The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-10-27
HARPER's FERRY INsURRECTIoN.
RALrIMoRE. Oct. l8, l859

rived. and are now marching to the armoreS
Their services were no longer required at Har'
pers Ferry, the Government and Virginia
troops being amply sufficient for all emergen-
4 cies.- A ss9
The report of the american commences with
q notice of the originators. The principal
originator of this short but bloody instruction
was undoubtedly Capt. John Brown, whose con-
nection with scenes Of violence in the border
warfare in Kansas then made his name famil-
| iarlY notorious throughout the whole country.
/ Brown made his first appearance in Harper's
Ferry more than year ago, accompanied by
his two sons-all three of them assuming the
name of Smith. He inquired about land in the
vicinity, and made Investigations as to the
probability of finding ores there, and for some
time boarded at Sandy Point, mile east of
the Ferry. After an absence of some months,
the elder Brown reappeared in the vicinity,
and rented or leased a farm on the Maryland
! side, about four miles from the Ferry. They
bought a large number of picks and spades,
and this confirmed the belief that they intended
to mine for ores. They were frequently seen
in and about Harper's Ferry, but no suspicion
seems to have existed that Bill Smith was
| Capt. Brown, or that he intended embarking
in any movement so desperate or extraordina-
~. Yet the development of the plot leaves no
doubt that his visits to the Ferry and his lease
of the farm were all parts of his preparation for
an instruction, which he supposed wonld be
4 successful in DISCRIMINATING Slavery In Mary
land and Western Virginia.
Browns chief aid was John z. Cook a COM
| paratively young man, who has resided in and
near Harper's Ferry some years. He was first
| employed in tending lock On the canal, and af-
terward taught school on the Maryland side of
the river; and after brief residence in Kan
sas, where, it is supposed, he became acquaint-
ed with Brown, returned to Harper's Ferry, and
married there. He was regarded as a man of
some intelligence, and known to be Anti-Slave-
ry, but was not SO violent in the expression of
his opinions as to excite any suspicious.
These two men, with Browns two sons, were
the only white men connected with the insur-
rection that had been seen about Harper's Fer
~. All were brought by Brown from dis
lance, and nearly all had been with him in
Kansas.
The first active movement in the insurrec-
ton was made at about l03 o'clock on Sunday
night William Williamson, the Waterman at
Harper's Ferry bridge, while walking across
toward the Maryland side, was seized by a
number of men, who said he was their prisoner,
and must come with them. He recognised
Brown and Cook among the men, and, knowing
them, treated the matter as a joke; bat en-
forcing silence, they conducted him to the
Armory, which he found already in their pos
session. He was detained till after daylight,
and then discharged. The Waterman who was
to relieve Williamson at midnight, found the
bridge lights all out, and was Immediately
seized. Surprising it an attempt at robbery,
he broke away, and his pursuers stumbling
over him, he escaped.
The next appearance of the insurrectionsts
was at the house of Col. Lewis Washington, a
large farmer and slave-owner, living about four
miles from the Ferry. A party headed by Cook
proceeded there, and rousing Col. Washington,
told him he was their prisoner. They also
seized all the slaves near the house, took a car
rage horse and large wagon with two horses.
| When Col. Washington saw Cook, he imme-
diately recognised him as the man who had
called upon him some months previous and to
whom he had exhibited some valuable arms in
his possession, including an antique sword pre-
scented by Frederick the Great to George Wash
ington, and pair of pistols presented by La
! fayette to Washington, both being heir-looms
in the family. Before leaving, Cook wanted
/ Col. Washington to engage in trial of skill at
shooting, and exhibited considerable certainty
as marksman. When he made the visit on
| Sunday night, he alluded to his previous visit,
and the courtesy with which he had been treat
ed, and regretted the necessity which made it
| his duty to arrest Col. Washington. He, how
ever, took advantage of the knowledge he had
obtained by his former visit, to carry off all the
valuable collection of arms, which the owner
did not reobtain till after the final defeat Of the
instruction.
From Col. Washington's he proceeded with
| him as a prisoner in the carriage, and twelve
of his negroes in the wagon, to the house of Mr..
Allstadt, another large farmer on the same
road. Mr.. Allstadt and his son, a lad of six
| teen, were taken prisoners, and all their me-
groes within reach forced 10 join the movement.
He then returned to the Armory at the Ferry
| All these movements seem to have been made
without exciting the slightest alarm in town
nor did the detention of Capt. Phelps's train al
| the upper end ofthe town attract attention.
1t was not until the town thoroughly walked
up and found the bridge guarded by armed
men, and guard stationed at all the avenues
that the people saw that they were prisoners. A
panic appears to have Immediately ensued, and
the number of insurrectionists was at once in
creased from fifty (which was probably Their
greatest force, including the slaves who were
forced TO ipin) to from FIVE to six hundred
In the mean TINA, . number of workmen no
knowing anything of wnct had occurred. en-
tered the Armory, and were successfully taker
prisoners, until at one time they had not les
than sixty men confined in the Armory
Among those thus entrapped were: ArmisteaC
Ball, Chief Draughtsman of the Armory; Ben
jamin Mills, Master of the Armory and j. z
p. Dangerfeld, Paymaster's Clerk. These
three gentlemen were imprisoned in the engine
house, which afterward became the chief for
tress of the insurgents, and were not released
until after the final assault. The workmer
were imprisoned in large building furthel
dqWn the yard, and were rescued by a brillian
Zouage dash, made by the railroad company
men who CANE down from Martinsburg
This was the condition Of things at daylight
about which time Capt Cook, vita two whit,
men, accompanied by thirty slaves, and takin.
with them Col. Washington's large wagon
went over the bridge and struck up the noun
tainTo&d toward Pennsylvania.
1t was then believed that large wagon wa
2 used to convey away the Paymaster's safe, con
4 tanning $4,000 Government finds, and ais,
A that it was filed with Mimic rifles, taken out t.
e supply other bands ia the mountains, who wer
e to come down upon Harper's Ferry in over
whelming force. These suppositions prove,
2 untrue, as neither money nor arms were dis
? turbed. As day advanced, and news sprea
: around, and people came into the Ferry, tn
D frs demonstrations of resistance were made t
the inssFrscs.GniSts.
S A general warfare ccnnenced, chiefly led O
!. by man named Chambers, yGoce house CON
n manded the Armory yard The ooiO,e2 1aa
: named Hayward, railroad porter, was she
, early in the morning, for refusing to join tn
movement
. The next man shot was Joseph Burley,
: citizen of the Ferry. he was shot standing j
! his own door. The insurrectionistS by this tin,
J finding disposition to resist them, had will
! drawn nearly all within the Armory ground
" l,r,-...c. L.. IL. q. Ia