Page:John Brown (1899).pdf/135

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to suppose that they were intended for a filibustering expedition to Nicaragua. These caps went safely to Harper's Ferry; and Merriam, who was said to be in feeble health, and who was the only "gentleman," in the old sense of the word, in the party, joined the band at the Kennedy place as its humblest member.

On Sunday, October 16, Brown rose early, and called all his men to worship. There were now twenty-two or twenty-three men in the house. There is radical disagreement as to whether or not one John Anderson, a negro, was present. There is no proof that he was there. Without him there were twenty-two men. John Brown was commander-in-chief. John Henry Kagi was his adjutant and lieutenant. Aaron Dwight Stephens, Owen Brown, Watson Brown, Oliver Brown, John Edwin Cook, and Charles Plummer Tidd were "captains"; that is, they were to bear that