On the night of October 16, 1859, John Brown and seventeen other men seized the U.S. armory and arsenal, while also taking 60 hostages at Harpers Ferry, VA. The raiders held a train at bay for five hours, until finally allowing it to start its journey to DC; spreading the news of the raid.
A local militia had succeeded in killing and wounding ten of Brown’s men, including 2 of his sons; this lead Brown to acknowledge his failure. However, he was determined not to give up; therefore, Brown and the remainder of his men took the hostages and barricaded themselves into the fire engine house.
On the morning of October 18, Lt. Col. Robert E Lee and the U.S. Marines stormed the fire engine house, leading to the deaths and capture of the remaining raiders.
Among the proslavery community, Brown was known to be a violent murder, due to being the head conspirators of the Pottawatomie Massacre.
Antislavers, however, saw Brown be a frontier hero. While Brown saw himself as a peaceful man in a fight against the evils of slavery and a servant of God.
Brown hoped that the Raid at Harpers Ferry would lead to a slave revolt big enough to end slavery. The raid did ensure fear in the south as towns from Virginia to Georgia began to formed vigilante groups and mobilized militias, in the belief that this was the start of several Northern attacks to come.
Brown’s Raid was a success as I would become a contributing factor in the cause of the Civil War, so much so Union troops were known to sing “ John Brown’s body after their battle whether it in triumphantly or sadly.
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