Columbia weekly news., 1859-11-17

we'll as his S, cOnd IN command, John A
Cook, also said to be from Kansas
Brown passed under the name of Smith
and attracted no suspicion of his iden.
tity, as did also Cook Brown had hi
son with him. Recently, this party
appears to have been augmented by ad.
ditions from those who had been active
in Kansas, and in the beginning of the
instruction, is said to have numbered
7 only ,wenty-two, of whom but three APP
pear to be negroes-one of whom was
from Iowa, and another was prominent
actor in a slave rescue at Harrisburg.
The first open movement in the In
surrection was made about half-past 10
O'Clock on Sunday night All previous
operations had been conducted so quiet
ly that not the slightest alarm had been
given The watchman Of the bridge,
at the hour mentioned. while walking
across towards the Maryland side, was
seizeu by number of men. and told
that he was their prisoner but recog-
nizing Brown and Cook, whom he knew,
he treated it as a joke He was taken
to the Arnory and confined until MORN
.ng, when he was released. Another
watchman, seeing the lights or the
bridge all cut, was proceeding to relieve
the fist watchman, when he was seized
by the same party; bnt he managed to
escape The next movement of the in
,urgents was to repair to the farm house
Of Lewis Washington, four miles dis
tant-t Mr. Washington is large slave
owner
This party was headed by Cook, who
aroused and seized Mr.. Washington,
with whom he was acquainted, and car
ried him off prisoner, along with a
valuable collection Of arms, his carriage,
a wagon, and twelve OF his negroes
Thence the party proceeded to the
farm of Mr.. Allstadt, whom with his
son, lad Of sixteen, they took prison
ers, at the same time forcing all the ne
groes within reach to join them, aud
thus they returned to the armory at
Harper's Ferry. While this detach
ment was operating in the country the
railroad train was stopped and the col
ored boy killed, as first reported, by
another party of insurrectionists. The
conductor was bound and told not to
attempt to proceed with his train, which
was detained six hours. During these
proceedings and although the armory
was in full possession of the insurgents
the populace appears to have been in
total ignorance of the true state of al
fairs or even Of the ln-urrectlon. The
town was sbroud, in darkness, all lights
having been extinguisbed, and as the
forces If the insurrectipnists had been
augmented to ittv or more, by threats
as wonia chiefly appear, everything was
in tn ir han Is It was not until the
town was fsirlv awake and they found
the bridge guarded by armed men, and
a gr,afl station / af al the avenues,
that tie people found they were prison.
ers panic ensued, nd the forces
Of the insurgents increased to from 800
to COO Dnring these proceedings the
workmen, suspacting nothing wrong en-
tered the armory, and were thus made
prisoners one by one, until in this man
ner they secured almost all. Chief
Craftsman of the armory, Benz. Mills,
Master o. the armory J L. Dangeltield,
Paymaster clerk, Mr. La'enfeldt, to-
gether wi h the prisoners above mem
toned Although these prisoners re,
NAMED with them to the end, we have
no account that either of them was in
jured
A party of insurrectionists appears to
have been posted in building on the
Maryland side of the river, near the
bridge by the canal. There was also
some iring from he bills on the Mary
land side Some supposed to proceed
from party which had gone over ear
ly in the morning On the Maryland
side, a baggage master and another man
attached to oue of the detained trains
attempted to pass through on foot, and
were male prisoners They were taken
before the leader Of the insurrectioni-ts
who refused to let anything pass. The
eastward bound trains were all laying
west of Harper's Ferry, unable to pro-
ceed. The first assault, to judge from
the confused and contradictory accounts
was made on the insurgents stationed
on the bridge. During the night of
Monday a detachment of the Charles
town command crossed the Potomac
above Harper's Ferry and assailed those
who bad been stationed in the house by
the canal. There was some firing and
the insurgents were dislodged -one man
was killed aud another arrested The
latter ran to the river and tried to escape
by swimming A dozen shots were fired
at him He partially fell, but rose and
snapped bis pistols at his pursuers One
of the soldiers was ten feet off The
fugitive then threw up his hands and
cried, "Don't shoot" The soldier
e. or, Al ,so, foIl Joal ;tb bic faoo