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
he certainly has an ugly scar to remind him and the others of John
Brown's raid. The insurgents were all bayoneted or captured, but
fortunately none of the citizen prisoners received any injury. Their
escape, indeed, was almost miraculous, as it was difficult for the
marines to distinguish them from the enemy. Brown himself was wounded
severely by Lieutenant Greene and he was taken to another building where
his injuries were examined by a physician and his wounds dressed. He
received a cut on the head and a sword thrust in the shoulder. Two or
three survivors of his men were kept in the engine house, under a guard
of marines. The bodies of the slain raiders were collected soon after
from the streets and rivers and, with one exception, buried in a deep
pit on the southern bank of the Shenandoah, about half a mile above
Harper's Ferry, and the prisoners--Brown included--were lodged in
Charlestown jail. One body was taken away by some physicians for
dissection, and, no doubt, the skeleton is now in some doctor's closet.
After having lain just forty years in this rude grave by the Shenandoah,
the bodies of the slain raiders were disinterred about three years ago
(1899) and taken to North Elba, New York, where they now rest close to
the grave of their famous leader. This removal and reinterment were
accomplished through the efforts and under the auspices of Professor
Featherstonhaugh, of Washington, D. C., who has ever taken a deep
interest in everything appertaining to John Brown and famous raid. Can
fiction imagine anything more weird than the reality of the sad fate of
those men?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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