The Strange Story of Harper's Ferry, with Legends of the Surrounding Country — John Shaqi
The Strange Story of Harper's Ferry, with Legends of the Surrounding CountryBarry, Joseph
History
The Strange Story of Harper's Ferry, with Legends of the Surrounding Country
Barry, Joseph
Harpers Ferry (W. Va.) -- History; Harpers Ferry (W. Va.) -- History -- John Brown's Raid, 1859
There happened to be, at the time, protracted
meetings at nearly all of the Methodist churches in the town and
neighborhood, and the members, returning home late, were taken prisoners
in detail, until the armory enclosure contained a great many captives,
who were unable to communicate to their friends an account of their
situation.
About one o'clock a.m., Monday, the east bound express train, on the
Baltimore and Ohio railroad, arrived in charge of Conductor Phelps. The
train was detained by order of the leader of the band, and the telegraph
wires were cut. The object of these orders was, of course, to prevent
news of the invasion from being spread. The train was allowed to
proceed, however, after a considerable delay. While the train was at
Harper's Ferry, great alarm naturally existed among the passengers who
could not understand these movements. Several shots were exchanged
between the attacking force and a Mr. Throckmorton, clerk at Fouke's
hotel, and some other parties unknown, but no person was injured. Some
time in the course of the night, Heywood Shepherd, a colored porter at
the railroad office, walked to the bridge, impelled, no doubt, by
curiosity to understand the enigma. He was ordered to halt by the guards
at the bridge and being seized with a panic and running back, he was
shot through the body. He succeeded in reaching the railroad office,
where he died next day at 3 o'clock, in great agony.
A little before daylight, some early risers were surprised to find
themselves taken prisoners, as soon as they appeared on the streets.
Among them was James Darrell, aged about sixty-five years, the
bell-ringer at the armory, whose duties, of course, compelled him to be
the first of the hands at his post. It being yet dark, he carried a
lantern. When near the gate, he was halted by an armed negro, one of the
invading party, and, Darrell, not dreaming of what was transpiring and
mistaking his challenger for one of Mr. Fouke's slaves on a "drunk,"
struck the negro with his lantern and consigned his "black soul" to a
climate of much higher temperature than that of Virginia. The negro
presented a Sharp's rifle at Darrell and, no doubt, the situation of
bell-ringer at Harper's Ferry armory would have been very soon vacant
had not a white man of the stranger party who appeared to relish very
highly the joke of the mistake, caught the gun and prevented the negro
from carrying out his intention. Another white man of the party,
however, came up and struck Darrell on the side with the butt of his
gun, injuring him severely. Darrell was then dragged before "the
captain" who, pitying his age and his bodily sufferings, dismissed him
on a sort of parole. Mr. Walter Kemp, an aged, infirm man, bartender at
Fouke's hotel, was taken prisoner about this time and consigned to Limbo
with the others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account