The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-04-13
Saw John Brown Hanged.

II DelleVe L am the last OF the guards
about John Brown and his associates
in the Jail at Charlestown," he says.
He was near relative of Sheriff
Campbell, who had charge of Brown
and seven Of his younger associate
prisoners in the Charlestown jail
Several years ago he wrote out his
recollections of John Brown in Jail and
on the scaffold, but when 1t was finish
ed he destroyed the manuscript. Col.
Fellows served three years in the Con-
federate army, and was in Richmond at
the time of the surrender.
81 don't mind telling once MORE"
said Colonel Fellows to q Sun reporter,
''my "reminiscences Of poor old John
Brown during his last days on earth.
When / first heard of the bloody affair
at the engine house at Harper's Ferry,
in the middle of October, 1869, nobody
probably denounced John Brown and
his crazy abolition followers more than
did. 1t seemed to me then that this
shaggy-bearded man, Brown, was about
as near human fiend as one could be.
Yet when ! came TO be associated with
him almost Immediately formed an
attachment for him, 30 that to this day
1 have never quite recovered from my
personal sorrow at his execution-legal
and necessary though 1t may have been.
A handsome, promising young cousin
of mine was killed in the militia charge
on the Harper's Ferry engine house,
and that made my resentment against
Brown and his men the more intense.
But later, in the Charlestown Jail,
John Browns fortitude, amid pain
from his wounds, his integrity, charity,
and simplicity Of character, his stern
regard for duty, his Spartan frmness
in the face Of overwhelming odds, and
especially his modest bravery appealed
to me. Sheriff Campbell and all the
guards had sympathy with our aged
prisoner, and no real indignity was
ever offered John Brown by any one
in Jail, 80 far as l Observation-Disclosures
ing the multitude of stories. In all my
experience in the war and in border
life, where one meets all sorts of
strange characters, have never known
any one 30 serene in the midst of
frightful circumstances as was old John
Brown. He was truly marvellous
character. AS look back now on the
personality of the man, he seems to me
to have been more like the heroes of
SCOTS 'Ivanhoe' and of the Crusades
than any one l have ever known.
was twentyfv years old in 1859,
and was made one of the 300 guards
about the Charleston Jail, Immediately
after John Brown and seven of his men
captured in the engine house in Har-
per's Ferry-were brought to Charles
town. The whole country was wildly.
excited l doubt if any event in the war
that ragged through that region for four
years reused people like the incident at
Harper's Ferry. Governor Wise OF Vir-
ginia and thousands of people in the
South believed that John Brown and
his men were encouraged and secretly
hired by abolitionists, like Wendell
Phillips, Gerritt Smith, and Charles
Sumner in the North, and that the Blue
Ridge Mountains were teeming with
anti.slavery Northerners, who were
watching for on opportunity to come
down in force upon the Jail and liber-
ate Brown and his associates. So a
But it was seen later that there was no
need for such force, and was chosen
by my uncle, Sheriff Campbell, as one
of the half dozen day guards inside the
Jail corridor. l am the only one now
living who was employed in the jail at
that time. One of Browns lawyers
still lives in Brooklyn, N. Y.
81 became an inside guard after the
famous trial at Charlestown, and when
Browns execution was set for one
month later-Dec. 2-Brown occupied
q cell with one of his captured follow
ers, young man named Stevens, who
was executed with the other six prison
ers month or six weeks after the Cap
tain. When l went on duty in the Jail
John Brown was recovering from Sc
we're scalp wound that he got from a
sabre in the hands Of his captor at Har-
per's Ferry. saw the constant pain
the old man was in and the clumsy
way that he himself had to dress the
wound, 80 helped him, brought fresh
warm water. For all of this he was
extremely grateful in his reserved
| Spartan-like way. He was proud =,
reserved man, and liked to show his
stOicism. One day when guard re-
fused to give him letter from his wife
1 thought John Brown would lose con-
troll of himself and burst into passion,
but he put his lips together, and SHOW
ing his hands deep into his pockets,
walked into his cell. 1t was hours be-
fore he could compose himself. He
never displayed the least temper, al
though he certainly had occasion to get
angry every day, for he was hated and
disliked everywhere in that locality.
He never showed sorrow, except by an
occasional twitching of the face when
he had letter from his wife and child
rem. All of his letters were, of course,
read by Sheriff Campbell, 1, as one of
the family, saw some Of them. Some
were heart-breaking. All were 30 full
of expressions of love and tenderness
that I have seen the Sheriff wipe his
eyes many time while reading them
but John Brown never betrayed dis
tress. He read them over and over
and then would gaze into vacancy for
hours after he had finished.
"Brown was allowed to have two WIS.,
itors a day, and l was always near
when he chatted with his lawyer or a
friend, but l never observed in his
words bit of regret for his course ex-
cept that his son Oliver had been 30