then maneuver back into action. All the while standing straight up and making an excellent target for the Japanese. He repeatedly returned to his own lines to prepare demolition charges and to obtain reserviced flame throwers. He then returned to the fighting, frequently, to the rear of the Japanese emplacements, to wipe out each enemy position one after another. 

One time, a wisp of smoke alerted him to an air vent of a Japanese bunker, and he approached close enough to put the nozzle of his flamethrower through the hole, His flames killed the occupants. On another occasion, Corporal Williams charged the Japanese soldiers who attempted to stop him with bayonets and with a burst of flame from his weapon, he quickly incinerated them.

















Corporal Williams actions occurred on the same day as the raising of the U.S. flag on the island's Mount Suribachi. Corporal Williams was not able to witness the event. He fought similar encounters through the remainder of the five week long battle. He was wounded on March 6, for which he was awarded the Purple Heart.

When  "Woody" Williams's company was taken off the line a week and a half later, only seventeen of the 279 men who had hit the beach with the company had not been killed or wounded.

After the battle of Iwo Jima, Hershel Williams went back to Guam as part of the Marine force training for the invasion of Japan, which became unnecessary after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.






















In September 1945,  he returned to the United States.  Hershel Williams was only 21,  when at the White House, President Harry S Truman put the medal around his neck. At that moment, on October 5, 1945, Woody resolved to consider himself the Medal Of Honor's caretaker,  for the Marines who didn't come home from Iwo Jima.





















Later Career

On October 22, 1945, Hershel Williams was transferred to the Marine Barracks, Naval Training Center, Bainbridge, Maryland, for discharge. He was discharged from the Marine Corps Reserve on November 6, 1945. In March 1948, he reenlisted in the inactive Marine Corps Reserve, but was again discharged on August 4, 1949.



























On October 20, 1954, he joined the Organized Marine Reserve when the 98th Special Infantry Company was authorized by Marine Corps Headquarters, Clarksburg, West Virginia. He transferred to the 25th Infantry Company in Huntington, West Virginia on June 9, 1957. He later became the (Interim)  Commanding Officer of that unit as a warrant officer on June 6, 1960.  He was designated the Mobilization Officer for the 25th Infantry Company and surrounding Huntington area on June 11, 1963.

He was advanced through the warrant officer ranks during his time in the Reserves until reaching his final rank of Chief Warrant Officer 4 (CWO-4).  Although CWO-4 Hershel Williams technically did not meet retirement requirements, he was honorarily retired from the Marine Corps Reserve in 1969 after approximately 17 years of service.


The Medal Of Honor

The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the MEDAL OF HONOR to

CORPORAL HERSHEL W. WILLIAMS
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS RESERVE
for service as set forth in the following














CITATION:

For conspicuous gallantry and  intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as Demolition Sergeant serving with the First Battalion, Twenty-First Marines, Third Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Island, 23 February 1945. Quick to volunteer his services when our tanks were maneuvering vainly to open a lane for the infantry through the network of reinforced concrete pillboxes, buried mines and black, volcanic sands, Corporal Williams daringly went forward alone to attempt the reduction of devastating machine-gun fire from the unyielding positions. Covered only by four riflemen, he fought desperately for four hours under terrific enemy small-arms fire and repeatedly returned to his own lines to prepare demolition charges and obtain serviced flame throwers, struggling back, frequently to the rear of hostile emplacements, to wipe out one position after another. On one occasion he daringly mounted a pillbox to insert the nozzle of his flame thrower through the air vent, kill the occupants and silence the gun; on another he grimly charged enemy riflemen who attempted to stop him with bayonets and destroyed them with a burst of flame from his weapon. His unyielding determination and extraordinary heroism in the face of ruthless enemy resistance were directly instrumental in neutralizing one of the most fanatically defended Japanese strong points encountered by his regiment and aided in enabling his company to reach its' objective.

Corporal Williams' aggressive fighting spirit and valiant devotion to duty throughout this fiercely contested action sustain and enhance the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

/S/ HARRY S. TRUMAN


Other Honors:

In 1965, Williams received West Virginia's Distinguished Service Medal.

In 1967, he was honored by the Veteran's Administration with the Vietnam Service Medal for service as a civilian counselor to the armed forces.

In 1999, he was added to the City of Huntington Foundation's "Wall of Fame".

Named in his honor:
    * The West Virginia National Guard Armory in Fairmont, West Virginia;
    * A bridge at Barboursville, West Virginia;
    * An athletic field at Huntington, West Virginia.


Hershel Williams is the  retired Commandant of the West Virginia Veterans Home at Barboursville, West Virginia, He was appointed as the first Commandant in 1980 and served until June 1985. He is also retired as Veterans Services Officer, United States Veterans Administration, January 1978 after 33 years of serving veterans.


















Family Status And Activities

Hershel Woodrow Williams married to Ruby Dale Meredith of Fairmont, West Virginia, They have two daughters, Travie Jane and Tracie Jean and 5 grandsons. One grandson served in Desert Storm.

For more than 27 years, he has operated a boarding and training barn for horses at Ona, West Virginia, with his wife, Ruby, and his grandson Todd Lee Graham.

He is active  in his church, as well community and veterans' organizations.

*****

Darol “Lefty” Lee is one of the four riflemen who provided cover for Williams on Feb. 23, 1945.

A citation written by Hershel Williams' commanding officer and the four witnesses used words like “conspicuous gallantry” and “intrepidity” to describe Williams actions. But for him and Darol Lee, those four hours lost significance in the atmosphere of war.

“We thought it was a job,” Darol Lee said. “We never thought of it as anything exceptional.”

























Hershel Williams has no idea how many people he killed that day, but images of the fighting has haunted him. In the years that followed the war, he suffered sleepless nights as the Medal Of Honor changed his life’s course.

Hershel Williams struggled with the after-effects of combat stress until 1962. “I was bothered a bit by the residuals of war,” he said.

After years of bitter independence, Hershel Williams said God spoke to him in a church in 1962, at which time he experienced a religious renewal. The dark visions of war dissipated. He became active in his church as a lay minister.  He served his fellow recipients and their loved ones as chaplain for many years.  He became chaplain for the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, a position he held for 35 years.



















"Woody" travels the country and makes seventy to eighty public appearances a year. He carries gold dollars in his pockets and awards them to people in his audience who can correctly answer his questions on history, and not just military history. He told me we have to "continue the need for history."

Hershel Williams continues to serve his country as he travels and reminds us of our nation's history.

The blue spangled ribbon hangs from his neck and the star-shaped design dangles below it, but the honor doesn’t actually belong to him. Hershel "Woody" Williams said:  “I took a different purpose in life, simply because this medal belongs to somebody else,” Williams said. “It belongs to those Marines who did not get to come home.”

Donald LeRoy Truesdell



Donald LeRoy Truesdell, son of Earl Trantham Truesdell and Maggie [Lee] Truesdell,  was born on August 26, 1906,  in Lugoff, South Carolina. 

He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in November 1924.


























Donald Truesdell served as a Corporal in the United Stares Marine Corps during the 2nd Campaign in Nicaragua.

Corporal Truesdell's bravery cost him his right forearm in Nicaragua and earned for him the Medal of Honor in April 1932.

Corporal Donald Truesdell (a lieutenant in the Nicaraguan native army)  was second in command of a patrol that was pushing through that country's trackless forests on the trail of bandits when a rifle grenade fell from the pack of one member of the patrol and hit a rock. The impact of hitting the rock, ignited the detonator of the grenade, threatening the safety of the entire patrol.  Without any hesitation, Corporal Truesdell grabbed the grenade and attempted to throw it away.

He was seconds late and the grenade exploded while it was  still in his grasp, blowing off his hand and inflicting multiple wounds to his body. For his heroism he was awarded the nation's highest award, the Medal of Honor and also the Nicaraguan Cross of Valor by the Nicaraguan Government.


























Corporal Truesdell is presented with  the Medal Of Honor.


Medal of Honor Citation

The President of the United States in the name of The Congress takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to

TRUESDELL, DONALD LEROY
(Name officially changed to Truesdale)

Rank and organization:
Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps.

Place and date:
Vicinity Constancia, near Coco River, northern Nicaragua,
April 24 1932.

Entered service at:
South Carolina.

Born:
August 8, 1906,
Lugoff, South Carolina.
















Citation:

Corporal Truesdell was second in command of a Guardia Nacional Patrol in active operations against armed bandit forces in the vicinity of Constancia,  near Coco River,  northern Nicaragua,  on 24 April 1932.  While the patrol was in formation on the trail searching for a bandit group with which contact had just previously been made, a rifle grenade fell from its carrier and struck a rock, igniting the detonator. Several men close to the grenade at the time were in danger. Cpl. Truesdell, who was several yards away, could easily have sought cover and safety for himself. Knowing full well the grenade would explode within 2 or 3 seconds, he rushed for the grenade, grasped it in his right hand, and attempted to throw it away from the patrol. The grenade exploded in his hand, blowing it off and inflicting serious multiple wounds about his body. Cpl. Truesdell, in taking the full shock of the explosion himself, saved the members of the patrol from loss of life or serious injury.


























In Quantico,  Virginia, on November 1, 1941,  Donald Truesdell married Gladys Garrity (born July 31, 1921, in Ocean City, N.J.). She was the daughter of Edwin Raymond and Gladys Mae [Phillips] Garrity.

Donald Truesdell changed his last name to Truesdale in 1942.

On July 9, 1944, Jefferey Truesdale was born at camp LeJeune, North Carolina.

Although he had lost an arm, Donald Truesdale continued to serve with the Marine Corps until his retirement as a Commissioned Warrant Officer. After 21 years  of service in the United States Marine Corps,  he retired in May 1946.


























He died in Lugoff, South Carolina, on September 21, 1993, at the age of 87.

The James Leroy Belk Post 17, American Legion, of which Donald Truesdale was a member for 50 years, unveiled a monument to honor this hero of Kershaw County. The ceremony took place in Quaker Cemetery`s Little Arlington where fellow Medal of Honor winners Richmond Hobson Hilton and John C. Villepigue are honored, along with the “Angel of Marye`s Heights,” Richard Kirkland.

Speaker Baxley then asked Donald Truesdale`s wife,  Gladys,  of  Lugoff,  and Jeffrey Truesdale,  his son,  of Charleston,  to come forward for the marker`s unveiling.




















Jeffrey Truesdale spoke on behalf of the family.

Jefferey Truesdale said: “As we get older and reflect on how some of today`s soldiers go off to service and come back complaining,  I remember that my father never did that,” said Truesdell. “He did what he had to do without question. Later in life, he met with dignitaries and with the military on aircraft carriers. They would salute him, and that made him uncomfortable. He didn`t like the spotlight.”




















There is a grave marker in the Truesdale Family Cemetery. There is also an account that Donald Truesdale was cremated and that his ashes were scattered as requested.
















Donald Truesdale  was later given a posthumous memorial by the South Carolina General Assembly on May 19, 2004.

























A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

TO COMMEND THE EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM OF THE LATE DONALD LEROY TRUESDALE WHO WAS AWARDED THE MEDAL OF HONOR FOR HIS VALOR, WHICH IS THE HIGHEST AWARD THAT CAN BE BESTOWED UPON A MEMBER OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES.

Whereas, throughout our nation's history, men and women in all eras from Concord and Lexington to Falleujah have gone in harm's way to protect and secure our country's freedom and way of life; and

Whereas, to recognize extraordinary heroism the Congress of the United States established the Medal of Honor which represents the highest award for valor that can be bestowed upon a member of the armed forces of the United States; and

Whereas, there have been more than three thousand four hundred recipients but fewer than one hundred forty remain with us today; and

Whereas, most recipients of the medal are ordinary Americans from ordinary backgrounds who, under extraordinary circumstances and at great risk to their own lives, performed an incredible act or a series of acts of conspicuous valor that clearly sets them apart from their comrades; and

Whereas, thirty-seven citizens with South Carolina roots have received the Medal of Honor since its inception; and

Whereas, the late Donald Leroy Truesdale of Lugoff is one of these South Carolinians; and

Whereas, Marine Corporal Truesdale, while second in command of a Guardia Nacional Patrol in active operations against armed bandit forces in northern Nicaragua in April 1932, grabbed an ignited rifle grenade in an attempt to throw it away from his patrol. By taking the full shock of the explosion, Corporal Truesdale gallantly saved the members of his patrol from disaster; and

Whereas, the members of the General Assembly, by this resolution, would like to publicly recognize and honor the memory of the late Donald Leroy Truesdale, this brave and courageous son of South Carolina for his extraordinary heroism in the defense of our country and her ideals which epitomizes the very best of what

America stands for. Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring:

That the members of the General Assembly commend the extraordinary heroism of the late Donald Leroy Truesdale who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his valor, which is the highest award that can be bestowed upon a member of the armed forces of the United States.

Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the family of the late Donald Leroy Truesdale.

John Brown


In 1937, when I was 5 years old, my family moved to Akron, Ohio. We lived on Euclid Avenue. Our backyard bordered Perkin's Park, near the section with the tennis courts. It was like having a 76 acre playground. On one of my explorations of the wooded park, I discovered the John Brown Monument.


























I was fascinated with the man's image and the words "HE DIED TO SET HIS BROTHERS FREE". I asked my father about John Brown and he explained the history of John Brown and his raid on Harpers Ferry. That summer I spent some time nearly every day at the monument. It had become my favorite place in the park.




















I attended the Crouse Elementary School where my teachers helped me to learn more about John Brown. On my way to and from school, I would travel through the park. Very often I would stop for a visit at the monument. Usually there was nobody else there. One day, on one of my visits to the monument, I came to the realization that John Brown had become my Hero.


























The permanent monument to John Brown was created on the 76 acres of land along a high wooded ridge donated to the City of Akron by Col. George Tod Perkins, a Union Army veteran.

The memorial was erected by the German-American Alliance in 1910 from a sandstone pillar that was part of Summit County's first courthouse, that was razed in 1905.



















In 1938, the monument was enlarged by the "Negro 25 year Club" to include a circular stone seating area and plaza. It was said that much of the funds for its construction was enabled by "the pennies contributed by the school children in Akron."





















"Today, the monument rests on property that is maintained by the Akron Zoo, and reserved for future Zoo expansion. The area is not open to the public, and is difficult to access."

"The area may not be accessible to persons with physical limitations. The terrain is rough and uneven, and involves walking up an elevation that is moderately difficult."

If or when the monument is moved to another section of the park, I hope that it is done soon and is easily accessible for all, especially the children who may be looking for a REAL Hero. I think that this is more important than adding a few more otters or planting a few more exotic plants.

When I discovered that the house that John Brown and his family lived in was just a few blocks away, I became very excited and sought it out one day after school.



















The John Brown House is at the intersection of Diagonal and Copley roads,

Over the years,  I have continued to learn more about the man named John Brown.   I have visited the places where he lived in Hudson, Ohio; New Richmond, Pennsylvania; Franklin Mills (Kent), Ohio;  Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, many times.  I have also made a visit to his grave site in Elba, New York.




































For more than three years, I lived just outside of the national park in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.




















On one cold October night, I walked the 4 miles on the same road that John Brown walked from the Kennedy farm to the government arsenal at Harpers Ferry. I have stood in the "fire house" where John Brown did battle.


























In Charles Town West Virginia, I stood in the court house were John Brown gave his eloquent speech just before he was sentenced to death.





















I sat on the bunk in the same cell that John Brown spent his last weeks of life.  I stood on the same spot where the gallows stood on which John Brown departed this life, and  we began to sing: "His soul goes marching on".

























Most historians will agree that John Brown played a major role in starting the Civil War.  His role and actions prior to the Civil War as an abolitionist, and the tactics he chose, still make him a controversial figure today.  John Brown is sometimes memorialized as a heroic martyr and a visionary and sometimes vilified as a madman and a terrorist.

Some writers, such as Bruce Olds, describe John Brown as a monomaniacal zealot.  Stephen B. Oates regards him as "one of the most perceptive human beings of his generation."   David S. Reynolds hails the man who "killed slavery, sparked the civil war, and seeded civil rights",   Richard Owen Boyer emphasizes that John Brown was "an American who gave his life that millions of other Americans might be free."  Ken Chowder asserts that John Brown is "at certain times, a great man", but is also "the father of American terrorism."

John Brown's nicknames were Osawatomie Brown, Old Man Brown, Captain Brown and Old Brown of Kansas.  The aliases that he would use were Nelson Hawkins, Shubel Morgan, and Isaac Smith.


 Early Years



















John Brown was born May 9, 1800, in Torrington, Connecticut. He was the fourth born of the eight children of Owen Brown (February 16, 1771 – May 8, 1856) and Ruth Mills (January 25, 1772 – December 9, 1808) and the grandson of Capt. John Brown (1728–1776).

In 1805, the Owen Brown family moved to Hudson, Ohio, where Owen Brown opened a tannery. John Brown's father became a supporter of the Oberlin Institute (original name of Oberlin College) in its early stage, although he was ultimately critical of the school's "Perfectionist" leanings, especially renowned in the preaching and teaching of Charles Finney and Asa Mahan.

John Brown withdrew his membership from the Congregational church in the 1840s and never officially joined another church, but both he and his father Owen were fairly conventional evangelicals for the period with its focus on the pursuit of personal righteousness. John Brown's personal religion is fairly well documented in the papers of the Rev. Clarence Gee, a Brown family expert, now held in the Hudson [Ohio] Library and Historical Society.
















This home was built on the grounds of the tannery Owen Brown ran in Hudson. Originally, the Brown family lived in a log cabin on this site.  By 1825, John Brown had completed construction on this house.  In 1826, he sold the house to his brother Oliver and moved to Pennsylvania. John Brown Jr. recalled that as a child, he observed his father and mother aiding fugitive slaves here.

As a young child, John Brown lived briefly in Ohio with Jesse R. Grant, father of the future general and United StatesPresident Ulysses S. Grant.

At the age of 16, John Brown left his family and went to Plainfield, Massachusetts, where he enrolled in a preparatory school program. He transferred to the Morris Academy in Litchfield, Connecticut. He hoped to become a Congregationalist minister, but money ran out and he suffered from eye inflammations, which forced him to give up his studies and return to Ohio.



















In Hudson, Ohio John Brown worked briefly at his father's tannery before opening a successful tannery of his own outside of town with his adopted brother.

In 1820, John Brown married Dianthe Lusk. Their first child, John Jr, was born 13 months later.  In 1825, John Brown and his family moved to New Richmond, Pennsylvania,
















In 1825, the New Richmond region, was then a semi-wilderness, whic was dotted with small, almost frontier settlements. After John Brown arrived, he bought 200 acres of land. He cleared a portion of it and built a cabin, a barn, and a tannery.  John Brown began to farm and tan hides.  Within a year the tannery employed 15 men.

John Brown also made money raising cattle and surveying.  He also helped to establish a post office and a school.

During this period, he operated an interstate business involving cattle and leather production along with Seth Thompson, a relative,  from eastern Ohio.




















John Brown spent more time at the New Richmond farm than he did at any other location during his lifetime .

While he was living there, John Brown suffered some deeply personal tragedies. In 1831, one of his sons died.  John Brown, himself, fell ill, and his businesses began to suffer, which left him in terrible debt.  In the summer of 1832, shortly after the death of a newborn son, his wife Dianthe died.

Together John and Dianthe Brown had seven children.





















Grave of Dianthe Brown in New Richmond, Pennsylvania.


He buried his first wife, Diange Lusk Brown on the farm, not far from the house.  Four year old Frederick Brown and an unnamed infant son and are buried in the family burial plot. (Note: The spelling, Diange, is unusual, the spelling is correct.)

John Brown married 16-year-old Mary Ann Day (April 15, 1817—May 1, 1884).  She was originally from Meadville, Pennsylvania and had worked at the tannery.  They eventually had 13 children, in addition to the seven children from his previous marriage.




















Mary Ann Brown with Annie (left) and Sarah (right) about 1851. (Library of Congress.)

***

Mary Ann Day, 1816-1884, born in New York, was the daughter of Charles and Mary Day. When Mary Ann was a young girl, the family moved to Crawford County, Pennsylvania.

She married John Brown, a widower twice her age, on July 11, 1833.  She was a strong and quiet person. Mary Ann Brown gave birth to thirteen children over a period of two decades, outliving all but four of them.

At the time of John Brown’s death in 1859, she was living on the farm in North Elba, where he was buried.

In 1863, she and her children moved to California.  She lived first at Red Bluff, then Rohnerville, and, finally, at Saratoga.  In 1882, she made a trip back east.  She was honored at public receptions in Chicago and Kansas, visited several places associated with her life and that of her husband, and attended the burial of the remains of her son Watson at North Elba with his father.

Mary Ann Brown died on February 29, 1884, and was buried in Madrona Cemetery in Saratoga, California.




















John and Mary Ann Brown's two children, along with John and Diange Brown's two children were buried in the cemetery in New Richmond. There is a religious marker which has an inscription that was written by their father:

"Through all the dreary night of death
In peaceful slumbers may you rest,
And when eternal day shall dawn
And shades and death have past and gone,
O may you then with glad surprise
In God's own image wake and rise."


In 1834, while living in Pennsylvania, John Brown wrote his brother Frederick that he wanted to bring a black youth into his home and raise him as “we do our own.” He also wanted to start a school for black children.


























The former John Brown farm, today is the John Brown Museum. It is located about 12 miles from the county seat at Meadville, Crawford County in northwestern Pennsylvania. 

In 1836, John Brown moved his family to Franklin Mills, Ohio (now known as Kent). There he borrowed money to buy land in the area, building and operating a tannery along the Cuyahoga River in partnership with Zenas Kent. He established important connections in Ohio's abolitionist network.  His life's work begins to come into focus as he becomes a stationmaster of the Underground Railroad and gives speeches in support of repeal of state laws discriminating against blacks.

Although many antislavery supporters detested the idea of slavery, they had different feelings about the rights of blacks.  Not John Brown.  In 1838, John Brown invited a number of blacks to the little church in Franklin Mills, Ohio. The congregation was astonished - it was one thing to express support against slavery, quite another thing to actually have blacks in their midst.  John Brown stood near the front of what is now Kent United Church of Christ and denounced the parishoners for putting black worshipers in the rear pews.  Then he and his family tradeded seats with some of black guests.

The next day, the church deacons scolded John Brown at his home.  That same night, the John Brown family swapped seats again with the black worshipers.  John Brown and his family were expelled from their church for escorting blacks to pews reserved for white parishioners. Years later, John Brown Jr. said that he never joined another organized church again.

John Brown suffered great financial losses in the economic crisis of 1839, which struck the western states more severely than had the Panic of 1837.  Following the heavy borrowing trends of Ohio, many businessmen like John Brown trusted too heavily in credit and state bonds and paid dearly for it. In one episode of property loss, John Brown was even jailed when he attempted to retain ownership of a farm by occupying it against the claims of the new owner.  Like other determined men of his time and background, he tried many different business efforts in an attempt to get out of debt.  Along with tanning hides and cattle trading, he also undertook horse and sheep breeding.

























In 1837, the abolitionist publisher Elijah Lovejoy was shot to death in Illinois by a pro-slavery mob.
























At a memorial service in Hudson, Ohio, John Brown rose from his seat and, raising his right hand, issued a vow: "Here before God, in the presence of these witnesses, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery."

But it would be years before John Brown could honor his pledge. Eager to get his share of a development boom, he borrowed thousands to speculate on land - only to see his schemes fall apart in the Panic of 1837.

He tried breeding sheep, started another tannery, bought and sold cattle - but failed each time. Lawsuits from creditors piled up against him; his farm tools, furniture, and sheep were auctioned off. John Brown was declared bankrupt by a federal court on September 28, 1842. In 1843, four of his children died of dysentery.

As Louis DeCaro Jr shows in his biographical sketch (2007), from the mid-1840s,  John Brown had built a reputation as an expert in fine sheep and wool.


























John Brown and entered into a partnership with Simon Perkins of Akron, Ohio, whose flocks and farms were managed by John Brown and Sons.



















The Perkins Mansion




















The John Brown House across the street from the Perkins Mansion.


John Brown eventually moved into a home with his family across the street from the Perkins' Mansion located on Perkins Hill.

Both homes still remain and are owned and operated by the Summit County Historical Society.

As John Brown's associations grew among sheep farmers of the region, his expertise was often discussed in agricultural journals even as he widened the scope of his travels in conjunction with sheep and wool concerns (which often brought him into contact with other fervent anti-slavery people as well).

In 1846, John Brown and Simon Perkins Jr set up a wool commission operation in Springfield, Mass., to represent the interests of wool growers against the dominant interests of New England's manufacturers. John Brown naively trusted the manufacturers at first, but soon came to realize they were determined to maintain control of price setting and feared the empowerment of the farmers. To make matters worse, the sheep farmers were largely unorganized and unwilling to improve the quality and production of their wools for market.

As was pointed out in the "Ohio Cultivator", John Brown and other wool growers had already complained about this problem as something that hurt the sale United States wools abroad. John Brown made a last-ditch effort to overcome the manufacturers by seeking an alliance with European-based manufacturers, but was ultimately disappointed to learn that they also wanted to buy American wools cheaply. John Brown traveled to England to seek a higher price. The trip was a disaster as he incurred a loss of $40,000 (over $980,000 in today's dollars), of which Col. Perkins bore the lion's share.


























The Perkins and Brown commission operation closed in 1849. Lawsuits tied up the partners for several more years, Some writers have exaggerated the unfortunate demise of the firm with respect to John Brown's life and decisions. Simon Perkins Jr absorbed much of the loss, and their partnership continued for several more years, John Brown  nearly broke even by 1854. The men remained friends after ending their partnership amicably.


























John Brown was a man of great talent and judgment in farming and sheep raising, but he was not a very good business administrator. The Perkins and Brown years not only reveal John Brown as a man with a widely appreciated specialization, and reflect his constant zeal for the underdog. This zeal drove him to struggle on behalf of the economically vulnerable farmers of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and western Virginia many years before his guerrilla activities in Kansas. His attitude evolved with the advent of the Underground railroad. He also helped publicize David Walker's speech called "Appeal".

In November 1847, black abolitionist leader Frederick Douglas visited the Brown home, where John Brown would lay out his plan to lead a group of men on raids of slave-holding southern plantations, followed by retreats into the mountains.


Homestead in New York




















House at John Brown's Farm near Elba. New York


In 1848, John Brown heard of Gerrit Smith's Adirondack land grants to poor black men, and decided to move his family among the new settlers. He bought land near North Elba, New York  (near Lake Placid), for $1 an acre, although he spent little time there. After he was executed, his wife took his body there for burial. Since 1895, the farm has been owned by New York state. The John Brown Farm and Gravesite is now a National Historic Landmark.


Actions in Kansas

In 1855, John Brown learned from his adult sons in the Kansas territory that their families were completely unprepared to face attack, and that pro-slavery forces there were militant. Determined to protect his family and oppose the advances of pro-slavery supporters, John Brown left for Kansas, enlisting a son-in-law and making several stops just to collect funds and weapons. It was reported by the New York Tribune that John Brown had stopped enroute to participate in an anti-slavery convention that took place in June 1855 in Albany, New York. Despite the controversy that ensued on the convention floor regarding the support of violent efforts on behalf of the free state cause, several individuals provided John Brown some solicited financial support. As he went westward, however, John Brown found more militant support in his home state of Ohio, particularly in the strongly anti-slavery Akron - Hudson area where he had lived.


Pottawatomie

John Brown and the free state settlers were optimistic that they could bring Kansas into the union as a slavery- free state. But in late 1855 and early 1856 it had become increasingly clear to John Brown that pro-slavery forces were very willing to violate the rule of law in order to enable Kansas to become a slave state.  John Brown believed that terrorism, fraud, and eventually deadly attacks became the obvious agenda of the pro-slavery supporters, that were known as "Border Ruffians."

After the winter snows thawed in 1856, the pro-slavery activists began a campaign to seize Kansas on their own terms. John Brown was particularly affected by the Sacking of Lawrence, Kansas in May 1856, in which a sheriff led posse destroyed newspaper offices and a hotel.  Only one man, a Border Ruffian, was killed.

***

























In his attempt to be a forthright helper in the cause for African Americans rights, Charles Sumner almost lost his life.  On May 19, 1856 Charles Sumner took the floor in the United States Senate and gave a sizzling account of the "CRIME AGAINST KANSAS".  In his speech, Charles Sumner accused the elder Andrew Pickens Butler of South Carolina of being the leading villain - along with Steven A. Douglas (1813-1861), the sponsor of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill - for all the violence and illegal forces which helped spread the slavery issue into that open territory.

When Senator Charles Sumner gave a very impassioned speech against slavery on the floor of the United States Senate, it became a battleground.




















Three days later, on May 22, while sitting at his desk, Charles Sumner was brutally attacked by South Carolina Congressman Preston S. Brooks, a relative of Andrew Pickens.

























Senator Brooks was enraged by the speech and beat Sumner in his senate office with his cane until it broke. The beating was delivered with his cane onto Senator Sumner's head. It took Sumner three years to recover from that beating. Senator Brooks was never prosecuted for the beating and died of natural causes a year later. after the attack Brooks became some what of a "cult" hero in the South and he was sent replacement canes by his supporters.


























South Carolina Senator Preston S. Brooks beat Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner with a cane'


Charles Sumner came back and was elected to a seat in Congress. Charles Sumner remained steadfast after the Civil War (1861-1865) and into the Reconstruction Era (1865-1877). He was later a part of the "Radical Republicans" in Congress. He once said that "If all whites must vote, then must all blacks".

***

Preston Brooks's caning of anti-slavery Senator Charles Sumner also fueled John Brown's anger. These violent acts were accompanied by celebrations in the pro-slavery press, with writers such as Benjamin Franklin Stringfellow of the "Squatter Sovereign"  proclaiming that pro-slavery forces "are determined to repel this Northern invasion, and make Kansas a Slave State; though our rivers should be covered with the blood of their victims, and the carcasses of the Abolitionists should be so numerous in the territory as to breed disease and sickness, we will not be deterred from our purpose" (quoted in Reynolds, p. 162).

John Brown was outraged by both the violence of the pro-slavery forces, and also by what he saw as a weak and cowardly response by the antislavery partisans and the Free State settlers, who he described as "cowards, or worse" (Reynolds pp. 163–164).

Biographer Louis A. DeCaro Jr. further shows that John Brown's beloved father, Owen Brown, had died on May 8, 1856 and written correspondences indicates that John Brown and his family received word of his death around the same time.  The emotional darkness of the hour was intensified by the real concerns that John Brown had for the welfare of his sons and the free state settlers in their vicinity. This was especially true since the  border raiders' sacking of Lawrence, Kansas, seems to have signaled an all-out campaign of violence by pro-slavery forces.






















John Brown conducted surveillance on encamped "ruffians" in his vicinity and learned that his family was marked for attack, and furthermore was given reliable information as to pro-slavery neighbors who had aligned and supported these forces. The pro-slavery men did not necessarily own any slaves, although the Doyles (three of the victims) were slave hunters prior to settling in Kansas.


























Salmon Brown, son of John Brown.


According to Salmon Brown, when the Doyles were seized, Mahala Doyle acknowledged that her husband's "devilment" had brought down this attack to their doorstep – further signifying that the John Browns' attack was probably grounded in real concern for their own survival.





















Sometime after 10:00 pm on May 24, 1856, it is suspected they took five pro-slavery settlers  (James Doyle, William Doyle, Drury Doyle, Allen Wilkinson, and William Sherman)  from their cabins along Pottawatomie Creek and hacked them to death with broadswords. John Brown later claimed he did not participate in the killings, however he did say he approved of them.


Palmyra and Osawatomie

A force of Missourians, led by Captain Henry Pate, captured John Jr. and Jason, and destroyed the Brown family homestead, and later participated in the Sack of Lawrence. On June 2, John Brown, nine of his followers, and twenty local men successfully defended a Free State settlement at Palmyra, Kansas against an attack by Pate. (The Battle of Black Jack.) Henry Pate and twenty-two of his men were taken prisoner (Reynolds pp. 180–181, 186). After their capture, they were taken to John Brown's camp, and received all the food that John Brown could find.

John Brown forced Captain Henry Pate to sign a treaty, exchanging the freedom of Pate and his men for the promised release of John Brown's two captured sons. Brown released Pate to Colonel Edwin Sumner, but was furious to discover that the release of his sons was delayed until September.

In August, a company of over three hundred Missourians under the command of Major General John W. Reid crossed into Kansas and headed towards Osawatomie, Kansas, intending to destroy the Free State settlements there, and then march on Topeka and Lawrence.





















On the morning of August 30, 1856, they shot and killed John Brown's son Frederick and his neighbor David Garrison on the outskirts of Pottawatomie. John Brown, outnumbered by more than seven to one, arranged his 38 men behind natural defenses along the road. Firing from cover, they managed to kill at least 20 of General John Reid's men and wounded 40 more. Reid regrouped, ordering his men to dismount and charge into the woods. Brown's small group scattered and fled across the Marais des Cygnes River. One of John Brown's men was killed during the retreat and four were captured.

While John Brown and his surviving men hid in the woods nearby, the Missourians plundered and burned Osawatomie. Despite being defeated, John Brown's bravery and military shrewdness in the face of overwhelming odds brought him national attention and made him a hero to many Northern abolitionists, who gave him the nickname "Osawatomie Brown". This incident was dramatized in the play Osawatomie Brown.


























On September 7, John Brown entered Lawrence to meet with Free State leaders and help fortify against a feared assault. At least 2,700 pro-slavery Missourians were once again invading Kansas. On September 14 they skirmished near Lawrence. John Brown prepared for battle, but serious violence was averted when the new governor of Kansas, John W. Geary, ordered the warring parties to disarm and disband, and offered clemency to former fighters on both sides. John Brown, taking advantage of the fragile peace, left Kansas with three of his sons to raise money from supporters in the north.







































Life size white marble statue of John Brown in Quindaro Townsite, Kansas 1911.


Quindaro was one of a number of villages hugging the narrow bank of the Missouri River under the bluffs, the town was a Free State  port- of-entry for abolitionist forces of Kansas. It was established as part of the resistance to stop the westward spread of slavery.  Quindaro's people also aided escaped slaves from Missouri and linked them to the Underground Railroad.

After Kansas was established as a free state, there was less unique need for the port and the growth slowed in the commercial district. At the same time the economy in Kansas suffered from over-speculation.

In 1862 classes were started for children of former slaves, and in 1865 a group of men chartered Quindaro Freedman's School (later Western University), the first black school west of the Mississippi River. Many former slaves continued to gather in the residential community, which became mostly African American by the late 19th century. The area was incorporated into Kansas City in the early 20th century.

Gradually the lower commercial townsite was abandoned and then  became overgrown.  The townsite was rediscovered in the late 1980s, during an archaeological study  which revealed many aspects of the 1850s town


The Later Years

By November 1856, John Brown had returned to the East, and spent the next two years traveling around New England raising funds. Amos Adams Lawrence, a prominent Boston merchant, contributed a large amount of capital.  Franklin Benjamin Sanborn,  secretary for the Massachusetts State Kansas Committee, introduced John Brown to several influential abolitionists in the Boston area in January 1857.







































The Secret Six Supporters

They included William Lloyd Garrison, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Theodore Parker and George Luther Stearns, and Samuel Gridley Howe.  A group of six wealthy abolitionists – Sanborn, Higginson, Parker, Stearns, Howe, and Gerrit Smith; all agreed to offer John Brown the financial support for his antislavery activities.  They would eventually provide most of the financial backing for the raid on Harpers Ferry, and would come to be known afterwards as the "Secret Six" and the "Committee of Six".  John Brown had often requested help from them with "no questions asked", and it remains unclear of how much of John Brown's scheme the Secret Six were aware.










On January 7, 1858, the Massachusetts Committee pledged to provide 200 Sharps Rifles and ammunition, which was being stored at Tabor, Iowa..  In March, John Brown contracted Charles Blair of Collinsville, Connecticut for 1,000 pikes.



























Henry David Thoreau.


In the following months, John Brown continued to raise funds, visiting Worcester, Springfield, New Haven, Syracuse and Boston. In Boston he met Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.



























Ralph Waldo Emerson


He received many pledges and a lot of emotional suppoet, but little cash.

























Charles Blair



While in New England, he had arranged for Charles Blair, a Connecticut blacksmith, to manufacture samples of pikes.

In March, while in New York City, he was introduced to Hugh Forbes, an English mercenary, who had experience as a military tactician gained while fighting with Giuseppe Garibaldi in Italy  in 1848. John Brown hired him to be the drillmaster for his men and to write their tactical handbook. They agreed to meet in Tabor that summer.

Using the alias Nelson Hawkins, John Brown traveled through the Northeast and then went to visit his family in Hudson, Ohio. On August 7, he arrived in Tabor. Hugh Forbes arrived two days later. Over several weeks, the two men put together a "Well Matured Plan" for fighting slavery in the South. The men quarreled over many of the details. In November, their troops left for Kansas. Hugh Forbes had not received his salary and was still feuding with John Brown, so he returned to the East instead of venturing into Kansas. He would soon threaten to expose the plot to the government.

Because the October elections saw a free-state victory, Kansas was quiet. John Brown sent his men return to Iowa, where he fed them tidbits of his Virginia scheme.  In January 1858, John Brown left his men in Springdale, Iowa, and set off to visit Frederick Douglass in Rochester, New York.  There he discussed his plans with Douglass, and reconsidered Hugh Forbes' criticisms.

John Brown wrote a Provisional Constitution that would create a government for a new state in the region of his invasion. John Brown then traveled to Peterboro, New York and Boston to discuss matters with the Secret Six.  In letters to them, he indicated that, along with recruits, he would go into the South equipped with weapons to do "Kansas work".

John Brown and twelve of his followers, including his son Owen, traveled to Chatham, Ontario where he convened on May 8, a Constitutional Convention. The convention was put together with the help of Dr. Martin Delany. One-third of Chatham's 6,000 residents were fugitive slaves, and it was in Chatham that John Brown was introduced to Harriet Tubman.  The convention assembled 34 blacks and 12 whites to adopt Brown's Provisional Constitution.


























John Brown was elected commander-in-chief and he named John Henrie Kagi as Secretary of War. Richard Realf was named Secretary of State.  Elder Monroe, a black minister, was to act as president until another was chosen.  A. M. Chapman was the acting vice president;  Martin Delany, the corresponding secretary.  In 1859, "A Declaration of Liberty by the Representatives of the Slave Population of the United States of America" was written.

Although nearly all of the delegates signed the Constitution, very few delegates volunteered to join John Brown's forces, although it will never be clear how many Canadian expatriates actually intended to join John Brown because of a subsequent "security leak" that threw off plans for the raid, creating a hiatus in which John Brown lost contact with many of the Canadian leaders. This crisis occurred when Hugh Forbes, John Brown's mercenary, tried to expose the plans to Massachusetts Senator Henry Wilson and others. The Secret Six feared their names would be made public. Samuel Howe and Thomas Higginson wanted no delays in John Brown's progress, while Theodore Parker, George Luther Stearns, Gerrit Smith and Franklin Sanborn insisted on postponement. George Stearn and Gerrit Smith were the major sources of funds, and their words carried more weight.

To throw Hugh Forbes off the trail and to invalidate his assertions, John Brown returned to Kansas in June, and he remained in that vicinity for six months.

There he joined forces with James Montgomery, who was leading raids into Missouri. On December 20, John Brown led his own raid, in which he liberated eleven slaves, took captive two white men, and stole horses and wagons. On January 20, 1859, he embarked on a lengthy journey to take the eleven liberated slaves to Detroit and then on a ferry to Canada. While passing through Chicago, John Brown met with Allan Pinkerton who arranged and raised the fare for the passage to Detroit.

Over the course of the next few months he traveled again through Ohio, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts to draw up more support for the cause. On May 9, he delivered a lecture in Concord, Massachusetts. In attendance were Bronson Alcott, Rockwell Hoar, Emerson and Thoreau. John Brown also met with the Secret Six.



















The Brown Farm at Elba, New York.


In June he paid his last visit to his family in North Elba, before he departed for Harpers Ferry. He stayed one night enroute in Hagerstown, Maryland at the Washington House, on West Washington Street. On June 30, 1859 the hotel had at least 25 guests, including I. Smith and Sons, Oliver Smith and Owen Smith and John Jeremiah Anderson, all from New York.  From papers found in the Kennedy Farmhouse after the raid, it is known that John Brown wrote to John Kagi that he would sign into a hotel as I. Smith and Sons.







































In the summer of 1859, John Brown and several of his associates stayed at the boarding house of Mary Ritner. Brown assumed the identity of Isaac Smith, owner of a mining operation. Under this guise, John Brown was able to receive the heavy shipments of weapons for his planned takeover of the arsenal at Harpers Ferry.

It was no mistake that John Brown chose Chambersburg, Pennsylvania as his supply base and staging area for his raid on Harpers Ferry. Chambersburg had excellent access to the railroad, was located in the north, but was still close enough to the south for John Brown to deploy his attack.






















The "John Brown House", 225 East King Street.


On the second floor of this once Mary Ritner’s Boarding House, John Brown planned his attack on the Federal Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry.  Also, here in Chambersburg is where John Brown met with several abolitionist leaders, as well as the famous anti-slavery author and lecturer Frederick Douglass.
















Located just a block west of the "John Brown House" is the Old Jail at 175 East King Street. This is where John Cook, one of John Brown’s associates in the raid of Harpers Ferry, was taken after being captured. Oral tradition also holds that the jail was used to secure escaping slaves until they could be moved to the next place of safety. Today the Old Jail is a museum and home to the Kittochtinny Historical Society of Chambersburg.


























In August 1859, John Brown met with Frederick Douglass in a stone quarry outside Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. John Brown told Frederick Douglass that he planned to seize the United States Arsenal at Harpers Ferry and to create a slave uprising.

 John Brown rented a farm outside of Chambersburg near a quarry under an assumed name to plan for and store arms for the raid on nearby Harpers Ferry.

He expected Fredrick Douglas to join him in the skirmish.  Frederick Douglass, who was not stupid, foolish, or fanatical, said “No.” He understood that the raid on Harper’s Ferry was an attack on the Federal Government and was doomed to failure and had made a number of efforts to discourage blacks from enlisting. He left Chambersburg in a rush, to get as far away from the scene as possible. He fled to Canada briefly to avoid being implicated in the raid. 


John Brown's Preparation

On July 3, 1859, John Brown, sons, Owen and Oliver and Brown's trusty Lieutenant, Jeremiah Anderson arrived by train at Sandy Hook, Maryland - a small village about one mile beyond Harpers Ferry on the Maryland side of the Potomac River. At this point in his life John Brown was a "wanted man" with a large price on his head for his activities in the Kansas Territory.


























The four men presented themselves as Issac Smith & Sons, cattlemen from New York. They sought a small farm to serve as a feeding lot for the cattle they intended to purchase and fatten. John Unseld, a resident of the neighborhood, suggested the old Kennedy farm. Doctor Kennedy had died earlier that spring and the farmhouse was vacant and unfurnished.

John Brown and his followers went to the farm and liking what they saw leased the place for $35 in gold for the next nine months. The farm  4 miles (6.4 km) north of Harpers Ferry in Washington County, Maryland. After occupation of the house, John Brown sent home for his wife to come down to give the appearance of a family at the Kennedy Farm. She was much too busy at home. She blessed what he was about to do and sent theirdaughter in law Martha, Oliver's 17 year old wife and her 16 year old daughter Annie Brown.

Though he had been forced to postpone his plans after the Chatham Convention because of Hugh Forbes's letters, John Brown sent John E. Cook to Harpers Ferry in 1858 to investigate the area. John Brown, sons Owen and Oliver, and Jeremiah Anderson arrived in Harpers Ferry the following year, on July 3, 1859. A few days later, using the name Isaac Smith, John Brown rented the farm of the late Dr. Booth Kennedy in Maryland.


























John Henry Kagi.


Meanwhile, John Henry Kagi, John Brown's second in command, was stationed at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, under the alias John Henrie, to receive and forward the supplies.


























Watson Brown


Watson Brown and Henry Thompson’s brothers William and Dauphin arrived on August 6. The remaining raiders were - Osborne Perry Anderson, John Anthony Copeland, Barclay and Edwin Coppoc, Shields Green, Albert Hazlett, Lewis Sheridan Leary, William H. Leeman, Francis Jackson Merriam, Dangerfield Newby, Aaron Dwight Stevens, Stewart Taylor, and Charles Plummer Tidd - arrived between early August and mid October.

Kagi's draft plan called for a brigade of 4,500 men, but John Brown had a small group of men that had little training for military action. His group included 16 white men, 3 free blacks, 1 freed slave, and 1 fugitive slave. They ranged in age from 21 to 49.  Twelve of them had been with John Brown in the Kansas raids.

Annie and Martha served as the cook and housekeepers for the Provisional Army of the United States as they arrived, one or two at a time throughout the summer months. By the end of summer there were twenty-one members of the army hidden in the attic loft and the girls were sent home.

He awaited the arrival of his recruits. They never materialized in the numbers he expected. As the October raid became eminent, the army now thoroughly trained and armed by Anderson, was prepared to attack the Harpers Ferry arsenal. JoHn Brown and his followers had spent about 3 1/2 months at Kennedy Farm in the summer of 1859.


























John Brown attempted to attract more black recruits. He also tried recruiting Frederick Douglass as a liaison officer to the slaves. Frederick Douglass declined, and warned that the raid was a suicide mission. He warned "You will never get out alive."

John Brown sent the weapons that he had been stockpiling in Chambersburg to the Kennedy farm. Just over the Maryland border, the Kennedy farm was close to Harper’s Ferry and was the staging point for the attack. The 950 pikes arrived from Charles Blair.

Northern abolitionist groups had sent 198 breech loading .52 caliber Sharps carbines ("Beecher's Bibles") and 950 pikes, in preparation for the raid. The arsenal contained 100,000 muskets and rifles.

His plan was to use those pikes and any rifles he captured at the arsenal, in addition to those he brought along, to arm rebellious slaves with the aim of striking terror to the slaveholders in Virginia. He believed that on the first night of action 200 to 500 black slaves and freemen would join his men. He ridiculed the local militia and regular army that might choose to oppose him.

He then planned send agents to nearby plantations, rallying the slaves. He planned to hold Harpers Ferry for a short time, expecting that as many volunteers, white and black, would join him as would form against him. He then would make a rapid movement southward, sending out armed bands along the way. They would free more slaves, obtain food, horses and hostages, and destroy slave holding morale. John Brown planned to follow the Appalachian mountains south into Tennessee and even Alabama, the heart of the South, making forays into the plains on either side.


The Raid



























 Owen Brown.

On Sunday night, October 16, 1859, John Brown left three of his men behind as a rear-guard: his son, Owen Brown; Barclay Coppoc; and Frank Meriam and led the rest into the town.

He detached a party under John Cook to capture Colonel Lewis Washington, great grandnephew of George Washington at his nearby Beall-Air estate, some of his slaves, and two relics of George Washington: a sword allegedly presented to Washington by Frederick the Great and two pistols given by Lafayette, which John Brown considered talismans.  The party carried out its mission and returned by way of the Allstadt House, where they took more hostages.

John Brown's main party captured the watchman and several townspeople in Harpers Ferry.

They needed to capture the weapons and escape before word could be sent to Washington. The raid seemed to be going well. They cut the telegraph wire and seized a Baltimore and Ohio train passing through.


























It was there that the raid's first casualty occurred, when a porter, a free black  baggage handler who worked at the station, named Hayward Shepherd, challenged Brown's men and was shot in the dark.  Mr. Shepherd was shot in the chest very near to his heart, but he managed to get back to the station before he collapsed and died.It was ironic that a freed slave became the first casualty of the raid.

















For some unknown reasons, John Brown allowed the train to continue. At the next town the conductor alerted the authorities.

One of the keys to success was the support of the local slave population. A massive uprising did not occur and the slaves never rebelled. The townspeople soon began to fight back against the raiders. Nevertheless, John Brown's men captured the armory that evening.

Armory workers discovered Brown's men early on the morning of October 17. Local militia, farmers and shopkeepers surrounded the armory. When a company of militia captured the bridge across the Potomac River, any route of escape was cut off. During the day four townspeople were killed, including the mayor.

Realizing his escape was cut, John Brown took 9 of his captives and moved into the smaller engine house, which would come to be known as "John Brown's Fort". The raiders barred off the windows and doors and exchanged the occasional volley with the surrounding forces.

John Brown sent out his son, Watson, and Aaron Dwight Stevens  with a white flag, but Watson Brown was mortally wounded and Stevens was shot and captured. The raid was rapidly deteriorating. One of the raiders named William H. Leeman panicked and tried to escape by swimming across the Potomac River. The townspeople, reportedly drunk, made sport of shooting up Leeman's body. They literally  shot it to pieces. During the intermittent shooting Brown's other son, Oliver was shot and died after a brief period.

A. J. Phelps, the "Through Express" passenger train conductor, sent a telegram to W. P. Smith, Master of Tansportation of the B. & O. R. R., Baltimore:

"Monocacy, 7.05 A. M., October 17, 1859.
Express train bound east, under my charge, was stopped this morning at Harper's Ferry by armed abolitionists. They have possession of the bridge and the arms and armory of the United States. Myself and Baggage Master have been fired at, and Hayward, the colored porter, is wounded very severely, being shot through the body, the ball entering the body below the left shoulder blade and coming out under the left side."

When John W. Garrett, President of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, got news of the raid the morning of the 17th he wired President Buchanan to send troops. 

President James Buchanan dispatched the militia of Frederick, Maryland, at once, by 3:30 that afternoon,  summoned Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee of the 2nd US Cavalry to Washington, from his home at Arlington, Virginia.


























The only troops in Washington were 90 US Marines at the Navy Yard, commanded by Lieutenant Israel Green.  President Buchanan ordered them to Harpers Ferry.

























Robert E. Lee


President Buchanan informed John W. Garrett of the deployments, but Mr. Garrett doubted that the President had sent enough men to suppress the raiders which had been reported to be 700 insurgents.  At 1:30 the President and the Secretary of War, met  with brevet Colonel Robert E. Lee and ordered him to proceed to Harpers Ferry to command all troops.  James Ewell Brown Stuart, or ‘Jeb’ Stuart, of the 1st United States Cavalry was assigned as Colonel Lee’s aide.  The two men left Washington by special train in the afternoon and rolled toward Harper’s Ferry.

By dusk the marines were still en route, but three companies of Frederick Militia had arrived, commanded by Colonel Robert Baylor.  More militia arrived in the night; a company from Winchester, Virginia. and 5 companies from Baltimore that bivouacked at Sandy Hook a mile from Harpers Ferry.  In the early evening Captain Thomas Sinn of the Frederick Militia went to the engine house to talk with John Brown, who was still using the alias "Captain Smith." 

His small band of followers and captives were exhausted.  John Brown repeated his demands for safe passage across the river.

John Brown complained to Captain Sinn that his men had been shot down like dogs in the street while carrying flags of truce.  Captain Sinn indignantly replied that men who take up arms in such a way must expect to be shot down like dogs.  John Brown replied that “he knew what he had to undergo before he came there, he had weighed the responsibility and should not shrink from it.”  John Brown said his terms deserved consideration for he had treated his captives well, refrained from massacring citizens, when he had the power to do so, and that his men did not shoot any unarmed citizens.  Captain Sinn informed John Brown that Mayor Beckham was unarmed when killed.  For this, John Brown expressed deep regret.


























Watson Brown


John Brown mentioned the mortal wounds of his two sons.  His talk impressed Captain Sinn who went to the Wager House and sent surgeon Dr. Taylor to the engine house to tend to young Watson Brown’s wounds.  The doctor told him that he would return in the morning to follow up with the patient.

























Aaron Stevens.


Captain Sinn noted his disgust with the citizens about town, many hopelessly drunk, shouting threats and firing guns into the air.  He found several men taunting the severely wounded prisoner Aaron Stevens, leveling guns in his face and threatening to shoot him dead. But there was a mysterious power of will about Aaron Stevens who bravely lay motionless and stared down his tormentors.  Captain Sinn drove the mob from the room shouting “if this man could stand on his feet with a pistol in his hand, you would all jump out of the window.”


Escape of Anderson and Hazlett


























Albert Hazlett

Two of the raiders made a miraculous escape from Harper’s Ferry. Osborne Anderson and Albert Hazlett had been posted by John Brown at the Federal Arsenal building on the Ferry Lot.  During the afternoon they must have quietly hid out somewhere in the building. 


























Osborne P. Anderson

Two of the raiders made a miraculous escape from Harper’s Ferry. Osborne Anderson and Albert Hazlett had been posted by John Brown at the Federal Arsenal building on the Ferry Lot.  During the afternoon they must have quietly hid out somewhere in the building. 

Osborne Anderson claimed they escaped on Tuesday but that would have been impossible. It is generally believed they snuck out of the building at nightfall when all eyes were on the engine house.  From there Osborne Anderson wrote, they made their way along the Shenandoah River until they could climb the hill above the town. They laid low for another 3 hours.  Then they returned to town and found a boat along the Potomac River and crossed into Maryland.  The escape was an incredible accomplishment considering the number of troops and excitement in town.  They made their way back to the Kennedy Farm from where they might be able to track down their friends.


Night At The Engine House

























Stuart Taylor.

There was no light over at the engine house, all was intensely dark.  The cold air chilled the inhabitants; some sprawled on the floor with painful wounds, others leaned against cold walls anxiously waiting the grey dawn. 

Writer Oswald Garrison Villard described the scene, “Near his brother Watson lay quietly breathing his life away. Stuart Taylor shot like Oliver in the doorway of the engine house lay dead near by. There were left alive and unwounded but 5 men, J. G. Anderson, Dauphin Thompson and Shields Green, Edwin Coppoc, and John Brown.”





































Oliver Brown.

Over in a corner, Oliver Brown was moaning in intense pain, begging his father to shoot him and end the suffering.   After repeated requests John Brown coldly replied “Oh you will get over it, and if you must die, die like a man”

So Oliver Brown suffered in silence. His father called to him after a time. There was no answer. “I guess he is dead,” said John Brown.

























Prisoner John E. P. Dangerfield spoke with John Brown in the night, telling him he had committed treason against the country in the name of his cause.  Two of John Brown’s men overheard this and asked their Captain if this was true.  “Certainly,” he replied.   This surprised the two raiders and they both exclaimed “If that is so, we don’t want to fight any more. We thought we came to liberate the slaves and did not know that that was committing treason.”  They would be both killed in the morning battle.  The tired raiders had not slept for over 60 hours. 




















From time to time John Brown broke the silence of the night and called out, “Men are you awake!”


The Marines Arrive

Colonel Lee’s train met up with Lt. Green’s Marines at Sandy Hook, Maryland at 11 p.m.  They immediately marched to the town a mile away. Colonel Robert E. Lee closed all the saloons. The marines supervised the militia guarding the engine house.



















Looking into the armory grounds, the engine house is the first building on the left.


At 2 A.M., Colonel Lee conveyed his plan of attack to Lt. Jeb Stuart.  Terms of surrender would be tendered to the raiders at dawn.  Expecting them to be refused, a signal would launch a team of handpicked men to storm the engine house and break open the doors. Bayonets were to be used in the attack to protect the prisoners.



















The storming party was cautioned to carefully distinguish the raiders from the hostages.

During the early morning hours Colonel Lee offered the honor of leading the attack to Colonel Shriver, of the Frederick Militia.  Colonel Shriver refused noting his men had families at home. He told Robert E. Lee “I will not expose them to such risks.  You men are paid for doing this kind of work.”  Colonel Baylor also declined the honor for the same reasons. Lt. Green of the marines however, gladly accepted the honor of “taking those men out” as Robert E. Lee put it.  Tipping his hat Lt. Green gave Colonel Lee his sincerest thanks.


Taking the Engine House

At dawn, in front of a crowd of spectators, Colonel Robert E, Lee, dressed in civilian clothes, stood on a slight elevation 40 feet away and commanded the proceedings.






































Lt. Jeb Stuart approached the engine house and called to John Brown.  The door opened four inches.  John Brown leaned into the crack clutching a cocked carbine in his hands.  Lt. Jeb Stuart immediately recognized "Capt. Smith" as Osawatomie Brown of Kansas.  Jeb Stuart presented Colonel Lee’s terms:

“Headquarters, Harper’s Ferry,

October 18, 1859

Colonel Lee, United States army, commanding the 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 safely to await the orders of the President.  Colonel 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.

Colonel Robert E. LEE"


The parlay was a long one. John Brown repeatedly argued his case in different ways, but in the end all the same; safe passage for his armed men and their hostages across the river.  Lt. Jeb Stuart refused.  The hostages pleaded with Stuart to bring forth Colonel Lee.  Jeb Stuart refused, anxiously anticipating the moment to signal Lt. Green to attack.  He assured the citizens and Brown that Col. Lee would never accede to any terms but those offered.

Then Stuart stepped to one side and waved his hat.   Twelve marines led by Lt. Green and Major W. W. Russell charged the engine house. Three men smashed at the heavy doors with sledge hammers.

Inside, John Brown remained cool and calm. “He felt the pulse of his dying son with one hand and held his rifle with the other,” said Col. Washington.  “Sell your lives dearly,” he instructed his men.



















Spotting a heavy ladder nearby, Lt. Green ordered his men to use it as a battering-ram.  The second blow splintered a small ragged hole in the lower part of the right hand door.  John Brown emptied his carbine, and his men fired too.  The blasts did no harm.  Lt. Green immediately crawled through the small opening.  “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 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.”

“This is Osawatomie,” said Col. Washington, calmly pointing to Brown.

To paraphrase author Oswald Garrison Villard: “Green sprang at Brown lunging at him with his light sword and brought him to his knees. The sword bent double in stinging Brown’s belt or a bone; taking the bent weapon in both hands, Green showered blows upon Brown’s head, which laid him flat and brought the blood.”  Witnesses thought Brown’s skull was split."

"Private Luke Quin followed Lt. Green through the hole in the door.  A shot fired and brought him down.  The man behind Luke was shot in the face.  The rest jumped over their fallen comrades in no mood for mercy. Lt. Green said, “They came rushing in like tigers… They bayoneted one man skulking under the engine and pinned another against the rear wall.  …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 lasted not over three minutes.”


















This is a postcard that was used to get tourists to visit Hapers Ferry.
















This is a picture of the engine house as it is today.  Over the years, the engine house has been dismantled and then rebuilt on different locations several times.


After The Battle

The eleven prisoners “were the sorriest lot of people I ever saw.  They had been without food for over 60 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,” said Lt. Green.

It was an accident of chance that saved John Brown’s life, that day.  When Lt. Green hurried from his quarters to leave for Harpers Ferry, he strapped on his light dress sword by mistake, instead of his regulation battle sword.. His regulation sword would have killed John Brown. 

Villard wrote: “The flimsiness of his blade permitted his enemy to live to thrill half a nation by his spoken and written word.,” 

John Brown was carried to the armory paymaster’s office where his wounds were tended.  The bodies of those killed in the fort were lined up outside the armory. 


























Jeremiah Anderson


Jeremiah Anderson who had been pinned against the wall didn’t die immediately. He vomited blood and writhed in pain on the brick outside the engine house. His face and body were kicked by angry spectators.  A farmer walked past him, disappeared a while then returned.  The farmer said “It takes you a hell of a long time to die.”  Then he spit a wad of tobacco into Anderson’s face.  Another raider’s body was stuffed into a too small barrel and taken away by some men to a medical school in Winchester.


























Watson Brown


Watson Brown was made comfortable but was beyond medical help. He lingered 20 hours before dying.  Aaron Stevens,

Edwin Coppoc, and Shields Green were prisoners and would stand trial with their leader.


















John Brown and the other captives were held in the office of the armory. On October 18, 1859, Virginia Governor Henry A. Wise, Virginia Senator James M. Mason, and Representative Clement Vallandigham of Ohio arrived in Harpers Ferry. Virginia Senator James M. Mason led the three-hour questioning session of the badly wounded John Brown.

***

New York Herald (October 21st, 1859)

Brown is fifty-five years of age, rather small-sized, with keen and restless gray eyes, and a grizzly beard and hair. He is a wiry, active man, and should the slightest chance for an escape be afforded, there is no doubt that he will yet give his captors much trouble. His hair is matted and tangled, and his face, hands, and clothes are smutched and smeared with blood.

Colonel Lee stated that he would exclude all visitors from the room if the wounded men were annoyed or pained by them, but Brown said he was by no means annoyed; on the contrary, he was glad to be able to make himself and his motives clearly understood. He converses freely, fluently, and cheerfully, without the slightest manifestation of fear or uneasiness, evidently weighing well his words, and possessing a good command of language. His manner is courteous and affable, while he appears to be making a favorable impression upon his auditory, which, during most of the day yesterday averaged about ten or a dozen men.

When I arrived in the armory, shortly after two o'clock in the afternoon, Brown was answering questions put to him by Senator Mason, who had just arrived from his residence at Winchester, thirty miles distant. Colonel Faulkner, member of Congress who lives but a few miles off, Mr. Vallandigham, member of Congress of Ohio, and several other distinguished gentlemen. The following is a verbatim report of the conversation:

Mr. Mason: Can you tell us, at least, who furnished the money for your expedition?

Mr. Brown: I furnished most of it myself. I cannot implicate others. It is by my own folly that I have been taken. I could easily have saved myself from it had I exercised my own better judgment rather than yield to my feelings. I should have gone away, but I had thirty-odd prisoners, whose wives and daughters were in tears for their safety, and I felt for them. Besides, I wanted to allay the fears of those who believed we came here to burn and kill. For this reason I allowed the train to cross the bridge and gave them full liberty to pass on. I did it only to spare the feelings of these passengers and their families and to allay the apprehensions that you had got here in your vicinity a band of men who had no regard for life and property, nor any feeling of humanity.

Mr. Mason:  But you killed some people passing along the streets quietly.

Mr. Brown:  Well, sir, if there was anything of that kind done, it was without my knowledge. Your own citizens, who were my prisoners, will tell you that every possible means were taken to prevent it. I did not allow my men to fire, nor even to return a fire, when there was danger of killing those we regarded as innocent persons, if I could help it. They will tell you that we allowed ourselves to be fired at repeatedly and did not return it.

A Bystander: That is not so. You killed an unarmed man at the comer of the house over there (at the water tank) and another besides.

Mr. Brown: See here, my friend, it is useless to dispute or contradict the report of your own neighbors who were my prisoners.

Mr. Mason: If you would tell us who sent you here - who provided the means - that would be information of some value.

Mr. Brown: I will answer freely and faithfully about what concerns myself - I will answer anything I can with honor, but not about others.

Mr. Vallandigham (member of Congress from Ohio, who had just entered): Mr. Brown, who sent you here?

Mr. Brown: No man sent me here; it was my own prompting and that of my Maker, or that of the devil, whichever you please to ascribe it to. I acknowledge no man (master) in human form.

Mr. Vallandigham: Did you get up the expedition yourself?

Mr. Brown: I did.

Mr. Mason: What was your object in coming?

Mr. Brown: We came to free the slaves, and only that.

A Young Man (in the uniform of a volunteer company): How many men in all had you?

Mr. Brown: I came to Virginia with eighteen men only, besides myself.

Volunteer: What in the world did you suppose you could do here in Virginia with that amount of men?

Mr. Brown: Young man, I don't wish to discuss that question here.

Volunteer: You could not do anything.

Mr. Brown: Well, perhaps your ideas and mine on military subjects would differ materially.

Mr. Mason: How do you justify your acts?

Mr. Brown: I think, my friend, you are guilty of a great wrong against God and humanity. I say it without wishing to be offensive - and it would be perfectly right for anyone to interfere with you so far as to free those you willfully and wickedly hold in bondage. I do not say this insultingly. I think I did right and that others will do right who interfere with you at any time and all times. I hold that the golden rule, "Do unto others as you would that others should do unto you," applies to all who would help others to gain their liberty.

***


Although the attack had taken place on Federal property,  Virginia Governor Wise ordered that John Brown and his men should be tried in Virginia, in Charles Town, the nearby county seat capital of Jefferson County just seven miles west of Harpers Ferry (perhaps to avert Northern political pressure on the Federal government, or in the unlikely event of a presidential pardon).


























Gov. Henry A. Wise.


Henry A. Wise, Governor of Virginia, upon his return to Richmond said of John Brown: “And they are themselves mistaken who take him to be a madman. He is a bundle of the best nerves I ever saw cut and thrust and bleeding and in bonds. He is a man of clear head, of courage, fortitude and simple ingeniousness. He is cool, collected indomitable, and it is but just to him to say that he was humane to his prisoners as attested to me by Colonel Washington and Mr. Mills, and he inspired me with great trust in his integrity as a man of truth. He is a fanatic, vain and garrulous, but firm, truthful and intelligent. His men, too, who survive, except the free negroes with him, are like him.”


The Ones That Got Away

Of the seven raiders who escaped Harper’s Ferry, Albert Hazlett was captured. He and Osborne Anderson traveled together directly north from the Kennedy Farm on main roads until Albert Hazlett claimed the blisters on his feet were slowing them down. He urged Anderson to go ahead.  Osborne Anderson made his way to safety. Albert Hazlett was captured at Newville, Penndylvania, October. 22nd and sent to Charlestown, Virginia. to stand trial with the others. 


























John E. Cook, Charles, Tidd, and the 3 men who remained at the Kennedy Farm during the raid, had proceeded on a north westerly course through the mountains hoping to reach Western, Pennsylvania.  John Cooke had been successful in obtaining food for the party at a farmhouse, but when he boldly tried a second time in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, he was recognized and captured for the $1,000 reward money on his head.  His captors came to like John Cook, and regretted their actions, but it was too late.  He also was sent to Charlestown to stand trial.  Five of John Brown's men had escaped.

While waiting for his trial to take place, John Brown was interviewed by William A. Phillips, of the New York Tribune (1859). Mr. Phillips wrote: "One of the most interesting things in his conversation that night, and one that marked him as a theorist, was his treatment of our forms of social and political life. He thought society ought to be organized on a less selfish basis; for while material interests gained something by the deification of pure selfishness, men and women lost much of it. He said that all great reforms, like the Christian religion, were based on broad, generous, self-sacrificing principles."


























The trial began October 27, after a doctor pronounced the still wounded John Brown fit for trial. He was charged with murdering four whites and a black, with conspiring with slaves to rebel, and with treason against Virginia. A series of lawyers were assigned to Brown, who included Lawson Botts, Thomas C. Green, Samuel Chilton, a lawyer from Washington D.C., and George Hoyt, but it was Hiram Griswold, a lawyer from Cleveland, Ohio who concluded the defense on October 31. In his closing statement, Griswold argued that Brown could not be found guilty of treason against a state to which he owed no loyalty and was not a resident of, and that Brown had not personally killed anyone himself, and also that the failure of the raid indicated that Brown had not conspired with slaves. Andrew Hunter, the local district attorney, presented the closing arguments for the prosecution.

On November 2, after a week-long trial and forty-five minutes of deliberation, the Charles Town jury found Brown guilty on all three counts. John Brown was sentenced to be hanged in public on December 2.

John Brown's attorneys had to put together a defense in the face of opposition not only from Judge Parker and prosecutor Hunter, but from John Brown himself. When the trial began, Botts made a critical motion to Judge Parker. Botts asked him to declare John Brown insane, using a telegram from a Mr. A. H. Lewis of Akron, Ohio, to support this plea. Mr. Lewis, who apparently had known John Brown from when the family lived in Akron, wrote, "Insanity is hereditary in that family.  These facts can be conclusively proven by witnesses residing here, who will doubtless attend the trial if desired."

A successful insanity defense could have saved John  John Brown himself, however, closed the door on the issue.  Protesting from his cot, he said angrily: "I look upon this as a miserable pretext of those who ought to take a different course in regard to me, if they took any at all... I am perfectly unconscious of insanity, and I reject, so far as I am capable,  any attempt to interfere on my behalf on that score." The outburst effectively destroyed any further chances for any insanity defense, despite some later attempts to revive the issue.

Despite their Virginia roots and the heavy weight of Southern opinion, Lawson Botts and Thomas C. Green had gone out on a limb for John Brown by asserting "hereditary insanity" and were soon out of the case.  They were then replaced by Hiram Griswold,  a lawyer from Cleveland, Ohio, and Samuel Chilton, a lawyer from Washington, D.C.  Judge Parker would not permit the momentum of Hunter's prosecution to slacken for one instant,  and he refused to give Hiram  Griswold and Chilton any extra time to organize their defense. Prosecutor Hunter had more than enough witnesses ready to testify. To support the charge of murder, witnesses described the killings by John Brown and his men during the Harpers Ferry raid. The charge of insurrection was supported by the testimony of witnesses who had overheard John Brown talk of arming runaway slaves to fight their masters.

Despite the disadvantages he labored under, Griswold put together an aggressive closing statement,in which he attacked the charge of insurrection, claiming that as a non-Virginian Brown didn't owe the commonwealth any duty of loyalty.

This last line of defense fared no better than the insanity argument. The Jury, after deliberating less than an hour returned with a guilty verdict. Judge Parker then held the trial in recess for a few days while one of Brown's fellow raiders was tried in the same courtroom. On November 2, the trial was reconvened and John Brown was allowed to address the court.


Address of John Brown to the Virginia Court at Charles Town, Virginia on November 2, 1859

"I have, may it please the court, a few words to say.

In the first place, I deny everything but what I have all along admitted, - the design on my part to free slaves. I intended certainly to have made a clean thing of that matter, as I did last winter, when I went into Missouri and took slaves without the snapping of a gun on either side, moved them through the country, and finally left them in Canada. I designed to do the same thing again, on a larger scale. That was all I intended. I never did intend murder, or treason, or the destruction of property, or to excite or incite slaves to rebellion, or to make insurrection.

I have another objection; and that is, it is unjust that I should suffer such a penalty. Had I interfered in the manner which I admit, and which I admit has been fairly proved (for I admire the truthfulness and candor of the greater portion of the witnesses who have testified in this case), -- had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends - either father, mother, sister, wife, or children, or any of that class - and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this interference, it would have been all right; and every man in this court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment.

The court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see a book kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament. That teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to them. It teaches me further to "remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them."  I endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say, I am too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done - as I have always freely admitted I have done - in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments. - I submit; so let it be done!

Let me say one word further.

I feel entirely satisfied with the treatment I have received on my trial. Considering all the circumstances, it has been more generous than I expected. I feel no consciousness of my guilt. I have stated from the first what was my intention, and what was not. I never had any design against the life of any person, nor any disposition to commit treason, or excite slaves to rebel, or make any general insurrection. I never encouraged any man to do so, but always discouraged any idea of any kind.

Let me say also, a word in regard to the statements made by some to those connected with me. I hear it has been said by some of them that I have induced them to join me. But the contrary is true. I do not say this to injure them, but as regretting their weakness. There is not one of them but joined me of his own accord, and the greater part of them at their own expense. A number of them I never saw, and never had a word of conversation with, till the day they came to me; and that was for the purpose I have stated.

Now I have done."



Judge Richard Parker sentenced John Brown to hang on December 2, 1859.

John Brown’s eloquent speech and his calm demeanor captured the attention of a nation.

Although they were initially shocked by John Brown's exploits, many Northerners began to speak favorably of the militant abolitionist. "He did not recognize unjust human laws, but resisted them as he was bid....," said Henry David Thoreau in an address to the citizens of Concord, Massachusetts. "No man in America has ever stood up so persistently and effectively for the dignity of human nature...."

Before he was executed John Brown prophesied: “All of you people of the south, prepare yourselves for a settlement of this question. 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.”

***

The following is a letter that John Brown wrote to his wife and children.

Charlestown Jefferson Co. Va:
8th Nov 1859

Dear Wife & Children Every One

I will begin by saying that I have in some degree recovered from my wounds; but that I am yet quite weak in my back and sore about my left Kidney. My appetite has been quite good for most of the time since I was hurt. I am supplied with almost Every thing I could desire to make me comfortable, and the little that I do lack (some few articles of clothing which I lost) I may perhaps soon get again.

I am besides quite cheerful having (as I trust) the peace of God which passeth all understanding" to "rule in my heart" and the testimony (in some degree) of a good conscience that I have not lived altogether in vain. I can trust God with both the time and the manner of my death; believing as I now do that for me at this time to seal my testimony (for God & humanity) with my blood, will do vastly more toward advancing the cause I have Earnestly Endeavored to promote, than all I have done in my life before. I beg of you all meekly and quietly to submit to this; not feeling yourselves to be in the least degraded on that account. Remember dear wife and children all, that Jesus of Nazareth suffered a most Excruciating death on the cross as a felon - under the most aggravating circumstances. Think also of the prophets, and apostles and Christians of former days, who went through greater tribulations than you or I: and (try) to be reconciled. May God Almighty comfort all your hearts, and soon wipe away all tears from your eyes. To him be endless praise. Think too of the crushed millions "who have no comforter."

I charge you all - never (in your trials) to forget the griefs "of the poor that cry and of those that have none to help them." I wrote most Earnestly to my dear and afflicted wife not to come on for the present at any rate. I will now give you my reasons for doing so. First it would use up all the scanty means she has or is at all likely to have to make herself and children comfortable hereafter. For let me tell you that the sympathy that is now aroused in your behalf may not always follow you. There is but little more of the romantic about helping poor widows and their children than there is about trying to relieve poor "niggers." Again the little comfort it might afford us to meet again, would be dearly bought by the pains of final seperation [sic]. We must part, and I feel assured; for us to meet under such dreadful circumstances would only add to our distress. If she comes on here she must be only a zing stock throughout the whole journey, to be remarked upon in every look, word and action by all sorts of creatures and by all sorts of papers throughout the whole country, again it is my most decided judgement that in quietly and submissively staying at home vastly more of generous sympathy will reach her; without such dreadful sacrifice of feeling as she must put up with if she comes on.

The visits of one or two female friends that have come on here have produced great Excitement which is very annoying: and they cannot possibly do me any good. O Mary do not come, but patiently wait for the meeting (of those who love God and their fellow men) where no seperation [sic] must follow. "They shall go no more but forever" - I greatly long to hear from some one of you, and to learn any thing that in any way affects your welfare. I sent you $10. the other day; did you get it? I have also endeavored to stir up Christian friends to visit you and write to you in your deep affliction. I have no doubt that some of them at least will heed the call. Write to me, care of Capt. John Avis, Charles Town, Jefferson Co. Va:  "Finally my beloved be of good comfort." May all your names be "written in the Lambs book of life" - May you all have the purifying and sustaining influence of the Christian religion - is the Earnest prayer of your affectionate husband and father.John Brown

P. S. I cannot remember a night so dark as to have hindered the coming day: nor a storm so furious or dreadful as to prevent the return of warm sunshine and a cloudless sky. But beloved ones do remember that this is not your rest; that in this world you have no abiding place or continuing city. To God and his infinite mercy I always commend you.

Ever Yours
J. B.

Novr 9th.

***


The day of his execution John Brown handed his jailer John Avis a prophetic note:  “I John Brown am 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.”

John Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859.

Governor Wise ordered Virginia troops to Charles Town to guard the prisoners until after their execution. Toward the last of November about 1,000 were there assembled, among them the Cadets from the Virginia Military Institute under the leadership of General Francis H. Smith, the superintendent and Major T. J. Jackson,  were called into service as a security detail in the event Brown's supporters attempted a rescue.

Major Thomas J. Jackson, the famous "Stonewall" Jackson of the war, was present in command of the cadet battery. He witnessed the execution of John Brown about midday.  In a letter to his wife he wrote of John Brown, "he behaved with unflinching firmness,"  and of the execution:   "My command was in front of the cadets, all facing south. One howitzer I assigned to Mr. Truehart, on the left of the cadets,   and with the other,  I remained on the right.  Other troops occupied different positions around the scaffold, and altogether it was an imposing but very solemn scene.  I was much impressed with the thought that before me stood a man, in the full vigor of health, who must in a few moments enter eternity.   I sent up the petition that he might be saved. Awful was the thought that he might in a few minutes receive the sentence, 'Depart, ye wicked, into everlasting fire!'  I hope that he was prepared to die, but I am doubtful."

***

From a letter published in the Lexington (VA) Gazette, on December 15, 1859


























John T. L. Preston was a teacher at the Virginia Military Institute. He was present at John Brown’s execution as the Institute provided a contingent of cadets as part of the security at the event. He wrote the following description of the scene: 

"He was now all ready. The sheriff asked him if he should give him a private signal before the fatal moment. He replied in a voice that seemed to me unnaturally natural, so composed was its tone, and so distinct its articulation, that 'it did not matter to him, if only they would not keep him too long waiting'. He was kept waiting, however. The troops that had formed his escort had to be put into their position, and while this was going on, he stood for some ten or fifteen minutes blindfold, the rope around his neck, and his feet on the treacherous platform, expecting instantly the fatal act. But he stood for this comparatively long time upright as a soldier in position, and motionless.

I was close to him, and watched him narrowly, to see if I could perceive any signs of shrinking or trembling in his person, but there was none. Once I thought I saw his knees tremble, but it was only the wind blowing his loose trousers. His firmness was subjected to still further trial by hearing Colonel Smith announce to the sheriff, "We are all ready, Mr. Campbell." The sheriff did not hear, or did not comprehend; and in a louder tone the same announcement was made. But the culprit still stood ready until the sheriff, descending the flight of steps, with a well-directed blow of a sharp hatchet, severed the rope that held up the trap door, which instantly sank beneath him, and he fell about three feet...

John Brown was hanging between heaven and earth."

***

written by Colonel J. T. L Preston:

"Brown would not have the assistance of any minister in jail during his last days, nor their presence with him on the scaffold. In going from prison to the place of execution he said very little, only assuring those who were with him that he had no fear, nor had he at any time in his life known what fear was. When he entered the gate of the enclosure, he expressed his admiration of the beauty of the surrounding country, and, pointing to different residences, asked who were the owners of them."

"There was a very small crowd to witness the execution. Governor Wise and General Taliaferro had both issued proclamations exhorting the citizens to remain at home and guard their property, and warned them of possible danger. The train on the Winchester Railroad had been stopped from carrying passengers; and even passengers on the Baltimore Railroad were subjected to examination and detention. An arrangement was made to divide the expected crowd into recognized citizens and persons not recognized, to require the former to go to the right, and the latter to the left; of the latter there was not a single one. It was told that last night there were not in Charles Town ten persons besides the citizens and the military."

***


The author was David Hunter Strother, who is better known under his nom de plume of Porte Crayon, and who was one of the literary lights of the middle period of the last century.

David Strother was present at the execution as the artist-writer representative of Harper’s Weekly, but because his publishers found the John Brown theme too hot to handle, his sketches and news story of the hanging were not used.

Some little background notes are needed to make this Strother (Porte Crayon) manuscript clear to modern readers.Never before had such an aggregation of professional writers and artists been sent from a distance by metropolitan newspapers to report an event.

David Strother was calling on a young lady at Charlestown who later became his second wife, when he heard of the raid. He was on the scene of the “John Brown war” from first to last. At Harpers Ferry on Monday morning, October 17, he saw the militia skirmishing with the John Brown army of liberation, and on Tuesday morning he witnessed the final assault on the engine house where John Brown, his surviving men and his citizen hostages had taken refuge.

He attended the trial a few days later, held in the old pillared courthouse at Charles Town (which is still a landmark) and was present when the sentence of death by hanging was pronounced.

Fresh from the scene, David Strother’s sketches and reports of the raid and trial were grabbed by Harper’s Weekly and were given top position. Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, then the only rival in the weekly pictorial field, had hurriedly dispatched Alfred Berghaus, one of its chief artists, to Harpers Ferry and was making a field day of the affair in full-page pictures and graphic stories. David Strother’s reporting did well for a few weeks, and Harper’s was holding its own with Leslie’s. Then came the problem.

David Strother came of an old Virginia family and was closely related by blood or marriage to most of the ruling families in the Potomac-Shenandoah area, nearly all of whom were slaveholders. Though himself an intense Unionist, he was by no means friendly to the abolition cause or to the immediate emancipation of Negro slaves. He wanted to preserve the status quo. His treatment of the raid and raiders violently displeased the anti-slavery element in the North, and did not go far enough to please the pro-slavery advocates in the South. The Weekly soon came in for sharp criticism.

Thus caught between two fires, the Harpers Weekly dropped the John Brown story like a hot potato; it contented itself thereafter by publishing a news symposium, culled from the newspapers, inconspicuously placed in the Domestic Intelligence” column.

Davis Strother apparently was not advised of the change of policy. At least he was not recalled from duty. He continued to write and sketch down to the last act in the tragedy, but all this work went for nothing.

The press was not tenderly treated at Charles Town. General William B. Taliaferro, commander of the Virginia troops, looked with suspicion on all strangers and had publicly announced that he wanted no “abolitionists or Republicans” in Charlestown on the day of the execution. Many newspapermen were turned back at Baltimore. Henry S. Olcott, New York Tribune man, went to Petersburg, Virginia, and through Masonic connections made his way to Charles Town with the Petersburg Grays. Edward H. House, another Tribune man, spent weeks in Charles Town very much incognito. He needled and castigated the exasperated Virginia officers almost daily in the Tribune.

David Strother had no difficulty in wangling an advantageous place. He was admitted to the staff of Andrew Hunter, his kinsman, special prosecutor at Brown’s trial and the personal representative of Governor Wise. David Strother took his position at the foot of the thirteen steps that led to the scaffold platform.

Crosby S. Noyes, Washington Star man, said in his telegraphic dispatch: “Porte Crayon Strother, the artist, a thin, sickly-looking young man, with others visited the platform for a moment.” But Andrew Hunter was more explicit in an article in the New Orleans Times-Democrat, September 5, 1887: “While the body was hanging, Strother slipped up, raised the cap from his face and took a sketch of him hanging. He said that the celebrated Lydia Maria Child [a prominent abolitionist leader] had published that she wanted to have a portrait or likeness of Brown in every condition of life to hang in her room, and that he had taken this sketch to send her.”

David Strother wrote his story and made careful drawings of the execution scene, but when submitted to the Harper's Weekly where both the story and sketches were rejected and returned to the artist-writer.

Less than eighteen months later the Civil War broke, and David Strother hastened to offer his services to the Union. He served well, through many campaigns and some thirty battles, and emerged a Brevet Brigadier General. When the War was over he resumed his connection with Harper’s.

Here are his accounts with David Strother’s spelling and punctuation.

JOHN BROWN’S DEATH AND LAST WORDS

By David Hunter Strother (Porte Crayon)

On Friday, December 2nd the notorious John Brown was executed at Charles  Town, Virginia, according to the sentence of the law. It may be a matter of curiosity to the public, to know how a man, whose late acts have created so much disturbance, deported himself in his last hours. Although very guarded in his conversation on the subject, it was quite evident that up to a certain date, he indulged in the hope of a rescue or possibly a pardon. When, however, he ascertained that the Court of appeals had confirmed the sentence, and saw the formidable military preparations made to insure its execution, there was a marked change in his manner. The great gulf between the simple probability and the gorgon head of certainty was not passed without a visible struggle. He became more thoughtful and serious, less dogmatic in the expression of his opinions, and somewhat softened toward those who had treated him with civility and consideration (and this included all whose official duties had brought them in contact with him during his confinement).

He expressed a disinclination to receive visitors and sent for his wife whom he had heretofore refused to see. Their meeting, which took place in the afternoon of the 1st of December is represented to have been a most businesslike affair without visible emotion on either side.

On the morning of the 2nd, Brown sent for an eminent legal gentleman of Charles Town to write his will, or rather a codicil to a former will disposing of some property which had been overlooked. His manner then was cold & stony, his discourse altogether of business. After the completion of the writing, he enquired sharply and particularly about a dollar which had been mentioned in one of his letters but which had not come to hand. He was assured that all the money enclosed in letters had been delivered to him. This he insisted was an error, he had the letter mentioning the enclosure but the money was not there.

Unwilling to dispute, the gentleman said that the note might have been dropped accidentally and if found, the
mount would be transmitted to his wife.

But Brown was by no means satisfied, and at length informed his visitor that in consideration of the service just rendered in writing his will, he might keep the dollar. This the Lawyer politely but peremptorily declined, as he intended to accept no remuneration for what he had done, and again expressed a doubt as to whether the money had been sent.The letter was produced. In the body of the writing the enclosure of the dollar was named, but on the margin, it was noted in pencil that it had been withdrawn and sent to his wife.

Thus was the mystery cleared up, to the very great apparent satisfaction of the old man and thus was concluded the last business transaction of his life. An hour after he was called on by the officers who were to convey him to the place of execution. His farewell scene with his late followers and fellow prisoners was peculiar and characteristic. To Coppock and the two negroes he gave a scolding and a quarter each, remarking that he had now no further use for money. To Stephens who had occupied the same room with him he also gave a quarter, and charged them all to die like men and not to betray their friends. To Cook he gave nothing but sharp & scathing words charging him with falsehood & cowardice. Cook denied the charges and attempted to dispute the points with his former commander but was authoritatively silenced. As to the question of veracity between them, circumstances seem decidedly to favour the truth of Cook’s statement, and he may be readily excused for not caring to prolong a dispute with a man on his road to the gallows. Governor Wise and others, who were imposed upon by Brown’s apparent frankness during his first examination at Harpers Ferry, have long since had occasion to change their opinions in regard to his honesty and veracity.

However, of all these matters I was not an eye nor ear witness, but had them from those who were.As early as nine o clock on Friday morning, the field (adjoining the town of Charlestown), which had been selected for the place of execution, was occupied by a considerable body of soldiers, horse, foot, & artillery. A line of
sentinels encircled the enclosure preventing access by the fences and a gaurd of infantry and artillery was posted at the gate by which spectators were required to enter.

I repaired to the field some time before the appointed hour that I might choose a convenient position to witness the final ceremony. The gibbet was erected on a gentle swell that commanded a view of the country for many miles around. From the scaffold which I ascended the view was of surpassing beauty. On every side stretching away into the blue distance were broad & fertile fields dotted with corn shocks and white farm houses glimmering through the leafless trees — emblems of prosperity and peace. Hard by was the pleasant village with its elegant suburban residences and bordering the picture east & west were the blue mountains thirty miles apart. In the Blue Ridge which lay to the eastward appeared the deep gap through which the Potomac and Shenandoah pour their united streams at Harpers ferry, eight miles distant.

















Near at Hand stood long lines of soldiers resting on their arms while all the neighboring hills in sight were crowded with squadrons of cavalry. The balmy south wind was blowing which covered the landscape with a warm and dreamy haze reminding one rather of May than December. From hence thought I, the old man may see the spot where his enormous crime first took the form of action—he may see the beautiful land his dark plots had devoted to bloody ruin, he may see in the gleaming of a thousand swords and these serried lines of bayonets — what might be well calculated to make wiser men than he, thoughtful.


















At eleven o clock escorted by a strong column of soldiers the Prisoner entered the field. He was seated in a furniture waggon on his coffin with his arms tied down above the elbows, leaving the forearms free. The driver with two others occupied the front seat while the jailer sat in the after part of the waggon. I stood with a group of half a dozen gentlemen near the steps of the scaffold when the Prisoner was driven up. He wore the same seedy and dilapidated dress that he had at Harpers ferry and during his trial, but his rough boots had given place to a pair of particoloured slippers and he wore a low crowned broad brimmed hat (the first time I had ever seen him with a hat). He had entirely recovered from his wounds and looked decidedly better & stronger than when I last saw him. As he neared the gibbet his face wore a grim and greisly smirk which, but for the solemnity of the occasion might have suggested ideas of the ludicrous.





















He stepped from the waggon with surprising agility and walked hastily toward the scaffold pausing a moment as he passed our group to wave his pinioned arm and bid us good morning. I thought I could observe in this a trace of bravado — but perhaps I was mistaken, as his natural manner was short, ungainly and hurried. He mounted the steps of the scaffold with the same alicrity and there as if by previous arrangement, he immediately took off his hat and offered his neck for the halter which was as promptly adjusted by Mr. Avis the jailor. A white muslin cap or hood was then drawn over his face and the Sheriff not remembering that his eyes were covered requested him to advance to the platform. The Prisoner replied in his usual tone, “you will have to guide me there.”

The breeze disturbing the arrangement of the hood the Sheriff asked his assistant for a pin. Brown raised his hand and directed him to the collar of his coat where several old pins were quilted in. The Sheriff took the pin and completed his work.

He was accordingly led forward to the drop the halter hooked to the beam and the officers supposing that the execution was to follow immediately took leave of him. In doing so, the Sheriff enquired if he did not want a handkercheif to throw as a signal to cut the drop. Brown replied, “no I dont care; I dont want you to keep me waiting unnecessarily.”

These were his last words, spoken with that sharp nasal twang peculiar to him, but spoken quietly & civilly, without impatience or the slightest apparent emotion. In this position he stood for five minutes or more, while the troops that composed the escort were wheeling into the positions assigned them. I stood within a few paces of him and watched narrowly during these trying moments to see if there was any indication of his giving way. I detected nothing of the sort. He had stiffened himself for the drop and waited motionless ’till it came.

During all these movements no sound was heard but the quick stern words of military command, and when these ceased a dead silence reigned. Colonel Smith said to the Sheriff in a low voice — “we are ready”. The civil officers descended from the scaffold. One who stood near me whispered earnestly — “He trembles, his knees are shaking”. “You are mistaken,” I replied, “It is the scaffold that shakes under the footsteps of the officers.” The Sheriff struck the rope a sharp blow with a hatchet, the platform fell with a crash — a few convulsive struggles and a human soul had gone to judgement.

Thus died John Brown, the strange, stern old man; hard and uncouth in character as he was in personal appearance, undemonstrative and emotionless as an indian. In the manner of his death there was nothing dramatic or sympathetic. There was displayed neither the martial dignity of a chieftain nor the reckless bravado of a highwayman — neither the exalted enthusiasm of a martyr nor the sublime resignation of a christian. His voice and manner were precisely the same as if he had been bargaining for a sixpence worth of powder slightly anxious to get through the job but not uncivilly impatient. A stony stoicism, an easy indifference, so perfectly simulated that one could hardly perceive it was acting.

As with John Brown, so it seemed with the spectators around him. Of Sympathy there was none — of triumph no word nor sign. The fifteen hundred soldiers stood mute and motionless at their posts — The thousand civic spectators looked on in silence. At the end of half an hour the body was taken down and placed in the coffin  —  the people went home, the troops wheeled into columns & marched to their quarters, and the day concluded with the calm and quiet of a New England sabbath.

No man capable of reflection could have witnessed that scene without being deeply impressed with the truth that then and there was exhibited, not the vengeance of an outraged people, but the awful majesty of the law.

D.H.S.

***

The Harpers Ferry raid and the Charles Town trial and hanging acted like a lighted match tossed into a keg of powder. Many who were there that day would be making war on another in a little over a year and a half

A song to the tune of a camp-meeting hymn became a marching song for the armies in uniob blue that would destroy slavery in America forever — a song that would be known as “John Brown’s Body.”

Throughout the Civil War, any Union regiment marching through Charles Town would be sure to sing the song as the troops passed the buildingss where John Brown had been tried, condemned, and imprisoned. The little courthouse in Charles Town heard that song beimg sung more times than any other place in America.

The hanging of John Brown wasn’t the end of him. John Brown's execution was a new beginning rather than an end.

***

Articles by the New York Semi-Weekly Tribune

From Our Special Correspondent.
Baltimore, Dec. 3, 1859.

Telegraphing from Charles Town or Harper’s Ferry to The Tribune being out of the question, I am forced to lose a day and write from this place. The execution was in the highest degree imposing and solemn, and without disturbance of any kind. Lines of patrols and pickets encircled the field for ten miles around, and over five hundred troops were posted all about the gallows.

At 7 o’clock in the morning workmen began to erect the scaffold, the timber having been hauled the night previous. At 8 troops began to arrive. Troopers were posted around the field at fifty feet apart, and two lines of sentries further in. The troops did not form hollow around the gallows, but were so disposed as to command every approach. The sun shone brightly, and the picture presented to the eye was really splendid. As each company arrived it took its alloted position. On the easterly side were the cadets, with their right wing flanked by a detachment of men with howitzers; on the northeast, the Richmond Grays; on the south, Company F of Richmond; on the north, the Winchester Continentals, and, to preserve order in the crowd, the Alexandria Rifleman and Capt. Gibson’s Rockingham Company were stationed at the entrance gate, and on the outskirts. At 11 o’clock the procession came in sight, and at once all conversation and noise ceased. A dead stillness reigned over the field, and the tramp of the approaching troops alone broke the silence. The escort of the prisoner was composed of Capt. Scott’s company of cavalry, one company of Major Loring’s battalion of defencibles, Capt. Williams’s Montpelier Guard, Capt. Scott’s Petersburg Grays, Company D, Capt. Miller, of the Virginia Volunteers, and Young Guard, Capt. Rady, the whole number the command of Col. T. P. August, assisted by Major Loring – the cavalry at the head and rear of the column.





















The prisoner sat upon the box which contained his coffin, and, although pale from confinement, seemed strong. The wagon in which he rode was drawn by two white horses. From the time of leaving jail until he mounted the gallows stairs he wore a smile upon his countenance, and his keen eye took in every detail of the scene. There was no blenching nor the remotest approach to cowardice or nervousness. His remarks have not been correctly reported in the Baltimore and New York papers. As he was leaving jail, when asked if he thought he could endure his fate, he said, “I can endure almost anything but parting from friends; that is very hard.” On the road to the scaffold, he said, in reply to an inquiry, “It has been a characteristic of me from infancy not to suffer from physical fear. I have suffered a thousand times more from bashfulness than from fear.”  On entering the field he said, as if surprised, “I see all persons are excluded from the field except the military.”  I was very near the old man, and scrutinized him closely. He seemed to take in the whole scene at a glance, and he straightened himself up proudly, as if to set to the soldiers an example of a soldier’s courage. The only motion he made, beyond a swaying to and fro of his body, was that same patting of his knees with his hands that we noticed throughout his trial and while in jail.

















As he came upon an eminence near the gallows, he cast his eyes over the beautiful landscape and followed the windings of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance. He looked up earnestly at the sun and sky, and all about, and then remarked, “This is a beautiful country. I have not cast my eye over it before – that is, while passing through the field.” The cortege passed half around the gallows to the east side, where it halted. The troops composing the escort took up their assigned position, but the Petersburg Grays, as the immediate body guard, remained as before, closely hemming in the prisoner. They finally opened ranks to let him pass out, when, with the assistance of two men, he descended from the wagon, bidding good by to those within it; and then, with firm step and erect form, he strode past Jailor, Sheriff, and officers, and was the first person to mount the scaffold steps. He then looked about him, principally in the direction of the people, in the far distance. Then to Capt. Avis, his jailor, he said, “I have no words to thank you for all your kindness to me.” To Sheriff Campbell he remarked, “Let there be no more delay than is necessary.” His black slouched hat was then removed, his elbows and ankles were pinioned, and the white hood was drawn over his head. The Sheriff requested him to step forward on the trap. He said, “You have put this thing over my head and I cannot see; you must lead me.” There are eight minutes of suspense, while the stupid cavalry are trying to find their proper position. Impatient at the delay, Col. Scott gives the signal, Sheriff Campbell severs the rope with his hatchet, the trap falls with a horrid screech of its hinges, and the unfortunate man swings off into the air.

There was but one spasmodic effort of the hands to clutch at the neck, but for nearly five minutes the limbs jerked and quivered. He seemed to regain an extraordinary hold upon life. One who had seen numbers of men hung before told me [he] had never seen so hard a struggle. After the body had dangled in mid air for twenty minutes, it was examined by the surgeons for signs of life. First the Charlestown physicians went up and made their examination, and after them the military surgeons, the prisoner being executed by the civil power and with military assistance as well. To see them lifting up the arms, now powerless, that once were so strong, and placing their ears to the breast of the corpse, holding it steady by passing an arm around it, was revolting in the extreme.

And so the body dangled and swung by its neck, turning to this side or that when moved by the surgeons, and swinging, pendulum like, from the force of the south wind that was blowing, until, after thirty-eight minutes from the time of swinging off, it was ordered to be cut down, the authorities being quite satisfied that their dreaded enemy was dead. The body was lifted upon the scaffold and fell into a heap as limp as a rag. It was then put into the black walnut coffin, the body guard closed in about the wagon, the cavalry led the van, and the mournful procession moved off.

Throughout the whole sad proceeding the utmost order and decorum reigned. I think that when the prisoner was on the gallows, words in ordinary tones might have been heard all over the forty-acre field. In less than fifteen minutes the whole military force had left the field of execution, a dozen sentries alone, perhaps, remaining. The townspeople having been kept at a considerable distance, and none from the country about being allowed to approach nearer than a mile, there were not, I think, counting soldiers and civilians, more than a thousand spectators. A great felling of exasperation prevails in consequence of this foolish stringency, and it is a wonder than conflicts have not arisen between the citizens and their protectors.

John Brown, although at times willing to argue with the local clergy upon religious matters, has absolutely rejected all appearance of spiritual comfort at their hands, even maintaining that those who were capable of countenancing Slavery, were not fit to come between him and his God. The other day, he said, that instead of any clergyman of Charles Town, if they would suffer him to be followed to the place of execution by a family of little negro children, headed by a pious slave mother, it would be all he would ask. The New-York Herald reports him to have said when told that his wife could not remain with him more than three or four hours, “I want this favor from the State of Virginia.” This is incorrect, for with the same contemptuous independence which he has ever displayed, he said, proudly, “Oh, I don’t ask any favors of the State of Virginia, You must do your duty.” When the husband and wife parted, she shed some tears, but the old hero, patting her on the shoulder, said, “Mary, this is not right. Show that you have nerves.” She is said to have straightened herself up as if electrified, and wept no more. The body left Charles Town under escort in the afternoon, and at Harper’s Ferry was delivered up to Mrs. Brown.

Like a string that snaps after great tension, the public mind at Charles Town seemed relieved the moment that the body had been returned to the jail. The extra sentries were called in, and people were suffered once more to pass in and out of town with tolerable freedom. The dread is not all removed yet, however, for every night mysterious lights are seen to shoot up, in the direction of Harper’s Ferry, which are answered elsewhere. Despite all vigilance and search, no cause can be assigned, and it is, therefore, believed that parties of rescuers are patiently biding their time to take revenge, when fancied security once more prevails. It is said that there can be no shadow of doubt that large bodies of armed men have been hovering very near to Charles Town, and the remaining prisoners are guarded with the most jealous vigilance. Yesterday morning orders were issued that no more visitors shall be admitted to the prisoners, they having implored the authorities to give them their little remaining time for reflection.

***























(click on the graphics for larger image)


The Execution On Friday Last.

Correspondence of The N. Y. Tribune.
Charlestown, Va. Saturday, Dec. 3, 1859.

Before this can reach you, the telegraph will have given the intelligence of John Brown’s death, and the attendant circumstances. I am told that the general report will include the most minute details of the occasion; so that all that is left for me to do is to supply such particulars of incident as may probably be omitted in a record prepared for universal circulation.

The events of last Thursday caused a more intense excitement than any that have been witnessed in Charlestown. The morning was occupied in the preparation of the field of death, which was marked out with military precision according to the plans of Gen. Taliaferro, with lines for the troops at the distance of fifty yards from the spot selected for the gallows, and distinct positions for the officers of the day, and the Commander-in-Chief. These arrangements were watched with great public interest, but their attraction ended at once, when, at noon, the knowledge that John Brown’s wife was expected became general... Mrs. Brown had arrived in the morning at Harper’s Ferry, and was anxious to proceed at once to Charlestown, but the rigors of military discipline were not to be relaxed, and it was determined that her progress and arrival should be made the occasion of the most imposing warlike display that could be made. At 1 o’clock, twenty-five of Capt. Scott’s cavalry corps–the Black Horse Rangers – surrounded the carriage in which Mrs. Brown was to be brought hither, and with much clashing of arms and glittering display, the procession departed. Three hours elapsed, during which the curiosity of the populace swelled near to bursting. At 4 o’clock, the return of the cavalcade was announced, and in an instant the road to the jail was thronged with hundreds of eager gazers.

For a brief time the way was obstructed, and the carriage and escort paused before the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief, while a body of troops, with much pomp and circumstance, made clear the way and formed a hollow square reaching from the carriage to the jail. As soon as all was ready, the cavalcade passed on, and through double rows of pointed bayonets and amid thickly-planted pieces of artillery, the grief-stricken woman found her way to the door beyond which her husband, shackled and fettered, awaited her coming. By Captain Moore, who came with her to Harper’s Ferry, she was led into the presence of Gen. Taliaferro, Sheriff Campbell, Mr. Andrew Hunter, and jailer Avis. Here the dreary dignities of formal reception were continued. For fifteen minutes stiff platitudes befell her. With singularly bad taste the Commander-in-Chief assured her that if she should ever be disposed to visit Virginia again, he could cordially invite her to Charlestown, where she would receive true Southern hospitality. Soon after, she was taken aside by Mrs. Avis and searched. The bolts were then withdrawn, and, accompanied by the jailer, Mrs. Brown went to meet her husband for the last time.

A few minutes before her admission, Stephens was removed from Brown’s cell, into one adjoining. In the little interval that remained, Capt. Moore entered to apprise Brown that his wife would soon be with him. Before he left, he asked Brown to indorse a check which had been handed to him by a gentleman who had accompanied Mrs. Brown from the North, but who had been left at the Ferry. The check read thus.

No. 1
($50).

Philadelphia, 11th Month, 30, 1859.
The Consolidated Bank

Pay to John Brown (now of Virginia), or order, Fifty (00-100) Dollars.
John H. Cavender.

Brown’s indorsement, in his usual, firm, and bold characters, was as follows:

Pay to the order of Mary A. Brown.
John Brown.

Gen. Taliaferro, and the other gentleman constituting the committee of reception, then entered the cell for the purpose of informing Brown that his interview with his wife must of necessity be short. “I hope,” said Brown, “that it may be two or three hours.” “I do not think,” said Gen. Taliaferro, “that I can grant so long a time.” “Well,” answered Brown, “I ask nothing of you sir; I beg nothing from the State of Virginia. Carry out your orders, General, that is enough. I am content.” The interview was, however, allowed to last four hours.


























Mary Ann Brown Day


Mrs. Brown was led into the cell by the jailer. Her husband rose, and, as she entered, received her in his arms. No word was spoken; but, if we may believe Capt Avis, their silence was more eloquent than any utterance could have been. For some minutes they stood speechless–Mrs. Brown resting her head upon her husband’s breast, and clasping his neck with her arms. At length they sat down, and spoke; and from Capt. Avis, who was the only witness of the sorrowful scene, the following record comes:

John Brown spoke first. “Wife, I am glad to see you,” he said.

“My dear husband, it is a hard fate.”

“Well, well; cheer. We must all bear it in the best manner we can. I believe it is all for the best.”

“Our poor children; God help them.”

“Those that are dead to this world are angels in another. How are all those still living? Tell them their father died without a single regret for the course he has pursued–that he is satisfied that he is right in the eyes of God and of all just men.”

Mrs. Brown then spoke of their remaining children, and their home. Brown’s voice, as he alluded to the bereavements of his family, was broken with emotion. After a brief pause, Brown said:

“Mary, I would like you to get the bodies of our two boys who were killed at Harper’s Ferry, also the bodies of the two Thompsons, and after I am dead, place us all together on a wood pile, and set fire to the wood, burn the flesh, then collect our bones and put them in a large box, then have the box carried to our farm in Essex County and there bury us.”

Mrs. Brown said, “I really cannot consent to do this. I hope you will change your mind on this subject. I do not think permission would be granted to do any such thing. For my sake, think no more of such an idea.”

“Well, well,” Brown answered, “do not worry or fret about it, I thought he plan would save considerable expense and was the best.”

Mrs. Brown then spoke of Gerritt Smith, and asked if her husband had heard of the affliction that had visited him. Brown answered:

“Yes, I have read something about it.”

“Do you know that he is now in Utica?” said Mrs. Brown.

“Yes, I have been so informed; he was a good friend, and I exceedingly regret his misfortune. How is he, have you heard form him lately?”

“Yes, I heard direct from him a few days ago. He was thought to be improving.”

“I am really glad to hear it.”

Nothing more was said upon this subject.

The conversation then turned upon matters of business, which Brown desired to have arranged after his death. He gave his wife all the letters and papers which were needed for this purpose, and read to her the will which had been drawn up for him by Mr. Hunter, carefully explaining every portion of it. The document is as follows:

Charlestown, Jefferson County, Va.
December 1, 1859.

I give to my son, John brown, jr., my surveyor’s compass and other surveyor’s articles, if found; also, my old granite monument, now, at North Elba, N. Y., to receive upon its two sides a further inscription, as I will hereafter direct; said stone monument, however, to remain at North Elba so long as any of my children and my wife may remain there as residents.

I give to my son Jason Brown my silver watch, with my name engraved on inner case.

I gave to my son Owen Brown my double-spring opera-glass, and my rifle-gun (if found), presented to me at Worcester, Mass. It is globe-sighted and new. I give, also, to the same son $50 in cash, to be paid him from the proceeds of my father’s estate, in consideration of his terrible suffering in Kansas and his crippled condition from his childhood.

I give to my son Solomon Brown $50 in cash, to be paid him from my father’s estate, as an offset to the first two cases above named.

I gave to my daughter, Ruth Thompson, my large old Bible, containing the family record.

I give to each of my sons, and to each of my other daughters, my son-in-law, Henry Thompson, and to each of my daughters-in-law, as good a copy of the Bible as can be purchased at some bookstore in New-York or Boston, at a cost of $5 each in cash; to be paid out of the proceeds of my father’s estate.

I gave to each of my grandchildren that may be living when my father’s estate is settled, as good a copy of the Bible as can be purchased (as above) at a cost of $3 each.

All the Bibles to be purchased at one and the same time, for cash, on the best terms.

I desire to have ($50) fifty dollars each paid out of the final proceeds of my father’s estate, to the following-named persons, to wit: To Allen Hammond, esq., of Rockville, Tolland County, Conn., or to George Kellogg, esq., former agent of the New-England Company at that place, for the use and benefit of that company. Also, $50 to Silas Havens, formerly of Lewisburg, Summit County, O., if he can be found: also, $50 to a man of Storck County, O., at Canton, who sued my father in his lifetime, though Judge Humphrey and Mr. Upson of Akron, to be paid by J. R. Brown to the man in person, if he can be found. His name I cannot remember. My father made a compromise with the man by taking our house and lot at Manneville. I desire that any remaining balance that may become my due from my father’s estate may be paid in equal amounts to my wife, and to each of my children, and to the widows of Watson and Owen Brown, by my brother.

John Brown.

John Avis, Witness

In reference to the tombstone here alluded to, Brown appeared very anxious. The inscription was drawn up by Brown himself, and handed to his wife, who has it in her possession. Speaking of the parties to whom sums are directed to be paid, he said: “Dear Mary, if you can find these pay them personally, but do not pay any one who may present himself as their attorneys, for if it gets into the hands of attorneys we do not know what will become of it.”

After this, Mr. and Mrs. Brown took supper together. This occupied only a few minutes. Brown then touched upon other business affairs, until an order was received from the Commander-in-Chief, saying that the interview must terminate. Brown then said: “Mary, I hope you will always live in Essex County. I hope you will be able to get all our children together and impress the inculcations of the right principles to each succeeding generation. I give you all the letters and papers which have been sent me since my arrest. I wish you also to take all my clothes that are here, and carry them home. Good by, good by. God bless you!”

The bitterness of parting was brief. Mrs. Brown was led away with the utmost consideration by Capt. Avis, and, soon after 8 o’clock, was on her way again to Harper’s Ferry. During the passage, Capt. Moore, who sat beside her, did not fail to present to her arguments in favor of the blessings of Slavery – pointing out, by way of example, a troop of negroes disporting by the roadside.

After his wife’s departure Brown wrote until midnight, when he retired. At daybreak he resumed his labor with undiminished energy. At 10 ½ o’clock he was called upon to prepare for his death. He took leave of all his fellow-prisoners, affectionately bidding farewell to all, excepting Cook, toward whose want of good faith he was not disposed to be indulgent, and Hazlitt, with whom he would acknowledge no acquaintance. At 11 o’clock he was brought from the jail, and, surrounded by a guard of cavalry, conducted to the scaffold. He mounted the wagon in which he was conveyed with the same calmness he has shown during all the days of his captivity. He sat, with Capt. Avis, upon the pine box which contained his coffin. Upon reaching the gallows he walked, never faltering in his step, to the platform and waited in silence for the completion of the necessary arrangements. When the cap was about to be put over his head, he bade farewell to those who stood by him with evident deep feeling. In the adjustment of the rope Capt. Avis was as speedy as was possible, Brown remaining all the while motionless. I know that every one within view was greatly impressed with the dignity of his bearing. I have since heard men of the South say that his courageous fortitude and insensibility to fear filled them with amazement.

In a few moments Capt. Avis led Brown upon the trap, and announced that all was ready. Then instead of permitting the execution to be at once consummated, the proceedings were checked, and the hideous mockery of a vast military display began. For ten minutes at the least, under the orders of the commanding officer, the troops trod heavily over the ground, hither and thither, now advancing toward the gallows, now turning about in sham defiance of an imaginary enemy. All this while Brown stood motionless, answering only to Capt. Avis that he was not tired, but wished to be kept no longer than they found necessary. At length the valor of Virginia was satisfied, the soldiers resumed their positions, and the last command was given. With a hatchet the Sheriff cut the rope which sustained the trap, without one struggle, without one movement except the heavy fall, without one sound or sign of suffering, John Brown passed from this life.

Some say “he died game.” And so he did. His “game” of life was the resolute and unyielding pursuit of a purpose which to him was holy and noble. The convictions of his soul taught him how to try and win it. No perils, no terrors could turn him aside. The game he played was not for his own gain, but yet his own life was his stake. Losing, he bowed before his destiny, though never despairing, even in the midst of hopes overthrown and miseries such as few men are called to endure, that the side he had played on must some time triumph. He died game, and his death honored the instrument of shame upon which he met it.

***





















Further Interesting Incidents Of The Execution

From Our Special Correspondent.
Charlestown, Virginia. Dec. 3, 1859.

In looking over the note-book of my predecessor, just as he was about leaving town, I observed that he had omitted certain matters which are not without considerable interest, and which I will lay before you at this time. Certainly no one who witnessed the scene presented on the field of execution can obliterate it from his memory, for, setting aside the peculiarly memorable event which called it out, the grouping, marching, and deploying of the troops, seen in the bright sunlight, and with so grand a background would insure its permanency.

The sun arose clear and bright, but was presently lost behind a haze which I thought augured badly for the day. By 9 o’clock, however, almost the entire expanse of the blue heavens was free of clouds, and the thermometer stood so high that, until late in the afternoon, the windows of houses were open, and all the world were sitting on their porches or promenading the streets. I walked out to the field of execution at an early hour to watch all the preliminaries, and secure as good a place as the fears of the military authorities would accord to a peaceful citizen from the North. The timber for the scaffold, all framed ready for erection, was hauled to the ground the evening previous, and at 7 o’clock, the carpenter and his assistants began putting it together. The scaffold was about six feet high from the ground, perhaps twelve feet wide, and fifteen or eighteen long. A hand-rail extended around three sides and down the flight of steps. On the other side, stout uprights, with a cross-beam was an iron hook from which the rope was suspended. The trap beneath was arranged to swing on hinges, attached to the platform so slightly, as to break from it when the cord was cut that upheld the trap. The cord, knotted at the end, passed through a hole in the trap, through another hole in the cross-beam, over the corner and down the upright to a hook near the ground, to which it was tied. It will thus be seen, that the weight of the prisoner being upon it, the sheriff had only to cut the cord near the hook, and the trap would fall at once.


























The rope used to strangle Brown was only three feet long. It was of hemp, made in Kentucky, and sent in a box to sheriff Campbell by a planter for this express purpose. Other ropes had been sent from other sections. One made of South Carolina cotton, in Alexandria, has already been publicly noticed. This would have been preferred beyond all others, because of the eminent fitness of the moral it conveyed for the consideration of all sympathizers with this deluded Abolitionist! But Providence willed it otherwise; for it was found on trial unable to sustain a much less weight than that of a man’s body. Another, almost as great a pet with our Charlestown friends, was of hemp, made in Missouri by the slaves of Mahala Doyle, and sent by her with a particular request that, for the sake of retributive justice, it might be used to hang the man whom she asserts murdered her husband and two sons. This was tried in the balance, but found wanting also. So the precious gift from Kentucky was applied to the purpose.

The rope was arranged so as to give the body a fall of just eighteen inches–scarcely enough it was thought be some, who expressed a desire that Brown might fall ten feet, so as to insure his death beyond a peradventure.



















On Thursday afternoon, a corporal and some of his guard went to to the field with a wagon-load of white flags fixed on short stakes, which were stuck in the ground at twenty paces apart all around the lot, in two rows, the rows twenty paces apart. These were intended to mark the posts of the sentries. Other similar flags showed the positions for the Commander-in-Chief, with his staff, the several companies and troops, and a narrow strip on the town side, where worthy and well qualified citizens who came properly vouched for, should be allotted positions. They need not have gone to this latter trouble, however, for when the time for the execution came, the people had been so warned, and bayonetted, and arrested, and scared, and bamboozled by the military, that they generally remained at home. There were not 400 civilians on the ground, and as to the poor country people, they might have been seen from the scaffold, away off on the roads and in fields, at least a mile off, and all under the watchful supervision of valiant troopers and foot soldiers.

By 9 o’clock the first of the troops came to do their perilous duty. The double line of sentries was arranged, and at the word of command each man in his turn right-faced and forward-marched, and went to pacing up and down his beat, for all the world as if moved by machinery. Cavalry troopers clothed in scarlet jackets sat like statues on their horses at distances of fifty feet from each other, but the lapse of time bringing weariness, they relieved themselves by assuming sundry graceful postures of body, such as hanging a leg over their horse’s neck or sitting sidewise like a woman.

Then came an a[r]tillery company, with a brass cannon of large size and most approved pattern, which was skillfully pointed so that in the event of an attempted rescue the poor prisoner might be blown into shreds by the heavy charge of grape-shot that lay perdu in its cavernous depths. So you see the brave Virginians were determined to vindicate the majesty of the law in any event. This is no joke I assure you. The cannon was actually there, and actually loaded; for I saw it with my own eyes, and felt it with my own hands. This was not the only cannon in question, either, for Capt. Nichols’ company had their guns pointed so as to sweep the jail and every approach to it, in case of need: which, considering that the fearful enemy was being quietly hanged at a little distance off, reminded me of dog Noble watching a certain hole after a certain squirrel had run safely from it. I do not speak of the prisoners remaining in jail, for no one feels afraid of them. Brown is the head devil, and almost the only incubus on their breasts.

After the artillery, more cavalry and infantry, and so on until all but the escort were on the ground. The field contains about forty acres, I should say, part of it in corn stubble, but the greater part in grass. The surface is undulating, and a broad hillock near the pubilc [sic] road was selected as the site for the gallows, because it would afford the distant spectators a fair view, and place the prisoner so high that if compelled to fire upon him, the soldiers need not shoot each other or the civilians. The field was bounded on the south by the road, on the north by a pretty bit of woodland, and on the remaining two sides by enclosed fields.

















The sun shone with great splendor as the prisoner’s escort came up, and afar off could be seen the bright- gleaming muskets and bayonets of his body-guard, hedging him in, in close ranks, all about. On the field the several companies glittered with the same sparkle of guns and trappings, and the gay colors of their uniforms, made more intense in the glare, came out into strong relief with the dead tints of sod and woods. Away off to the East and South, the splendid mass of the Blue Ridge loomed against the sky, and shut in the horizon. Over the woods, toward the North-east, long, think stripes of clouds had gradually accumulated, and foreboded the storm that came in due time; while, looking toward the South, the eye took in an undulating fertile country, stretching out to the distant mountains. All Nature seemed at peace, and the shadow of the approaching solemnity seemed to have been cast over the soldiers, for there was not a sound to be heard as the column came slowly up the road. There was no band of musicians to highten the effect of the scene by playing the march of the dead, but with solemn tread the heavy footfalls came, as if those of one man. Thus they passed to their station on the easterly side of the scaffold, and the old man calmly descended from the wagon, mounted the gallows stairs with unfaltering step, and was led to his place on the fatal trap. His unwavering courage is well illustrated in the fact that, when the Sheriff took hold of him to lead him forward under the cross-beam, there was no trembling of body to be noticed, nor anything which would show a weakness, at the very brink of the precipice from which he was about to leap. There he stood, in his dark clothes and blood-red slippers, and with the white hood drawn over his head, for eight minutes, that seemed ages–the cynosure of all eyes on the field and afar off. He, the stone thrown by God into the black and sluggish pool of Slavery; while, ebbing from him in fast-widening circles of sentries and pickets and mounted scouts that surrounded the place for fifteen miles off, went the ripples that he had caused on its bosom.

The field is not more than a half mile from the jail, from the windows of his cell in the second story of which Cook had an unobstructed view of the whole proceedings. He watched his old Captain until the trap fell and his body swung into mid-air, when he turned away and gave vent to his feelings.

The cord cut a finger’s depth into Brown’s neck, and a considerable distortion of countenance is said to have been produced. This will doubtless decrease as the muscles relax and fall to their natural places again. Brown’s hold on life was strong. He did not die easily, judging from appearances, and the testimony of experienced men. The animal heat remained in his body so long, that although it was to have left under escort of a detachment of the Richmond Grays at 5 o’clock, the physicians detained it an hour and a half longer to cool. I heard it suggested by a Captain that a good dose of arsenic should be administered to the corpse to make sure work, and many others wished that at least the head might be cut off and retained by them, since the body was to be embalmed, and, on gorgeous catafalques, carried in procession through Northern cities. This amiable bloodthirstiness is on a par with that of the students at the Winchester Medical College, who have skinned the body of one of Brown’s sons, separated the nervous and muscular and venous systems, dried and varnished them, and have the whole hung up as a nice anatomical illustration. Some of the students wished to stuff the skin, others to make it into game pouches. They had better not stuff it, for if the occupant gave them so bad a scare that it requires nearly three thousand troops to quiet them, the very dried skin stuffed with straw would keep them at least in a perpetual tremor.

























Governor Henry Wise

If there are cowards and blusterers in this part of the country, do not set down all Virginians as such, for I am well assured that there are thousands of stout hearts and strong arms ready at this moment to fight for her soil. No one but a natural fool can see such gray-haired men in arms as are occasionally met in the streets of Charles Town, alongside as brave boys as ever looked into a cannon’s mouth, without being sensible of the spirit which actuates some of the troops.

There is a great feeling of exasperation in Jefferson County against Gov. Wise, for two reasons: First, his expressions of contempt for their defeat and imprisonment at Harper’s Ferry; and secondly, for sending so much larger force to protect them than was necessary, and thus instituting a military despotism far more stringent than that of France and Russia. Things have got to such a pass that old citizens cannot go from their houses to their stores without danger of several arrests. Farmers wishing to sell produce in town, or purchase necessaries for their families are stopped on the highroad at the point of the bayonet. The usual form is this:  “Halt!”  “Who comes there?”  “A friend, with the countersign.”  “Advance, friend, and give the countersign.” “Trenton.”  “Pass friend.”  But the poor friend has to go through this ordeal perhaps every quarter or half mile, and it becomes miserably tiresome before the dozen of eggs are sold or the pound of candles purchased. Gov. Wise’s Jefferson County vote, in case of his nomination, will be infinitely small. The village, turn where you will,  presents every appearance of a besieged town,  what with cannon in the streets,  troops marching and parading,  sentries pacing to and fro,  orderlies hurrying hither and thither,  public buildings,  offices,  churches,  and private houses turned into barracks,  and around them, all the cooking,  cleaning of accoutrements,  and the thousand other accessories of soldiers’ quarters.

There is great want of system in the military arrangements, and in the event of a combined attack at different points, dire confusion would ensue. If my military experience does not go for naught, I must believe that, with the present disposition of the several bodies of troops, a general alarm would result in great slaughter of the soldiers by their own friends. But, fortunately, there will be no occasion to test practically the value of my observation, for no foe will, or probably ever has intended to, attack the troops. It is possible, but not, in my opinion, probable, that if precautions had not been taken, a small band of Brown’s comrades might have attempted to carry him off by stratagem. That is all out of the question now, however, for he will disturb no more Virginians, except as his memory may incite to ta repetition of his folly.

The newspapers that I have seen at this place make no mention of the fact that, owing to either the stupidity or inexperience of the cavalry escort, they did not fall into position about the gallows for so long a time that the commanding officer, impatient at the delay, and not wishing to keep Brown standing on the trap with the noose about his neck, gave the signal when eight minutes had expired, and the poor man swung off while the troop was passing within a few feet of him. As the trap fell its hinges gave a wailing sort of screech that could be heard at every point on the field. Was this symbolic of the wail of grief that went up at the moment from thousands of friends to the cause of emancipation throughout the land? In the dead stillness of the hour it went to my heart like the wail for the departed that may be heard in some highland glen.



















The body once in its coffin and on its way back to the jail, the field was quickly deserted; the cannon limbered up again, rumbled away, and the companies of infantry and troops of cavalry, in solid column, marched away. The body had not left the field before the carpenters began to take the scaffold to pieces, that it might be stored up against the 16th proximo, when it will be used to hang Cook and Coppie together. A separate gallows will be built for the two negroes.

In the direction of Harper’s Ferry a mysterious light, as of a Roman candle, or a ball of fire shot high up in air, is to be seen every evening at about 7 or 7 ½ o’clock. As I was coming down the main street to-night. I distinctly saw it, and on watching for about half an hour, noticed it twice more. The officer with whom I was walking, said the authorities could not discover say cause for it, although strict search had been made. There is a prevailing belief that Abolitionists hovering near–on the mountains, perhaps–will descend some night and burn the town, in retaliation for the execution of Brown, while others are fearful of every box or parcel coming by railway, lest it contain some hand-grenade, or other infernal machine.

The night after the execution has set in dark and stormy. The south wind has brought up a violent south of rain and sleet, and the prospects are that we shall have to suffer for our last three pleasant days. The poor sentries out in the open fields are having a piteous time of it, and, I have no doubt, think by this time that soldiering in practice in not so couleur de rose as drill-room muster or street parade.
 
























The up express train brought, last evening, a package of H. Clay Pate’s pamphlet on John Brown and matters connected with the battle of Black Jack, which is intended to vindicate his own character for personal bravery. This document, which for mean blackguardism and scurrilous language is a model of its kind, deserves a special notice. Mr. Pate, with the view of getting Brown and Cook to testify before witnesses in regard to his (Pate’s) courage, went to visit them in jail, accompanied by two friends and Capt. Avis. He met the prisoners in a most friendly manner, shaking them heartily by the hand, and appearing to commiserate their imprisonment. Under the guise of amity, this flag of truce as it were, he got them to acknowledge that he had shown personal bravery in their several conflicts. His end once secured, he leaves for the North, and publishes a pamphlet, in which he loads them with every opprobrious epithet that his malice can suggest, calling Brown a greater liar than hell ever held, and Cook a white-livered scoundrel, and other choice appellations. If Mr. H. Clay Pate thinks to establish a renown by such cowardly conduct, he is greatly mistaken; for I have heard ultra Southern men protest against this mean kicking of the dead lion in emphatic terms.

New York Semi-Weekly Tribune

***




















The above house is across the road an four houses up the road from where I lived at Harpers Ferry. It was a boarding house where the future spy and asassin John Wilkes Booth was staying when he attended the execution of John Brown.

John Wilkes Booth briefly enlisted in a local militia called the Richmond Greys, a political party founded on the preservation of the Old Tradition. When the Greys were summoned to serve as Honor Guard at Brown's execution, Wilkes donned his uniform of gold and gray and marched alongside his brethren to the Charles Town train, fifes and drums blaring and a mob cheering them onward.

























After watching the execution, he would later remark "I looked at the traitor and terrorizer with unlimited, undeniable contempt."

This first use of violence against slavery by a white man scared many people in the South, leading the Southern state militias to begin training for their defense of further raids and, consequently, to the militarization of the South in preparation for a Northern invasion.

***

 























William Lloyd Garrison


William Lloyd Garrison’s Speech Relating to the Execution of John Brown (1859)

The man who brands him [John Brown] as a traitor is a calumniator.… The man who says that his object was to promote murder, or insurrection, or rebellion, is, in the language of the apostle, “a liar, and the truth is not in him.”… John Brown meant to effect, if possible, a peaceful exodus from Virginia, and had not his large humanity overpowered his judgment in regard to his prisoners, he would in all probability have succeeded, and not a drop of blood would have been shed. But it is asked, “Did he not have stored up a large supply of Sharp’s rifles and spears? What did they mean?” Nothing offensive, nothing aggressive. Only this:— he designed getting as many slaves as be could to join him, and then putting into their hands those instruments for self-defense.…

Was John Brown justified in his attempt? Yes, if Washington was in his; if Warren and Hancock were in theirs. If men are justified in striking a blow for freedom, when the question is one of a three penny tax on tea, then, I say, they are a thousand times more justified, when it is to save fathers, mothers, wives and children from the slave coffle and the auction block, and to restore to them their God given rights. Was John Brown justified in interfering in behalf of the slave population of Virginia, to secure their freedom and independence? Yes, if LaFayette was justified in interfering to help our revolutionary fathers. If Kosciusko, if Pulaski, if Steuben, if De Kalb, if all who joined them from abroad were justified in that act, then John Brown was incomparably more so. If you believe in the right of assisting men to fight for freedom who are of your own color — God knows nothing of color or complexion — human rights know nothing of these distinctions) — then you must cover, not only with a mantle of charity, but with the admiration of your hearts, the effort of John Brown at Harper’s Ferry.…

I am a non-resistant, a believer in the inviolability of human life, under all circumstances; I, therefore, in the name of God, disarm John Brown, and every slave at the South. But I do not stop there; if I did, I should be a monster. I also disarm, in the name of God, every slaveholder and tyrant in the world. For wherever that principle is adopted, all fetters must instantly melt, and there can be no oppressed, and no oppressor, in the nature of things.... I am a non-resistant and I not only desire, hut have labored unremittingly to effect, the peaceful abolition of slavery, by an appeal to the reason and conscience of the slaveholder; yet, as a peace man — an ‘ultra’ peace man — I am prepared to say, ‘Success to every slave insurrection at the South, and in every slave country.”… I do not see how I compromise or stain my peace profession in making that declaration.

Whenever there is a contest between the oppressed and the oppressor, — the weapons being equal between the parties, —  God knows my heart must be with the oppressed, and always against the oppressor. Therefore, whenever commenced, I cannot but wish success to all slave insurrections.… It is an indication of progress, and a positive moral growth, it is one way to get up to the sublime platform of non resistance, and it is God’s method of dealing retribution upon the head of the tyrant. Rather than see men wear their chains in a cowardly and servile spirit, I would, as an advocate of peace, much rather see them breaking the end of tyrant with their chains. Give me, as a non resistant, Bunker Hill, and Lexington, and Concord, rather than the cowardice and servility of a Southern slave plantation.

***

 CASUALTIES

John Brown's Raiders Killed

    * John Henry Kagi (Shot and killed while crossing a river. First buried in common grave at Harpers Ferry; reburied 1899 in a common grave near John Brown at North Elba, New York.)
    * Jeremiah G. Anderson (At age 26, was mortally wounded and killed by a Marine’s bayonet during the final assault on the engine house. Body claimed by Winchester Medical College as a teaching cadaver; last resting place unknown.)
    * William Thompson (First buried in common grave at Harpers Ferry; reburied 1899 in a common grave near John Brown at North Elba, New York.)
    * Dauphin Thompson (Killed in the storming of the engine house. First buried in common grave at Harpers Ferry; reburied 1899 in a common grave near John Brown at North Elba, New York.)
    * Oliver Brown (At age 21, being the youngest of John Brown’s three sons to participate in the action, he was mortally wounded on the 17th inside the engine house, resulting in a death the next day. He was first buried in common grave at Harpers Ferry; reburied in 1899 in common grave near John Brown at North Elba, New York.)
    * Watson Brown (At age 24, was mortally wounded outside the engine house while carrying a white flag, trying to negotiate with the responding militia, resulting in death two days later. The body was claimed by Winchester Medical College as a teaching cadaver which caused College to be burned by Union troops. Reburied in 1882 in a grave near John Brown at North Elba, New York.)
    * Stewart Taylor. (First buried in common grave at Harpers Ferry; reburied 1899 in a common grave near John Brown at North Elba, New York.)
    * William Leeman (Shot while trying to escape across the Potomac River. First buried in common grave at Harpers Ferry; reburied 1899 in a common grave near John Brown at North Elba, New York.)
    * Lewis Sheridan Leary (At age 24 being a free African-American, was mortally wounded while attempting escape across the Shenandoah River. He was stationed in the rifle factory with Kagi. Alleged to be buried at John Brown gravesite at North Elba, New York. Cenotaph memorial in Oberlin, Ohio.)
    * Dangerfield Newby (At about 35, being born into slavery [despite father being white and not his master], had permission to move to Ohio along with his mother and siblings, but when he tried to attain freedom for his wife and children, the owner refused, leading Newby to join Brown’s raid. He was the first raider killed [body was mutilated]. First he was buried at Harpers Ferry; reburied in 1899 in a common grave near John Brown at North Elba, New York.))

John Brown's Raiders Captured

    * John Brown (also wounded) Hanged December 2, 1859 in nearby Charles Town.
    * Aaron Dwight Stevens (shot and captured October 18. Hanged March 16, 1860 in Charles Town. First buried in New Jersey; reburied 1899 in a common grave near John Brown at North Elba, New York.)
    * Edwin Coppock (At age 24, he shot and killed Harpers Ferry mayor Fontaine Beckham during the raid. He was later executed at Charles Town on December 16, 1859 and was buried in Salem, Ohio.)
    * John Anthony Copeland, Jr. (At age 25, being a free African American, joined the raiders along with his uncle Lewis Leary. He was captured during the raid and executed on December 16, 1859 in Charles Town. The body was claimed by Winchester Medical College as a teaching cadaver. The last resting place is unknown. Cenotaph memorial in Oberlin, Ohio.)
    * Shields Green (At about age 23, Green was an escaped slave from South Carolina; captured in the engine house on October 18, 1859 and hanged December 16, 1859 in Charles Town. The body was claimed by Winchester Medical College as a teaching cadaver. The last resting place is unknown. Cenotaph memorial in Oberlin Ohio.)
    * John Edwin Cook (Escaped into Pennsylvania but soon captured. Hanged December 16, 1859 in Charles Town. Body sent to New York.)
    * Albert Hazlett (Escaped into Pennsylvania but soon captured. Hanged March 16, 1860. First buried in New Jersey; reburied 1899 in a common grave near John Brown at North Elba, New York.)

Four raiders escaped and were captured about six months later.

Escaped and never captured

    * Barclay Coppock (Died during US Civil War.)
    * Charles Plummer Tidd (Died during US Civil War)
    * Osborne Perry Anderson (Served as an officer in Union Army, and penned a memoir about the raid.)
    * Owen Brown
    * Francis Jackson Meriam (Served in the army as a captain in the 3rd South Carolina Colored Infantry.)

OTHERS

Civilians

    * Hayward Shepherd African-American B&O baggage handler; killed.
    * Thomas Boerly Townperson; killed.
    * George W. Turner Townsperson; killed.
    * Fontaine Beckham Town mayor; killed.
    * A slave belonging to Col. Washington was killed.
    * A slave belonging to hostage John Allstad was killed.
(Some claim the two slaves voluntarily joined Brown's raiders, others say Brown forced them to fight.
Regardless one was killed trying to escape across the Potomac River, the other was wounded and died in the Charles Town prison.)

9 other civilians were wounded.

Marines

    * Luke Quinn (Killed during the storming of the engine house.)
    * Matthew Ruppert (Shot in the face while storming the engine house.)

***

 Some felt that John Brown was evil and he should burn in hell. Others felt he was a saint and his soul went on to a greater and grander glory.

John Brown has been cursed and lauded, damned and prayed for. He was a puzzle and a mystery then, just as he is now. John Brown remains just as controversal today.

On the day of John Brown's execution, church bells rang, guns were fired, large memorial meetings took place throughout the North, and famous writers such as Emerson and Thoreau joined many Northerners in praising John Brown. Church services and public meetings were held for the purpose of glorifying his deeds and sanctifying the cause he represented, recognizing in him a martyr to the teachings of the abolitionists. Eventually his name became the slogan under which, as a battle hymn, the Northern troops invaded and overran the South.

The first Northern antislavery reaction to John Brown's Raid was one of baffled reproach. William Lloyd Garrison called the raid "misguided, wild, and apparently insane." But through the trial, John Brown transformed into a martyr. Though "Harper's Ferry was insane," wrote the religious weekly The Independent, "the controlling motive of his demonstration was sublime."

To the South, he was a murderer who wanted to deprive them of their property. The North "has sanctioned and applauded theft, murder, and treason," said De Bow's Review.


























John brown dedicated his life to the abolition of slavery; for him, any means used to achieve this goal were justified. He was prepared to kill or be killed in this effort. This was a decisive break with the nonviolent resistance embraced by most abolitionists at that time.


The Brown Family Genealogy

1. John Brown Sr. 1800 – 1859 m. Diantha Lusk 1801 – 1832

    2. John Brown Jr. 1821 – 1895 m. Wealthy C. Hotchkiss 1829 - 1911

         3. John Brown 1852 - 1917
         3. Edith M. Brown 1866 – 1935 m. Thomas B. Alexander 1866 – 1936

    2. Jason Brown 1823 – 1912 m. Ellen Sherbondy 1827 - 1895

         3. Charles P. Brown 1853 – 1927

    2. Owen Brown 1824 – 1889

    2. Ruth Brown 1829 – 1904 m. Henry W. Thompson 1822 - 1911

         3. John H. Thompson 1854 – 1919 m. Evelyn A. Herrick 1857 - 1919
         3. Ella J. Thompson 1856 – 1948 m. Francis N. Towne 1858 - 1940
         3. Grace R. Thompson 1858 – 1921 m. John L. Simmons 1852 - 1926
         3. Dauphin O. Thompson 1861 - 1875
         3. Mary E. Thompson 1871 - 1938

 ***

























John Brown wrote about his wife - "Mary Ann Day Brown ... the partner of my own choice, and the sharer of my poverty, trials, discredit, and sore afflictions; as well as of what of comfort, and seeming prosperity has fallen to my lot; for quite a number of years.... I do not forget the firm attachment of her who has remained my fast, and faithful affectionate friend,when others said of me (now that he lieth he shall rise up no more.) ... I really admire at your constancy; and really feel notwithstanding I sometimes chide you severely that you are really my better half.” – John Brown, ca. 1847 (Boyd B. Stutler Collection)


























John Brown's son, John Brown Jr, gave an interview to Oswald Garrison Villard, about how the family decided to join the campaign against slavery. John Brown Jr said: "After spending considerable time in setting forth, in impressive language, the hopeless condition of the slave, he asked who of us were willing to make common cause with him in doing all in our power to "break the jaws of the wicked and pluck the spoil out of his teeth". Receiving an affirmative answer from each, he kneeled in prayer, and all did the same. After prayer he asked us to raise our right hands, and he then administered an oath bound us to secrecy and devotion to the purpose of fighting slavery by force and arms to the extent of our ability."


























John Brown was a devout Christian who saw slavery as violence and whose favorite Biblical quote was "Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them."  He swore his entire family to the anti-slavery struggle; led armed bands that rescued enslaved people, and was an active agent of the underground railroad.

He also was not a man to be trifled with. When President James Buchanan offered a $250 reward for John Brown's capture, he offered $2.50 for President Buchanan's.

He has been called a saint, a fanatic, and a cold-blooded murderer. The debate over his memory, his motives, about the true nature of the man, continues to stir passionate debate even today.

John Brown is probably the most misunderstood historical figure in United States history. A lot of the misunderstanding has to do with the racial politics in this country.  The majority of journalists then and historians now are white males who have never done more than a basic reading of a few biased interpretations.

School textbooks (standards are decided in Texas) have not forgiven John Brown for his interracial group, his fearlessness, and his armed response to slavery.

Whatever anyone may think of John Brown, we all must agree that John Brown marked the end of compromising over the issue of slavery.  Not long after his death, "John Brown's war" became the America's war.

John Brown's story was only a chapter in a larger story.  A story about spilled blood, raging fires, and how Americans learned to hate and kill each other in a great civil war.

In summer of 1938, at the age of six, John Brown became my Hero. Today, in the fall of 2010, at the age of 78, John Brown is still my Hero.