by Tony Horwitz
“I had an umbrella”: For Byrne’s exchanges with Leeman and Thompson, see the testimony of Terence Byrne, Mason Report, A016–17.
“Thompson came up”: John Cook confession.
“I heard a good deal”: ibid.
“bad management”: Baltimore American, Oct. 28, 1859.
“It was not”: ibid.
“From Brown”: “Copeland’s Confession,” New York Herald, Nov. 5, 1859.
“sticks wrapped”: “Notes of Personal Interviews with Graham made by Dr. Thomas Featherstonhaugh for Richard J. Hinton,” KSHS. See also testimony of Archibald Kitzmiller, Mason Report, A049–50. He says there were a hundred “faggots” in the wagon.
“sharpshooter”: David Potter, The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861 (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), illustration 42.
“Father and the others”: Jennie Chambers, “What a School Girl Saw of John Brown’s Raid” (Harriman, Tenn.: Pioneer Historical Society, 1902), 5. See also Alexander Boteler, “Recollections of the John Brown Raid by a Virginian Who Witnessed the Fight,” Century Magazine, July 1883, 405.
“rode out in haste”: journals of James Lawrence Hooff, entry for Oct. 17, 1859, Virginia Historical Society.
“any negro”: Virginia (Charlestown) Free Press, Aug. 11, 1859.
“for remaining in the Commonwealth”: ibid., Aug. 20, 1857.
“armed bands”: “Some personal recollections of ‘John Brown’s Raid’ by an Eyewitness,” HFNHP. This unsigned manuscript is by one of the men sent across the river to attack the bridge. See also D. E. Henderson to David Strother, Oct. 19, 1858, RWL.
“Every man”: “Some personal recollections.”
“if I thought”: Harriett Newby to Dangerfield Newby, Aug. 16, 1859, Calendar of Virginia State Papers, 311. A lane close to where Newby fell was known at the time as Hog Alley. Mary Mauzy wrote her daughter on October 17, 1859, “Those wreches that were killed lay in the street until the hogs began to tear them up” (HFNHP). According to the Richmond Daily Dispatch, Oct. 20, 1859: “The ball went through his throat, tearing away all the great arteries, and killing him instantly … . His body was left in the street up to noon yesterday; exposed to every indignity that could be heaped upon it by the excited populace.” See also Barry, The Strange Story of Harper’s Ferry, 81–82.
“well guarded”: Franklin Sanborn, “Personal Reminiscences of John Brown,” Remarks at the Reunion of the Anti-Slavery Men and Women (Boston, April 7, 1897), Houghton Library.
“strange doctrine”: ibid.
“Some valuable hints” and “deep and narrow”: John Brown Memorandum Books, BPL.
“in each direction”: “Conversation with Tidd,” Feb. 10, 1860, BPL.
“I want you”: testimony of Terence Byrne, Mason Report, A018.
“You are”: testimony of Lewis Washington, Mason Report, A035.
“It’s getting too hot”: Baltimore American, Oct. 29, 1859.
“His answers”: Christine Fouke, “Interesting Letter from Miss Fouke, of Harpers-Ferry,” Virginia Free Press, Dec. 8, 1859.
“I am as good”: Court Martial Case Files, May 21, 1855, War Department Office of the Judge Advocate General, National Archives.
“You would be the first”: testimony of Lewis Washington, Mason Report, A036. For more on Stevens, see interview with E. B. Chambers, who said “Stevens was the gamest man in the lot” and “walked on without flinching till he was shot down. It takes nerve to do that” (OGV).
“was in possession”: testimony of John Starry, Mason Report, A025.
“I can possibly”: New York Times, Oct. 26, 1859.
“I have been”: ibid.
“show temper”: testimony of Brua at Brown’s trial, New York Tribune, Oct. 29, 1859. On Watson after the shooting, see testimony of John Dangerfield, New York Tribune, Oct. 31, 1859.
“did not consider”: New York Herald, Oct. 24, 1859.
“I seen big”: Patrick Higgins to E. P. Stevens, Nov. 5, 1899, OGV. See also interview with John Thomas Allstadt, OGV. He said Chambers and another man stood “in an upper window of the Galt House, watching Stevens until he should come well within range. As the moment arrived, they broke the glass in order to fire true. Stevens fell.” He pulled himself up on one knee and fired a second volley. “He lay for perhaps half an hour, there in the road. Then he was carried to the Wager House.”
“A large, exceedingly”: Baltimore American, Oct. 19, 1859.
“brawny shoulders”: New York Tribune, Oct. 20, 1859.
“the Negroes”: Baltimore American, Oct. 19, 1859.
“One life for many”: “An Account of the John Brown Raid,” Maryland Historical Magazine, June 1944, 163.
“Devil may care”: George Gill to Richard Hinton, undated, KSHS.
“we will not want”: Leeman to family, Aug. 14, 1859, KSHS. On the depth of the Potomac: “Very few places in the river at that period of the year contained over two feet of water” (L. T. Moore to Thomas Hughes, Nov. 2, 1880, BSC).
“Don’t shoot!”: Baltimore Clipper, Oct. 19, 1859.
“Oh my dear”: Richmond Dispatch, Oct. 29, 1859.
“floating upon”: The Sun (Baltimore), Oct. 19, 1859.
“Our men” and “dragged him”: Mary Mauzy to daughter, Oct. 17, 1859, HFNHP. See also Joseph Crane to David Strother, Oct. 25, 1859, BSC.
“Be cheerful”: John Kagi to “My Dear Father & Sister,” Sept. 24, 1859, KSHS.
“wept like”: interview with Mrs. C. M. Langston, May 27, 1908, OGV.
“thought that we”: John Copeland to Addison Halbert, Dec. 10, 1859, “The John Brown Letters Found in the Virginia State Library in 1901,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Oct. 1902, 170.
“So enraged”: Charles White, “John Brown’s Raid at Harpers Ferry: An Eyewitness Account,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Oct. 1959.
“fighting on my own hook”: New York Daily Tribune, Oct. 29, 1859. For the episode of the train official seized by drunken townspeople, see J. Rosengarten, “John Brown’s Raid,” BSC.
“The old man”: “Statement of W. W. Throckmorton.”
“greatly excited”: ibid.
“If he keeps”: interview with John Allstadt, OGV.
“That man is down”: New York Times, Oct. 26, 1859.
“When Beckham”: New York Herald, Oct. 24, 1859.
“Shoot him!”: ibid.
“covered his face”: New York Tribune, Oct. 29, 1859.
“nervous chill”: Christine Fouke is quoted from her letter to the St. Louis (Missouri) Republican, reprinted in the Baltimore American, Dec. 6, 1859.
“You may kill me”: New York Tribune, Oct. 29, 1859.
“Before he fell”: ibid.
“fired and”: ibid.
“probably dying”: ibid.
“we could have ended”: Baltimore American, Oct. 24, 1859.
“There”: Currie testimony at Cook’s trial, reported in Baltimore American, Nov. 11, 1859.
“very rapid and continuous”: testimony of Lind Currie, Mason Report, A057.
“I thought”: This and other quotes about Cook’s sniping are from John Cook’s confession.
“It’s all up”: Baltimore American, Oct. 31, 1859.
“We could not”: Edwin Coppoc letter, Nov. 22, 1859, quoted in Richard Hinton, John Brown and His Men, 488.
“he suffered”: ibid.
“spoke no word”: Edwin Coppoc to Mary Brown, Nov. 1859, OGV.
“You can hardly”: Oliver Brown to Martha Brown, Oct. 9, 1859, Houghton Library.
“She had been a wife”: Annie Brown Adams to Alexander Ross, Dec. 18, 1887, Gilder Lehrman Collection.
“She was willing”: Mary Brown to J. M. McKim, March 6, 1860, HLHS.
“Who commands”: Boteler, “Recollections of the John Brown Raid by a Virginian Who Witnessed the Fight,” Century Magazine, July 1883, 399–411.
Terms of surrender: Col. Baylor to Gov. Wise, Oct. 22, 1859, Governor’s Message and Reports of the
Public Officers of the State (Richmond: William Ritchie, 1859), State Library of Virginia.
“In consideration”: ibid.
“take him”: testimony of Captain Sinn, New York Tribune, Oct. 31, 1859.
“that he & his men”: report of Col. Edward Shriver, from “In Readiness to Do Every Duty Assigned,” Gregory Stiverson, ed., in Archives of Maryland, Annapolis, 2000.
“He thought he was”: Baltimore American, Oct. 31, 1859.
“The terms”: Col. Baylor to Gov. Wise, October 22, 1859, Governor’s Message and Reports.
“Our troops”: ibid.
“Every man”: Baltimore American, Oct. 31, 1859.
“If the man”: New York Tribune, Oct. 31, 1859.
“For the first”: Shepherdstown (Virginia) Register, Jan. 14, 1860, OGV.
“badly scared”: Baltimore American, Oct. 29, 1859.
“No, my son”: testimony of Terence Byrne, Mason Report, A019.
“to endure a little longer”: Baltimore Clipper, Oct. 20, 1859.
“treason”: New York Daily Tribune, Oct. 31, 1859.
“saying he”: New York Daily Tribune, Oct. 20, 1859.
“extraordinary nerve”: Baltimore American, Oct. 19, 1859.
Chapter 9: I Am Nearly Disposed of Now
“armed abolitionists”: A. J. Phelps to W. P. Smith, Oct. 17, 1859, Correspondence Relating to the Insurrection at Harper’s Ferry, Western Maryland Historical Library.
“Your dispatch”: ibid., W. P. Smith to A. J. Phelps, Oct. 17, 1859.
“My dispatch”: ibid., A. J. Phelps to W. P. Smith, Oct. 17, 1859.
“Matter”: ibid., W. P. Smith to J. B. Ford, Oct. 17, 1859.
“His Excellency”: ibid., J. W. Garrett to James Buchanan, Oct. 17, 1859. On Stuart’s finding Lee buying castor oil, see “Extract from letter of Dr. Roy Bird Cook,” Aug. 16, 1952, HLHS.
“He has left”: Francis Raymond Adams, Jr., “An Annotated Edition of the Personal Letters of Robert E. Lee, April 1855–April, 1861” (Ph.D. thesis, University of Maryland, 1955), 542. For more on the Lee and Custis slaves, see Elizabeth Brown Pryor, Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Letters (New York: Viking, 2007), 260–61.
“a wise Merciful”: Robert E. Lee to his wife, December 27, 1856. Available at http://fair-use.org/robert-e-lee/letter-to-his-wife-on-slavery.
“the scene”: Emory M. Thomas, “‘The Greatest Service I Rendered the State’: J.E.B. Stuart’s Account of the Capture of John Brown,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, July 1986, 352. Stuart’s Jan. 31, 1860, letter about his service at Harpers Ferry is at the Virginia Historical Society. For more on the marines, see Bernard Nalty, “‘At All Times Ready …’: The Marines at Harper’s Ferry” (U.S. Marine Corps, 1959).
“Have given”: W. P. Smith to L. M. Cole, Oct. 18, 1859, Correspondence Relating to the Insurrection.
“party of Banditti”: Lee, quoted in Thomas, “The Greatest Service,” 346.
“the persons”: Colonel Lee’s report, Mason Report, 43–44.
“cautioned”: Thomas, “The Greatest Service,” 353. Also see Colonel Lee’s report, Mason Report, 41.
“The people are terribly excited”: unsigned telegram to Washington, Oct. 18, 1859, Correspondence Relating to the Insurrection.
“All eyes”: Edward White, “Eyewitness at Harpers Ferry,” American Heritage, Feb. 1975.
“opened the door”: Thomas, “The Greatest Service,” 353.
“You are” and the rest of conversation between Stuart and Brown: Boteler, “Recollections of the John Brown Raid,” Century Magazine, July 1883, 407.
“he could expect” and “would sell”: New York Herald, Oct. 24, 1859.
“Is that your” and “Yes”: Boteler, “Recollections of the John Brown Raid,” 407.
“It was evident”: New York Herald, Oct. 24, 1859.
“reechoed” and “oppressive silence”: Boteler, “Recollections of the John Brown Raid,” 409.
“There was”: testimony of Terence Byrnes, Mason Report, A020.
“One man surrenders!”: ibid.
“When I heard”: Shepherdstown (Virginia) Register, Jan. 14, 1860, OGV.
“cried for quarter”: New York Tribune, Oct. 31, 1859.
“they picked”: ibid.
“There’s Brown!”: Boteler, “Recollections of the John Brown Raid,” 410.
“Quicker than thought”: Israel Green, “The Capture of John Brown,” North American Review, Dec. 1885.
“Instinctively”: ibid. See also Thomas, “The Greatest Service,” which quotes Stuart: “Green complained to me afterwards that his sword was so dull (being a common dress sword) he could not hurt Brown with it.” For more details on the storming, see Israel Green File, OGV. For evidence of shooting, despite Lee’s orders, see testimony of Lewis Washington, Mason Report, A038, and report of Col. Robert Baylor, who wrote that “a heavy volley was fired in by the marines,” in Governor’s Message and Reports.
“The whole”: Colonel Lee’s report, Mason Report, 42.
“the breathless”: Edward White, “Eyewitness at Harper’s Ferry.”
“I never saw”: W. P. Smith to J. W. Garrett, Oct. 18, 1859, Correspondence Relating to the Insurrection.
“I embraced”: Shepherdstown (Virginia) Register, Jan. 14, 1860, OGV.
“stepped daintily”: Edward White, “Eyewitness at Harper’s Ferry.”
“Colonel Washington”: A.R.H. Ranson, “The John Brown Raid,” The Sewanee Review, Oct. 1913.
“The crowd”: Baltimore American, Oct. 19, 1859.
“vomiting gore”: Barry, The Strange Story of Harper’s Ferry, 80. See also notes on J. Graham, OGV, describing Anderson pinned to wall and turning over.
“Gentlemen”: Cecil Eby, ed., “The Last Hours of the John Brown Raid: The Narrative of David H. Strother,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, April 1965, 173.
“Well it takes”: Barry, The Strange Story of Harper’s Ferry, 52.
“Duty, sir”: C. W. Tayleure to John Brown, Jr., June 15, 1879, KSHS.
“feelingly”: Baltimore Clipper, Oct. 20, 1859.
“Keep up”: Watson Brown to Belle Brown, Oct. 14, 1859, quoted in Sanborn, The Life and Letters, 549.
“a mere boy”: “The Last Hours of the John Brown Raid,” 173.
“with his hands”: “David Hunter Strother’s Lecture on John Brown in Cleveland, 1868,” West Virginia and Regional History Collection, West Virginia University Libraries.
“gaunt”: ibid.