What is the significance of harpers ferry raid

Secretary of War John B. Floyd had placed overall command in the hands of a former superintendent of West Point, Army Lieutenant Colonel brevetted colonel Robert E. Lee, who had come up from Washington, accompanied by Lt. Jeb Stuart of the 1st U. Upon reaching Harpers Ferry, Lee determined that many of the local militia soldiers in the town were drunk. He promptly ordered all saloons closed. On the morning of the 18th, Lee sent a summons to the insurgents ordering them to lay down their arms and surrender.

When, as he expected, they rejected his demands, he sent Lt. Green, clad in his dress uniform, and 12 of the Marines to storm the fire engine house; Major Russell accompanied them, armed with nothing but a rattan stick.

Three of them were furnished sledge hammers for breaking in the door. Once inside, they were to attack with bayonets, lest stray bullets hit some of the hostages. Lee explained to the Marines how they could distinguish the insurgents from the captives and ordered the storming party "not to injure the blacks detained in custody unless they resisted.

In his report to the Secretary of War the following day, Lee described the action of the storming party:. The fire-engines within the house had been placed by the besieged close to the doors. The doors were fastened by ropes, the spring of which prevented their being broken by the blows of the hammers. The men were therefore ordered to drop the hammers, and, with a portion of the reserve, to use as a battering-ram a heavy ladder, with which they dashed in a part of the door and gave admittance to the storming party.

Although the raid failed, it inflamed sectional tensions and raised the stakes for the presidential election. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! An enormous crowd consisting mostly of African American men demonstrates on the National Mall on October 16, , an event known as the Million Man March. Driven by their desire to see Congress act in the interests of African Americans, and to combat negative stereotypes of The studio, now known as the Walt Disney Company, has had an oversized impact on the entertainment industry and is now one of the largest media companies in the A stampede of soccer fans before a World Cup qualifying match in Guatemala City kills 84 people and seriously injures more than on October 16, Approximately 60, On October 16, , in an event that had viewers around the world glued to their televisions, month-old Jessica McClure is rescued after being trapped for 58 hours in an abandoned water well in Midland, Texas.

The drama unfolded on the morning of October 14, , when At Nuremberg, Germany, 10 high-ranking Nazi officials are executed by hanging for their crimes against humanity, crimes against peace, and war crimes during World War II. Two weeks earlier, the 10 were found guilty by the International War Crimes Tribunal and sentenced to death Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox.

On October 16, , the embattled Chinese Communists break through Nationalist enemy lines and begin an epic flight from their encircled headquarters in southwest China. Lee Through His Private Letters. He gathered the 90 Marines behind a nearby warehouse and worked out a plan of attack. In the predawn darkness, Lee's aide, a flamboyant young cavalry lieutenant, boldly approached the engine house, carrying a white flag. He was met at the door by Brown, who asked that he and his men be allowed to retreat across the river to Maryland, where they would free their hostages.

The soldier promised only that the raiders would be protected from the mob and put on trial. The lieutenant stepped aside, and with his hand gave a prearranged signal to attack. Brown could have shot him dead—"just as easily as I could kill a musquito," he recalled later. Had he done so, the course of the Civil War might have been different.

The lieutenant was J. Stuart, who would go on to serve brilliantly as Lee's cavalry commander. Lee first sent several men crawling below the loopholes, to smash the door with sledgehammers. When that failed, a larger party charged the weakened door, using a ladder as a battering ram, punching through on their second try.

Israel Green squirmed through the hole to find himself beneath one of the pumpers. According to Frye, as Green emerged into the darkened room, one of the hostages pointed at Brown. The abolitionist turned just as Green lunged forward with his saber, striking Brown in the gut with what should have been a death blow.

Brown fell, stunned but astonishingly unharmed: the sword had struck a buckle and bent itself double. With the sword's hilt, Green then hammered Brown's skull until he passed out.

Although severely injured, Brown would survive. Meanwhile, the Marines poured through the breach. Brown's men were overwhelmed. One Marine impaled Indianan Jeremiah Anderson against a wall. Another bayoneted young Dauphin Thompson, where he lay under a fire engine.

It was over in less than three minutes. Of the 19 men who strode into Harpers Ferry less than 36 hours before, five were now prisoners; ten had been killed or fatally injured. Four townspeople had also died; more than a dozen militiamen were wounded. Only two of Brown's men escaped the siege. Amid the commotion, Osborne Anderson and Albert Hazlett slipped out the back of the armory, climbed a wall and scuttled behind the embankment of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to the bank of the Potomac, where they found a boat and paddled to the Maryland shore.

Hazlett and another of the men whom Brown had left behind to guard supplies were later captured in Pennsylvania and extradited to Virginia. Of the total, five members of the raiding party would eventually make their way to safety in the North or Canada. Brown and his captured men were charged with treason, first-degree murder and "conspiring with Negroes to produce insurrection. The trial, held in Charles Town, Virginia, began on October 26; the verdict was guilty, and Brown was sentenced on November 2.

Brown met his death stoically on the morning of December 2, He was led out of the Charles Town jail, where he had been held since his capture, and seated on a small wagon carrying a white pine coffin. He handed a note to one of his guards: "I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land: will never be purged away; but with blood. Brown told his guard, "Don't keep me waiting longer than necessary. Be quick. Among the witnesses to his death were Robert E.

Lee and two other men whose lives would be irrevocably changed by the events at Harpers Ferry. Jackson, who would earn the nickname "Stonewall" less than two years later at the Battle of Bull Run. The other was a young actor with seductive eyes and curly hair, already a fanatical believer in Southern nationalism: John Wilkes Booth. The remaining convicted raiders would be hanged, one by one.

Brown's death stirred blood in the North and the South for opposing reasons. These are the two ends of a chain which is not without its links. He is not Old Brown any longer; he is an angel of light. Chase to secure either extradition or pardon for these two men. Brown's actions also created additional problems for Ohioans. Toggle navigation. Jump to: navigation , search. Photographic reproduction of a portrait of abolitionist John Brown who lead a raid on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia and intended to start a slave revolt, ca.

DeCaro, Louis A. Dee, Christine, ed. Athens: Ohio University Press, Finkelman, Paul, ed. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia,