John Brown, Soldier of Fortune: A CritiqueWilson, Hill Peebles
History
John Brown, Soldier of Fortune: A Critique
Wilson, Hill Peebles
Brown, John, 1800-1859
From what is known of the
lives of these men, it may be assumed also, that if Charles Jennison had
been under Anne's observation at the Kennedy farm, he too would have
secured absolution for his crimes and would have received at her hands a
certificate of Christianity.[371]
The details that Brown's biographers have published concerning the
concentration of the military stores at his headquarters; his
correspondence with his men; the assembling of them in Maryland; his
constantly recurring financial embarrassments, and the edited statements
concerning the daily life which he and his men led after their arrival
at the seat of war, are of little or no public interest or value. They
fail to touch upon the vital purpose that led Brown, in the disguise of
a farmer or cattle buyer, to take up his residence at the Kennedy farm
house. They fail to even hint at the broad purpose of his being there,
or of the commanding things which he strenuously sought to promote
during the months that he occupied the ground. They trifle with their
theme and with their characters. These men had not dedicated their lives
to martyrdom "that others might live." Their impromptu metamorphosis
from "soiled lives" to consecrated lives is gratuitous. They were
_capitalized_ upon "the monstrous wrong which they beheld," and
intended to turn it, through a wrong still more monstrous, to a
monstrous personal advantage. No maudlin sentiment inspired these men,
"with soiled lives behind them" to dare as few ever dared before. Their
"hearts throbbed" with a single mighty purpose--an ambition worthy of
the desperation of their adventure. Their goal was an empire and its
emoluments: their rewards the spoils of conquest of the most promising
field that marauders ever planned to plunder.
The time finally agreed upon and fixed for the great catastrophe was the
night of October 16th. The party consisted of the following persons:
WHITE: COLORED:
John Brown J. A. Copeland, Jr.
J. H. Kagi L. S. Leary
A. D. Stevens O. P. Anderson
J. E. Cook Dangerfield Newby
C. P. Tidd Shields Green
Albert Hazlett
J. G. Anderson
William Thompson
D. O. Thompson
Edwin Coppoc
Barclay Coppoc
W. H. Leeman
Owen Brown
Oliver Brown
Watson Brown
F. J. Merriam
Stewart Taylor
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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