Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1894-12-19

have many here that are well thought Of
but the niggers in Virginia will never be
the equals of the whites,-not if they live
here million years.
"You find the place of the gallows at
the end of the first street on the right,
where Gibson's new brick house stands,
right on the very spot. Some say 1t
stood where the front of the house is, but
it was where the gable end is. There was
a plan to take Browns body and drag it
through the street, and so our government
gave orders for 26 of us to 60 to the Fer
ry with it, and to shoot any one that tried
to take it away and we should done it
too. Our governor used pretty strong
language about it. We put the body on
the cars at the Ferry, and took receipt
for it, His wife was waiting at Philadel.
phia to take it.
"The Jail is new; no, the woodwork
wasn't burnt out during the war: it was
taken out, piece by piece the solid
logs in between the inner and outer lay.
ers of brick, in the walls,-and made into
picture frames and canes and all kind O
things, by the soldiers that were here
most all of the time. Them soldiers had
a kind of stockade fence around the court
house here and had holes in it for mus
kerry. One day Imboden Ia rebel gener-
all drew up two pieces of artillery onto
the nights over back here, and they were
glad to get out of this"
The clerk of the Charles Town court,
though so young man now, was "out'
with Filz Lee when only boy Of II. in
the last two years of the war, and he
pointed out to me one of Mosby's men on
the other side of the street Riding along
this dusty West Virginia turnpike on the
way back to the Ferry, if one for a mo.
ment shuts out the sight of wheat.ricks
and singing birds, he sees with the minds
eye, an open cart in which lies wound
ed old man surrounded by a ferocious
mob, faring along toward Charles Town
"a few weeks later, his body, protected
by guards, carried in the opposite dircc'
ton. And then, after some eventinl
years, this road is filled with armed men
in gray, hurrying TO victory at Harper's
Ferry, or with hosts in blue, marching
with Sheridan to Winchester On all
the way back to Washington he will
think of Stonewall Jackson, carrying
Loudoun Hights,-of Lee crossing at
Frederick, or of Baker at Balls Bluff
all now become as silent as John Brown.
Along The Potomac, Sept. 1894. II. 5.
The above has been handed us for pub
lication We take the liberty, for the
sake of the truth of history, TO make a
note or two or three The "village har-
ness.maker" is not a native Virginian,
though he has been n resident long
enough to entitle him TO the benefits Of
such distinction, and it is worth a trip
across the Atlantic to hear him discourse
on almost any topic under the sum-
Lawson Bolts, referred to, was not
brother of the distinguished John Minor
Bolts, but a nephew he was not then
commander Of the Charles Town compa-
ny that responded first to the call to Har-
per's Ferry, though he did 60 there and
improvise a company which he gallantly
led to the front. Subsequently he COM
manded a company Of boys, and later on
the Bolts Grays of the "StoDewall Bri-
gade," and later on, when Colonel COM
mandiDg the End Virginia regiment, re-
ceived wound at 2nd Manassas that re-
suited in his death. No man was hung
with John Brown-old Ossawattomie
went it alone, but there was very large
and respectable audience. Cook and
Coppic, white men, and Shields Green
and Copeland, negroes, were hung two
weeks after Brown, and all four at the
same time.