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
John or, as he was sometimes called, Henrie Kagi, is said to have been a
remarkably fine looking man, with a profusion of black hair and a
flowing beard of the same color. He was about thirty years of age, tall
and portly, and he did not display the same ferocity that many of the
others exhibited. He was "secretary of war" under Brown's provisional
government and he held the rank of captain. He is supposed to have been
a native of Ohio. He was killed in the Shenandoah near the rifle
factory.
Of Charles P. Tydd little is known. It is said that, before the raid, he
used to peddle books through the neighborhood of Harper's Ferry. As far
as ascertained, he did not appear in the fight, but escaped from
Maryland to parts unknown. It is said that he was a native of Maine.
Respecting the identity of Oliver and Jeremiah Anderson there is a
doubt, as in the case of the young Browns. One of them was killed by the
marines, but what became of the other is unknown. The man who was killed
was about thirty years of age, of middle stature, very black hair and
swarthy complexion. He was supposed by some to be a Canadian mulatto. As
before noted, he is confounded by many with Stuart Taylor. He received
three or four bayonet stabs in the breast and stomach and, when he was
dragged out of the engine house to the flagged walk in front of that
building, he was yet alive and vomiting gore from internal hemorrhage.
While he was in this condition a farmer from some part of the
surrounding country came up and viewed him in silence, but with a look
of concentrated bitterness. Not a word did the countryman utter, as he
thought, no doubt, that no amount of cursing could do justice to his
feelings. He passed on to another part of the armory yard and did not
return for a considerable time. When he came back Anderson was yet
breathing and the farmer thus addressed him: "Well, it takes you a h--
of a long time to die." If Anderson had vitality enough left in him to
hear the words this soothing remark must have contributed greatly to
smooth his way to the unknown land of disembodied spirits. The writer
heard from very good authority that another and still greater barbarity
was practised towards this helpless man while he was in the death agony.
Some brute in human shape, it is said, squirted tobacco juice and
dropped his quid into the dying man's eye. The writer did not see the
latter occurrence, but it was related by witnesses of undoubted
veracity. After death, also, this man--Anderson--was picked out for
special attentions. Some physicians of Winchester, Virginia, fancied him
as a subject for dissection and nem. con. they got possession of his
body. In order to take him away handily they procured a barrel and tried
to pack him into it. Head foremost, they rammed him in, but they could
not bend his legs so as to get them into the barrel with the rest of the
body. In their endeavors to accomplish this feat they strained so hard
that the man's bones or sinews fairly cracked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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