The nine citizens who were confined as hostages in the engine house were as follows: Colonel Lewis W. Washington and John Alstadt, planters; John E. P. Dangerfield, paymaster's clerk; Armistead M. Ball, master-machinist; Benjamin Mills, master-armorer; John Donohoo, assistant agent of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad at Harper's Ferry; Terence O'Byrne, a farmer residing in Washington county, Maryland; Israel Russell, a merchant of Harper's Ferry, and a Mr. Schoppe, of Frederick City, Maryland, who happened to be on a business visit that day at the scene of the trouble. [Illustration: JEFFERSON'S ROCK] Colonel Lewis W. Washington was at the time a very fine looking man of about fifty years of age, with that unmistakable air that always accompanies a man of true patrician birth and education. He was the soul of hospitality and Cook used to visit him at his home for the ostensible purpose of contending with him in pistol shooting, an art in which both were famous adepts. On these occasions Colonel Washington used to exhibit the sword and some other relics of his great namesake and grand-uncle, and, thus it was that Cook and his companions in the conspiracy gained so intimate a knowledge of Colonel Washington's household arrangements and were enabled to find at once the place in which the relics were stored and to capture the owner without difficulty. Cook was entertained hospitably whenever he visited the generous Virginian, and the ingratitude manifested towards Colonel Washington was, perhaps, the worst feature of the whole transaction, and it is not to be excused for the moral effect that the capture might be expected to secure. The grand-nephew of the founder of our nation, it is said, exhibited on this occasion a great deal of the dignity and calmness which characterized his illustrious kinsman and his fellow captives used to speak of his great coolness under the trying circumstances of his situation.