n the South.
He was one of the most active partisans on the side of freedom in the
civil war in Kansas, and had been brooding over the subject for years,
until his belief in his mission became unshakable.

Brown's plan was simple, being that of invading Virginia with a small
armed force and calling upon the slaves to rise. He believed they would
flock around him, and he fixed upon Harper's Ferry as the point to begin
his crusade.

Secretly gathering a band of twenty men, in the month of October, 1859,
he held them ready on the Maryland shore. Late on Sunday night, the
16th, they crossed the railway bridge over the Potomac, seized the
Federal armory at Harper's Ferry, stopped all railroad trains, arrested
a number of citizens, set free such slaves as they came across, and held
complete possession of the town for twenty-four hours.

Brown acted with vigor. He threw out pickets, cut the telegraph wires,
and sent word to the slaves that their day of deliverance had come and
they were summoned to rise. By this time the citizens had themselves
risen, and, attacking the invaders, drove them into the armory, from
which they maintained fire until it became clear that they must succumb.
Several made a break, but were shot down. Brown retreated to an
engine-house with his wounded and prisoners and held his assailants at
bay all through Monday and the night following.

News having been sent to Washington, Colonel Robert E. Lee arrived
Tuesday morning with a force of marines and land troops. The local
militia of Virginia had also been called out. The situation of Brown was
hopeless, but he refused to surrender. Colonel Lee managed matters with
such skill that only one of his men was shot, while Brown was wounded
several times, his two sons killed, and others slain. The door of the
engine-house was battered in and the desperate men overpowered. The
enraged citizens would have rended them to pieces, had they been
allowed, but Colonel Lee protected and turned them over to the civil
authorities. Brown and his six companions were placed on trial, found
guilty of what was certainly an unpardonable crime, and hanged on the 2d
of December, 1859.

Many in the South believed that the act of Brown was planned and
supported by leading Republicans, but such was not the fact, and they
were as earnest in condemnation of the mad proceeding as the extreme
slavery men, but John Brown's raid served to fan the spark of civil war
that was already