John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry

1862 photograph of the Harpers Ferry arsenal; the "engine house", later called "John Brown's Fort", is on the left.

John Brown's Fort, drawing published in 1883. Note the hill.

On Sunday night, October 16, 1859, at about 11 PM, Brown left four of his men behind as a rear-guard: his son, Owen Brown, Barclay Coppock, Francis Jackson Meriam, and one other; he led the rest into the town of Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown detached a party under John Cook Jr. to capture Colonel Lewis Washington, great-grandnephew of George Washington, at his nearby Beall-Air estate, free some of his slaves, and seize two relics of George Washington: a sword allegedly presented to Washington by Frederick the Great and two pistols given by Marquis de Lafayette, which Brown considered talismans.[20] The party carried out its mission and returned via the Allstadt House, where they took more hostages.[21] Brown's main party captured several watchmen and townspeople in Harpers Ferry.

Brown's men needed to capture the weapons and escape before word could be sent to Washington. The raid was going well for Brown's men. They cut the telegraph line twice, to prevent communication in either direction: first on the Maryland side of the bridge; slightly later on the far side of the station, preventing communication with Virginia.

A free black man was the first casualty of the raid: Heyward Shepherd, a baggage handler at the Harpers Ferry train station. He was shot from behind when he by chance encountered the first of the raiders, refused to freeze, and headed back to the station.[22] (See Heyward Shepherd monument.) That a black man was the first casualty of an insurrection whose purpose was to aid blacks, and that he disobeyed the raiders, made him a hero of the "Lost Cause" pro-Confederacy movement.

The shot and a cry of distress were heard by physician Dr. John Starry, who lived across the street from the bridge and walked over to see what was happening. After he saw it was Shepherd and said he could not be saved, Brown let him leave. Instead of going home he started the alarm, having the bell on the Lutheran church rung, sending a messenger to summon help from Charles Town, and then going there himself, after having notified such local men as could be contacted quickly.[23]^{:Testimony 23–25}

Some of Brown's men were posted so as to control both the Potomac and the Shenandoah bridges. Others went into the town; it was the middle of the night and a single watchman was the only person at the Armory. He was forced to turn over his keys.

Brown had been sure that he would get major support from slaves ready to rebel; his followers said to a man that he had told them that. But Brown had no way to inform these slaves; they did not arrive, and Brown waited too long for them. Even the local slaves that Brown had taken from the Kennedy farm did not want to revolt and did not want weapons. That a white man would encourage them to revolt and give them arms was something unheard of, and that they had no reason to take at face value. (As most enslaved people were illiterate, they did not know who Brown was.) Some believed they were about to be sold. Others ran away from Brown.[24]^:314 The Southern press reported Brown's lack of support from the local "faithful" slaves.

1859 railroad map of Harpers Ferry vicinity. "W&PRR" is the Winchester and Potomac Railroad.

1859 map of town of Harpers Ferry.

About 1:15 AM the eastbound Baltimore & Ohio express train from Wheeling—one per day in each direction[25]—was to pass through towards Baltimore. The night watchman ran to warn of trouble ahead; the engineer stopped and then backed up the train. Two train crew members who stepped down to reconnoitre were shot at.[24]^:316 Brown boarded the train and talked with passengers for over an hour, not concealing his identity. (Because of his abolitionist work in Kansas, Brown was a "notorious" celebrity;[26][27] he was well known to any newspaper reader.) Brown then told the train crew they could continue. According to the conductor's telegram they had been detained for five hours,[6]^:5 but according to other sources the conductor did not think it prudent to procede until sunrise, when it could more easily be verified that no damage had been done to the tracks or bridge, and that no one would shoot at them.[24]^:317[28][29][30] The passengers were cold on the stopped train, with the engine shut down; normally the temperature would have been around 5 °C, 41 °F,[31] but it was "unusually cold".[32]^:8 Brown's men had llarge blankets over their shoulders and arms.[32]^:12 The passengers were allowed to get off and they "went into the hotel and remained there, in great alarm, for four or five hours."[33]^:175

Several times, Brown later referred to this incident his "one mistake": "not detaining the train on Sunday night or else permitting it to go on unmolested".[34][35]

The train departed at dawn, and at about 7 AM arrived at the first station with a working telegraph,[36] Monocacy, near Frederick, Maryland, about 23 miles (37 km) east of Harpers Ferry. The conductor sent a telegram to W. P. Smith, Master of Transportation at B&O headquarters in Baltimore. Smith's reply to the conductor rejected his report as "exaggerated", but by 10:30 AM he had received confirmation from Martinsburg, Virginia, the next station west of Harpers Ferry. No westbound trains were arriving and three eastbound trains were backed up on the Virginia side of the bridge;[33]^:181 because of the cut telegraph line the message had to take a long, roundabout route via the other end of the line in Wheeling, and from there back east via Pittsburgh, causing delay.[6]^{:7, 15} At that point Smith informed the railroad president, John W. Garrett, who sent telegrams to Major General George H. Steuart of the First Light Division, Maryland Volunteers, Virginia Governor Henry A. Wise, U.S. Secretary of War John B. Floyd, and U.S. President James Buchanan.[6]^:5–9

At about this time Armory employees began arriving for work; they were taken as hostages by Brown's party. Reports differ on how many there were, but there were many more than would fit in the small engine house. Brown divided them into two groups, keeping only the ten most important in the engine house;[32]^:17–18 the others were held in a different Armory building. According to the report of Robert E. Lee,[37] the hostages included:

• Colonel L. W. Washington, of Jefferson County, Virginia
• Mr. J. H. Allstadt, of Jefferson County, Virginia
• Mr. Israel Russell, Justice of the Peace, Harper's Ferry
• Mr. John Donahue, clerk of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
• Mr. Terence Byrne, of Maryland
• Mr. George D. Shope, of Frederick, Maryland
• Mr. Benjamin Mills, master armorer [weaponmaker], Harper's Ferry Arsenal
• Mr. A. M. Ball, master machinist, Harper's Ferry Arsenal
• Mr. John E.P. Daingerfield or Dangerfield, paymaster's clerk, Acting Paymaster, Harper's Ferry Arsenal, not to be confused with Dangerfield Newby. Brown told him that by noon he would have 1,500 armed men with him.[38]^:266
• Mr. J. Burd, armorer, Harper's Ferry Arsenal

All save the last were held in the engine house.[39]^:446 According to a newspaper report, there were "not less than sixty"; another report says "upwards of seventy".[32]^:13; they were detained in "a large building further down the yard".[40] The number of rebels sometimes was inflated because some observers, who had to remain at a distance, thought that the hostages were part of Brown's party.[32]^:15

As it became known that citizens had been taken hostage by an armed group, men of Harpers Ferry found themselves without arms other than fowling-pieces, which were useless at a distance.

Also according to the report of Lee, the following volunteer militia groups arrived between 11 AM and his arrival in the evening:

• Jefferson Guards and volunteers from Charles Town, under Captain J. W. Rowen
• Hamtramck Guards, Jefferson County, Captain V. M. Butler
• Shepherdstown troop, Captain Jacob Rienahart
• Captain E. G. Alburtis's company, by train from Martinsburg. Most of the militia members were employees of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad shops there. They freed all the hostages except those in the engine house.[40][41]^:33
• Captain B. B. Washington's company from Winchester
• Three companies from Fredericktown, Maryland, under Colonel Shriver
• Companies from Baltimore, under General Charles C. Edgerton, second light brigade

Expecting that thousands of slaves would join him,[42][6]^:19 Brown stayed too long in Harpers Ferry.[24]^:311 Harpers Ferry is on a narrow peninsula, almost an island;[43]^:xix it is sometimes called "the Island of Virginia".[9]^:7,35,55 By noon hopes of escape were gone, as his men had lost control of both bridges leading out of town, which because of the terrain were the only practical escape routes.[24]^:319 The other bridge, of which only the pillars remain, went east over the Shenandoah River from Harpers Ferry.

The militia companies, under the direction of Colonels R. W. Baylor and John T. Gibson, forced the insurgents to abandon their positions and, since escape was impossible, fortify themselves in "a sturdy stone building",[4]^:565 the engine house of the Armory, which would be known later as John Brown's Fort. (The engines in question were fire engines;[44] there were two, which Greene described as old-fashioned and heavy, plus a hose cart.[4]^:565[45]) They blocked the few windows, used the engines and hose cart to block the heavy doors, and reinforced the doors with rope, trading sporadic gunfire with the surrounding militia. Between 2 and 3 there was "a great deal of firing".[46]^:345

During the day four townspeople were killed, including the mayor, who managed the Harpers Ferry station and was a former county sheriff. Eight militiamen were wounded.

At one point Brown sent out his son Watson and Aaron Dwight Stevens with a white flag, but Watson was mortally wounded by a shot from a town man, expiring the next day, and Stevens was shot and taken prisoner. The raid was clearly failing. One of Brown's men, William H. Leeman, panicked and made an attempt to flee by swimming across the Potomac River, but he was shot and fatally injured while doing so. During the intermittent shooting, another son of Brown, Oliver, was also hit; he died, next to his father, after a brief period.[47] Brown's third participating son, Owen, escaped via Pennsylvania to the relative safety of his brother John Jr.'s house in Ashtabula County in northeast Ohio,[48] but he was not part of the Harpers Ferry action; he was guarding the weapons at their base, the Kennedy Farm, just across the river in Maryland.

Late in the afternoon President Buchanan called out a detachment of U.S. Marines from the Washington Navy Yard, the only federal troops in the immediate area: 81 privates, 11 sergeants, 13 corporals, and 1 bugler, armed with seven howitzers.[49] The Marines left for Harper's Ferry on the regular 3:30 train, arriving in the evening.[4]^:564 Israel Greene was in charge.

To command them Buchanan ordered Brevet Colonel[43]^:xv Robert E. Lee, conveniently on leave at his home, just across the Potomac in Arlington, Virginia, to "repair" to Harpers Ferry,[43][50] where he arrived about 10 PM, on a special train.[4]^:564[51] Lee had no uniform readily available, and wore civilian clothes.[4]^:567

A contemporary newspaper illustration showing the interior of the engine house immediately before the door is broken down by U.S. Marines. Note hostages on the left.

John Brown inside the engine house

At 6:30 AM Lee began the attack on the engine house.[4]^:565 He first offered the role of attacking it to the local militia units, but both commanders declined. Lee then sent Lt. J. E. B. Stuart, serving as a volunteer aide-de-camp, under a white flag of truce to offer John Brown and his men the option of surrendering. Colonel Lee informed Lt. Israel Greene that if Brown did not surrender, he was to direct the Marines to attack the engine house. Stuart walked towards the front of the engine house where he told Brown that his men would be spared if they surrendered. Brown refused and as Stuart walked away, he made a pre-arranged signal—waving his hat—to Lt. Greene and his men standing nearby.[4]^:565

Greene's men then tried to break in using sledgehammers, but their efforts were unsuccessful. He found a ladder nearby, and he and about twelve Marines used it as a battering ram to break down the sturdy doors. Greene was the first through the door and with the assistance of Lewis Washington, identified and singled out John Brown. Greene later recounted what events occurred next:

Quicker than thought I brought my saber down with all my strength upon [Brown's] head. He was moving as the blow fell, and I suppose I did not strike him where I intended, for he received a deep saber cut in the back of the neck. He fell senseless on his side, then rolled over on his back. He had in his hand a short Sharpe's cavalry carbine. I think he had just fired as I reached Colonel Washington, for the Marine who followed me into the aperture made by the ladder received a bullet in the abdomen, from which he died in a few minutes. The shot might have been fired by someone else in the insurgent party, but I think it was from Brown. Instinctively as Brown fell I gave him a saber thrust in the left breast. The sword I carried was a light uniform weapon, and, either not having a point or striking something hard in Brown's accouterments, did not penetrate. The blade bent double.[4]^:566

Two of the raiders were killed, and the rest taken prisoner. The hostages were freed and the asault was over. It lasted three minutes.[4]^:567

According to one marine, the raiders presented a sad appearance:

Some were wounded and others dead or dying. They were greeted with execrations, and only the precautions that had been taken, saved them from the exasperated crowd, many of whom had relatives killed or wounded by the desperate gang of cut-throats. Nearly every man carried a gun, and the cry of "Shoot them! Shoot them!" rang on every side. Only the steadiness of the trained marines, under the command of that great soldier Robert E. Lee, then an unknown colonel of the United States Army, prevented the butchery of the entire gang of outlaws.[39]^:442

Colonel Lee and Jeb Stuart searched the surrounding country for fugitives who had participated in the attack. Few of Brown's associates escaped, and among those who did, some were sheltered by abolitionists in the North, including William Still.[52]

All the bodies were taken out and laid on the ground in front. "A detail of [Greene's] men" carried Brown and Edwin Coppock, the only other survivor of the attack on the engine house, to the adjacent office of the paymaster,[4]^:568 where they lay on the floor for over a day. Brown was interviewed at length while he lay there.

Brown being interrogated in the paymaster's office by Virginia Gov. Henry A. Wise and others. From Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, October 29, 1859.

Five people, in addition to several reporters, came almost immediately to Harpers Ferry to interview Brown. The first were Virginia Governor Wise, Jefferson County District Attorney Andrew Hunter, and Robert Ould, United States Attorney for ths District of Columbia, sent by President Buchanan.[53] Governor Wise having left—he set up a base in a Harpers Ferry hotel—Brown was then interviewed by Senator James M. Mason, from Winchester, Virginia, and Representatives Charles J. Faulkner, from Martinsville, Virginia, and Copperhead Clement Vallandigham, from Ohio.[33]^:197 Vallandingham was on his way from Washington to Ohio via the B&O Railroad, which of course would take him through Harpers Ferry. In Baltimore he ran into Senator Mason, who updated him, and they travelled together from Baltimore to Winchester.[54] (Brown lived for years in Ohio, and both Watson and Owen Brown were born there.)

Up until this point, most public opinion in the North and West had seen Brown as a fanatic, a crazy man, attacking Virginia with only 22 men, of whom 10 were killed immediately, and 7 others would soon be hanged, as well as 5 deaths and 9 injuries among the Marines and local population. With the newspaper reports of these interviews, followed by Brown's widely-reported words at his trial, the public perception of Brown changed suddenly and dramatically. According to Henry David Thoreau, "I know of nothing so miraculous in our history. Years were not required for a revolution of public opinion; days, nay hours, produced marked changes."[55]^:

Governor Wise called Brown "the gamest man I ever saw".[56][33]^:198 Representative Vallandingham, described later by Thoreau as an enemy of Brown,[57] made the following comment after reaching Ohio:

It is in vain to underrate either the man or the conspiracy. Captain John Brown is as brave and resolute a man as ever headed an insurrection, and in a good cause, and with a sufficient force, would have been a consummate partisan commander. He has coolness, daring, persistency, the stoic faith and patience, and a firmness of will and purpose unconquerable. He is tall, wiry, muscular, but with little flesh—with a cold, gray eye, gray hair, beard and mustache, compressed lips and sharp, aquiline nose; of cast-iron face and frame, and with powers of endurance equal to anything needed to be done or suffered in any cause. Though engaged in a wicked, mad and fanatical enterprise, he is the farthest possible remove from the ordinary ruffian, fanatic, or madman; but his powers are rather executory than inventive, and he never had the depth or breadth of mind to originate and contrive himself the plan of insurrection which he undertook to carry out. The conspiracy was, unquestionably, far more extended than yet appears, numbering among the conspirators many more than the handful of followers who assailed Harpers Ferry, and having in the North and West, if not also the South, as its counselors and abettors, men of intelligence, position and wealth. Certainly it was one of the best planned and best executed conspiracies that ever failed.[58][33]^:204

Like Mason (see below), Vallandingham thought Brown could not possibly have thought of and planned the raid by himself.

Virginia Governor Wise, with a force of ninety men,[33]^:183 who were disappointed that the action was already over,[33]^:194 arrived from Richmond about midday Tuesday.[59] "Learning how quickly the Marines had crushed the raid, Wise 'boiled over', and said he would rather have lost both legs and both arms from his shoulders and hips than such a disgrace should have been cast upon it [Virginia, since Brown held off all the local militia]. That fourteen white men and five negroes should have captured the government works and all Harper's Ferry, and have found It possible to retain them for [even] one hour, while Col. Lee, with twelve marines, settled the matter in ten minutes."[60][33]^:194

Wise interviewed Brown while he, along with Stevens, was lying on the floor of the guard room at the engine house, where they would remain until, over thirty hours later, they were moved to the Jefferson County jail.[33]^:205 Brown, despite his wounds, was "courteous and afable".[33]^:204 Andrew Hunter took notes,[33]^:194 but there is no transcript of this interview. One exchange was as follows:

Wise. Mr. Brown, the silver of your hair is reddened by the blood of crime, and you should eschew these hard words and think upon eternity. You are suffering from wounds, perhaps fatal; and should you escape death from these causes, you must submit to a trial which may involve death. Your confessions justify the presumption that you will be found guilty; and even now you are committing a felony under the laws of Virginia, by uttering sentiments like these. It is better you should turn your attention to your eternal future than be dealing in denunciations which can only injure you.

Brown. Governor, I have from all appearances not more than fifteen or twenty years the start of you in the journey to that eternity of which you kindly warn me; and whether my time here shall be fifteen months, or fifteen days, or fifteen hours, I am equally prepared to go. There is an eternity behind and an eternity before; and this little speck in the centre, however long, is but comparatively a minute. The difference between your tenure and mine is trifling, and I therefore tell you to be prepared. I am prepared. You all have a heavy responsibility, and it behooves you to prepare more than it does me.[61]^:571

The paymaster's clerk at the Armory, Captain J.E.P. Dangerfield (not to be confused with Dangerfield Newby), was taken hostage when he arrived for work. He was present at this interview, and remarked that: "Governor Wise was astonished at the answers he received from Brown."[61]^:559 Back in Richmond, on Saturday, October 22, in a speech widely reported in the newspapers, Wise himself stated:

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, bleeding and in bonds. He is a man of clear head, of courage, fortitude and simple ingenuousness. He is cool, collected and indomitable, and it is but just to him to say, that he was humane to his prisoners, as attested to me by Col. 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, and truthful, and intelligent.[62][63][64]

Wise also reported the opinion of Lewis Washington, in a passage called "well known" in 1874: "Colonel Washington says that he, Brown, was the coolest and firmest man he ever saw in defying danger and death. With one son dead by his side, and another shot through, he felt the pulse of his dying son with one hand and held his rifle with the other, and commanded his men with the utmost composure, encouraging them to be firm, and to sell their lives as dearly as they could."[64][63]

Wise left for his hotel about dinnertime Tuesday.

Virginia Senator James M. Mason lived in nearby Winchester, and would later chair the Select Senate committee investigating the raid.[48]^:343 He also came immediately to Harpers Ferry to interview Brown. Congressmen Charles J. Faulkner of Virginia and Clement Vallandigham of Ohio, Robert E. Lee,[23]^:46 and "several other distinguished gentlemen", were also present. The audience averaged 10 to 12. Lee said 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".[65]

I claim to be here in carrying out a measure I believe perfectly justifiable, and not to act the part of an incendiary or ruffian, but to aid those suffering great wrong. I wish to say furthermore, that you had better—all you people at the South—prepare yourselves for a settlement of that question that must come up for settlement sooner than you are prepared for it. The sooner you are prepared the better. You may dispose of me very easily. I am nearly disposed of now; but this question is still to be settled—this negro question I mean; the end of that is not yet.[65]

A reporter-stenographer of the New York Herald produced a "verbatim" transcript of the interview, although it started before he arrived, shortly after 2 PM. Published in full or part in many newspapers, it is the most complete record we have of Brown's thinking about the raid.[65]

Lee and the Marines, except for Greene, left Harper's Ferry for Washington on the 1:15 AM train. He finished his report and sent it to the War Department that day.

He made a synopsis of the events that took place at Harpers Ferry. According to Lee's report: "the plan [raiding the Harpers Ferry Arsenal] was the attempt of a fanatic or madman". Lee also believed that the Blacks in the raid were forced by Brown. "The blacks, whom he [John Brown] forced from their homes in this neighborhood, as far as I could learn, gave him no voluntary assistance." Lee attributed John Brown's "temporary success" to the panic and confusion and to "magnifying" the number of participants involved in the raid. Lee said that he was sending the Marines back to the Navy Yard. [37]

Jefferson County Jail, in which John Brown was held, Charles Town, Virginia, 1859

A holograph copy of Brown's Provisional Constitution, held by the Yale University Library, bears the handwritten annotation: "Handed to Gov. Wise by John Brown on Wed Oct 19/59 before he was removed from the U.S. grounds at Harpers Ferry & while he lay wounded on his cot."[66]

On Wednesday evening the prisoners were moved by train from Harpers Ferry to Charles Town, where they were placed in the Jefferson County jail. Governor Wise and Andrew Hunter, the county District Attorney, accompanied them.[33]^:205 The Jefferson County jail was "a meek-looking edifice, [which] must have been a respectable private residence".[67] Brown wrote his family: "I am supplied with almost everything I could desire to make me comfortable".[68] According to the New York Tribune:

Brown is as comfortably situated as any man can be in jail. He has a pleasant room, which is shared by Stephens [sic], whose recovery remains doubtful. He has opportunities of occupying himself by writing and reading. His jailor, Avis, was of the party who assisted in capturing him. Brown says Avis is one of the bravest men he ever saw, and that his treatment is precisely what be should expect from so brave a fellow. He is permitted to receive such visitors as he desires to see. He says that he welcomes every one, and that he is preaching, even in jail, with great effect, upon the enormities of Slavery, and with arguments that everybody fails to answer. His friends say, with regret, that in many of his recent conversations, he has given stronger reason for a belief that he is insane than ever before. Brown's wounds, excepting one cut on the back of the head, have all now healed.[67]

Counting John Brown, there were 22 raiders, 15 white and 7 Black. 10 were killed during the raid, 7 were tried and executed afterwards, and 5 escaped. In addition, Brown was assisted by at least two local slaves; one was killed and the other died in jail

• Killed
  • Heyward Shepherd, a free African-American B&O baggage master. He was buried in the African-American cemetery on Rt. 11 in Winchester, Virginia; the grave is unmarked.[74]
  • Private Luke Quinn, U.S. Marines, was killed during the storming of the engine house. He was buried in Harpers Ferry Catholic Cemetery on Rte. 340.
  • Thomas Boerly, townsperson. According to Richard Hinton, "Mr. Burleigh" was killed by Shields Green.[75]^:305
  • George W. Turner, townsperson.
  • Fontaine Beckham, Harpers Ferry mayor, B&O stationmaster, former sheriff. Mayor Beckham's Will Book called for the liberation of Isaac Gilbert, Gilbert’s wife, and their three children upon his death. When Edwin Coppock killed Beckham the enslaved family was thus freed.[17]^:296
  • An enslaved man belonging to Colonel Washington was killed.
  • An enslaved man belonging to hostage John Allstad was killed. Both slaves voluntarily joined Brown's raiders. One was killed trying to escape across the Potomac River; the other was wounded and later died in the Charles Town jail.
• Wounded but survived
  • Private Matthew Ruppert, U. S. Marines, was shot in the face during the storming of the engine house.
  • Edward McCabe, Harpers Ferry laborer.
  • Samuel C. Young, Charles Town militia. As he was "permanently disabled by a wound received in defence of Southern institutions" [slavery], a pamphlet was published to raise money for him.[76]
  • Martinsburg, Virginia, militia:
    • George Murphy
    • George Richardson
    • G. N. Hammond
    • Evan Dorsey
    • Nelson Hooper
    • George Woollett[3]^:292

In 1944, Harpers Ferry and some surrounding areas were designated as a National Monument. Congress later designated it as the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in 1963. It is managed by the National Park Service. The park includes the historic town of Harpers Ferry, notable as a center of 19th-century industry and as the scene of the uprising.

John Brown is buried at his home, a farm half a mile from the Olympic 120 meter ski jump in Lake Placid, New York. It is maintained as the New York John Brown Farm State Historic Site where his "body lies a-mouldering" as stated in the "Battle Hymn of the Republic".