What did the raid on Harpers Ferry accomplish? All rights reserved. Among the raiders, two were bayoneted to death in the fire house. Present at Brown's execution were Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and future Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth. In the end, John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry ended in failure. The fire of the insurgents up to this time had been harmless. The servants of Messrs. Washington and Allstadt, retained at the armory, took no part in the conflict, and those carried to Maryland returned to their homes as soon as released. No, the raid at Harpers Ferry was not a success. In 1859, the infamous abolitionist John Brown carried out a raid of a federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by Historynet LLC, the world's largest publisher of history magazines. John Brown had the ambitious goal of raiding Harper's Ferry and inciting a slave insurrection, but the raid didn't go as planned. Led by John Brown, this raid was poorly planned and not very well thought-out. Services, John Brown's Raid at Harpers Ferry: Fighting Slavery, Working Scholars® Bringing Tuition-Free College to the Community. John Brown's Body Lee and his men arrested Brown and transported him to the … John Brown's plot to cause a slave revolt was not successful. One of the black men, Dangerfield Newby, hoped Brown’s actions would help him to rescue his wife from slavery. The Marine killed was Private Luke Quinn, the third man through the door, shot through the abdomen. Holly Frey and Tracy V. Wilson let you ponder that question as they revisit John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry in this episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class. The fire-engines within the house had been placed by the besieged close to the doors. Brown detached a party under John Cook Jr. to capture Colonel Lewis Washington, great-grandnephew of George Washington, at his nearby Beall-Air estate, free some of his slaves, and seize two relics of George Washington: a sword allegedly presented to Washington by Frederick the Greatand two … Harpers Ferry was located in Virginia, close to the border of Maryland. 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. J.E.B. Before John Brown, pictured here, was hanged, he gave his guard this note: “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.”. Brown was hanged December 2 for murder and treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia. When he discussed his plans for a raid on the arsenal at Harpers Ferry with Frederick Douglass, in August 1859, Douglass warned him, "You’ll never get out alive.". Upon reaching Harpers Ferry, Lee determined that many of the local militia soldiers in the town were drunk. Five were black and 16 white. Was the raid of John Brown in Harpers Ferry? Instead, Brown and his fellow raiders were easily apprehended by the Virginia militia and a division of the US Marines, and Brown was later given the death penalty for his actions. The rest, led by Lieutenant Green and Major Russell, quickly ended the contest. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 5,000 articles originally published in our various magazines. If Brown hoped the slaves of these men would join his revolution, he was disappointed; none did. Slave Codes in the South: Definition & Examples, George Washington and the New United States Government, George Washington's Leadership at Trenton, Saratoga & Valley Forge, The Issue of Slavery in the American Constitution, Dred Scott v. Sanford: Case Summary & Decision, Thomas Jefferson's Presidency: Louisiana Purchase, Lewis & Clark, and More, John Paul Jones and the Naval Battles of the Revolutionary War, Bloody Kansas: Causes, Effects and Summary of Events, The Battle of Fort Sumter & the Start of the Civil War, The Battle of Yorktown and the Treaty of Paris, The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858: Summary & Significance, The Election of 1860: Definition, Summary, Candidates & Significance, The Civil War Lesson for Kids: Summary & Facts, The Articles of Confederation: Summary & Analysis, Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe: Summary & Themes, Hamilton and the Federalists vs. Jefferson and the Republicans, Civil War Begins: Northern and Southern Advantages Compared, Abolitionist Movement: Important Figures in the Fight to End Slavery, What Is the Battle of Antietam? Their leader, John Brown, was cut down by the sword of Lieutenant Green, and our citizens were protected by both officers and men. The raiders also made a serious mistake when they detained a B&O train for five hours, but then let it go on to Baltimore.