The somberness that permeated the fire enginehouse contrasted sharply
with the din outside. Hundreds of militiamen and townspeople jammed the
streets, which echoed with whoops and yells. Anxious and hysterical
friends and relatives of Brown’s hostages added to the confusion. While
the quasi-military operations ended at nightfall, the non-military
activities continued with increasing fervor. The bars in the Wager House
and Gault House Saloon were enjoying an unprecedented business. Many men
were intoxicated, and they fired their guns wildly into the air and
occasionally at the enginehouse. All semblance of order was gone and the
“wildest excitement” prevailed throughout the night.
[Illustration: Albert Hazlett]
[Illustration: Osborn P. Anderson]
During this confusion two of Brown’s men made their escape. Of the
raiders caught in Harpers Ferry when the Jefferson Guards seized the B &
O bridge at midday on October 17, Albert Hazlett and Osborn P. Anderson,
occupying the arsenal, went unnoticed during the day. At night they
crept out, mingled with the disorderly crowds, crossed the Potomac into
Maryland, and fled north.
Into the midst of the chaos created by the drunken and disorderly
militia and townspeople marched 90 U.S. Marines led by a 52-year-old
Army colonel, Robert E. Lee. Lee had been at his home in Arlington, Va.,
that afternoon when Lt. J. E. B. Stuart brought him secret orders to
report to the War Department at once. There President Buchanan and
Secretary of War Floyd told him of Brown’s attack and ordered him to
leave immediately for Harpers Ferry with the only Federal troops readily
available, a detachment of Marines at the Washington Navy Yard. Upon his
arrival at Harpers Ferry, Lee was to take command of all forces in the
town. Lieutenant Stuart, scenting excitement, asked for and received
permission to accompany Lee, who, in the hurry of departure, had no time
to return home and don his uniform.
The Marines, under the immediate command of Lt. Israel Green, left
Washington before Lee and arrived at Sandy Hook in late afternoon. Lee
and Stuart joined them at 10:30 p.m. Marching into Harpers Ferry, the
Marines entered the armory yard about 11 p.m. and replaced the
disorganized militia. Lee would have ordered an immediate attack on the
enginehouse “But for the fear of sacrificing the lives of some of the
gentlemen held ... as prisoners....”
About 2:30 a.m., October 18, Lee wrote a surrender demand and handed it
to Stuart for delivery to Brown under a white flag when so directed. He
hoped that the raider chieftain could be persuaded to surrender
peaceably and avoid further bloodshed, but he expected that he would be
taken only by force and laid his plans accordingly. In the early morning
hours, Lee, believing the raid to be chiefly aimed against State
authority and not the Federal Government, offered the honor of
assaulting the enginehouse to Colonel Shriver of the Maryland
Volunteers. Shriver declined. “These men of mine have wives and
children,” he said. “I will not expose them to such risks. You are paid
for doing this kind of work.” Lee then offered the task to Colonel
Baylor of the Virginia militia. Baylor promptly declined it for the same
reasons. Lieutenant Green was then asked if he wished “the honor of
taking those men out.” Green lifted his cap, thanked Lee, and picked a
storming party of 12 men. He instructed them to use only their bayonets,
as bullets might injure some of the hostages.
[Illustration: Trapped inside the armory enginehouse, the raiders
and their hostages await the attack by U.S. Marines under Col.
Robert E. Lee.]
By 7 a.m. there was enough light for operations. All arrangements for
the assault had been completed. The militia formed up outside the armory
wall to keep the street clear of spectators and to prevent
indiscriminate firing that might injure the storming party. The Marines
took position at the northwest corner of the enginehouse, just out of
the line of fire from the door. Then Lieutenant Stuart moved forward
with the surrender demand. Brown opened the door a few inches and placed
his body against the crack so the lieutenant could not see inside. He
held a cocked rifle in one hand. Stuart read the terms offered by Lee:
Colonel Lee, United States Army, commanding troops sent by the
President of the United States to suppress the insurrection at this
place, demands the surrender of the persons in the Armory buildings.
If they will peaceably surrender themselves and restore the pillaged
property, they shall be kept in safety to await the orders of the
President. Col. Lee represents to them, in all frankness, that it is
impossible for them to escape; that the Armory is surrounded on all
sides by troops; and that if he is compelled to take them by force he
cannot answer for their safety.
Robert E. Lee and J. E. B. Stuart are pictured here about the time
of the raid.
[Illustration: Robert E. Lee]
[Illustration: This little-known portrait of Stuart shows him in
civilian dress and with trimmed beard.]
According to Stuart, the parley was “a long one.” Brown refused to
surrender. Instead he presented his own propositions “in every possible
shape, and with admirable tact,” insisting that he, his men, and his
hostages be permitted to cross the river unmolested.
Stuart, instructed not to accept any counter-proposals, sensed that
further discussion was useless. Stepping back from the door, he waved
his hat, a pre-arranged signal for the Marines to attack. Brown slammed
the door shut and the troops came on. Three men with sledge hammers
pounded the center door of the enginehouse, but it would not yield; the
raiders had placed the fire engines against it. Spotting a heavy ladder
nearby, Lieutenant Green directed his men to use it as a battering-ram.
On the second blow the door splintered and a small opening was effected.
[Illustration: Lt. Israel Green led the Marine attack on the
enginehouse and was the first man to enter the building.]
[Illustration: The engraving below shows the Marines battering the
enginehouse door while under fire from raiders inside.]
Lieutenant Green was the first man through. Maj. W. W. Russell, armed
only with a rattan cane, followed immediately. Pvt. Luke Quinn squeezed
through behind Russell and fell dead at the door, shot through his
groin. Another Marine, Pvt. Mathew Ruppert, stepped over Quinn, then
dropped his gun and clawed his face in pain where a bullet had torn
through his cheek. The rest of the storming party entered without
injury.
The hostages cowered at the rear of the building; Brown knelt between
the fire engines, rifle in hand. As Green came through the row of
engines, Colonel Washington greeted him and pointed at Brown. Green
raised his sword and brought it down with all his strength, cutting a
deep wound in the back of the raider chieftain’s neck. As Brown fell,
Green lunged with his sword, striking part of the raider’s accouterments
and bending the blade double. Green then showered blow after blow upon
Brown’s head until he fell unconscious. Two of the raiders were killed
almost immediately after the Marines entered the building: Dauphin
Thompson, pinned against the rear wall by a bayonet, and Jeremiah
Anderson, run through by a saber as he sought refuge under one of the
fire engines. Edwin Coppoc and Shields Green surrendered. The fight was
over in about 3 minutes.
[Illustration: After their capture, Brown and his surviving men were
placed under guard outside the enginehouse, where they were
subjected to taunts and threats of angry militia and townspeople.]
None of the hostages was injured, although Lieutenant Green considered
them the “sorriest lot of people I ever saw.” The dead, dying, and
wounded raiders were carried outside and laid in a row on the grass. As
Brown slowly regained consciousness, the Marines had trouble keeping
back the throngs of militia and townspeople who wanted to see the
wounded raider leader. After noon, Brown and Stevens, still suffering
from the wounds he received on October 17, were carried to the
paymaster’s office where a group of inquisitors, including Virginia’s
Governor Henry A. Wise and Senator James M. Mason, and Ohio Congressman
Clement L. Vallandigham, questioned them for 3 hours in an effort to
learn their purpose and the names of their supporters in the North.
During the interrogation Brown lay on the floor, his hair matted and
tangled, his face, hands, and clothes soiled and smeared with blood. He
talked freely, and while he readily admitted his intention to free the
slaves, “and only that,” he refused to divulge the names of his Northern
backers. “No man sent me here,” he said; “it was my own prompting and
that of my Maker, or that of the devil, whichever you ascribe it to. I
acknowledge no man in human form.” He continued:
I want you to understand, gentlemen ... that I respect the rights of
the poorest and weakest of colored people, oppressed by the slave
system, just as much as I do those of the most wealthy and powerful.
That is the idea that has moved me, and that alone. We expect no
reward, except the satisfaction of endeavoring to do for those in
distress and greatly oppressed, as we would be done by. The cry of
distress of the oppressed is my reason, and the only thing that has
prompted me to come here.
Brown then issued a prophetic warning:
I wish to say furthermore, that you had better—all you people at the
South—prepare yourselves for a settlement of that question that must
come up for settlement sooner than you are prepared for it. The sooner
you are prepared the better. You may dispose of me very easily; I am
nearly disposed of now; but this question is still to be settled—this
negro question I mean—the end of that is not yet.