Sesquicentennial of John Brown's Raid Approaches
Harpers Ferry, Nearby States Planning Observances of Historic Event
Aug 7, 2009
This October will mark the 150th anniversary of abolitionist John Brown’s 1859 raid on the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia—then part of Virginia. A number of commemorative activities are planned in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland to observe the sesquicentennial of what some call a catalyst that helped precipitate the U.S. Civil War.
The restored 35-foot by 24-foot brick U.S. Army fire engine house where Brown and his followers took refuge with their hostages for three days in October 1859 is not at its original site. The structure, which is now known as “John Brown’s Fort,” was a fire engine and guard house when it was built in 1848. It currently sits in the historic downtown of Harpers Ferry.
Staff writer John McVey of The Journal of Martinsburg, West Virginia, wrote in the June 27, 2009 edition of the newspaper in “John Brown’s fort will be heading home”: “An obelisk now sits atop a ‘non-historical’ embankment several feet high marking the actual spot where the engine house stood at the time of John Brown's Raid. Brown's plan was to capture the armory and distribute the weapons stored there to an army of escaped slaves. Led by Brown, the fighters would campaign through the south, freeing slaves as they went.”
Movie “Santa Fe Trail” Presented Inaccurate Portrayal of John Brown Raid
The climatic events as they unfolded in 1859 were unlike their portrayal in the 1940 movie “Santa Fe Trail,” said Dennis Frye, a National Park Service ranger and chief historian of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park as well as head of the committee overseeing the John Brown commemoration. Frye, who is also writing a book about Harpers Ferry, regularly talks to tourist groups about Brown’s raid on the arsenal.
The film engaged in some Hollywood fantasy, he told one such recent tour in Harpers Ferry, something Frye said he tried to avoid while working as a historical consultant to the film industry when serving as assistant producer for the 2004 movie, “Gods and Generals.”
“Santa Fe Trail” starred future President Ronald Reagan as George Custer, Errol Flynn as J.E.B. Stuart, and Raymond Massey as Brown. “Most of the Harpers Ferry engagement is inaccurate,” author Bob O’Connor, who wrote The Perfect Steel Trap Harpers Ferry 1859, a 2006 historical novel surrounding the Brown raid, trial, and execution, said in the Blogonomicon blog of December 8, 2008. “Most notably, while the government forces were led by Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee, the troops were marines, not army. And Brown's raid is staffed by about ten times the actual number that took the arsenal.”
Among the movie’s inaccuracies that Frye pointed out to his tour group at the Brown fort: the building is shown as several times bigger than the actual structure, with hundreds of people defending it, and the cavalry arriving to charge up the hill. In reality, Custer wasn’t there, Stuart was but he didn’t lead a charge of the cavalry, and Lee was present but in civilian clothes, not in uniform, Frye said.
Brown Raid Unfolded With Mortal Shooting of Black Train Porter
Brown’s fort was his headquarters and his intended communications center as he gave orders. It became a fort because he arrived in Harpers Ferry on a Sunday evening, October 16, 1859, and captured the arsenal without firing a shot. But the first wrong turn of events occurred when Hayward Shepherd, a night baggage porter for the railroad, was shot by two of Brown’s men around 1:30 a.m. Monday and mortally wounded. “Ironically, the very first man who will die in John Brown’s raid to end slavery is a free African American,” Frye said, emphasizing that Shepherd was free at that time only in the sense of not being a slave.
The sound of the shots awoke Dr. John Starry who lived nearby. He went to the livery and rode a house to nearby Charles Town. About 6:00 on Monday morning, church bells began ringing there alerting residents that abolitionists had captured Harpers Ferry. Trained civilian soldiers in a militia arrived by noon in Harpers Ferry on October 17.
Brown was trapped by the militia and local citizens long before the U.S. marines arrived from Washington because of the attack on a federal installation, and was forced to take refuge in the engine house adjacent to the armory. As Frye said: “Nobody expected a John Brown. No one knew about this abolitionist attack. No one expected insurrection.”
Robert E. Lee and J.E.B. Stuart Assigned to Harpers Ferry Following Attack
Lee was home on leave, at his house in Arlington, Virginia, and was assigned as commander along with Stuart. The contingent arrived by train on October 18. Brown was in the fire house and still had four of his raiders alive with 11 hostages, Frye said. Leading town citizens and armory officials were lined up along the back of the building, some of whom were being guarded by their own slaves.
The doors were barricaded shut. Lee sent Stuart to negotiate with Brown. After negotiations failed to end the standoff, the marines stormed the fire house and captured most of the raiders killing a few. Brown survived the thrust of a metal sword into his gut, Frye said. Instead of penetrating him, the sword struck one of his belt buckles and bent over.
No slaves would be freed as a result of the raid itself. Brown was taken to Charles Town where he was tried for murder and treason against the state of Virginia, convicted, and hanged on December 2, 1859, six weeks after his capture.
“On the day of his execution, Brown had church bells ringing in his honor, sermons preached on his behalf, banks were closed, American flags were put at half staff,” Frye noted for the tour group. He was celebrated as an American hero. But south of the Mason-Dixon Line, people said he committed murder and treason against the United States and should not be celebrated.
“The raid only lasted 36 hours. [But] John Brown still exists today,” Frye said.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
