John Brown and the Raid Upon Harper's Ferry: Brown's and Armory

The forces with which Brown made his attack consisted of seventeen white and five colored men, though it is said that others who escaped assisted outside, by cutting the telegraph-wires and tearing up the railroad-track. The entrance of this petty army into Harper's Ferry on Sunday evening, October 16th, seems to have been effected without creating alarm. They first rapidly extinguished the lights of the town, then took possession of the Armory buildings, which were only guarded by three watchmen, whom, without meeting resistance or exciting alarm, they seized and locked up in the guard-house. It is probable that they were aided, or, at least, guided, by friendly negroes belonging in the village. At half-past ten the watchman at the Potomac bridge was seized and secured. At midnight his successor, arriving, was hailed by Brown's sentinels, but ran, one shot being fired at him from the bridge. He gave the alarm, but still nothing stirred. At a quarter-past one the western train arrived, and its conductor found the bridge guarded by armed men. He and others attempted to walk across, but were turned back by presented rifles. One man, a negro, was shot in the back, and died next morning. The passengers took refuge in the hotel, and remained there several hours, the conductor properly refusing to pass the train over, though permitted, at three o'clock, to do so.

A little after midnight the house of Colonel Washington was visited by six of Brown's men, under Captain Stevens, who captured the colonel, seized his arms, horses, etc., and liberated his slaves. On their return Stevens and his party visited the house of Mr. Alstadt and his son, whom they captured, and freed their slaves. These, with each male citizen as he appeared in the street, were confined in the Armory until they numbered between forty and fifty. Brown informed his prisoners that they could be liberated on condition of writing to their friends to send a negro apiece as ransom. At daylight the train proceeded, Brown walking over the bridge with the conductor. Whenever any one asked the object of their captors, the uniform answer was, "To free the slaves;" and when one of the workmen, seeing an armed guard at the Arsenal gate, asked by what authority they had taken possession of the public property, he was answered, "By the authority of God Almighty!"

The passenger-train that sped eastward from Harper's Ferry, by Brown's permission, in the early morning of Monday, October 17th, left that place completely in the military possession of the insurrectionists. They held, without dispute, the Arsenal, with its offices, workshops, and grounds. Their sentinels stood on guard at the bridges and principal corners, and were seen walking up and down the streets. Every workman who ignorantly approached, the Armory, as day dawned, was seized and imprisoned, with all other white males who seemed capable of making any trouble. By eight o'clock the number of prisoners had been swelled to sixty-odd, and the work was still proceeding.

But it was no longer entirely one-sided. The white Virginians, who had arms, and who remained unmolested in their houses, prepared to use them. Soon after day-break, as Brown's guards were bringing two citizens to a halt, they were fired on by a man named Turner, and, directly afterwards, by a grocer named Boerly, who was instantly killed by the return fire. Several Virginians soon obtained possession of a room overlooking the Armory gates, and fired thence at the sentinels who guarded them, one of whom fell dead, and another -- Brown's son Watson -- was mortally wounded. Still, throughout the forenoon, the liberators remained masters of the town.

Whatever the expectations of the invaders, they had already failed. The negroes whom they must have looked for to flock to their standard did not come. To remain in that position was suicidal. No hope was left but in flight. Yet Brown held his ground. Meanwhile, the country was rising.

Half an hour after noon a militia force, one hundred strong, arrived from Charlestown, the county seat, and were rapidly disposed so as to command every available exit from the place. In taking the Shenandoah bridge they killed on of the insurgents, and captured William Thompson unwounded. The rifle-works were next attacked, and speedily carried, being defended by five insurgents only. These attempted to cross the river, and four of them succeeded in reaching a rock in the middle of it, whence they fought with two hundred Virginians, who lined the banks, until two of them were dead and a third mortally wounded, when the fourth surrendered.

The fight continued during the day, men being killed on both sides. The Virginia militia was being hourly reinforced, and Brown, finding himself strongly beleaguered, retreated to the engine-house, where he repulsed his assailants, who lost two killed and six wounded.