Western sentinel. [volume] (Winston [i.e. Winston-Salem], N.C.) 1856-1886, 1885-03-05
OSSAWATTOMIE BROWN.
THE OBDURATE OGRE OF BOR-
DER WARFARE.

THE OBDURATE OGRE OF BOR-
DER WARFARE.
His More Remote Training In the Kan
sas Tragedies, which Moulded the
RufIian Afterward Notorious as the
Partisan Crank and Gallows-AIar-
tyr, cold John Rrown.''
BY EDWARD PAYsON HALL.
For The Sentimsl.
That "sour-apple-tree" suspended
individual, "Old John Brown" other
wise "Harper's Ferry Brown" and
"John Brown the martyr, whose soul
keeps marching on" was known to
the writer in the Border War of Kan
sas: in 1856, by no other or at that
time more appropriate name than
"Ossawattomie Brown" Sallying forth
from his stronghold near Ossawatto-
mie, south of the Kansas River noun
ted en- his large grey mule, which
would fight for him with all four feet,
paving, kicking, biting like dog,
and very often rescuing him when
surrounded by an ambuscade of Bu-
ford's or Atchinson's men bowie
knife in each boot-top a belt of re-
volvers around his waist, and his fa-
vorite Sharp's rifle slung from his
shoulder, he ranged up and down the
| new-cut forest roads, at the head OF
his chosen band of free-soilers, leaving
in his track many murdered man,
hundreds of burnt and desolated home
steads, and scores of outraged and
homeless women and children. Citi-
zens of these South Atlantic States,
tho they caught faint glimpse of the
difficulties from the detached and par
tial versions in the newspapers at the
time, little knew that war as fierce,
(albeit, lacking nothing only its ex-
tensiveness,) as our great Confederate
convulsion of after years, was then
raging on the prairies of the Far West.
| And all the bitter, envenomed North
ern hatred has had for its symbol, be-
fore and since, this same beligerent
Brown, whose name then resounded
through every nook from Lawrence to
Lecompton. In the person and deeds
of this gall andvincgar-fed, weazen-
faced and lynx-eyed ''Old Man of the
Mountain" this nervy Nemesis from
the North descending like storm of
bloody Scyllas upon the South side,
were so unprecedentedly and inimits-
bly, combined the frozen-hearted New
Englander, the bigoted, blatant, hy-
percritical Green Mountain pedagogue,
the crazy abolition fanatic, the ranting
religious enthusiast, the sabre-scarred
and bullet-punctured, brave veteran
of 1912, and the ogre of border say
agery and cruelty, that history can
furnish no parallel.
On the 26th of May, 1856, Brown
and his men attacked Potawattomie,
a pro-slavery town, and fiendishly muir
dered Mr.. Doyle and his two sons,
Mr.. Wilkinson and VIM. Sherman.
On the 31st of May, Capt. Pate, in the
absence of Brown, retaliated by plum
dering and burning portion of Ossa-
wattomie, and taking away with him
Browns two sons as prisoners. Brown,
with 80 followers, overlook, joined bat
tie with and conquered Pate's gang,
near Palmyra, taking 81 prisoners, to-
gether with all their valuables, horses,
wagons, &c, on the End of June. On
the 9Th of that month, Brown disband-
ed his forces in obedience to Col. Sum
ner, United States officer, on con-
dition Sthat Gen. Whitfield, pro-sla.
very champion close at hand, should
also disperee his army But Brown 8
enemies did not all "sound the truce
for so "sound on the goose" were some
of them, that we have to note the ad-
vance, on June 7th, of Gen. Reid, with
120 men, who sacked, Quilted and burnt
up the remnant of Ossawattomie.
1t was from the date Of this latter
decisive occurrence on till the close OF
the year 1857, that Brown roamed
like an enraged wild-beast over the
territory,-a restless, revengeful, cruel
roadside guerilla, highwayman and
murderer-an outlawed monster, de.
fiant of all legal authority, either o1
the United States or local government
On the 18th of October, 1859, the
nation was astounded by the news that
Brown and handful of his deluded
I followers mere "corporaPs guard
of lunatics-had made war upon al
the Southern States, BY an attack al
Harper's Ferry.
Beside such crank as this Guiteau
dwindled into comparative insignif
canoe.
! "Halt! Halt there, will you? Are
you all right on the goose ~ yelled
one of Buford's sentinel's in my cars
as I was about to pass him at at one
of the crossings of the Kansas River
"To be sure I am all right on ht
goose" I promptly replied.
"Did you see anything of old Ossy
Brown up the road? The scouts say
he is gong to pay us a visit tonight
"Pshaw He's got only twenty men
and there's fifty of you here
"Odds is the difference to him Thai
old fool would as lieve fight the whole
State of South Carolina as any other
way p
| lift. Vernon, NJ c., Feb. 2SM.