The Raid of John Brown at Harper's Ferry as I Saw ItLeech, Samuel V.
History
The Raid of John Brown at Harper's Ferry as I Saw It
Leech, Samuel V.
Harpers Ferry (W. Va.) -- History -- John Brown's Raid, 1859
imprisoned by eight o'clock on Monday morning. The citizens were hearing
of the situation. Newby and Green, negroes, were stationed at the
junction of High and Shenandoah streets. Newby shot at and killed
Captain George W. Turner, a graduate of West Point. Green shot and
killed Mr. Thomas Boerley, a grocer. Dr. Claggett attended Boerley, who
also soon died. After the mulatto had shot Turner, a man named Bogert
entered the residence of Mrs. Stephenson by a rear door. Having no
bullet he put a large nail into his gun, went up stairs and shot Newby,
the nail cutting his throat from ear to ear. He was also shot in the
stomach by some one else. I saw him die, in great agony, with an
infuriated crowd around him. About ten o'clock in the morning, armed
citizens crossed the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers to prevent the escape
by the bridges, or by water, of any of the raiders. Some walked down the
Maryland river road and wounded Captain Oliver Brown on the bridge. He
reached the engine house but soon died beside his father. Citizens
seized the uninjured prisoner, Captain Thompson, and put him under guard
at the Galt hotel. Captain Stephens tried to reach the hotel to propose,
as he stated, terms of surrender. George Chambers wounded him, and then
assisted him into the Galt hotel, where his wounds were dressed. About
eleven o'clock in the morning the Jefferson Guards from Charlestown
commanded by Captain J. W. Rowen arrived. A half hour passed and the
Hamtramck guards under Captain V. M. Butler came to the Ferry. They were
followed by the Shepherdstown Mounted Troop commanded by Captain Jacob
Reinhart. Then a military company from Martinsburg twenty miles distant
reached the place, under the command of Captain Alburtis. Colonels W. R.
Baylor and John T. Gibson took the general direction of the military
affairs. Some soldiers crossed the Shenandoah along with armed citizens
to intercept the four raiders Kagi, Leary, Leeman and Copeland, when
they should be driven out of Hall's Rifle Works. These raiders also had
in these works one of Colonel Washington's slaves pressed into their
service. All of them ran out into the river to swim across to the Loudon
County shore. All were shot to death in the river with the exception of
Copeland. He threw up his hands and surrendered. During the excitement
Hazlitt and the negro Anderson left the Arsenal and, undetected, escaped
into Pennsylvania. Early in the morning Captain Owen Brown, Barclay
Coppoc and Merriam had deserted the Kennedy farm and gone north. Thus
seven of the twenty-two men fled to the North. Cook and Hazlitt were
captured. They were returned to Virginia, tried and executed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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