John Brown’s Raid
16-18 OCTOBER 1859
JOHN BROWN’S RAID
From the 1830s, the American public became increasingly polarized over the issue of slavery. Violence erupted for the first time in Alton, Illinois, in November 1837, when an angry mob raided the home of Elijah P. Lovejoy, who had been publishing an anti-slavery newspaper from his basement. Mr. Lovejoy confronted his aggressors and was shot, becoming the first white man to die over the issue of slavery. When news of the Alton tragedy reached the small town of Hudson, Ohio, a social misfit and failed businessman stood up in church to proclaim, “Here before God, in the presence of these witnesses, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery”. His name was John Brown.
Brown worked himself into fanatic abolitionism, employing methods that ran counter to the precepts of the religion with which he justified his cause. By 1859, he had hatched a scheme to invade the South and arm slaves who would then rise up against their white masters. He and a small band of 5 blacks and 13 whites launched this plan on Sunday, October 16th. To arm the slaves, Brown’s first target was the US Army depot and armory at Harper’s Ferry, in what is now West Virginia. Brown’s band stormed into the depot to find the garrison completely surprised by his action. Hostages were taken (one of whom was George Washington’s grand-nephew). Brown’s men seized the Depot’s arsenal and armory, then barricaded themselves in the fire engine house. Much to Brown’s surprise, an uprising of slaves did not materialize, rather, the anger of the townspeople did. Eight of the raiders were killed by gunfire through that day.
The nearest Federal force at the ready was a company of 86 US Marines at the Washington Navy Yard under LT Israel Greene. These arrived by train just after midnight this day, followed at sunrise by Army COL Robert E. Lee, who assumed command of the scene. Lee sent a junior officer, Army LT J.E.B. Stuart to request Brown’s surrender, but the adamant fanatic refused. A storming party of 26 Marines, led by Greene, was sent to secure the engine house.
In the minutes that followed two more of the raiders were bayoneted, and Brown, himself, was seriously cut by LT Greene’s sword. One Marine was killed and another wounded. Brown was extradited to the District Court in nearby Charles Town, where he was convicted and hanged for treason. Though his raid did not engender the anticipated anti-slavery groundswell, it did serve to frighten Southern slave-holders about the prospects for similar future raids. The previously ineffective, splintered system of state militias in the South increasingly solidified into what was to become a unified Confederate States Army.
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CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Burns, Ken. The Civil War. PBS Video Series, Vol 1, “The Cause, 1861”. Beverly Hills, CA: Pacific Arts Video, 1990.
National Park Service. John Brown’s Raid, National Park Service History Series. Washington, DC: Department of the Interior.
Site Visit. Harpers Ferry National Monument, Harpers Ferry, VA, October 2000.
Sweetman, Jack. American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present. 2nd ed. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1991, p. 63-64.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: In LT Green’s account of the storming, written in 1885, he describes the three-minute affair. Two companies of 12 Marines each were detailed for the effort. The first pounded the heavy wooden doors of the enginehouse with sledgehammers without effect. Utilizing a ladder as a ram, the second company battered a hole in the lower half of the right door. Green was first to crawl through, fortuitously at the moment Brown was reloading his carbine. The second Marine to enter was shot in the abdomen and died. Green darted along the wall to the far right corner were he met COL Washington, who offered his hand in introduction. As Green returned Washington’s handshake with one hand, his other lifted his sabre high in the air. For directly beside Washington, crouched under a fire wagon, was Brown. Green’s downward slash caught Brown on the back of the neck, cutting him deeply. A lunge by Green with sabre-point went for naught, as his point lodged on an object in Brown’s pocket and bent double upon itself. Green used his twisted sword as a club and knocked Brown senseless with a few blows. Two other of Brown’s interlopers were killed before the brief engagement ended.
Green’s bent sabre returned with him to the Washington Navy Yard, and remained there for some time. It was lost in subsequent years and remains undiscovered today.
