October 16
Dawn Brown calls his men into the farmhouse living room for a round of prayers and Bible readings before the raid.
Late morning Brown explains his battle plans, and assigns each man a special task. He asks Owen Brown, Barclay Coppoc, and Meriam to remain behind at the farmhouse as a rear guard.
"Attack On The Insurgents At The Bridge By The Railroad Men" during John Brown Raid, October 1859. The uncovered iron span, known as the "Winchester Span" because it carried the tracks of the Winchester and Potomac Railroad, was erected in 1850-1852. Year: 1859. Image Credit: Historic Photo Collection, Harpers Ferry NHP.
8:00 P.M. John Brown gives the order: "Men, get on your arms; we will proceed to the Ferry." The eighteen men assigned to the raid take up their rifles and pistols, put on black shawls, and head out into a drizzling rain storm.
10:30 P.M. Kagi and Stevens arrive at the Potomac Bridge connecting Harper’s Ferry with Maryland. They capture the watchman, William Williams. Brown and the other men arrive at the bridge soon after with the wagon. Cook and Tidd fall out to cut the telegraph lines east and west of the town. The remaining men head directly for the armory and capture the night watchman there, Daniel Whelan. Brown tells Whelan and Williams, "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." Soon after their arrival, Brown’s men take the arsenal next to the Shenandoah River. Albert Hazlett and Edwin Coppoc are put in charge of it. Brown also sends out two men, Kagi and Copeland to capture Hall’s Rifle Works on Lower Hall Island, and six men, Osborn Anderson, Stevens, Tidd, Cook, Leary, and Shields Green, to capture local militia leader Colonel Lewis W. Washington, a grand nephew of George Washington.
Midnight Anderson, Stevens, and the four other men arrive at Lewis Washington’s farm. They take Washington prisoner and force him to surrender a sword given to George Washington by Frederick the Great to Osborn Anderson, a black man. On the way back to the armory, Brown’s men also take John Allstadt, another local militia leader, and his son prisoner. At the Ferry, Patrick Higgins arrives at the Maryland Bridge to relieve watchman William Williams. Oliver Brown shoots at him but misses. Higgins runs to the safety of the Wager House Hotel and raises the alarm.
John Brown
1:25 A.M. An eastern-bound Baltimore & Ohio train arrives at the Ferry. Patrick Higgins tries to convince Conductor A. J. Phelps not to allow his train to proceed over the Potomac Bridge.
1:30 P.M. Conductor Phelps and Hayward Shepherd, a free black who serves as the town’s baggage master, go forward to investigate the situation at the bridge. The raiders fire on them. Shepherd is shot in the chest very near to his heart, but he manages to get back to the station before he collapses. The shot awakens a medical doctor, John D. Starry who has a room overlooking the B&O train station and the Potomac Bridge. Starry dresses hurriedly and rushes out into the rainy night carrying his medical bag. At the station, he examines Shepherd and treats him as best he can, but he realizes Shepherd is mortally wounded.
2:00 A.M. As Brown moves his men from point to point, Doctor Starry follows them around to find out what they are doing. They refuse to tell him why they have raided the town.
This circa 1862 photograph shows the main entrance to the Harpers Ferry Armory. The "fire engine and guard house" (John Brown Fort) was the first building on the left as you entered the Armory Grounds.
3:00 A.M. Brown tells Conductor Phelps that he can take his train over the Potomac River Bridge into Maryland, but Phelps does not trust him and refuses to allow the train to leave until dawn when he can see the condition of the bridge.
4:00 A.M. The men sent to capture Washington and the Allstadts return by wagon to the armory yard with their prisoners. Later, they are moved into the Engine House.
5:05 A.M. Starry observes a wagon driven by John E. Cook leaving the armory yard and proceeding over the Potomac Bridge. The wagon is guarded by slaves belonging to the Allstadts and Lewis Washington. They are armed with pikes.
Lieutenant J.E.B. Stuart
DAWN Conductor Phelps allows his train to pass over the Potomac Bridge once he sees Brown’s men have not booby trapped it. Doctor Starry sends messengers to Charlestown and other nearby towns, and orders the bell in the Lutheran Church to be rung to alert the town. He then rides out to warn workers at the armory. Later, he rides to Charlestown.
7:05 A.M. Phelps arrives in Monocacy, Maryland, and sends out an urgent telegram alerting railroad officials of the raid at the Ferry. John W. Garnett, the president of the railroad, sees Phelps’s dispatch and telegraphs messages to U.S. President James Buchanan, Governor Henry Wise of Virginia, and Major General George H. Stewart in Baltimore.
10:00 A.M. Doctor Starry has arrived in Charlestown and discovers that the Jefferson County Guards have mobilized and are preparing to board a special train to the Ferry. At 10, the train begins its journey.
A company of militia in Frederick, Maryland, move out to the Ferry in response to the Phelps dispatches.
Noon The Jefferson Guards arrive at the Ferry. Other militia companies have also arrived, including one from Bolivar Heights under Captain Botts who has ordered his men to hold the Galt House Hotel and the Shenandoah Bridge. The Jefferson Guards cross the Potomac River west of the town and march down to the Potomac Bridge, driving Brown’s men back through the town. Most reach the relative safety of the Engine House in the armory grounds, but Dangerfield Newby is shot and killed. One angry villager cuts off Newby’s ears for souvenirs. Another allows hogs to rout on the body. Brown attempts to negotiate a cease fire by sending out William Thompson with one of his prisoners under a flag of truce. Thompson is captured and brought to the Galt House. Later he is moved to the Wager House. Brown sends out Aaron Stevens and Watson Brown with A. M. Kitzmiller, the acting superintendent of the armory. Both Stevens and Watson are shot. Watson crawls back into the Engine House, but Stevens lies outside.
1:00 A.M. One of Brown’s hostages, Joseph A. Brua, volunteers to take Stevens to safety. He carries Stevens to the Wager House and returns to the Engine House as a hostage. William H. Leeman attempts to flee across the Potomac River but a militiaman shoots him before he reaches the opposite side. Armed men use his body for target practice for the rest of the day. At some point in the afternoon, Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee and Lieutenant J.E.B. Stuart, who have been urgently summoned to Washington, meet with President Buchanan and Secretary of War John Floyd. Lee is ordered to proceed to Harper’s Ferry by train and take charge of all forces there using his brevet rank of colonel earned during the Mexican War. Stuart goes with him.
Colonel Robert E. Lee
2:00 P.M. One of Brown’s men shoots George W. Turner, a slaveowner. About this time, Doctor Starry organizes a raid on Hall’s Rifle Works which is still held by Kagi, Lewis Leary, and John A. Copeland. He leaves the raid in the hands of a young man named Lewis and goes to his room to change into dry clothing.
3:30 P.M. Starry returns to see the results of the raid on Hall’s Rifle Works. Kagi is dead, and Leary is mortally wounded. James H. Holt has captured Copeland. Holt and other townspeople attempt to hang Copeland with a rope made from handkerchiefs tied together. Starry positions his horse between Copeland and the enraged citizens of the town. He keeps Copeland backed into a corner until a law enforcement official can take him into custody.
4:00 P.M. The mayor of Harper’s Ferry, Fontaine Beckham, moves cautiously up to the water tower just beyond the armory gate to get a look at the people threatening his town. He is unarmed. Edwin Coppoc, at the Engine House, sees him and fires. Beckham falls dead. Christine Fouke acts as a screen for men who retrieve the dead mayor, bringing his body to the railway station.
Harry Hunter, a grand nephew of Beckham, leads a drunken mob into the Wager House with the intention of killing Will Thompson and Aaron Stevens. Christine Fouke tries to intercede for young Thompson, saying that the men should leave the boy to the law, but the men are determined. They grab Thompson, drag him to the Potomac Bridge, and shoot him. As with Leeman, militiamen use Thompson’s body for target practice.
A Martinsburg company under Captain E. G. Alburtis arrives at the Ferry. They quickly drive Brown’s remaining men in the armory into the Engine House and free thirty to forty hostages.
Some time after these incidents, John E. Cook returns to the Potomac and scouts out the situation from the Maryland side. Seeing that Brown’s men are under heavy fire, he attempts to draw off that fire by by climbing up an embankment and firing toward the town. An answering shot severs the tree limb he is leaning against and sends him tumbling fiften feet down the embankment. He retreats to the schoolhouse that Brown’s Maryland forces took that morning and tells them that Brown is trapped at the Ferry. On Cook’s advice, the men start running for the Pennsylvania border.
Trial of John Brown Sketched by Porte Crayon, reproduced from Leslie's Illustrated Weekly. Brown is pictured lying on a stretcher, still recovering from the sword wound inflicted by Israel Green.
Nightfall Hostilities cease. The gathering militias set up a loose picket at the Engine House where Brown and his remaining men are trapped with several hostages. Colonel Robert W. Baylor sends Samuel Strider into the Engine House under a flag of truce in an attempt to get Brown to surrender. Brown refuses. Captain Thomas Sinn of Frederick, Maryland, also visits Brown in the Engine House. He also fails to convince Brown, who is wearing the sword of Frederick the Great, to surrender.
11:00 P.M. Lee and Stuart arrive at Sandy Hook, Maryland, a mile and a half from the Ferry. He takes command of a company of 90 Marines sent there from Washington, and marches them immediately to Harper’s Ferry. He has the Marines surround the Engine House and starts planning the dawn assault.
After Midnight Oliver Brown begs to be shot and put out of his misery. His father tells him to die like a man. Oliver soon dies.
Dawn Colonel Lee has Lieutenant Stuart carry a note to Brown demanding his surrender. Brown refuses and closes and bars the doors of the Engine House. Stuart waves his hat up and down as a signal to begin the assault. The Marines attack the doors with sledgehammers, but to no effect. They find a heavy ladder and use that as a battering ram. In two blows, they create a small opening in the right hand door which is split, and they storm into the building. Lieutenant Israel Green, who leads the assault, attacks Brown with the dress sword he brought by mistake from Washington. The sword, which was never meant for combat, bends on Brown’s leather belt. Green grasps the sword by the ruined blade and hits Brown over the head with it, knocking him unconscious. The raid is over.
Additional Sources:
johnbrownsbody.net
www.wvculture.org
www.civilwarhome.com
www.sscnet.ucla.edu
www.bridgingthewatershed.org
www.easternct.edu
teachpol.tcnj.edu
www.nps.gov
www.usmcartist.com
www.wvculture.org
www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk
www.civilwar-va.com
cavalry.km.ru
data2.itc.nps.gov
