MOBILIZING THE PROVISIONAL ARMY
_Confusion on thy banners wait!
Though fann'd by Conquest's crimson wing_.--GRAY
Released from further responsibility for his fugitive wards, and wearing
the laurels of his recent adventures, Brown began the reorganization of
his forces for the final hazard. Arriving at Cleveland March 15th, he
proceeded to sell, publicly, what remained of his share of the
Kansas-Missouri plunder which had been forwarded to that point from
Springdale: two horses and a mule. Brown announced that, notwithstanding
the Missouri origin of the stock, they were now "Abolition" animals;
explaining his metaphor by the statement that he had "converted" them. A
pen picture of Brown by _Artemus Ward_, reads as follows:[355]
He is a medium sized, compactly-built and wiry man, as
quick as a cat in his movements. His hair is of a salt and
pepper hue and as stiff as bristles; he has a long, waving,
milk white goatee which gives him a somewhat patriarchal
appearance. A man of pluck, is Brown. You may bet on that.
He shows it in his walk, talk and actions. He must be
rising sixty and yet we believe he could lick a yard full
of wild cats before breakfast and without taking off his
coat. Turn him into a ring with nine Border ruffians, four
bears, six injuns and a brace of bull pups and we opine
that "the eagles of victory would perch on his banner." We
don't mean by this that he looks like a professional
bruiser, who hits from the shoulder, but he looks like a
man of iron and one that few men would like to "sail into."
Kagi appeared to him "like a melancholy brigand, some of whose
statements were no doubt false and some shamefully true." A summary of
the lecture Brown delivered at Cleveland reads as follows:[356]
Brown's description of his trip to Westport and capture of
eleven niggers was refreshingly cool, and it struck us,
while he was giving it, that he would make his jolly
fortune by letting himself out as an Ice Cream Freezer. He
meant this invasion as a direct blow at slavery. He did not
disguise it--he wanted the audience to distinctly
understand it. With a few picked men, he visited Westport
in the night and liberated eleven slaves. He also
"liberated" a large number of horses, oxen, mules and
furniture at the same time.
In this speech Brown made the only acknowledgment of record, of his
relation to the Pottawatomie assassinations. The _Leader_, which was
friendly to Brown, quoted him as saying,[357] that "he had never killed
anybody, although on some occasions he had _shown his young men with
him_, how some things might be done as well as others and they had done
the business." Brown also impressed Mr. Alcott, who said of him after
hearing his lecture at Concord, May 8th:[358]
He tells his story with surprising simplicity and sense,
impressing us all deeply with his courage and religious
earnestness.... I had a few words with him after his
speech, and find him superior to legal traditions and a
disciple of the Right in ideality and the affairs of state.
A young man named Anderson accompanies him. They go armed,
I am told, and will defend themselves if necessary. He does
not conceal his hatred of slavery, nor his readiness to
strike a blow for freedom at the proper moment. He is of
imposing appearance.... I think him about the manliest man
I have ever seen.
The principal matter in hand now was to finance the initial movement of
the campaign. All the skies were clear. Time and the Kansas diversion
had discredited Forbes's truthful statements and eliminated him from the
problem. There was to be no further shifting of the scene, or hesitation
or faltering. The flood in his affairs was rising, carrying him on its
crest, to his fate. To the intelligent and insistent perseverence of Mr.
Sanborn belongs the credit, or the discredit, as the reader may elect,
for making Brown's operations possible. He stood, or became sponsor for
Brown's integrity of purpose in January, 1857, and financed his
subsequent career. May 30th, he wrote Colonel Higginson:
Capt. B. has been here for three weeks, and is soon to
leave--having got his $2000 secured. He is at the U. S.
Hotel; and you ought to see him before he goes, for now he
is to begin.[359]
Mr. Sanborn states[360] that in all, a little more than four thousand
dollars passed through the hands of the secret committee or was known to
it, as having been contributed in aid of the "Virginia enterprise:" and
that those who contributed thirty-eight hundred dollars of this sum, did
so "with a clear knowledge of the use to which it would be put."
At North Elba, about June 16th, Brown bid his family farewell and went
to West Andover where he made arrangements with his son John to take
upon himself the combined duties of quartermaster general, and
recruiting and mustering officer. From Ohio he went to Pennsylvania,
writing to Kagi, from Pittsburgh, under the name of S. Monroe. He was at
Bedford on June 26th, and at Chambersburg on the 28th. From Chamberburg,
on June 30th, in company with two of his sons, Owen and Oliver, and
Jeremiah G. Anderson. Brown left for the "front." On that day he wrote
Kagi under the name of "I Smith & Sons" saying that they were leaving
for Harper's Ferry and would be looking for "cheap lands near the
railroad in all probability." July 3d, they arrived at Sandy Hook,
Maryland, and spent the next day reconnoitering the country on the
Maryland side of the Potomac above Harper's Ferry.
To a Mr. Unseld, whom they met during the morning, Brown stated that
they were farmers from northern New York and because of late frosts and
other disadvantages, they had decided to seek a new location; that they
had a little money and intended to buy a farm, but would prefer to rent
a place until they became better acquainted with farm values in the
neighborhood. He also told him that his business would be buying fat
cattle for the New York market. Unseld suggested to them a farm
belonging to the heirs of a Dr. Kennedy, recently deceased, which was
then for sale. This farm was located about five miles from Harpers Ferry
on the Boonsboro road. It had probably been selected for headquarters
for the "Provisional Army" by Cook, who had been stationed at Harper's
Ferry for more than a year.
The Kennedy farm suited Brown "exactly." He went to Sharpsburg
immediately and leased two houses that were on the place, with firewood,
and pasture for a horse and a cow, until March 1, 1860; the total
consideration being thirty-five dollars. The main house stands about
three hundred yards from the road on the south side. "There was a
basement, kitchen and a storeroom, a living room and bed rooms on the
second story, and an attic." The "cabin" stood about the same distance
from the road on the north side of it. Notwithstanding the distance from
the road. Brown was constantly in danger of being brought under
suspicion by the friendly but inquisitive neighbors, who were constantly
dropping in to see the newcomers; but who were never invited to come
into the house. To further disarm suspicion Brown, on July 5th, sent for
his wife and daughter Anne, to report at headquarters. Mrs. "Smith,"
however, seemed to think she could not so readily abandon her home and
her young children. But Oliver Brown's young wife came instead: she and
"Annie" arrived about the middle of July. On the 10th of this month,
Brown wrote to Kagi, who was at Chambersburg, that it would be
"distressing _in many ways_, to have a lot of hands for many days, out
of employ. We must make up our lot of hands as nearly _at one & the
same_ time as possible."[361]
August 11th, there was a panic on the bourse of the Provisional
Government. Kagi reported the arrival of fifteen boxes of arms with
freight charges amounting to $85.00, which caused Brown to ask his son
John to solicit for him "a little more assistance, say two or three
hundred dollars." Continuing he said:
It is terribly humiliating to me to begin soliciting of
friends again; but as the harvest opens before me with
increasing encouragements, I may not allow a feeling of
delicacy to deter me from asking the little further I
expect to need.[362]
In due time his requisition for funds was honored from the never-failing
purse of Gerrit Smith. Brown's means of transportation consisted of a
horse and a wagon, but a contract for moving the arms from Chambersburg
to the Kennedy farm was awarded to a "Pennsylvania Dutchman" who had a
large freight wagon.[363]
Meanwhile the movement progressed in a systematic and orderly manner.
There was grave danger, however, that the secret of the contemplated
insurrection would transpire through the loquacity of the many persons,
estimated by Mr. Villard at possibly, eighty, who had more or less
knowledge of the enterprise. Brown seems to have feared that Cook,
especially, might give up information that would work disaster. It was
not that he held his loyalty in doubt, but he had been reported to the
commander-in-chief on a previous occasion, by the honorable secretary of
state, Mr. Realf, for "cacoethes loquendi," and Brown feared a
recrudescence of the malady. In a letter to Kagi at Chambersburg,
August 11th, he severely reproved those who had made their business in
Maryland a subject for general correspondence. But his expressions of
displeasure, did not prevent Leeman from writing to his mother, a month
and a half later, as follows:[364]
I am now in a Southern _Slave State_ and before I leave it
it will be a free State, Mother.... Yes, mother I am waring
with Slavery the greatest Curse that ever infested America;
In Explanation of my Absence from you for so long a time I
would tell you that for three years I have been Engaged in
a Secret Association of as gallant fellows as ever puled a
trigger with the sole purpose of the _Extermination of
Slavery_.
A warning, which was received by the Honorable Secretary of War, August
25th, notifying the department that Brown was then promoting a general
insurrection among the slaves, probably had its origin in Cook's
indiscreet volubility. The letter, addressed to "J. B. Floyd, Sec'y of
War," "Private" is as follows:[365]
Cincinnati, August 20.
SIR: I have lately received information of a movement of so
great importance that I feel it my duty to impart it to you
without delay.
I have discovered the existence of a secret association,
having for its object the liberation of the slaves at the
South, by a general insurrection. The leader of the
movement is _old John Brown_, late of Kansas. He has been
in Canada during the winter, drilling the negroes there,
and they are only waiting for his word to start for the
South to assist the slaves. They have one of their leading
men (a white man) in an armory in Maryland--where it is
situated, I have not been able to learn. As soon as every
thing is ready, those of their number who are in the
Northern States and Canada are to come in small companies
to their rendezvous, which is in the mountains in
Virginia. They will pass down through Pennsylvania and
Maryland and enter Virginia at Harper's Ferry. Brown left
the North about three or four weeks ago, and will arm the
negroes and strike a blow in a few weeks; so that whatever
is done must be done at once. They have a large quantity of
arms at their rendezvous and are probably distributing them
already. As I am not fully in their confidence, this is all
the information I can give you. I dare not sign my name to
this, but trust that you will not disregard the warning on
that account.
This letter, which should have led to the immediate overthrow and wreck
of the Provisional Government of the United States, had been enclosed in
an envelope addressed to the postmaster at Cincinnati, and mailed at Big
Rock, Iowa. At Cincinnati, August 23d, it was remailed to the Honorable
Secretary. Mr. Floyd received it at Red Sweet Springs, Virginia, August
25th, and while not attaching sufficient importance to the subject of
the communication to read it a second time, he preserved the letter,
and, after the denouement, published it. In explanation of his
indifference to the contents of this letter, he stated to the Mason
Committee, that the reference to the arsenal in Maryland misled him,
there being no armory in that state. He therefore, supposed the whole
thing was a hoax, and gave it no further attention. The history of the
letter was revealed in later years by its author, David J. Gue, of Scott
County, Iowa, who obtained his information from Mr. Moses Varney, of
Springdale.[366]
As the days passed, the men, who were to form the nucleus of the army of
invasion, straggled into Harper's Ferry and reported at headquarters for
duty. August 6th, Watson Brown arrived, and with him came the Thompson
brothers, William and Dauphin. They were brothers to Henry Thompson, who
had been with Brown in Kansas in 1856. Then came Tidd and Stevens, _et
al._, and last of all, but one of the most welcome of all the recruits,
came Francis J. Merriam. He arrived at the Kenneday farm October 15th,
with six hundred dollars in gold in his pockets, which he covered into
the Provisional Treasury. The arrival of Merriam with his gold relieved
the strain upon Brown's exchequer. The commander-in-chief had been
compelled to negotiate a loan of forty dollars from Lieutenant Coppoc,
upon the credit of the Provisional Government, to meet the current
expenses of the expedition. That deficit was now made good, leaving a
handsome surplus on hand. When Brown was taken into custody three days
later, he had with him two hundred and fifty or sixty dollars in gold
and silver. Mrs. Anne Brown Adams said:[367] "The good Father in Heaven
who furnishes daily bread sent Francis J. Merriam down there with his
money to help them just at the moment it was needed." But it may also be
said that in the varying vicissitudes of Brown's fortunes, almost any
moment was just such a moment as this. "His money," Mr. Villard states,
was Merriam's "only contribution of value to the cause.... In addition
to his other physical frailties he had lost the sight of one of his
eyes." After looking him over, Stevens assigned him to duty as guard
over the arms which were to be left at the Kennedy farm.
On the 29th of September, the two young women left army headquarters to
return to their homes. They had rendered faithful and valuable services
during the months of their stay. If the Provisional Government had
succeeded, these two women would have taken rank with the
immortals--Betsy Ross and Mollie Stark. Mrs. Adams relates[368] that one
day, while "we were alone in the yard Owen remarked, as he looked up at
the house: 'If we succeed, some day there will be a United States flag
over this house. If we do not, it will be considered a den of land
pirates and thieves.'" In the division of their labors Anne, and not
"Martha," seems to have "chosen the better part"; the latter did the
cooking for the company, and was the general head of the department of
domestic economy; while Anne, from the watch towers of the rude farm
house, kept vigils over all the approaches thereto. She was the faithful
sentinel that sounded the alarm at every sign of danger--the vestal
virgin, keeping alive the sacred fires upon their altar of liberty. The
approach of any human being was cause for alarm, lest the presence of
the invading army might be discovered and divulged. An interesting
account of the daily life at headquarters, by Mrs. Anne Brown Adams is
published by Mr. Villard.[369] Of the personnel of the field and staff,
she says:
It is claimed by many that they were a wild, ignorant,
fanatical or adventurous lot of rough men. _This is not
so_, they were sons from good families, well trained by
orthodox religious parents, too young to have settled views
on many subjects, impulsive, generous, too good themselves
to believe that God could possibly be the harsh unforgiving
being He was at that day usually represented to be. Judging
them by the rules laid down by Christ, I think they were
uncommonly good and sincere Christians, if the term
Christian means follower of Christ's example, and too great
lovers of freedom to endure to be trammeled by church or
creed.
No doubt the conduct of these free-booters, in the presence of the young
women, at the Kennedy farm, was circumspect and commendable, and
justified the estimate herein expressed of their exemplary characters,
and of the Christian lives that she supposed they had led, and were
living.
Little indeed did this pure minded girl know of the reckless careers and
the lives of violence these adventurers represented, or of the motives
that prompted them to undertake their present enterprise. Measuring them
by the standards put forth by Christ, it will have to be admitted that
they were a collection of "mis-fit" Christians--as "mild mannered men as
ever scuttled ship or cut a throat." Leeman, for instance, may be taken
as an illustration of one of these ideal "followers of Christ's
example." "For three years," he had been secretly placing the example of
his exalted character before the world, warring with slavery, in an
association of as gallant fellows as ever "puled" a trigger. Who these
gallant trigger "puling" fellows were, and what they did to earn their
reputations as trigger "pulers," during these three years, is more or
less conjectural. Mrs. Adams turns the light upon Leeman's Christian
character a little further, by the statement, that "he smoked a good
deal and drank sometimes." Mr. Villard states that he went to Kansas in
1856 with the second Massachusetts colony of that year, and became a
member of John Brown's "Volunteer-Regulars," September 9, 1856. Also,
that he fought well at Osawatomie. But since he is reported as having
enlisted ten days after the battle of Osawatomie there may be some
mistake as to that. George B. Gill, who knew a good bit about him and
who may have been a trigger "puler" himself, says that he "had a good
intellect with great ingenuity." Anne heard Hazlett and Leeman, one day,
saying that "Barclay Coppoc and Dauphin Thompson were too nearly like
good girls to make soldiers: that they ought to have gone to Kansas and
roughed it awhile, to toughen them, before coming down there." Cook, it
may be said, was less Christ-like than Leeman. He was disposed to
"swagger," also he "was indiscreet" and "boastful." Once, when in a
boastful mood, at Cleveland, he boasted that he had "killed five men in
Kansas." Then too he "swaggered openly in his boarding house" which was
bad form, from a Christian point of view. Also it is said that he
"revealed too much to a woman acquaintance."[370] Then there was
Hazlett; but the record as to his actions is so meager that one cannot
estimate with any degree of accuracy how "Christ-like" he really was.
About all that is known of him is that he stole a horse--a very fine
stallion--from somebody in Missouri, which, as has been stated, he
traded to Brown for a forty-acre United States land warrant. Also, he
was with Stevens when the latter killed Cruise, to get possession of the
slave girl. As to Stevens, it cannot truthfully be said that he was a
follower of Christ's example, in the stricter interpretation of that
expression. One of Christ's disciples--Peter--it is said, followed the
Master "afar off." In that respect Stevens resembles the disciple rather
than the Master. As a matter of fact, if Stevens followed Christ's
example at all, it was at very long range. From what is known of the
lives of these men, it may be assumed also, that if Charles Jennison had
been under Anne's observation at the Kennedy farm, he too would have
secured absolution for his crimes and would have received at her hands a
certificate of Christianity.[371]
The details that Brown's biographers have published concerning the
concentration of the military stores at his headquarters; his
correspondence with his men; the assembling of them in Maryland; his
constantly recurring financial embarrassments, and the edited statements
concerning the daily life which he and his men led after their arrival
at the seat of war, are of little or no public interest or value. They
fail to touch upon the vital purpose that led Brown, in the disguise of
a farmer or cattle buyer, to take up his residence at the Kennedy farm
house. They fail to even hint at the broad purpose of his being there,
or of the commanding things which he strenuously sought to promote
during the months that he occupied the ground. They trifle with their
theme and with their characters. These men had not dedicated their lives
to martyrdom "that others might live." Their impromptu metamorphosis
from "soiled lives" to consecrated lives is gratuitous. They were
_capitalized_ upon "the monstrous wrong which they beheld," and
intended to turn it, through a wrong still more monstrous, to a
monstrous personal advantage. No maudlin sentiment inspired these men,
"with soiled lives behind them" to dare as few ever dared before. Their
"hearts throbbed" with a single mighty purpose--an ambition worthy of
the desperation of their adventure. Their goal was an empire and its
emoluments: their rewards the spoils of conquest of the most promising
field that marauders ever planned to plunder.
The time finally agreed upon and fixed for the great catastrophe was the
night of October 16th. The party consisted of the following persons:
WHITE: COLORED:
John Brown J. A. Copeland, Jr.
J. H. Kagi L. S. Leary
A. D. Stevens O. P. Anderson
J. E. Cook Dangerfield Newby
C. P. Tidd Shields Green
Albert Hazlett
J. G. Anderson
William Thompson
D. O. Thompson
Edwin Coppoc
Barclay Coppoc
W. H. Leeman
Owen Brown
Oliver Brown
Watson Brown
F. J. Merriam
Stewart Taylor
The extent of the conspiracy among the slaves and the confidential
arrangements and agreements which Brown made and entered into with
them--his co-conspirators--during the months he spent in secret
negotiations with them; and the pledges and promises that had been
exchanged between them will, of course, never be known. But so far as
the plans agreed upon related to the initial movements, the general
outline of them was simple enough for the comprehension of every one,
the untutored slaves included. Brown and his men were to occupy Harper's
Ferry. They were to cut the telegraph wires and take possession of the
public buildings located there--the armory, the arsenal, and the rifle
works--and the military stores contained in them. The slaves, on their
part, were to revolt against their masters; murder them and their
families, and then report to Brown at Harper's Ferry, where they would
be organized into companies, regiments, and brigades, and be armed and
equipped from the stock of war material which he would have in his
possession.
The war department was doing some business. Stevens, Kagi, Cook, Owen
Brown, Oliver Brown, Watson Brown, Leeman, William Thompson, J. G.
Anderson, Tidd, and Hazlett had been appointed captains in the
provisional army, and Edwin Coppoc and Dauphin Thompson first
lieutenants. The privates were Taylor, Barclay Coppoc and Merriam,
_white_; and Green, Leary, Copeland, Osborn P. Anderson, and Newby,
_colored_. There is conflict of testimony as to whether Hazlett was a
captain or a lieutenant. Colonel Lee reported him and Leeman as
lieutenants. A captain's commission, however, was found on Leeman's
body. William Thompson and J. G. Anderson were probably captains.[372]
In his confession Cook says:
There were six or seven in the party who did not know
anything about our Constitution, and were also ignorant of
the plan of operations until Saturday morning October 16th.
Among this number were Edwin and Barclay Coppoc, Merriam,
Shields Green, Copeland and Leary. The Constitution was
then read to them by Stevens, and the oath, afterward,
administered by Captain Brown.