John Brown commences raid on Harpers Ferry, Oct. 16, 1859
Late on the evening of this day in 1859, John Brown, a fiery abolitionist, accompanied by 21 armed followers, entered the town of Harpers Ferry, Va., — now West Virginia — with the aim of seizing the federal arsenal and using the captured rifles to spark a slave rebellion while terrorizing Virginia slaveholders.
The insurgents — who included three free blacks, one freed slave and one fugitive slave — took some 60 prominent citizens hostage. Several men had been detached from the raiding party to capture Col. Lewis Washington, the great-grandnephew of George Washington, at his nearby estate.Continue Reading
By early the following morning, local militia, farmers and shopkeepers had surrounded the armory and seized a bridge across the Potomac River, cutting off the raiders’ sole escape route. Sensing the situation, Brown and his men took nine of their captives and holed up at a nearby engine house.
By 3:30 that afternoon, President James Buchanan had ordered a detachment of U.S. Marines under the command of Col. Robert E. Lee — the only government troops in the area — to march on Harpers Ferry and suppress the insurgency. Lee had been on leave when he was recalled to lead the detachment and took command in civilian clothes.
Lee sent his aide, Lt. J.E.B. Stuart, to seek Brown’s surrender and ordered Lt. Israel Greene to storm the engine house if Stuart’s mission failed. Brown refused and as Stuart walked away, he signaled a “thumbs down” to Greene and his platoon. Brown was wounded in the skirmish but survived to be tried in nearby Charles Town and found guilty of treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia. He was hanged on Dec. 2. The trial made Brown a martyr in the minds of many Northerners and helped set the stage for the ensuing Civil War.
SOURCE: U.S. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS