A voice from Harper's Ferry

by Osborne Perry Anderson

A VOICE FROM HARPER'S FERRY.

---

 

A

 

NARRATIVE OF EVENTS

 

AT

 

HARPER'S FERRY;

 

WITH

 

INCIDENTS PRIOR AND SUBSEQUENT TO ITS CAPTURE BY
CAPTAIN BROWN AND HIS MEN.

 

 

BY
OSBORNE P. ANDERSON,
ONE OF THE NUMBER.

 

 

---

 

 

BOSTON;
PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR.
1861.

Chapters (not listed in original)

Chapter I. THE IDEA AND ITS EXPONENTS—JOHN BROWN ANOTHER MOSES.

Chapter II. PRELIMINARIES TO INSURRECTION—WHAT MAY BE TOLD AND WHAT NOT—JOHN BROWN'S FIRST VISIT TO CHATHAM—SOME OF THE SECRETS FROM THE "CARPET-BAG."

Chapter III. THE WORK GOING BRAVELY ON—THOSE COMMISSIONS—JOHN H. KAGI—A LITTLE CLOUD—"JUDAS" FORBES—ETC.

Chapter IV. THE WAY CLEAR—ACTIVE PREPARATIONS—KENNEDY FARM—EMIGRANTS FOR THE SOUTH—CORRESPONDENCE—THE AGENT.

Chapter V. MORE CORRESPONDENCE—MY JOURNEY TO THE FERRY—A GLANCE AT THE FAMILY.

Chapter VI. LIFE AT KENNEDY FARM.

Chapter VII. CAPTAIN BROWN AND J. H. KAGI GO TO PHILADELPHIA—F. J. MERRIAM, J. COPELAND AND S. LEARY ARRIVE—MATTERS PRECIPITATED BY INDISCRETION.

Chapter VIII. COUNCIL MEETINGS—ORDERS GIVEN—THE CHARGE—ETC.

Chapter IX. THE ELEVEN ORDERS GIVEN BY CAPTAIN BROWN TO HIS MEN BEFORE SETTING OUT FOR THE FERRY.

Chapter X. THE CAPTURE OF HARPER'S FERRY—COL. A. D. STEVENS AND PARTY SALLY OUT TO THE PLANTATIONS—WHAT WE SAW, HEARD, DID, ETC.

Chapter XI. THE EVENTS OF MONDAY, OCT. 17—ARMING THE SLAVES—TERROR IN THE SLAVEHOLDING CAMP—IMPORTANT LOSSES TO OUR PARTY—THE FATE OF KAGI—PRISONERS ACCUMULATE—WORKMEN AT THE KENNEDY FARM—ETC.

Chapter XII. RECEPTION TO THE TROOPS—THEY RETREAT TO THE BRIDGE—A PRISONER—DEATH OF DANGERFIELD NEWBY—WILLIAM THOMPSON—THE MOUNTAINS ALIVE—FLAG OF TRUCE—THE ENGINE HOUSE TAKEN.

Chapter XIII. THE CAPTURE OF CAPTAIN JOHN BROWN AT THE ENGINE HOUSE.

Chapter XIV. SETTING FORTH REASONS WHY O. P. ANDERSON AND A. HAZLETT ESCAPED FROM THE ARSENAL, INSTEAD OF REMAINING, WHEN THEY HAD NOTHING TO DO—TOOK A PRISONER, AND WHAT RESULTED TO THEM, AND TO THIS NARRATIVE, THEREFROM—A PURSUIT, WHEN SOMEBODY GOT KILLED, AND OTHER BODIES WOUNDED.

Chapter XV. THE ENCOUNTER AT THE RIFLE FACTORY.

Chapter XVI. OUR ESCAPE FROM VIRGINIA—HAZLETT BREAKS DOWN FROM FATIGUE AND HUNGER—NARROW ESCAPE IN PENNSYLVANIA.

Chapter XVII. A WORD OR TWO MORE ABOUT ALBERT HAZLETT.

Chapter XVIII. CAPT. OWEN BROWN, CHARLES P. TIDD, BARCLAY COPPIC, F. J. MERRIAM, JOHN E. COOK.

Chapter XIX. THE BEHAVIOR OF THE SLAVES—CAPTAIN BROWN'S OPINION.

---

Poetry

How old John Brown took Harper's Ferry: A ballad for the times

John Brown of Osawatomie by G. D. Whitmore

The Virginia scaffold by Edna Dean Proctor

"Old John Brown" by Rev. E. H. Sears

Dirge

Correspondence and other reprinted material (not individually listed, included in chapters above)

Minutes of the Convention (Chatham, Ontario, May 8–10, 1859)

To "John Henrie" (West Andover, Ohio, July 30, 1859)

"John Smith" to "Friend Henrie" (West Andover, Ohio, "Wednesday," 1859)

"J. M. B." to "J. B., Jr." (n.d.)

"J. Henrie" to "J. Smith and Sons" (Chambersburg, n.d.)

"J. Henrie" to "J. Smith and Sons" (Chambersburg, Pa., Sept. 16, 1859)

Albert Hazlett's arrest record (Carlisle, Va.)

 

PREFACE.

 

---

 

My sole purpose in publishing the following Narrative is to save from oblivion the facts connected with one of the most important movements of this age, with reference to the overthrow of American slavery. My own personal experience in it, under the orders of Capt. Brown, on the 16th and 17th of October, 1859, as the only man alive who was at Harper's Ferry during the entire time—the unsuccessful groping after these facts, by individuals, impossible to be obtained, except from an actor in the scene—and the conviction that the cause of impartial liberty requires this duty at my hands—alone have been the motives for writing and circulating the little book herewith presented.

I will not, under such circumstances, insult nor burden the intelligent with excuses for defects in composition, nor for the attempt to give the facts. A plain, unadorned, truthful story is wanted, and that by one who knows what he says, who is known to have been at the great encounter, and to have labored in shaping the same. My identity as a member of Capt. Brown's company cannot be questioned, successfully, by any who are bent upon suppressing the truth; neither will it be by any in Canada or the United States familiar with John Brown and his plans, as those know his men personally, or by reputation, who enjoyed his confidence sufficiently to know thoroughly his plans.

The readers of this narrative will therefore keep steadily in view the main point—that they are perusing a story of events which have happened under the eye of the great Captain, or are incidental thereto, and not a compendium of the "plans" of Capt. Brown; for as his plans were not consummated, and as their fulfilment is committed to the future, no one to whom they are known will recklessly expose all of them to the public gaze. Much has been given as true that never happened; much has been omitted that should have been made known; many things have been left unsaid, because, up to within a short time, but two could say them; one of them has been offered up, a sacrifice to the Moloch, Slavery; being that other one, I propose to perform the duty, trusting to that portion of the public who love the right for an appreciation of my endeavor.

O. P. A.