Lewis Leary, trying to escape was struck in his War holocaust in his second inaugural when he back by a bullet as he waded across the Shenan- phrased the reasons for the war, “Fondly do doah River. Leary, mortally wounded, slowly we hope-fervently do we pray-that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass died as day turned to dusk, saying as his last away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, words, “I am ready to die.” He had left his wife until all the wealth piled by the bond- and child at Oberlin, Ohio, to enlist with John man’s two hundred and fifty years of toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of Brown. blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid

Dangerfield Newby died from a gunshot wound by another with the sword, as was said FERRY OFTOWN HARPERS to his head at the lower end of High Street in three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, “the judgments of the Lord, are Harpers Ferry. His body was mutilated. Towns- true and righteous altogether.” In Lincoln’s Harpers Ferry shares with Canada people “cut off his genitals, slit his throat, and mind the Civil War was the awful justice of the Lord rammed sticks into his wounds.” His ears were a great moment in American and Ca- God Jehovah. The entire nation had to pay a costly cut off. “The Town’s hogs finished off the body.” nadian history. The events surround- price for . Newby had hoped to free his wife and children ing in Chatham, Ontario enslaved on a plantation at Brentville, . The legacy of that cost is still with us. Before his execution and on the eve of his and Harpers Ferry, Some of the information in this text comes from abortive attempt to seize the Harpers Ferry united the two communities in one of arsenal, John Brown spoke of the provisional Six years of Hell: Harpers Ferry During the Civil army’s future. In reality, it was an epitaph for all War by Chester G. Hern the most momentous events in the who would die. “We have only one life to history of North America. live, and once to die, and if we lose our TOWN OF HARPERS lives it will do more for the cause than FERRY our lives would be worth in any other way.” And so it is as it was. 1000 Washington Street P. O. Box 217 Harpers Ferry, WV 25425 What more can be said? Phone: 304-535-2206 Fax: 304-535-6520 These men joined their lives, tears, and blood in the great torrent of blood and tears that was to be the Civil War‘s terrible swift sword. View Our Web Site at John Brown’s Fort in 1995 sits about 150 feet www.harpersferrywv.us Abraham Lincoln captured in words the Civil From its original location The initial actions by John Brown in Chat- ham are as follows: In a secret conclave in Chatham on May 8, 1858, “Captain” John by a man who resembled an Old Testament Brown wrote a new constitution, establish- prophet, slowly made their way in the rain and fog ing a Provisional Government of the United to Harpers Ferry for a rendezvous with destiny. Beckham was well liked by blacks and whites. States that dealt with the slavery issue. In a The day of march was October 16, 1859. The fire He had become angry at the death of his quick election, Captain Brown became the engine house, later John Brown’s Fort, was friend and co-worker at the train station. Commander in Chief of the Provisional quickly taken and the two watchmen were cap- Beckham’s murder enraged the citizens of Army. This amorphous band began to take tured. To his captives, John Brown announced his Harpers Ferry. They became an angry shape with recruits in New England, New intentions: “I came here from Kansas, and this is screaming mob seeking vengeance. York, Kansas and Canada. The tocsin call to a slave state. I have possession of the United Those blacks who followed John Brown’s battle had been sounded! The army was States Armory, and if citizens interfere with me, I seizure of the arsenal, at first successful, gathering to emancipate the slaves for a must burn the town and have blood!” ended in failure. The fa ilure was a lost battle future freedom’s redoubt in Harpers Ferry, While Brown had achieved his initial objective, in the war against slavery. The drama of the Virginia. There the federal arsenal would the operation went down hill from this point. action in Harpers Ferry was a prelude to the provide the military means to save the Soon, the surrounding community, officials in coming of the Civil War. A far larger and United States from the sin of slavery. This Washington, , and Richmond were made more costly conflict loom ed in the future. It plan would be a religious, as well as a politi- aware of the commotion s in Harpers Ferry. would consume hundreds of thousands of cal battle. Most of the black men who accompanied Brown lives and billions of dollars. had lives that are lost in the mists of memory The liberating agents would be Brown’s Much has been written about John Brown along with their names, what they did and what sons, Owen, Oliver and Watson, thirteen and not much about his raiders. What of that happened to them. This brochure concentrates on other whites, and five blacks for a total of valiant vanguard of blacks that risked death the black men who were neither slaves nor citi- twenty one. Brown’s secretary of war, John in what pro-slavery people viewed as servile zens. Ironically, the first death at the hands of Henry Kagi’s whose call to Canada had pro- insurrection? Here is a brief summary of John Brown’s army would be Heyward Shepherd, duced two blacks, Steward Taylor, a spiritu- their fates. the night baggage man at the Baltimore and Ohio alist, and Osborn P. Anderson, a printer. Only Osborne Anderson escaped to write Railroad station. He was a free black shot by Wat- From Oberlin, Ohio, came John A. Copeland his story of what happened. son Brown where he was surprised by a voice John Copeland, a white college student, and and his uncle, Lewis Leary. Two freed slaves that had ordered him to halt. Our world is filled joined the army of liberation, Shields Green, friend of , with ironies such as this. Later on the Mayor of and . These recruits, led were executed, hanged separately by those Harpers Ferry, Fontaine Beckham, would lose his who maintained “segregation at the gallows“. life. He was shot at the railroad station by one of Steward Taylor, shot at the Engine House John Brown’s sharp shoo ters, Edwin Coppoc. (now named John Brown’s Fort), died a slow and agonizing death. He begged to be killed to end his agony.