"Harpers Ferry Raid"

On October 16, 1859, abolitionist John Brown and several followers seized the United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry. The actions of Brown's men brought national attention to the emotional divisions concerning slavery.

John Brown was born in Connecticut in 1800 and became interested in the abolitionist movement around 1835. In 1855, Brown and several of his sons moved to Kansas, a territory deeply divided over the slavery issue. On Pottawotamie Creek, on the night of May 24, 1856, Brown and his sons murdered five men who supported slavery, although none actually owned slaves. Brown and his sons escaped. Brown spent the next three years collecting money from wealthy abolitionists in order to establish a colony for runaway slaves. To accomplish this, Brown needed weapons and decided to capture the arsenal at Harpers Ferry.

In 1794, President George Washington had selected Harpers Ferry, Virginia, and Springfield, Massachusetts, as the sites of the new national armories. In choosing Harpers Ferry, he noted the benefit of great waterpower provided by both the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers. In 1817, the federal government contracted with John H. Hall to manufacture his patented rifles at Harpers Ferry. The armory and arsenal continued producing weapons until its destruction at the outbreak of the Civil War.

In the summer of 1859, John Brown, using the pseudonym Isaac Smith, took up residence near Harpers Ferry at a farm in Maryland. He trained a group of twenty-two men, including his sons Oliver, Owen, and Watson, in military maneuvers. On the night of Sunday, October 16, Brown and all but three of the men marched into Harpers Ferry, capturing several watchmen. The first victim of the raid was an African-American railroad baggage handler named Hayward Shepherd, who was shot and killed after confronting the raiders. During the night, Brown captured several other prisoners, including Lewis Washington, the great-grand-nephew of George Washington.

There were two keys to the success of the raid. First, the men needed to capture the weapons and escape before word reached Washington, D. C. The raiders cut the telegraph lines but allowed a Baltimore and Ohio train to pass through Harpers Ferry after detaining it for five hours. When the train reached Baltimore the next day at noon, the conductor contacted authorities in Washington. Second, Brown expected local slaves to rise up against their owners and join the raid. Not only did this fail to happen, but townspeople began shooting at the raiders.

Armory workers discovered Brown's men in control of the building on Monday morning, October 17. Local militia companies surrounded the armory, cutting off Brown's escape routes. Shortly after seven o'clock, a Harpers Ferry townsperson, Thomas Boerly, was shot and killed near the corner of High and Shenandoah streets. During the day, two other citizens were killed, George W. Turner and Harpers Ferry Mayor Fontaine Beckham. When Brown realized he had no way to escape, he selected nine prisoners and moved them to the armory's small fire engine house, which later became known as John Brown's Fort.

With their plans falling apart, the raiders panicked. William H. Leeman tried to escape by swimming across the Potomac River, but was shot and killed. The townspeople, many of whom had been drinking all day on this unofficial holiday, used Leeman's body for target practice. At 3:30 on Monday afternoon, authorities in Washington ordered Colonel Robert E. Lee to Harpers Ferry with a force of Marines to capture Brown. Lee's first action was to close the town's saloons in order to curb the random violence. At 6:30 on the morning of Tuesday, October 18, Lee ordered Lieutenant Israel Green and a group of men to storm the engine house. At a signal from Lieutenant J.E.B. Stuart, the engine house door was knocked down and and the Marines began taking prisoners. Green seriously wounded Brown with his sword. Brown was taken to the Jefferson County seat of Charles Town for trial.

Of Brown's original twenty-two men, John H. Kagi, Jeremiah G. Anderson, William Thompson, Dauphin Thompson, Brown's sons Oliver and Watson, Stewart Taylor, Leeman, and free African Americans Lewis S. Leary and Dangerfield Newby had been killed during the raid. John E. Cook and Albert Hazlett escaped into Pennsylvania, but were captured and brought back to Charles Town. Brown, Aaron D. Stevens, Edwin Coppoc, and free African Americans John A. Copeland and Shields Green were all captured and imprisoned. Five raiders escaped and were never captured: Brown's son Owen, Charles P. Tidd, Barclay Coppoc, Francis J. Merriam, and free African American Osborne P. Anderson. One Marine, Luke Quinn, was killed during the storming the engine house. Two slaves, belonging to Brown's prisoners Colonel Lewis Washington and John Allstadt, also lost their lives. It is unknown whether or not they voluntarily took up arms with Brown. One drowned while trying to escape and the other died in the Charles Town prison following the raid. Local residents at the time believed the two took part in the raid. To discredit Brown, residents later claimed that these two slaves had been taken prisoner and that no slaves actually participated in the raid.

John Brown, still recovering from a sword wound, stood trial at the Jefferson County Courthouse on October 26. Five days later, a jury found him guilty of treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia. Judge Richard Parker sentenced Brown to death and he was hanged in Charles Town on December 2. Before walking to the scaffold, he noted the inevitability of a national civil war: "I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood." Following additional trials, Shields Green, John A. Copeland, John E. Cook, and Edwin Coppoc were executed on December 16, and Aaron D. Stevens and Albert Hazlett were hanged on March 16, 1860.

Northern abolitionists immediately used the executions as an example of the government's support of slavery. John Brown became their martyr, a hero murdered for his belief that slavery should be abolished. In reality, Brown and his men were prosecuted and executed for taking over a government facility. Still, as time went on, Brown's name became a symbol of pro-Union, anti-slavery beliefs. After the Civil War, a school was established at Harpers Ferry for African Americans. The leaders of Storer College always emphasized the courage and beliefs of John Brown for inspiration. In 1881, African-American leader Frederick Douglass delivered a classic speech at the school honoring Brown. Twenty-five years later, W.E.B. DuBois and Martinsburg newspaper editor J.R. Clifford recognized Harpers Ferry's importance to African Americans and chose Storer College as the site for a meeting of the Second Niagara Movement, which later became the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Those in attendance walked at daybreak to John Brown's Fort. In 1892, the fort had been sent to the Chicago World's Fair and then brought back to a farm near Harpers Ferry. Today, the restored fort has been rebuilt at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park near its original location.

News of John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry stunned northerners and southerners alike. Adding to the hysteria were early newspaper reports with their sensational headlines, including this one from the October 18 issue of the New York Herald, which spoke of "Extensive Negro Conspiracy in Virginia and Maryland." Southerners were especially frightened, fearing that widespread insurrection was imminent. They drove out northerners and suspected antislavery sympathisers,1 and when they learned that northerners were mourning Brown's death and even depicted him as a martyr, they became incensed. The raid prompted the Richmond Enquirer to state that, "[the] invasion has advanced the cause of disunion more than any other event that has happened since the formation of [our] government."

Fearful and Exciting Intelligence.

Negro Insurrection at Harpers Ferry.

Extensive Negro Conspiracy in Virginia and Maryland.

Seizure of the United States Arsenal by the Insurrectionists.

Arms Taken and Sent into the Interior.

The Bridge Fortified and Defended by Cannon.

Trains Fired inot and Stopped --- Several Persons Killed --- Telegraph Wires Cut --- Contributions Levied on the Citizens.

Troops Despatched Against the Insurgents from Washington and Baltimore . . . .

. . . I believe to have interfered as I have done, . . . in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, if it be deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children, and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit: so let it be done."

John A. Copeland, a member of John Brown's band of men who raided the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, was captured, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death by a court in Charlestown, Virginia (now Charles Town, West Virginia).

In a letter written to his parents, brothers, and sisters from within a Charlestown jail cell -- just a few hours before his execution -- Copeland explained that he blamed no one but himself for his fate and that "we shall meet in heaven, where we shall not be parted by the demands of the cruel and unjust monster Slavery."

Dear Father, Mother, Brothers Henry, William and Freddy and Sisters Sarah and Mary:

The last Sabbath with me on earth has passed away. The last Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday that I shall ever see on this earth, have now passed by. God's glorious sun, which he has placed in the heavens to illuminate this earth -- whose warm rays make man's home on earth pleasant -- whose refulgent beams are watched for by the poor invalid, to enter and make as it were a heaven of the room in which he is confined -- I have seen declining behind the western mountains for the last time. Last night, for the last time, I beheld the soft bright moon as it rose, casting its mellow light into my felon's cell, dissipating the darkness, and filling it with that soft pleasant light which causes such thrills of joy to all those in like circumstances with myself. This morning, for the last time, I beheld the glorious sun of yesterday rising in the far-off East, away off in the country where our Lord Jesus Christ first proclaimed salvation to man; and now, as he rises higher and his bright light takes the place of the pale, soft moonlight, I will take my pen, for the last time, to write you who are bound to me by those strong ties, (yea, the strongest that God ever instituted,) the ties of blood and relationship. I am well, both in body and in mind. And now, dear ones, if it were not that I knew your hearts will be filled with sorrow at my fate, I could pass from this earth without a regret. Why should you sorrow? Why should your hearts be wracked with grief? Have I not everything to gain, and nothing to lose by the change? I fully believe that not only myself, but also all three of my poor comrades who are to ascend the same scaffold -- (a scaffold already made sacred to the cause of freedom by the death of that great champion of human freedom -- Captain John Brown) are prepared to meet our God.

I am only leaving a world filled with sorrow and woe, to enter one in which there is but one lasting day of happiness and bliss. I feel that God, in his Mercy, has spoken peace to my soul, and that all my numerous sins are forgiven.

Dear parents, brothers and sisters, it is true that I am now in a few hours to start on a journey from which no traveler returns. Yes, long before this reaches you, I shall, as I sincerely hope, have met our brother and sister who have for years been worshiping God around his throne -- singing praises to him and thanking him that he gave his Son to die that they might have eternal life. I pray daily and hourly that I may be fitted to have my home with them, and that you, one and all, may prepare your souls to meet your God, that so, in the end, though we meet no more on earth, we shall meet in heaven, where we shall not be parted by the demands of the cruel and unjust monster Slavery.

But think not that I am complaining, for I feel reconciled to meet my fate. I pray God that his will be done, not mine.

Let me tell you that it is not the mere fact of having to meet death, which I should regret, (if I should express regret I mean) but that such an unjust institution should exist as the one which demands my life, and not my life only, but the lives of those to whom my life bears but the relative value of zero to the infinite. I beg of you, one and all, that you will not grieve about me; but that you will thank God that he spared me to make my peace with him.

And now, dear ones, attach no blame to any one for my coming here, for not any person but myself is to blame.

I have no antipathy against any one. I have freed my mind of all hard feelings against every living being, and I ask all who have any thing against me to do the same.

And now, dear Parents, Brothers and Sisters, I must bid you to serve your God, and meet me in heaven.

I must with a very few words close my correspondence with those who are the most near and dear to me: but I hope, in the end, we may again commune never more to cease.

Dear ones, he who writes this will, in a few hours, be in this world no longer. Yes, these fingers which hold the pen with which this is written will, before today's sun has reached its meridian, have laid it aside forever, and this poor soul have taken its light to meet its God.

And now, dear ones, I must bid you that last, long, sad farewell. Good by, Father, Mother, Henry, William and Freddy, Sarah and Mary! Serve your God and meet me in heaven.

Your Son and Brother to eternity,
JOHN A. COPELAND

December 16, 1859

Dear Husband: I want you to buy me as soon as possible, for if you do not get me somebody else will. The servants are very disagreeable; they do all they can to set my mistress against me. Dear Husband,. . . the last two years have been like a troubled dream to me. It is said Master is in want of money. If so, I know not what time he may sell me, and then all my bright hopes of the future are blasted, for there has been one bright hope to cheer me in all my troubles, that is to be with you, for if I thought I should never see you, this earth would have no charms fo me. Do all you can for me, which I have no doubt you will. I want to see you so much.

From my intercourse with him I regard him as one of the most respectable persons we had. . . . He was a copper-colored Negro, behaved himself with as much firmness as any of them, and with far more dignity. If it had been possible to recommend a pardon for any of them it would have been this man Copeland as I regretted as much if not more, at seeing him executed than any other of the party."

Charged with murder, insurrection, and treason against the state of Virginia, John Brown -- leader of the raid on Harpers Ferry -- lay wounded on a cot in the courtroom. He had requested that the proceedings be delayed by one day to allow time for his lawyer to arrive. The request was denied, and he was assigned a lawyer who, against Brown's wishes, set out to prove his client insane.

The court found Brown guilty and asked if there was any reason why a sentence of death should not be pronounced. Although not prepared to make a statement, Brown stood up and, in a mild and composed manner, addressed the court.

He stated that he had never intended to kill, or destroy property, or incite slaves to rebellion. He referred to the Bible. "[T]o have interfered as I have done," he stated, ". . . in behalf of His despied poor, was not wrong, but right."

John Brown was hanged one month later, on December 2, 1859.

Address of John Brown to the Virginia Court at Charles Town, Virginia on November 2, 1859

I have, may it please the court, a few words to say.

In the first place, I deny everything but what I have all along admitted, -- the design on my part to free slaves. I intended certainly to have made a clean thing of that matter, as I did last winter, when I went into Missouri and took slaves without the snapping of a gun on either side, moved them through the country, and finally left them in Canada. I designed to do the same thing again, on a larger scale. That was all I intended. I never did intend murder, or treason, or the destruction of property, or to excite or incite slaves to rebellion, or to make insurrection.

I have another objection; and that is, it is unjust that I should suffer such a penalty. Had I interfered in the manner which I admit, and which I admit has been fairly proved (for I admire the truthfulness and candor of the greater portion of the witnesses who have testified in this case), -- had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends -- either father, mother, sister, wife, or children, or any of that class -- and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this interference, it would have been all right; and every man in this court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment.

The court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see a book kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament. That teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to them. It teaches me further to "remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them." I endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say, I am too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done -- as I have always freely admitted I have done -- in behalf of His despied poor, was not wrong, but right. Now if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments. -- I submit; so let it be done!

Let me say one word further.

I feel entirely satisfied with the treatment I have received on my trial. Considering all the circumstances, it has been more generous than I expected. I feel no consciousness of my guilt. I have stated from the first what was my intention, and what was not. I never had any design against the life of any person, nor any disposition to commit treason, or excite slaves to rebel, or make any general insurrection. I never encouraged any man to do so, but always discouraged any idea of any kind.

Let me say also, a word in regard to the statements made by some to those conncected with me. I hear it has been said by some of them that I have induced them to join me. But the contrary is true. I do not say this to injure them, but as regretting their weakness. There is not one of them but joined me of his own accord, and the greater part of them at their own expense. A number of them I never saw, and never had a word of conversation with, till the day they came to me; and that was for the purpose I have stated.

Now I have done.

With a small band of men, white and black, Brown seized the federal armory--the only government armory in the South--as well as the arsenal and took prisoners while his men rounded up local enslaved men to assist them on the ground. Much of what has been otherwise said of the raid has been skewed and misrepresented by slavemasters, Democrats and Republicans, and a host of hostile and/or ignorant journalists and historians over the past century-and-a-half.

Here are 7 points about the Harper's Ferry raid you should know:

1. It was well planned and reasonable.  Brown did his homework and knew that the armory/arsenal was not guarded by the military and hardly guarded at all. He took both the armory and town of Harper's Ferry completely by surprise by invading late at night on Oct. 16 and held an advantage throughout the night and into the early morning hours. Even Frederick Douglass was wrong when he predicted it was necessarily a "perfect steel trap." Douglass over-estimated the defense and defenders--although he may have had a prophetic sense of Brown's tragic delay, which is really what cost him the raid--and his life.
    
2. The raid was not an act of terrorism and Brown was not a terrorist.  Had it been an act of terrorism, Brown would not have failed, for the reason the raid did not succeed was because he paid too much concern to his hostages, including some whining slave masters, and undermined himself in trying to negotiate with them. Would a terrorist allow his prisoners to go home and see their families under guard and send out for their breakfast? This is also what Brown did while holding Harper's Ferry under his control. Indeed the raid was designed to have symbolic and strategic value, as the jump-start of his planned mountain-based campaign to gather enslaved people from the depths of the South.
    
3. Brown's actual plan was reasonable.  He intended to spread out in small groups of raiders throughout the vast mountain system of the eastern U.S. that stretches from north to south, and make (by stealth) invasions of farms and plantations to lead enslaved people off, thus swelling his forces and de-stabilizing the southern economy. His intention was to fight only in self-defense, not to make deliberate war upon slave masters and their families (insurrection). Brown explicitly and repeatedly denied that he intended an insurrection, yet historians, following the reactionary tenor of slave masters, continue to say this was his purpose. It would have been virtually impossible to stop a movement consisting of small groups of men and women working in the mountain system or to prevent large numbers of people from escaping from slavery to join them. Nor was the U.S. military equipped, trained, or prepared for a guerilla war if it came to such fighting. If initiated, Brown's movement would have at least festered and upset the South in an unprecedented manner.
    
4. It is NOT true that enslaved people did not support the raid.  For the relatively small number of enslaved people in this town and vicinity of the upper south, the evidence is that a good many more enslaved men actually came into town to support John Brown. Slave masters afterward denied this in order to sustain the southern myth of the loyal slave. Since 1859, politicians, journalists, and historians have favored the testimony of southern whites and largely ignored what Brown's own men have said, particularly Osborne Anderson, a black raider who actually wrote a short history of the raid.
    
5. Strategically, Brown did not want fugitives from slavery to participate in the raid on Harper's Ferry.  This puts to rest the hackneyed, erroneous notion that the "slaves did not support Brown." His intention was to rendezvous with them outside of the town after the raid, withdrawing with them to the mountains. There are at least two substantial testimonies and additional supportive evidence that many more fugitives--hundreds, perhaps more, were beginning to gather outside of town. However they had to withdraw because Brown delayed and became caught in a trap that could easily have been avoided had he left town by early morning Oct. 17.
    
6. Despite a good plan, Brown defeated himself.  His overly ponderous nature and worries over the welfare of his captives (perhaps too he was seeking to negotiate the emancipation of their slaves) gave local militia enough time to gather and cut off escape routes. Yet it took another day and the help of the U.S. marines to actually capture John Brown, his raiders, and the surviving enslaved men who supported them. Had he kept to his own plan and schedule, he and his fugitive allies would have almost walked away from Harper's Ferry without facing any significant opposition, and could have easily retreated to the mountains as planned. Contrary to the notion that he was a crazy man and a killer, it seems that John Brown was actually too tender-hearted and still hoped to resolve some of the issue by negotiation. This was his greatest error.
    
7. Even though Brown failed to initiate his plans and was hanged, historians like Jean Libby and Hannah Geffert have shown that the black community in Jefferson County and surrounding counties were heavily impacted by his presence.  The census of 1860 shows that slavemasters lost their "property" in great numbers following the raid--a direct result of black people's determination to make good out of Brown's death. Local enslaved people poisoned the livestock and set fires on the property of slave owners and even some of the jurors in John Brown's trial. Jean Libby has uncovered evidence that local blacks tried to communicate with Brown while he was in jail, and we can even see an imprisoned Brown conversely playing down the extent of their involvement him out of concern for their welfare (southerners historically unleashed violent fury on the enslaved community even when they successfully put down uprisings, etc.). Brown, his men, and the enslaved community were far more networked than conventional historians want to acknowledge.

In contrast, the Harper's Ferry raid was the effort of a small band which, to a man, involved people with unusually high principles and convictions regarding justice and human liberation. There was no self-interest in the group, except for Dangerfield Newby, who was fighting in the hopes of freeing his enslaved wife and family. The goal of the raid was not to seize territory and extend slavery but to deflate and collapse the slave economy. Brown believed that a civil war was inevitable, even imminent, and hoped to defuse it by undermining the infrastructure of the South with minimal violence. Historians have often "credited" him with the start of the Civil War, although it had been his hope of avoiding it. To suggest (as did some 20th century historians) that the War would have been avoided were it not for Brown, is ridiculous. The problem of slavery had to be dealt with, and to suggest that another half-century of "moderation" was needed is unrealistic with respect to Southern militancy. Too, to suggest that slavery should have been phased out in time is to join with many others who have temporized over doing justice for reasons of prejudice. The Harper's Ferry raid represented the best interests of our nation's founders, many of whom were stymied by their own racism and hypocrisy (like Thomas Jefferson) being both prophets of freedom and slave masters. Brown--not the floundering late-born emancipator Lincoln--represents the prophetic single-minded corrective to Washington and Jefferson's double-mindedness.

John Brown was a "bible Christian" who acted out of interest in the freedom of an oppressed and victimized people. He believed something had to be done and at least he tried. To impugn him for using "violence" is hypocrisy since our nation used violence in order to subdue, control, and "settle" this land. To condemn him for not allowing the "problem" to be resolved by governmental leadership is also a farce. First, this is precisely what Brown and many other anti-slavery people did throughout the first half of the 19th century. By 1850 things had actually gotten worse for the cause of freedom. The government was in the hands of pro-slavery forces and there was secession (and continued slavery) on the lips of powerful southerners. Furthermore the North was hardly driven by concern for free blacks, let alone enslaved black people in the South. As long as slavery was contained, people like Abe Lincoln would have been contented.

All things considered, the Harper's Ferry raid, failure and all, was exactly what was needed in the long run. There was no other way to deal with slavery except by ending it, and there was no other way to end it than by a program using a measure of violence. Brown tried a program of minimalist bloodshed and happily went to the gallows believing that his death would at least snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. "I failed," John Brown told one of his Virginia guards, "but it is only delay, for as certain as the sun shines, the negroes will soon be set free."  John Brown was prescient in his vision of slavery's end. Lincoln began his presidency by defaming Brown but ended it by doing a political imitation of him.

How one views the Alamo and Harper's Ferry is not a matter of historical trivia. It is a barometer of one's sense of justice in history and probably in the contemporary sense as well.

Some time in the 1950s, young Tom Stratton came to visit his Grandfather George and Granmother Melva Stratton at what today is Stratton House Inn. While there, he found a rifle tucked behind the door in the entrance-way to the house. When Tom asked his Grandmother about the rifle, she dismissed it, saying, "It had been owned by one of the Coppock cousins, and may have been used at Harpers Ferry."

At the time, Tom didn't know who the Coppocks were, but he remembered what his grandmother had told him, and he continued to have an interest in the rifle. It subsequently was moved from the entrance-way, and placed under the floor-boards in the attic. That's where the rifle was being stored when it was retrieved a few years later, and given to Tom's father -- who, in turn, gave it to Tom.

"As near as I can tell at this point, the rifle is not rifled, the barrel is octagonal and appears to be cut down to 32"; and the caliber appears to be .38 or .40. There is a patch box on the stock, so I suspect that it originally was a flintlock and that it was converted to a percussion cap. I feel pretty certain that the gun was made somewhere around 1840, probably by a small local gunmaker in Central Pennsylvania - Bedford, Chambersburg, Lancaster area. There is a name, C. Weber, on the patchbox. Weber appears to be a common name in that part of PA. The caliber is too small to have been used regularly as a military weapon. The gun was probably meant for small game up to deer."

Pennsylvania, which contained 200 Sharps rifles, an equal number of pistols, and a thousand pikes. After establishing his base of operations on a farm about five miles outside Harper's Ferry, Brown had this "freight" delivered to the farm.

It is possible that Barclay carried the rifle found in Stratton House with him to Harper's Ferry. There, even though later armed with a Sharps rifle and a pistol, he may have carried this trusted rifle as a backup.

conspiracy to bring him up-to-date on developments. Barklay noted that five raiders had escaped, namely Owen Brown, Charles Plummer Tidd, Francis Jackson Meriam, Osborn Perry Anderson, and himself.

Barklay stated that three of them stayed together until they reached Centre County, Pa., where they bought a large shipping box and packed up all heavy luggage, such as the rifles they had salvaged from the farm near Harper's Ferry. Barklay stated that at that point, Owen Brown and Charles Plummer Tidd "went on foot towards the north-western part of Pennsylvania" while he [Barklay] took the large box by train back to Ohio. See photo of Barclay at right.

In a book published in 1861, "A Voice from Harper's Ferry," Osborn Perry Anderson confirms that Barclay Coppock accompanied the "box of rifles" back to Ohio. What happened to them there is unknown.

Two days before Edwin's execution, he wrote a "last" letter to his Uncle Joshua Coppock, in Salem Ohio. That letter is included elsewhere in this entry. For this reason, the following geneology also includes Joshua Coppock. See photo of Edwin at right.

Edwin Coppoc was born near Salem, Ohio, on 30 June 1835. His father died when he was a child. Edwin lived many years with his grandfather, going to district school and working on a farm. He is described as a studious, industrious boy of cheerful disposition. His eyes and hair were brown and his skin fair. He was fond of athletic sports and was intelligent, active, brave, loyal and the soul of honor. He had winning manners, was amiable, generous and kind.

Anne Brown says of Edwin: "He was a rare young fellow, fearing nothing, yet possessed of great social traits, and no better comrade have I ever met."

His mother was a woman of unusual intelligence and force of character. She strongly opposed the determination of her sons to enlist in the desperate enterprise. She had married again and her sons were living with her in Springdale, Iowa, when John Brown and his men came there to prepare for the Virginia invasion. Her boys eagerly listened to the story of the wrongs and cruelties inflicted upon the helpless slaves, as eloquently told by John Brown, and longed to help them to freedom.

Edwin and his younger brother, Barclay, at last determined to join the young men who were drilling at the Maxson farm and to follow wherever the old liberator should strike the nest blow for emancipation. On the 15 July a letter came from John Brown requesting them to come on to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. On the 25th they bade their mother goodby and started ostensibly for Ohio. But their mother was not deceived; she knew too well their destination and expected never to see them again.

Order No. 9, made out by Captain Brown the day of the attack, details "Lieut. Albert Hazlett and Edwin Coppoc to hold the armory opposite the engine house after it is taken, remaining there until morning, when further orders will be given."

CHARLESTON, Dec. 13, 1859.
JOSHUA COPPOCK:

My Dear Uncle -

I seat myself by the stand to write for the first and last time to thee and thy family. Though far from home and overtaken by misfortune, I have not forgotten you. Your generous hospitality towards me, during my short stay with you last spring, is stamped indelibly upon my heart, and also the generosity bestowed upon my poor brother who now wanders an outcast from his native land. But thank God he is free. I am thankful it is I who have to suffer instead of him.

The time may come when He will remember me. And the time may come when He may still further remember the cause in which I die. Thank God the principles of the cause in which we were engaged will not die with me and my brave comrades. They will spread wider and wider and gather strength with each hour that passes. The voice of truth will echo through our land, bringing conviction to the erring and adding members to that glorious army who will follow its banner. The cause of everlasting truth and justice will go on conquering and to conquer until our broad and beautiful land shall rest beneath the banner of freedom. I had fondly hoped to live to see the principles of the Declaration of Independence fully realized. I had hoped to see the dark stain of slavery blotted from our land, and the libel of our boasted freedom erased, when we can say in truth that our beloved country is the land of the free and the home of the brave; but that cannot be.

I have heard my sentence passed, my doom is sealed. But two more short days remain for me to fulfill my earthly destiny. But two brief days between me and eternity. At the expiration of those two days I shall stand upon the scaffold to take my last look of earthly scenes. But that scaffold has but little dread for me, for I honestly believe that I am innocent of any crime justifying such punishment. But by the taking of my life and the lives of my comrades, Virginia is but hastening on that glorious day, when the slave will rejoice in his freedom. When he can say, "I too am a man," and am groaning no more under the yoke of oppression. But I must now close. Accept this short, scrawl as a remembrance of me. Give my love to all the f amily. Kiss little Joey for me. Remember me to all my relatives and friends. And now farewell for the last time.

From thy nephew,
EDWIN COPPOCK

Tom Stratton provides this photo and describes the rifle as follows:

"As near as I can tell at this point, the rifle is not rifled, the barrel is octagonal and appears to be cut down to 32"; and the caliber appears to be .38 or .40. There is a patch box on the stock, so I suspect that it originally was a flintlock and that it was converted to a percussion cap. I feel pretty certain that the gun was made somewhere around 1840, probably by a small local gunmaker in Central Pennsylvania - Bedford, Chambersburg, Lancaster area. There is a name, C. Weber, on the patchbox. Weber appears to be a common name in that part of PA. The caliber is too small to have been used regularly as a military weapon. The gun was probably meant for small game up to deer."

Source: http://strattonhouse.com/index.php?section=inn&content=john_browns_raid

Jean Libby, another John Brown historian, takes issue with a few points raised by DeCaro and presents her views on the historic event and some of the personalities involved, below.  Jean Libby is editor of the website Allies for Freedom.org.

How one views the Alamo and Harper's Ferry is not a matter of historical trivia. It is a barometer of one's sense of justice in history and probably in the contemporary sense as well.

I have been asked by a correspondent whether or not I agree with it. Even though I think Lou DeCaro is an outstanding scholar, and I am personally praised in this piece, and on his excellent blogsite of issues and news items about John Brown, my answer is "No."

The Alamo: although iconographic in U.S. History, the siege of the Alamo took place in 1836, nine years before the entry of Texas as a slave state into the United States and the Mexican-American War. To say that Texas was "an anti-slavery state" before the battle of the Alamo and the implication that this was part of the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848 is a distortion.

Dangerfield Newby and Shields Green: this response is to the statement that "there was no self-interest in the group, except for Dangerfield Newby, who was fighting in the hopes of freeing his enslaved wife and family." Shields Green, who was with Frederick Douglass and John Brown when Douglass described Harpers Ferry as "a perfect steel trap" decided to "go with the old man" when Douglass wisely refused to participate in the kidnapping of hostages and attack on federal property. Shields Green, a fugitive, also had a wife and child who were still enslaved.

Carl Westmoreland of the Underground Railroad Freedom Center wrote to me in 2001 that what is important in African American thinking about John Brown is that he truly believed in racial equality, and this was without patronization. I think it is certain that Dangerfield Newby was participating in the raid on abolition grounds as much as the others. Scholar Ian Barford has found evidence, which he shared with this group, that Newby was in Ashtabula when he was recruited by Brown, not in Bridgeport, in southeastern Ohio. From handwritten notes in the carpetbag letters found at the Kennedy Farm and used as evidence in the trials of John Brown and the surviving raiders, both Dangerfield and "G"(his brother Gabriel) were part of the Underground Railroad and that is how they found out about the Ashtabula center of abolition activity. They went there to join the plan, and Gabriel may have been on his way to Virginia on August 27, 1859.Shields Green, the forgotten man (whose actual name was Esau Brown) was assigned the role intended for Frederick Douglass in notifying the local black population of the liberation movement on the night of October 16. He went with Charles Tidd, one of the whites who had misgivings about the soundness of the plan, to take the armory and arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Tidd went back to Maryland after cutting telegraph wires outside Charles Town and Green went south to Wheatland, the farm of George Turner (later killed by Dangerfield Newby in the fighting) and back along the new macadam road by the Shenandoah River to the Rifle Works with at least three slave recruits. At least two were killed; all three are listed as fugitive in the census of 1860, when George Turner is dead. Shields/Esau had the opportunity to stay with the outside positions, according to Osborne Anderson's account. But he risked fire to go back into the engine house to fight alongside Brown and his sons and related Thompson brothers. It is Osborne Anderson who tells us that Green has said, twice, that he will stay with John Brown. The John Brown story with these words by Green is not published by Douglass until his last autobiography. Henry Organ has written of this in John Brown Mysteries. Every year on December 16 Henry writes to me to remember the execution of Shields Green two weeks after that of John Brown.

Both Newby and Green, I believe along with Carl Westmoreland and Henry Organ, are revolutionary thinkers and planners with Brown, whom he trusts, and they do not let him down. If Newby were there for self-interest, he would not be placed in the most vulnerable position, he would have taken off for Warrenton when the town was secured.Louis A. DeCaro is generous with praise about the work of Hannah N. Geffert and myself on regional black involvement in the John Brown raid that is recently in Prophets of Protest edited by Timothy Patrick McCarthy and John Stauffer and published by The New Press (2006). It has taken thirty years for this concept of black participation first articulated by Osborne Anderson, who saw it, and by W.E.B. Du Bois, who believed him. Lou DeCaro has written of this fundamental belief by Du Bois in comparison with Oswald Garrison Villard, who defends the white raiders as "fine American boys" but calls the black man a liar.

I know that it is very ungrateful of me to remember the Alamo in a different way than an example of white supremacy, and the Mexican government as one of justice. I am sorry, but I must.

Jean Libby

Published as "John Brown's Raid at Harper's Ferry: An Eyewitness Account By Charles White," ed. Rayburn S. Moore, The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 67 (October, 1959):387-395.

Recently, a graphic eyewitness account of the raid has come to light. It is contained in a letter written several weeks after the affair by Charles White, minister of the Presbyterian Church at Berryville, Virginia, to his brother- in-law John Felt, of Salem, Massachusetts. The Reverend Mr. White also served the Presbyterian congregation in Harpers Ferry, where on the Sunday evening of October 16 he had preached his regular biweekly sermon and then spent the night. In the early morning hours of October 17 he was awakened by his host, A. H. Herr, and informed of the disturbance in the town. Shortly thereafter he went out to investigate the report, and from that time until the capture of John Brown early on the morning of October 18, White was a minor participant and eyewitness to much that happened. In his letter he describes in detail what he saw and did. Unfortunately, a section of four pages is missing, but the eight pages and maps remaining contain valuable information concerning the raid.

When the villains ran they crossed the Winchester Rail- road and made for the river. One ran towards us with his pike (slave of Mr Alstadts)-and beckoned us to come to him. We ran immediately toward the whole of them-the Bolivar men pressing on them from the mountain - we on one side. One or two of our men had by this time procured guns. One negro was drowned-a slave-the only one of whom we have doubts as to his complicity with them-& that because he ran with them. When Alstadts man who ran towards us came up-I asked him how came he there & what he was doing with the pike-he said they had taken him and his master the night before-brot them down-& told him if he didn t keep guard at Rifle factory they would kill him. I beleive he was innocent. While talking a reckless fellow came up-levelled his musket at the negro's head within an inch or so-and was about to pull the trigger. I asked him not to fire as did others. He swore he'd kill him & that he had orders from the Captain of Charlestown Company. I told him no matter what the Capt said we had the man prisoner-perhaps he was innocent-he was ours-and stepping between the two, I ordered him not to fire. Several then took hold of his gun & saved the negro Perhaps you laugh at my orders. Of course I had no delegated authority- but so enraged were the multitude that it was with difficulty they were restrained from hanging & shooting several on the spot. I did all I could to prevent it. The other 3 men I saw shot in the river-Kagi the Sec of War was shot dead-one a mulatto from Ohio died next morning in Herrs Cooper Shop.The other mulatto I think from Pennsylvania is in jail at Charlestown.

The next four pages (five through eight) of the letter are unfortunately lost. When John Felt returned the letter in May 1899 to William C. White, Charles White's son, he remarked that he could not find the missing pages. That they contained valuable information (presumably abut the capture of Brown on the morning of October 18) is clear not only from the content of this letter but also from another written by Charles White in 1883. This latter communication is discussed later in the article.

[page nine begins] . . . Stevens are wretched-degraded looking bandits. I was at first inclined to think Brown a brave man-of some remnant of a generous nature-but the more I see and hear of his devilish designs, the more thoro' becomes my contempt and horror of him-and all his abettors & sympathizers, including Cheever, Beecher & co. During the affair the negroes about H F were terribly alarmed and clung as closely as they could to master & mistress. One negro hid under a water wheel in the armory canal and didn't come out till Tuesday-and then was afraid Brown might catch him. One slave has since died of fright-whom Browm had prisoner. Some one or two slaves whom B had taken and given pilees ln the engine house-on that fearful night, true to their natures dropped the pikes and went to sleep. Not one slave that we can discoser was willingly with them-unless it be the one drowned. This shows well for the slaves I think. Those who were taken-escaped to their homes as soon as they got a chance. And not one woman was taken or freed - which is rather singular, when they had so good an opportunity-and loved them so. There is of course a great deal of excitement-and to add to it several stock yards-barns etc have been burnt in the last week in our county- and several masters have been beaten or attacked by their servants. But I beleive the majority of servants have no evil intentions-or desire any movement. They know & say they are better off where they are & as they are. We have patrols out every night. Ch[arle]stown is guarded every night at every point. I do not think you need be uneasy about us. Have you seen Wendell Phillips speech in H. Ward Beechers church) It is the most atrocious-treasonable & murderous piece of villa[i]ny I have ever read. I suppose Beecher is as bad. I do not know that the Devil would display such malignity. There are a great many incidents etc I might mention- but it would perhaps be tedious. If you think of anything in regard to this you would like to ask-I shall be glad to answer. I wish I could see you all. You had better come down & take a look at the scene of action. These men must doubtless be hung. Cook I ought to have told you taught for several weeks a small school on his own hook entirely-in the basement of my church at H F-but I never saw him.

Beginning at the top left and moving to the right and thence to the bottom of the page, these notes attempt to elucidate Charles White's sketch.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the most detailed map of ithe raid drawn by any eyewitness present during most of the action on October 17 and 18. a. The men shot in the Shenandoah River were J. H. Kagi and Lewis Leary, who, together with John A. Copeland, Jr. and one or two captured slaves, had occupied the rifle works but had been forced by heavy fire from higher ground to evaacuate their position. Copeland was captured and one of the slaves was drowned. See also Villard, John Brown, pp. 444-445. b. Bolivar Heights provided the high ground from which the "men of Bolivar," as White characterizes them, were able to use their newly acquired fire power to force Kagi and his party to leave the rifle works. c. Herr's Mill was located on Virginius Island, which was separated from the town by a canal.

d. Jefferson's Rock was located on a hill not far from Charles White's church and was a familiar landmark in Harpers Ferry. It was from this vantage point that Thomas Jefferson reputedly observed the surrounding territory and described it in his Notes on the State of Virginia (1785).

e. As he walked down High Street early in the afternoon of October 17, George W. Turner, a prominent farmer and slaveholder who lived in the vicinity of Harpers Ferry, was shot and killed instantly by one of the raiders. See Alexander R. Boteler, "Recollections of the John Brown Raid. By a Virginian Who Witnessed the Fight," The Century Magazine, XXVI (July 1883), 406 and Villard, John Brown, pps. 440-441.

f. The arsenal buildings were captured by Brown and his men soon after they entered the town on Sunday night. They were guarded thereafter (at one time or other) by Albert Hazlett, a native of Pennsylvania and a liestenant in Brown's command; Edwin Coppoc, another of Brown's lieutenants and a resident of Iowa; and Osborn P. Anderson, a Pennsylvania Negro who served as a private in the raiding force. Hazlett and Anderson escaped, though the former was later arrested in his home state and returned to Virginia for trial. Coppoc was captured with Brown and a few others in the fire-engine house of the armory on October 18, 1859. For the details, see Villard, John Brown, pp. 430, 439, 682, 685. Dangerfield Newby, a freed slave from Virginia who, like Anderson, served as a private in the insurgent band was killed in or near the arsenal yard as he retreated from his post on the Maryland bridge to join Brown's group in the armory (Boteler, "Recollections of the John Brown Raid," p. 406).

g. Since Fontaine Beckham was the agent of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at Harpers Ferry, his office was railroad property. Stevens, one of Brown's ablest officers and Watson Brown, a younger son of the leader of the raiders, were both mortally wounded as they attempted to arrange a parley with the citizens who opposed them. Stevens was carried into the Wager House, a local hotel, and given medical attention and Brown managed to return to the engine house in the armory (Villard, John Brown, pp. 439-441)

h. John Brown himself had early taken command of the armory buildings. In the afternoon of October 17 he was forced by militia troops to retreat to the fire-engine house with "the remnants of his band, the slaves he had armed, and eleven of the most important prisoners," the remaining prisoners being released by the militia (Villard, John Brown, p. 439). See also Boteler, "Recollections of the John Brown 0 Raid," pp. 406-407. It was from this position that Brown and the others were taken on October 18 by marines under the command of Colonel Robert E. Lee.

i. William Thompson, a young friend and follower of Brown from New York, was captured shortly before Stevens and Watson Brown were wounded. After the shooting of Fontaine Beckham by one of the insurgents, several citizens, including Henry Hunter, the son of Andrew Hunter who later became special prosecutor in the trial of John Brown, took Thompson's life in reprisal. See Villard, John Brown, pp. 441-443; Boteler, "Recollections of the John Brown Raid," p. 407; and D. H. Strother, "The Late Invasion at Harper's Ferry," Harper's Weekly, III, 713 (November 5, 1859)

j. The hotel in the sketch is apparently the Wager House.

k. Fontaine Beckham had not only been agent of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad for twenty-five years but he was also mayor of Harpers Ferry and a benefactor of the Negro (Villard, John Brown, pp. 441-442). When he was shot without cause near the water station (also referred to as water tank), his friends and fellow townsmen tok justice in their own hands and summarily executed William Thompson.

l. The heavy dot marks the spot where Charles White stood on the morning of 0ctober 18 when Brown and his little group were captured.

m. John E. Cook (sometimes spelled Cooke) had come to Harpers Ferry as an advance agent, and during the preparation for and activities of the raid he served as a captain in the "Provisional Army." On the morning of October 17 he was put in charge of some wagons and sent by Brown to the base in Marryland to bring up guns and ammunition and thus was absent during part of the raid. He managed to escape when the cause was lost, but was captured on October 25 and hanged on December 16, two weeks after John Brown's own execution (Strother, "The Late Invasion at Harpers Ferry," p. 714, and Villard, John Brown, pp.435, 680-68I).

Seven conspirators manag