Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0109/01097.txt

Text File | 1993-07-27 | 14KB | 239 lines

$Unique_ID{bob01097}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{John Brown's Raid
Chapter 3: To Free the Slaves}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Various}
$Affiliation{U.S. Department Of The Interior}
$Subject{brown
town
ferry
wagon
armory
raiders
harpers
bridge
first
free}
$Date{1973}
$Log{}
Title:       John Brown's Raid
Author:      Various
Affiliation: U.S. Department Of The Interior
Date:        1973

Chapter 3: To Free the Slaves

     The daylight hours of Sunday, October 16, 1859, were quiet ones at the
Kennedy farm as the long period of inactivity and uncertainty neared its
climax.  Early in the morning John Brown held worship services, the impending
attack invoking "deep solemnity" upon the gathering.  After breakfast and roll
call a final meeting was held and instructions were given.  Then everything
was in readiness.

     About 8 p.m. Brown turned to his followers.  "Men," he said, "get on your
arms; we will proceed to the Ferry."  The men, ready for hours, slung their
Sharps rifles over their shoulders, concealing them under long, gray shawls
that served as overcoats, and waited for the order to march.  A horse and
wagon were brought to the door of the farmhouse.  In the wagon the men placed
a few items that might be needed for the work ahead:  a sledge hammer, a
crowbar, and several pikes.  Owen Brown, Barclay Coppoc, and Meriam were
detailed to remain at the farm as a rearguard.  In the morning they were to
bring the rest of the weapons nearer the town where they could be passed out
to the slave army Brown expected to raise.

     Donning his battered old Kansas cap, symbol of the violence to which he
had contributed in that strife-torn territory, Brown mounted the wagon and
motioned his men to move out.  From the farmhouse the group moved down the
lane and onto the road leading to Harpers Ferry.  Tidd and Cook, who were best
acquainted with the route, preceded the main body as scouts.  Upon reaching
the town they were to cut the telegraph lines on both the Maryland and
Virginia sides of the Potomac.

     For more than 2 hours the men tramped along behind the wagon, strictly
adhering to Brown's order to maintain silence.  About 10:30 p.m. they reached
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge that would carry them into Harpers
Ferry.  It was a long wooden-covered structure that spanned the Potomac River
a little upstream from where the Shenandoah comes spilling in from the south.
Kagi and Stevens entered first and encountered watchman William Williams, who
approached with a lantern.  They quickly took Williams prisoner.  The rest of
the raiders, except for Watson Brown and Stewart Taylor who were told to stay
on the Maryland side as a rearguard, fastened cartridges boxes to the outside
of their clothing for ready access and followed the wagon onto the bridge.

     Crossing quickly, the raiders stepped from the tunnel's black throat into
the slumbering town.  Before them lay a large structure that doubled as the
railroad depot and the Wager House.  Just beyond, to the left, was the U.S.
Arsenal buildings where thousands of guns were stored.  To the right the
armory shops stretched in a double row along the Potomac.  Brown turned the
horse and wagon toward the armory.

     Daniel Whelan, the armory's nightwatchman, heard the wagon coming down
the street from the depot.  Thinking it was the head watchman, he came out
from his station in the fire enginehouse (a one-story, two-room brick building
that doubled as a guard post just inside the armory grounds) to find several
rifles pointed at him.  "Open the gate!" someone yelled.  Out of sheer
cussedness, or perhaps fright, Whelan refused.  One of the raiders took the
crowbar from the wagon and twisted it in the chain until the lock snapped.
The gate was thrown open and the wagon rolled into the yard.  To his
prisoners, Whelan and Williams, Brown announced his purpose:

     I came here from Kansas, and this is a slave state; I want to free
     all the Negroes in this state; I have possession now of the United
     States armory, and if the citizens interfere with me I must only burn
     the town and have blood.

     Once in control of the armory, Brown detailed his men to other
objectives.  Oliver Brown and William Thompson were sent to watch the bridge
across the Shenandoah River, while Hazlett and Edwin Coppoc moved into the
unguarded arsenal.  Another group of raiders under Stevens made its way down
Shenandoah Street to the rifle factory on Lower Hall Island.  Again the
watchman was surprised and easily captured.  Telling Kagi and Copeland to
watch the rifle works - Leary would join them later - Stevens marched the
watchman and several young men picked up on the street back to the armory
grounds.

     So far Brown's occupation of the town had been quiet and peaceful.  It
did not last.  About midnight another watchman, Patrick Higgins, a Sandy Hook
resident, arrived at the Maryland end of the B & O bridge to relieve Williams.
Finding the structure dark he called out loudly; he was answered quietly by
Taylor and Watson Brown, who took him prisoner.  As he was being escorted
across the bridge, Higgins suddenly lashed out, struck Brown in the face, and
raced toward the town.  Taylor fired after him.  The ball grazed the
watchman's scalp, but he reached the Wager House safely.  The first shot of
the raid had been fired.

     About this same time Stevens led several raiders on a special mission to
capture Col. Lewis W. Washington, the 46-year-old great-grandnephew of George
Washington.  The colonel, a small but prosperous planter, lived near Hall town
just off the Charles Town Turnpike about 5 miles west of Harpers Ferry.  He
owned a pistol presented to General Washington by the Marquis de Lafayette and
a sword reportedly presented by the Prussian King Frederick the Great.  Brown
wanted these weapons.  When he struck the first blow to free the slaves he
rather fancied the idea of wearing the sword and brandishing the pistol once
owned by the man who had led the fight to free the American colonists from a
similar kind of tyranny.

     Battering down Washington's door, Stevens, Tidd, Cook, and three Negroes
- Anderson, Leary, and Green - summoned the colonel from his bed.  Washington
offered no resistance.  Calmly surrendering the sword and pistol, he then
dressed and climbed into his carriage for the trip to Harpers Ferry.  The
raiders and Washington's three slaves crammed into the colonel's four-horse
farm wagon and followed along behind the carriage.

     On the way the procession stopped at the home of another slaveholder,
John Allstadt, just west of Bolivar Heights.  Again using a fence rail to gain
entrance, the raiders forced Allstadt and his 18-year-old son into the wagon
while the terror-stricken women of the house shrieked "Murder!" from the
upstairs windows.  Allstadt's four slaves were also added to the group.

     While Stevens' party was gathering hostages, the first note of tragedy
was sounded.  At 1:25 a.m. the Baltimore and Ohio passenger train eastbound
for Baltimore arrived at Harpers Ferry and was stopped by a clerk from the
Wager House who told conductor A. J. Phelps of the recent "startling" events.
Phelps refused to allow the train to cross the bridge until it had been
checked, and he sent engineer William McKay and baggagemaster Jacob Cromwell
out to investigate.  They were halted by Brown's guards, who turned them back
at gunpoint.

     Hayward Shepherd, the station baggageman, heard the commotion and walked
out to see what was going on.  Shepherd, a free Negro, was highly respected
and well-liked by all who knew him.  As he approached the bridge a raider told
him to halt.  Instead, Shepherd turned around and started back toward the
station.  A shot rang out and he fell gravely wounded.  He dragged himself
back to the station where he died the next afternoon.  The first person to die
at the hands of the men who had come to free the slaves was, in fact, a Negro
already free.

     Between 4 and 5 a.m. the caravan containing Colonel Washington and the
Allstadts arrived at the armory.  Brown armed the frightened slaves with pikes
and told them to guard the prisoners, who were placed in the enginehouse and
now numbered about a half-dozen.  "Keep these white men inside," he said.
Turning to Washington, Brown explained that he had taken him hostage because
"as the aid to the Governor of Virginia, I knew you would endeavor to perform
your duty, and perhaps you would have been a troublesome customer to me; and,
apart from that, I wanted you particularly for the moral effect it would give
our cause, having one of your name our prisoner."  As dawn approached the
number of Brown's prisoners increased as unsuspecting armory employees
reporting for work were seized as they passed through the gate.  Perhaps as
many as 40 hostages were eventually jammed into the two rooms of the
enginehouse.

     Near dawn, John Cook, with two raiders and a handful of pike-carrying
Negroes, took the wagon across the bridge into Maryland to bring the weapons
closer to the town to arm the hundreds of slaves soon expected to join the
fight.  The rest of Brown army settled down at their posts in the
waning darkness to await the coming of day, the last for many of them.

     Thus far the citizens of Harpers Ferry had offered no resistance to the
invasion of their town, primarily because most of the townspeople knew nothing
of what was taking place.  At the first streak of daylight, Dr. John Starry, a
35-year-old local physician who had maintained an all-night vigil beside the
dying Hayward Shepherd, began to alert the people to the danger.  After
arousing the residents of Virginius Island, he rode to warn Acting Armory
Superintendent A. M. Kitzmiller.  Next he ordered the Lutheran Church bell
rung to assemble the citizens and ascertain what arms were available for
defense.  Then he sent a messenger off to Shepherdstown and another to Charles
Town to alert their militia companies of the armed occupation of Harpers
Ferry.

     Among the townspeople there were only one or two squirrel rifles and a
few shotguns, none of which were really fit for use.  All other weapons were
in the arsenal buildings, and they were occupied by the raiders.  Knowing it
would be futile to confront Brown's men unarmed, Dr. Starry headed for Charles
Town, 8 miles away, to hurry its militia along.  But no prompting was
necessary.  To Charles Town residents the news from Harpers Ferry was
frightening, for it awakened memories of the 1831 Nat Turner slave rebellion
in Virginia's tidewater region when more than 50 whites, mostly women and
children, were murdered before the bloody uprising was put down.  The
Jefferson Guards and another hastily formed company would march as soon as
possible.

     At daylight on October 17 Brown allowed the B & O passenger train to
continue its journey to Baltimore.  Conductor Phelps wasted no time in
sounding the alarm.  At Monocacy, Md., at 7:05 a.m. he telegraphed his
superiors about the night's events, adding:

They say they have come to free the slaves and intend to do it at all hazards.
The leader of those men requested me to say to you that this is the last train
that shall pass the bridge either East or West.  If it is attempted it will be
at the peril of the lives of those having them in charge . . . .  It has been
suggested you had better notify the Secretary of War at once.  The telegraph
lines are cut East and West of Harper's Ferry and this is the first station
that I could send a dispatch from.

     John W. Garrett, president of the railroad, saw the message when it came
in and immediately sent word to President James Buchanan and Virginia Governor
Henry A. Wise.  At the same time he alerted Maj. Gen. George H. Stewart,
commanding Baltimore's First Light Division of the Maryland Volunteers.  Word
was also flashed to Frederick, Md., and that town's militia was soon under
arms.

     By 7 a.m. the residents of Harpers Ferry had discovered a supply of guns
in a building overlooked by the raiders, and some of the townspeople began to
move against Brown and his men.  Alexander Kelly, armed with a shotgun,
approached the corner of High and Shenandoah Streets, about 100 yards from the
armory.  Before he could fire, several bullets whizzed past his head, one
putting a hole through his hat.  Shortly afterwards, groceryman Thomas Boerly,
a man of great physical strength and courage, approached the same corner and
opened fire on a group of Brown's men standing in the arsenal yard, diagonally
across the street from the armory gate.  A return bullet knocked him down with
a "ghastly" wound, from which he soon died.

     A lull followed the shooting of Boerly.  Brown, having made no provision
to feed his men and hostages, released Walter Kemp, an infirm Wager House
bartender captured earlier, in exchange for 45 breakfasts.  But when the food
came, few ate it.  Many, including Washington, Allstadt, and Brown himself,
feared it had been drugged or poisoned.

     Meanwhile, Kagi, still at the rifle factory, was anxiously sending
messages to Brown urging him to leave Harpers Ferry while they still had the
chance.  Brown ignored the pleas and continued to direct operations with no
apparent thought that outside forces would be moving against him once the
alarm had spread.  Why, is anybody's guess.  Up until noon of October 17,
despite the erratic fire from the townspeople, the raiders could have fought
their way to safety in the mountains.  Instead, Brown waited, doing nothing.
By midday it was too late, and the jaws of the "steel-trap" foreseen by
Frederick Douglass closed swiftly.