Chapter III: Part 3

I can see Colonel Lee now, as he stood on a slight elevation about forty feet from the engine-house, during the assault. He was in civilian dress, and looked then very little as he did during the war. He wore no beard, except a dark mustache, and his hair was slightly gray. He had no arms upon his person, and treated the affair as one of no very great consequence, which would be speedily settled by the marines. A part of the scene, giving color and life to the picture, was the bright blue uniform of the marines. They wore blue trousers then, as they do now, and a dark-blue frock-coat. Their belts were white, and they wore French fatigue caps. I do not remember the names of the twelve men in the storming party, nor can I tell what became of them in later life. We had no use for the howitzers, and, in fact, they were not taken from the car.

Immediately after the fight, Brown was carried out of the engine-house, and recovered consciousness while lying on the ground in front. A detail of men carried him up to the paymaster’s office, where he was attended to and his wants supplied. On the following day, Wednesday, with an escort, I removed him to Charleston [Charles Town], and turned him over to the civil authorities. No handcuffs were placed upon him, and he supported himself with a self-reliance and independence which were characteristic of the man. He had recovered a great deal from the effects of the blow from my saber, the injury of which was principally the shock, as he only received a flesh wound. I had little conversation with him, and spent very little time with him.

I have often been asked to describe Brown’s appearance at the instant he lifted his head to see who was talking with Colonel Washington. It would be impossible for me to do so. The whole scene passed so rapidly that it hardly made a distinct impression upon my mind. I can only recall the fleeting picture of an old man kneeling with a carbine in his hand, with a long gray beard falling away from his face, looking quickly and keenly toward the danger that he was aware had come upon him. He was not a large man, being perhaps five feet ten inches when he straightened up in full. His dress, even, I do not remember distinctly. I should say that he had his trousers tucked in his boots, and that he wore clothes of gray—probably no more than trousers and shirt. I think he had no hat upon his head.

None of the prisoners were hurt. They were badly frightened and somewhat starved. I received no wounds except a slight scratch on one hand as I was getting through the hole in the door. Colonel Lee and the people on the outside thought I was wounded. Brown had, at the time, only five or six fighting men, and I think he himself was the only one who showed fight after I entered the engine-house. There were no provisions in the building, and it would have been only a question of time when Brown would have had to surrender. Colonel Washington was the only person inside the house that I knew.

I have been asked what became of Brown’s carbine. That I do not know. My sword was left in Washington, among people with whom I lived, and I lost trace of it. A few years ago, after having come out of the war and gone west to Dakota, where I now live, I received a letter from a gentleman in Washington, saying that he knew where the sword was, and that it was still bent double, as it was left by the thrust upon Brown’s breast. He said that it was now a relic of great historic value, and asked me to assent to the selling of it upon the condition that I should receive a portion of the price of the weapon. To me the matter had very little interest, and I replied indifferently. Since then I have heard nothing of the matter. I presume the saber could be found somewhere in Washington.

SELECTED READING LIST

Joseph Barry, _The Strange Story of Harper’s Ferry With Legends of The Surrounding Country_, Martinsburg, W. Va., 1903.

Richard O. Boyer, _The Legend of John Brown: A Biography and A History_, New York, 1973.

Louis Filler, _The Crusade Against Slavery, 1830-1860_, New York, 1960.

Stephen B. Oates, _To Purge This Land With Blood: A Biography of John Brown_, New York, 1970.

Louis Ruchames, ed., _John Brown: The Making of a Revolutionary_, New York, 1969. (Originally published under the title _A John Brown Reader_.)

Franklin B. Sanborn, _Life and Letters of John Brown_, Boston, 1885.

Kenneth M. Stampp, _The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South_, New York, 1956.

Edward Stone, ed., _Incident at Harper’s Ferry_, Englewood Cliffs, 1956.

Oswald Garrison Villard, _John Brown, 1800-1859: A Biography Fifty Years After_, Boston and New York, 1911 (2d edition, 1943).

PICTURE CREDITS

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park: Title page, 8-9, 16-17, 24 (right), 26 (drawing), 28 (inset), 31, 32-33, 37 (drawing), 40-41, 45, 47 (drawing), 48, 53, 54-55, 56, 58-59; Library of Congress: 2, 3, 6, 19, 20, 21, 22 (left & center), 24 (left), 26 (portraits), 28, 36, 37 (inset), 39, 42, 44, 46, 50, 51, 52, 57; Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka: 4, 5, 22 (right); U.S. Marine Corps Museum: 47 (portrait); Boyd B. Stutler Collection, through the courtesy of Stephen B. Oates: 11 (Howe & Stearns); John Brown Collection, Columbus University Libraries: 11 (Sanborn & Parker); Public Library, City of Boston: 11 (Smith); Boston Atheneum: 11 (Higginson); Robert Lautman: cover (John Brown’s Fort).

★U.S. Government Printing Office 1973 0 521 267
Reprint 1990

Footnotes

[1]Originally published in _The North American Review_, December 1885.

Transcriber’s Notes

—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook
is public-domain in the country of publication.

—Added a Table of Contents.

—Relocated all image captions to be immediately under the corresponding
images, removing redundant references like “preceding page”.

—Silently corrected a few palpable typos.

—This book was printed mostly in italic, with emphasized text in roman;
the eBook reverses those fonts.

—In the text versions only, text in roman is delimited by _underscores_.

End of Project Gutenberg's John Brown's Raid, by National Park Service