The Raid of John Brown at Harper's Ferry as I Saw It — John Shaqi
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
By 2 o'clock P. M., the town and hills swarmed with militia and
citizens. Brown had barricaded the engine house doors with the engine
and reel. Inside were Captains John Brown and his son Watson; also
Captain Oliver Brown, who was soon dead; Shields Green, Captain Edwin
Coppoc, Lieutenant Jeremiah G. Anderson, Captain Dauphin Adolphus
Thompson and ten white prisoners. The numerous prisoners, mostly
workmen, in the adjoining structure had all escaped from the grounds,
Brown having no port-holes on that side of his fort. The militia were
afraid to fire into the port-holes for fear of killing some of the
prominent prisoners. About 4 o'clock the Mayor, Mr. Fontaine Beckham,
aged sixty years, who was also station agent of the railroad company,
went out on the platform unarmed. He was shot dead by the negro Shields
Green. Captain Watson Brown in the engine house received his death wound
soon afterwards. Mayor Beckham was very much beloved by the people. A
number of citizens hurried into the hotel and brutally seized Captain
Thompson, threw him over the wall into the Potomac and riddled him with
bullets. Mrs. Foulke of the hotel, and her colored porter, went to the
platform and brought in the dead body of the Mayor.
As night was settling on the excited city a military company from
Winchester, Virginia, commanded by Captain B. B. Washington, arrived by
a Shenandoah Valley train. Shortly thereafter a Baltimore and Ohio
railroad train brought several companies of soldiers from Frederick,
Maryland. They were commanded by Colonel Shriver. Soon several
independent companies from Baltimore, accompanied by the Second Light
Brigade, arrived under the general command of General Charles C.
Edgerton. Colonel Robert E. Lee of the United States army, overtook
these troops at Sandy Hook, a mile and a half below the Ferry on the
Maryland side. He had come from Washington with several companies of
marines. He was accompanied by Lieutenant J. E. B. Stuart, afterwards a
famous Confederate Cavalry General; also by Major Russell and by
Lieutenant Israel Green, who died several months ago in the West. All
were regular army officers. Colonel Lee regarded it as unwise to attack
the engine house that night, fearing that Colonel Lewis W. Washington or
other prisoners might be killed. Early in the morning he sent Lieutenant
J. E. B. Stuart, who had once held Brown as a prisoner in Kansas, to
demand an immediate and unconditional surrender. Brown refused to trust
himself and men to the United States officers. About this time Colonel
Robert E. Lee got within range of Captain Coppoc's rifle. Prisoners said
that Mr. Graham knocked the muzzle aside. Lee's life was saved. Had he
been then killed who knows that the battles of Antietam, Gettysburg, and
the final conflicts north of the Appomattox would have ever been fought?
On the Confederate side no abler general or more magnificent man, ever
sat on a saddle than Robert E. Lee. He was the son of "Light Horse Harry
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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