APPENDIX II RECOLLECTIONS OF THE JOHN BROWN RAID BY THE HON. ALEXANDER R. BOTELER, A VIRGINIAN WHO WITNESSED THE FIGHT _Taken from The Century_ On entering the room where John Brown was, I found him alone, lying on the floor on his left side, and with his back turned toward me. The right side of his face was smeared with blood from a sword cut on his head, causing his grim and grizzled countenance to look like that of some aboriginal savage with his war-paint on. Approaching him I began the conversation with the inquiry: "Captain Brown, are you hurt anywhere except on the head?" "Yes, in my side, here," said he, indicating the place with his hand. I then told him that a surgeon would be in presently to attend to his wounds, and expressed the hope that they were not very serious. Thereupon he asked me who I was, and on giving him my name he muttered as if speaking to himself. "Yes, yes--I know you now--member of congress--this district." I then asked the question: "Captain, what brought you here?" "To free your slaves," was the reply. "How did you expect to accomplish it with the small force you brought with you?" "I expected help." "Where, whence, and from whom, Captain, did you expect it?" "Here and from elsewhere," he answered. "Did you expect to get assistance from whites here as well as from the blacks?" was my next question. "I did," he replied. "Then," said I, "you have been disappointed in not getting it from either?" "Yes," he muttered, "I have--been--disappointed." Then I asked him who planned his movement on Harper's Ferry, to which he replied: "I planned it all myself," and upon my remarking that it was a sad affair for him and the country, and that I trusted no one would follow his example by undertaking a similar raid, he made no response. I next inquired if he had any family besides the sons who accompanied him on his incursion, to which he replied by telling me he had a wife and children in the State of New York at North Elba, and on my then asking if he would like to write to them and let them know how he was, he quickly responded: "Yes, I would like to send them a letter." "Very well," I said, "you doubtless will be permitted to do so. But, Captain," I added, "probably you understand that, being in the hands of the civil authorities of the State, your letters will have to be seen by them before they can be sent." "Certainly," he said. "Then, with that understanding," continued I. "There will, I am sure, be no objection to your writing home; and although I have no authority in the premises, I promise to do what I can to have your wishes in that respect complied with." "Thank you--thank you, sir," he said repeating his acknowledgment for the proffered favor and, for the first time, turning his head toward me.