Beecher's Bible: A Sharps 1853 from John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry
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On October 16, 1859 John Brown and 19 men left the Kennedy farmhouse and made their way a few miles south to the Harpers Ferry Arsenal. They planned to seize the Arsenal and use its arms - along with 200 Sharps 1853 carbines and 1,000 pikes they had previously purchased - to ignite and arm a slave revolt. Brown was a true fanatic for the abolitionist cause, perfectly willing to spill blood for a just cause. His assault on the Arsenal lasted three days, but failed to incite a rebellion. Instead of attracting local slaves to his banner, he attracted local militia and the US Marines. His force was besieged in the arsenal firehouse, and when the Marines broke through the doors the captured 5 surviving members of the Brown party, including Brown himself. All five were quickly tried and found guilty of murder, treason, and inciting negroes to riot. They were sentenced to death, and hanged on December 2, 1859.
Most of Brown's 200 Sharps carbines were left in the farmhouse hideout, to be distributed when the insurrection took hold. These were found by local militia, among them the Independent Greys, and some were kept as souvenirs - including this example.
There is an intriguing historical question as to whether Brown's raid was ultimately good for the country or not. It was extremely divisive at the time, and it can be argued that the raid was a major factor leading to Lincoln's election and the Civil War. Could slavery have been abolished without the need for a cataclysmic war if John Brown had not fractured the Democratic Party? To what extent is killing for a cause justifiable? Do the ends always justify the means? John Brown had no doubts about his answers to these questions...but maybe he should have.
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John Brown, a true American hero if there ever was one.
"I thought slavery a great moral evil. So anyway i started blastin..."
"His zeal in the cause of freedom was infinitely superior to mine. Mine was a taper light, his was the burning sun. Mine was bounded by time, his stretched away to the silent shores of eternity. I could speak for the slave. John Brown could fight for the slave. I could live for the slave. John Brown could die for the slave."
His soul is marching on
"I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away, but with Blood. I had...vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed, it might be done." -final words of John Brown
I live just 6 miles from Harpers Ferry and only 6 miles from Charles Town where Brown was tried and hung. I had to take photos for the local newspaper a couple weeks ago at the site of his hanging. This area of the country is so full of history and if one has a creative mind one can feel the history of the area. I also live just one mile from the site of one of Mosby's raids and had the honor of handling Mosby's revolver.
John Brown was an officer in the Masonic Lodge here in Hudson, Ohio and his Dad, Owen employed a man named Jesse Grant at his tannery who was the father of Hiram Ulysses Grant, or Ulysses S. Grant as he would become known. It is truly amazing how so many significant personalities became so intertwined in such out-of-the-way places.
Another odd coincidence in the story... present at Browns hanging was a John Wilkes Booth, who noted that while he disagreed with Brown, he respected his willingness to act and die for his cause. And yes, that John Wilkes Booth
Grew up in Alabama, knew people who did not use bad language but when they got really mad they would say “I’ll be John Brown!”
Someone once interpreted Brown's actions like this, which stuck with me; if it was YOUR family being imprisoned, separated and sold, how would you feel about someone (like Brown) who was willing to kill and be killed to set them free?
Douglass and Tubman both spread the word to not join up with Brown, believing the operation to be a suicide mission. Those 200 rifles were supposed to be in the hands of his men during the raid - he went ahead with the operation with only 10% of the manpower he had planned for. Additionally, he stopped a train as it was passing through the arsenal, but allowed it to pass through. As far as I'm aware, no one knows for sure why he allowed the train to move on, but it's probably related to the lack of manpower. Those on the train of course sent a telegram at the very next stop, and that's what blew the operation.
When you were describing the wafer primer system all I could think was “what could possibly go wrong?”
"Tragic Prelude" at
A real shame the pike footage was corrupt. They're imo, more interesting than the rifles.
JOHN BROWN'S BODY LIES A-MOULDERING IN THE GRAVE, BUT HIS TRUTH IS MARCHING ON!
As a European, I must admit I might have known much about the American Civil War, but I had never heard of that guy and his raid, nor about its outcome; very interesting!
The reload time sucks, but the 149 damage that thing does is nothing to scoff at.
The opening of the John Brown raid was a raid on the farm of Lewis Washington, great-grand nephew of George Washington. He was taken hostage along with some others. The true goal of that raid was the capture of a sword and 2 pistols that had belonged to George Washington. Brown knew of them and wanted them as talismens. Lewis Washinton and some others captured with him were taken to Brown and kept as hostages in the firehouse with the main body. Also taken as hostages were arsenal workers arriving for the day's work. Amazingly they nostly all survived that experience and firefight. Next (or about the same time some were raiding the Washington farm) was the murder of Heywood Shepherd, a freed black railroad baggage handler. He had left the station upon hearing a body of men crossing the nearby railroad bridge at night. An unusual occurrence and he wanted to see what was going on. He saw, tried to get back to the station and they shot him in the back and killed him. A physician who lived nearby came to see when he heard the shot and the man's dying scream. When the doctor saw there was nothing to do, he left and Brown and his men let him. Upon getting back to town the doctor began ringing a church bell to warn the town folk, also dispatching runners to Charles Town. Meanwhile Brown and his men had captured a Northbound railroad train which had stopped near the bridge because the telegraph wires wer down. After explaining what was going on Brown allowed the train to depart. He later called that his biggest mistake. As soon as the train got to the next station it telegraphed alerts to the railroad HQ and to Martinsburg and Washington. DC. Response was immediate, first militia then Marines under the command of Robert Lee who rescued his relative and the other hostages. Actually the Marine Officer who tried to stab Brown in the chest, had first tried to cleave the man's head in two, but Brown was moving *he fired his Sharps hitting another Marine in the belly (he died soon) and the Marine's dress sword only made a deep gash in Brown's neck, but it was sufficient to knock Brown down. Since Brown was trying to npw unsheath his own (G. Washington's) sword the Marine Officer tried to stab his chest. The brass buckle of the sword strap over Brown's shoulder is what stopped and bent the Marine's light uniform sword double. Others joined in and Brown was captured. The firehouse is still standing as are some of the other key historical places involved in the John Browns raid. I pass by the courthouse where he was tried and hung several times a year.
John Brown’s body lies a moldering in the grave, but his sharpe’s goes firing on.
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