John Brown's RaidUnited States. National Park Service
History
John Brown's Raid
United States. National Park Service
Brown, John, 1800-1859; Harpers Ferry (W. Va.) -- History -- John Brown's Raid, 1859
Other militia units now began to arrive. Between 3 and 4 p.m. the
Hamtramck Guards and the Shepherdstown Troop, both from Shepherdstown,
Va., came in. At dusk three uniformed companies from Frederick, Md.,
appeared, followed later in the evening by a Winchester, Va., company
under R. B. Washington, and five companies of the Maryland Volunteers
under General Stewart from Baltimore. None of them made any attempt to
dislodge Brown and his men from the enginehouse, but all added to the
general confusion and hysteria gripping the town.
[Illustration: The attack on the enginehouse by Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad employees led by Capt. E. G. Alburtis is shown in this
contemporary engraving from _Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper_.
Alburtis’ attack failed to dislodge the raiders, but his men did
manage to free several of Brown’s hostages.]
On the other side of the Potomac, Cook, Owen Brown, Barclay Coppoc,
Meriam, Tidd, and several Negroes had been transferring weapons to a
tiny schoolhouse midway between Harpers Ferry and the Kennedy farm. As
the day wore on and the firing from town became heavier, they began to
suspect that something might have gone wrong. At about 4 p.m. Cook
headed for the B & O bridge to see what was happening. To get a better
vantage point, he climbed the craggy face of Maryland Heights where he
could look directly into the center of the town. Seeing that his
compatriots were “completely surrounded,” he decided to try to take some
of the pressure off by firing across the river at men posted in the
houses along High Street overlooking the armory. His shot was instantly
answered by a volley of bullets that severed a branch he was clutching
for support and sent him tumbling down the rocky cliff. Badly cut and
bruised from the fall, he limped back to the schoolhouse and joined the
others. Realizing there was nothing they could do to aid their comrades
trapped in the enginehouse, they reluctantly gathered their belongings,
climbed the mountain and headed north.
[Illustration: Stewart Taylor]
[Illustration: John A. Copeland]
[Illustration: Jeremiah G. Anderson]
Time was quickly running out for John Brown. As resistance became
partially organized at Harpers Ferry, steps were taken to seal off any
possibility of support reaching the raiders. Fearing that Brown’s raid
might be part of a general uprising, all approaches to the town were
guarded, and all travelers not familiar to residents of the area were
immediately arrested and shipped off to the county jail at Charles Town.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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