John Brown's Raid

John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry
Part of pre-Civil War conflicts
Harper's Weekly illustration of U.S. Marines attacking John Brown's "Fort" Teresa Baine
Date October 16–18, 1859 Location Harpers Ferry, (West) Virginia Result U.S. victory
Belligerents
United States	Abolitionist insurgents
Commanders and leaders
Robert E. Lee Israel Greene	John Brown
Strength
88 U.S. Marines Unknown number of Virginia Militia and Maryland Militia	8 white men 12 free black men 1 freed slave 1 fugitive slave
Casualties and losses
U.S. Marines: 1 killed 1 wounded Virginia and Maryland Militia: Unknown	10 killed 7 captured 5 escaped
Civilians: 6 killed 9 wounded

North American slave revolts
1526 San Miguel de Gualdape (Spanish Florida, Victorious) c. 1570 Gaspar Yanga's Revolt (Veracruz, New Spain, Victorious) 1712 New York Slave Revolt (British Province of New York, Suppressed) 1730 First Maroon War (British Jamaica, Victorious) 1733 St. John Slave Revolt (Danish Saint John, Suppressed) 1739 Stono Rebellion (British Province of South Carolina, Suppressed) 1741 New York Conspiracy (Province of New York, Suppressed) 1760 Tacky's War (British Jamaica, Suppressed) 1791 Mina Conspiracy (Louisiana (New Spain), Suppressed) 1795 Pointe Coupée Conspiracy (Louisiana (New Spain), Suppressed) 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution (French Saint-Domingue, Victorious) 1800 Gabriel Prosser (Virginia, Suppressed) 1803 Igbo Landing (St. Simons Island, Georgia, Suppressed) 1805 Chatham Manor (Virginia, Suppressed) 1811 German Coast Uprising (Territory of Orleans, Suppressed) 1815 George Boxley (Virginia, Suppressed) 1816 Bussa's Rebellion (British Barbados, Suppressed) 1822 Denmark Vesey (South Carolina, Suppressed) 1831 Nat Turner's rebellion (Virginia, Suppressed) 1831–1832 Baptist War (British Jamaica, Suppressed) 1839 Amistad, ship rebellion (Off the Cuban coast, Victorious) 1841 Creole case, ship rebellion (Off the Southern U.S. coast, Victorious) 1842 Slave Revolt in the Cherokee Nation (Indian Territory, Suppressed) 1859 John Brown's Raid (Virginia, Suppressed) This box:

John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry (also known as John Brown's raid or The raid on Harpers Ferry; in many books the town is called "Harper's Ferry") was an effort by armed abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown's party of 22 was defeated by a company of U.S. Marines, led by First Lieutenant Israel Greene. Colonel Robert E. Lee was in overall command of the operation to retake the arsenal. John Brown had originally asked Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, both of whom he had met in his formative years as an abolitionist in Springfield, Massachusetts, to join him in his raid, but Tubman was prevented by illness, and Douglass declined, as he believed Brown's plan would fail.

John Brown rented the Kennedy Farmhouse, with a small cabin nearby, 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Harpers Ferry near the community of Dargan in Washington County, Maryland, and took up residence under the name Isaac Smith. Brown came with a small group of men minimally trained for military action. His group included 18 men besides himself (13 white men, 5 black men). Northern abolitionist groups sent 198 breech-loading .52 caliber Sharps carbines ("Beecher's Bibles") and 950 pikes (obtained from Charles Blair (Collinsville Axe Co., Collinsville, CT), in late September), in preparation for the raid. The United States Armory was a huge complex of buildings that manufactured small arms for the U.S. Army (1801–1861), with an Arsenal (storehouse) that was thought to contain 100,000 muskets and rifles at the time. Brown attempted to attract more black recruits. He tried recruiting Frederick Douglass as a liaison officer to the slaves in a meeting held in a quarry at Chambersburg, Pa.. It was at this meeting that ex-slave "Emperor" Shields Green consented to join with John Brown on his attack on the United States Armory, Green stating to Douglass "I believe I will go with the old man". Douglass declined, indicating to Brown that he believed the raid was a suicide mission. The plan was "an attack on the federal government" that "would array the whole country against us." You "will never get out alive," he warned.

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