This post marks a new direction to this blog. With the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War fast approaching, I'm embarking on a series of posts that look back 150 years to what was happening then, a day-to-day accounting of the Civil War. Posting will be light until...well, until 2011, when it actually is the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War, but there were a few different episodes of interest between 1859 and 1861 that I'll touch upon, starting with John Brown and his raid on Harpers Ferry...
On Sunday, October 16, 1859, the radical abolitionist John Brown and a group of followers seized the United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown's plan was not to seize the arms and escape, but to hole up and arm the army of slaves that he expected would soon join him.
The abolitionist movement had been nonviolent, but John Brown was not. He had been in the midst of the fight in Bleeding Kansas, killing five pro-slavery settlers in the
Pottawatomie Massacre and fighting in the battles of Palmyra and Osawatomie. Although Brown and his band of 38 men were routed in the latter battle, Brown achieve national recognition for his tactics and his bravery in the face of overwhelming odds. He became a hero to the abolitionist movement, and when the fighting in the state subsided, he traveled to New England to raise money from influential supporters. A group of fellow radicals, the Secret Six -- Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Theodore Parker, George Luther Stearns, Samuel Gridley Howe, and Gerrit Smith -- gave him much financial support, often with no questions asked.
Brown arrived at Harpers Ferry in July of 1859. Using the alias Isaac Smith, he rented a nearby farmhouse and awaited recruits. Only a few showed up. They hid out in the attic until they finally decided that no one else was coming.
After sundown on October 16, Brown moved on Harpers Ferry. The original plan called for a brigade of 4500 men, but Brown had just 21, including three free blacks, one freed slave and a fugitive slave. Brown left three men behind as a rear guard. He had 200
Beecher's Bibles and almost a thousand pikes, and when he captured the armory he would have over 100,000 muskets and rifles for his slave uprising.
At first, the raid went well. They cut the telegraph wires and captured the armory which was guarded by just a single watchman. A party rode to the nearby Beall-Air estate and the Allstadt House, where they took several hostages, including Colonel Lewis Washington, a great grandnephew of George Washington. The first casualty of the raid was an African-American baggage handler, Hayward Sullivan, who was shot and killed as he ran to warn the passengers of an approaching Baltimore & Ohio train. The train continued on toward Washington, raising the alarm as it went.
In August 1859, John Brown met with Frederick Douglass. "Come with
me, Douglass, I want you for a special purpose. When I strike, the bees
will begin to swarm, and I shall want you to help hive them." But
Douglass was convinced that Brown's was a suicide mission, that an
attack against the federal government "would array the whole country
against us." Plus, there was the matter of Harpers
Ferry. The arsenal was situated on a peninsula formed where the
Shenandoah River met the Potomac, and surrounded by high ground. It was
perfectly indefensible and would change hands many times during the
Civil War. Brown was caught in a trap.
Early on the
morning of October 17, armory workers discovered Brown's raiders
and retreated to the hills to join with a growing crowd of townspeople,
who were sniping at Brown's men. Militia companies from Virginia and
Maryland converged on the town. One company charged across the bridge,
cutting off Brown's only escape route. Brown retreated with the
surviving raiders and hostages to the fire-engine house. He sent out
his son Watson and another raider with a white flag, but they were shot
down. Four Harpers Ferry residents, including the mayor, were killed
that afternoon. In all, eight of Brown's raiders, including three of
his sons, were killed. The angry mob used some of the dead bodies for
target practice. Seven raiders escaped, but two were later captured.
President
James Buchanan ordered a detachment of U.S. Marines to Harpers Ferry.
They were commanded by two cavalry officers, Colonel Robert E. Lee and
Lieutenant J. E. B. Stuart. They arrived during the evening hours. One
of Lee's first acts was to close the local saloons in an attempt to
control the unruly mob.
Soon after daybreak on October 18, Colonel Robert E. Lee sent
Lieutenant J. E. B. Stuart forward to the Harpers Ferry engine-house
(forever after known as "
John Brown's Fort")
under a flag of truce. Lee's written demand to John Brown and the
remaining raiders was immediate surrender. John Brown refused, saying,
"No, I prefer to die here."
Stuart gave a signal and a
storming party of twelve marines, three with sledge hammers, began to
try to break in the doors of the engine-house, but Brown had barricaded
the doors with the fire engine and fastened them with ropes. Lee sent
in reserves. A heavy ladder was used as a battering ram. Finally, a
small section of the door was knocked in. The first marine through the
opening was shot dead, but the rest of the storming party quickly
subdued the remaining raiders. Lieutenant Israel Greene cornered Brown
and struck him several times in the head. He then attempted to run him
through with his sword, but it struck Brown's belt buckle and bent.
Within just a couple of minutes, the whole affair was over. The raiders
were captured and the hostages were freed. The raid was over about 32
hours after it began.
Virginia Governor Henry Wise
arrived at Harpers Ferry in the afternoon, accompanied by a group of
reporters. Brown was an instant celebrity and laid on the stone floor
for hours answering all their questions.
I wish to say
that you had better -- all 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.
In
the meantime, troops searched the Kennedy farm where the raiders had
been hiding out since July. They found a large carpetbag crammed full
of letters from Brown's supporters, including the Secret Six. It seemed
as if the whole of the North were in on the attack.
Wild
rumors circulated throughout the South of armed blacks and bands of
abolitionists. Lynch mobs howled for Brown's blood. Although he had
attacked a federal installation, he was was turned over to the State of
Virginia. At Charleston, on October 20, he was indicted on charges of
treason, murder, and fomenting insurrection.
Image of Joseph E. Johnston by BattlefieldPortraits.com via Flickr
