repair, were almost shot off his body. No less than twenty balls perforated his coat, but, strange to say, he escaped without a scratch and succeeded in regaining his liberty. When, after the raid, strangers visited the scene, John always made it a point to be about, exhibiting the scars which he had received from the cowcatcher and attributing them to wounds inflicted by Brown's party. Many a dollar did John receive on the strength of those scars and, no doubt, he has figured in many a tourist's book as a hero and a martyr to the cause of the "Divine Institution." His escape from the bullets of his neighbors was certainly remarkable, and it goes to prove the truth of the old proverb: "A fool for luck, &c." Notwithstanding his many close calls and his persistent good fortune, poor John finally succumbed to a combined assault of smallpox and bad whiskey. He was attacked by the former disease in the war--the other he was never without and in a delirium, he wandered away and was found dead in a fence corner. The foregoing is a succinct account of the so-called "Brown Raid," an invasion which may be considered as the commencement of our unhappy civil war. Of course, it created intense excitement all over the land and the feeling aroused had not subsided when the election of Mr. Lincoln in November, 1860, renewed the quarrel on a greater scale. As before noticed, a select committee of the United States Senate was appointed to investigate the occurrence, and the following gentlemen testified before it: John Alstadt, A. M. Ball, George W. Chambers, Lynd F. Currie, Andrew Hunter, A. M. Kitzmiller, Dr. John D. Starry, John C. Unseld, Lewis W. Washington and Daniel Whelan, all of Harper's Ferry or its neighborhood. Many gentlemen from the northern and western states, also, who were supposed to be sympathizers with Brown were called on to give testimony. Prominent among these were John A. Andrews, a lawyer of Boston, afterwards governor of Massachusetts, and Joshua R. Giddings, a leading anti-slavery man of Ohio and for many years a member of Congress from that state. Nothing, however, was elicited to prove that any considerable number of the people of the Free States knew of the contemplated invasion and unprejudiced minds were convinced that the knowledge of it was confined mostly to John Brown and the party that accompanied him on the expedition. Thus Harper's Ferry enjoys the distinction of having been the scene of the first act in our fearful drama of civil war, and as will be seen hereafter, it was the theatre of many another part of the awful tragedy. CHAPTER V. DURING THE WAR.