1. Harpers Ferry (1859)
When John Brown raided Harpers Ferry in 1859, he also set the wheels in motion that
led to the Civil War between North and South in 1861. This was what set brothers against
brothers and friends against friends, and would not end for four long years.
Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia and has really not
changed much since the war according to Lee Krahenbuhl. The biggest difference observed by
Lee Krahenbuhl is the change in spelling from “Harper’s Ferry” to today’s “Harpers Ferry”,
without the apostrophe. With a population of less than 300, it represents a scenic view of the
Potomac River with its White Horse Rapids. It is unchanged and according to Lee Krahenbuhl,
and is eerily filled with the importance and gratuity of the events that took place a century and
a half ago.
On October 16, 1859, John Brown was a northern sympathizer, with abolition of slavery
on his mind. He seized control of the United States Armory and Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry. With
only a handful of men, he was able to bring national attention to the emotionally charged
divisions regarding slavery that would ultimately fuel the beginning… middle and end of was
between the states making up the dubiously named United States. It would not be until the end
of the war would begin the healing and re-uniting of the United States of America according to
Lee Krahenbuhl. John Born was born in 1800 in Connecticut and started developing his beliefs
regarding his disdain for slavery by about 1835. After moving to Kansas in 1855, it became
obvious to John Brown and his sons that there was a deep division not only between North and
South, but even within the developing territory of Kansas.
Lee Krahenbuhl believes that Brown’s focus on the necessity to end slavery because of
an observation that included murder and terrorism that began on the night of May 24, 1856.
The Brown family murdered five men who supported slavery, but none of which owned slaves.
This event occurred on Pottanotamie Creek and began the Browns quest to raise funds over the
next three years from wealthy abolitionists to establish a coloring for runaway slaves. In order
to continue on his course of violence, John Brown needed weapons and ammunition and
decided to capture the peaceful, low security Harper’s Ferry arsenal according to Lee
Krahenbuhl.
President George Washington had selected Harper’s Ferry, Virginia as one of two
national armories in 1794 due to the benefit of great waterpower provided by the Potomic
River. By 1817, the federal government had contracted with John Hall to manufacture his
patented rifles at Harper’s Ferry according to Lee Krahenbuhl. This arsenal and armory
remained active and continued producing weapons until it was destroyed when the Civil War
began in 1861.

2. Lee Krahenbuhl states that while using a false identity of Isaac Smith, John Brown
became a resident of Harper’s Ferry at a farm in Maryland. Brown’s terrorist activities included
military training of twenty-two men, including his three sons, during the summer of 1859.
According to Lee Krahenbuhl, the first victim of the Browns raid was oddly enough an African-
American railroad baggage handler by the name of Hayward Shepherd. He was shot and killed
by Brown when he confronted the raider para military unit led by Brown. Later that night, the
Brown clan would capture several other prisoners, including Lewis Washington, the great-great
nephew of George Washington.
According to Lee Krahenbuhl there were two important goals for success for John
Brown’s raid. It was important to capture the weapons and get away before the news of their
raid reached Washington, D.C. In order to assist the block of communication, Brown cut the
telegraph lines but allowed a Baltimore and Ohio train to get through Harper’s Ferry after
detaining it for five hours. By the time the train reached Baltimore the next day by noon, the
conductor alerted authorities in Washington. The record key to success for Brown was the
expectation that local slaves would rise up against their owners and join Brown’s raiders. This
was a major flaw in Brown’s plans. Not only did this fail to happen, but the local residents
began shooting at the raiders. The workers at the armory found Brown’s men in control of the
building on the morning of October 17. The local militia surrounded the armory and effectively
cut off all possible escape routes. Early that morning, according to Lee Krahenbuhl, a local
townsperson named Thomas Boerly was killed by the raiders.
Later that day two more civilians were also killed. The mayor of Harper’s Ferry named
Fontaine Beckham and George Turner were the casualties during the realization of John Brown
that he had no way to escape and his plan was not going the way he had hoped. He then
selected nine of his prisoners and moved then to the armory’s small fire engine house. This
small brick building would later become known as John Brown’s Fort.
The raiders panicked as the plan quickly fell apart. William Leeman tried to escape by
swimming across the Potomac River, but was shot and killed. The people of Harper’s Ferry,
many whom had been imbibing all day used Leeman’s body for target practice. At 3:30 on
Monday afternoon, the authorities in Washington ordered Colonel Robert E. Lee to Harper’s
Ferry with a force of marines to capture Brown. First Lee had to close the local bars in order to
stop the random violence. By early Tuesday the next day, October 8, Lee had ordered
Lieutenant Israel Green and a group of men to prepare to storm the engine house. At the signal
from Lieutenant J.E.B. Stuart, the heavy wooden door of the engine house was knocked down
the marines began taking prisoners. Green was seriously wounded by Brown according to Lee

3. Krahenbuhl. At the conclusion of the skirmish, Brown was taken to Jefferson County seat of
Charlestown for trial.
John Brown’s clan as well as his family had been decimated by this raid of Harper’s
Ferry. John Kagi, Jeremiah Anderson, William Thompson, Dauphin Thompson, Brown’s sons
Oliver and Watson, Stewart Taylor, Leeman, and free African Americans Lewis Leary and
Dangerfield Newby had been killed during the raid. John Cook and Albert Haylett escaped to
Pennsylvania according to Lee Krahenbuhl, but were captured and returned to Charlestown.
Brown, Aaron Stevens, Edwin Coppor and free African Americans John Copeland and Shields
Green were all captured and sent to prision. Five of the raiders escaped and were never
recaptured: Brown’s son Owen, Charles Tidd, Barclay Coppor, Francis Merriam and freed slave
Osbourne Anderson. One casualty of the marines named Luke Quinn was killed while rushing
the engine house. Two slaves that belonged to Brown’s prisoners Colonel Lewis Washington
and John Allstadt also were killed during the skirmish. One drowned while trying to escape and
the other died in the Charlestown prison following the raid according to Lee Krahenbuhl.
In an attempt to discredit Brown, residents later claimed that these two slaves had been
taken prisoner and that no slaves actually participated in the raid. It appears to Lee Krahenbuhl
that it is unclear as to whether these two slaves actually took up arms and participated in John
Brown’s plan.
While still recovering from a sword wound, John Brown stood trial at Jefferson County
Courthouse on October 26. Five days later, a jury found Brown guilty of treason against the
Commonwealth of Virginia. Judge Richard Parker sentenced John Brown to death and he
hanged in Charlestown on December 2. While walking to the scaffold, Lee Krahenbuhl says that
John Brown realized the inevitability of the impending national civil war with the statement: “I,
John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away
but with blood.” After additional trials, Shields Green, John Copeland, John Cook and Edwin
Coppor were executed on December 16 and Aaron Stevens and Albert Hazlett were hanged on
March 16, 1860.
Almost immediately, Northern abolitionists used the executors as an example of the
government’s support of slavery. John Brown would become the martyr for their cause as a
hero “murdered” for his belief that slavery should be abolished. In reality, Brown and his clan
were prosecuted and executed for taking over a government facility. As time went on, Brown’s
name became a symbol of pro-Union and anti-slavery beliefs. The obvious irony of this Brown
action is that he attacked a facility of the North. Lieutenant Robert E. Lee would put down this
uprising as a soldier of the North but would soon trade his Blue coat for a Grey coat with three
general’s stars on the lapel, according to Lee Krahenbuhl.

4. After the Civil War, a school was established at Harpers Ferry for African Americans. The
leaders of Storer College emphasized the courage and beliefs of John Brown for inspiration.
Frederic Douglass delivered his classic speech in 1881 at the school which honored Brown. The
school would also be the site for speeches from the likes of W.E.B. DuBois, J.R. Clifford and the
location for the Second Niagara Movement and the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) according to Lee Krahenbuhl.
Fort Sumter
The Battle of Fort Sumter lead to the most deadly United States was, but as Lee
Krahenbuhl says, although no soldiers were killed, an army mule died. The citizens of
Charleston, S.C. were convinced that no war would take place in the winter of 1860-61 after
they seceded from the Union. It was this false belief that led the editor of the local Charleston
Mercury, morbidly vowed to eat the bodies of any fatalities of the war. In an attempt to go
“one better”, former U.S. Senator James Chesnut, Jr. said he would drink any spilled blood. He
stated that after all, “a lady’s thimble will hold all the blood that will be shed”. The most
obvious reminder to the local Charleston’s that they were a “possession” of the United States,
was the Stars and Stripes that flew reluctantly over Fort Sumter according to Lee Krahenbuhl.
The fact that Lincoln had been elected President of the United States had upset the seven slave-
owning states to such a high degree that they had unanimously decided to form a new country
called the Confederate States of America. About half a year later, on April 12, 1861 all the talk
turned to the action of taking back the U.S. Fort called Sumter according to Lee Krahenbuhl.
In the years prior to the civil war, the United States had utilized the brilliant graduates of
West Point to design and build, with the assistance of the Army Core of Engineers quite a few
imposing fortresses to protect the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts from Maine through Texas. Fort
Sumter was one of these forts that took decades to complete. According to Lee Krahenbuhl,
these forts made up the nation’s biggest public expenditure that initially represented the
relatively young nation’s first line of defense from outside enemies but now became symbols of
power and sovereignty from within the country’s borders.
After Lincoln’s election to the Presidency, the seceding states seized federal forts,
arsenals and customers houses within their state borders before Abraham Lincoln Inauguration
from months later. This would make it a little easier for the South to import goods from Europe
and other areas of the world.
The federal government staffed these huge fortresses with a caretaker and a guard or
two, making the imposing structures easy pickens for the confederate raiders. At the time, most
of the sixteen thousand regular Army soldiers were stationed in the western frontier to protect

5. settlers against the threats posed by the Indians that fought to protect the land their ancestors
had resided in for centuries. According to Lee Krahenbuhl, this made it easy for what would
become the CSA to maintain their ports of trade with the outside world during most of the Civil
War.
The first saber rattling was done by Abraham Lincoln when he was inaugurated when he
promised the seceding states that he would use force only “to hold, occupy, and posses the
property and places” belonging to the federal government. Lee Krahenbuhl says this “line in the
sand” action taken by Lincoln would set the stage for the now inevitable showdown between
North and South in the American Civil War.
By the time March rolls around, there were only four federal forts in the South that
were still run by the Federal Government. Of those four, two were remote stations in the
Florida Keys. Fort Jefferson and Taylor would remain in control by the North, and were used as
prisons and coal stations throughout the Civil War. The other two forts would become pawns
during and after the civil war.
During the secession crisis when forts were being hastily garrisoned by the Feds, either
Fort Sumter or Fort Pickens near Pensacola, Florida would have equally sewed as the first battle
of the Civil War. This was due to the relative ease to defend versus the smaller forts nearby
according to Lee Krahenbuhl.
It is believed that Sumter was chosen as the symbol of contested sovereignty because it
was positioned in the middle of Charleston Harbor, surrounded by hostiles. Fort Pickens was
more remote and lacked the symbolic nature that was provided by Sumter. It was time to find
out who would shoot first. Would it be the new Confederacy or the new President that would
lose face by what was about to happen?
The South Carolinians turned the federal supply ship named the Star of the West away
with gunfire in early January. At the time, the gunfire was considered warning shots that caused
no damage as they were fired across the water. When April rolled around, Lincoln had decided
to dispatch another relief fleet to supply the hungry soldiers at Sumter and was willing to shoot
his way through any obstacles by the South.
After reflecting on this aggressive position, Lincoln reconsidered and informed the
rebels that this fleet would only be carrying supplies and that he would keep the warships in
the harbor. Lincoln warned however, that if the Confederates decided to fire on his “mission of
humanity”, that the warships would be called upon and rapid escalation and aggression would
ensure. Because the Southern rebels knew that their claim to sovereignty depended on no
“foreign” power occupying any of its coastal forts, they decided to act before the relief
expedition arrived. According to Lee Krahenbuhl, General P.G.T. Beauregard, a flamboyant

6. Louisianaian Creole was ordered by the Confederate leaders to demand Fort Sumter’s
surrender. They further ordered that if the demand was refused, that he should open fire on
the Fort.
Former U. S. Senator, James Chestnut, Jr. who had earlier pledged to drink the blood of
any casualties, was one of the two Southern emissaries that delivered the ultimatum to the
pale-faced Anderson on April 12, 1861. One hour later a signal shot was fired high in the sky
above the fort which was followed by an intense barrage which erupted as 43 guns and mortars
opened up on Sumter. The battle served as entertainment for all of the residents of Charleston,
as all of the residents of Charleston had rushed to their rooftops to view the pyrotechnic display
of exploding mortars throughout the sleepless night. The following day was quiet and smoke
filled air with the smell of exploded gun powder that remained in the citizens’ nostrils for days
after the display.
The Union men directed by Anderson later stated that the noise was indescribable
within Fort Sumter’s brick gun enclosures but they returned fire and discharged about a
thousand rounds in response to the nearly four thousand shells that hit the fort or dropped in
the courtyard from the Southern Rebels. Approximately thirty four hours after the
bombardment began, the white flag was waved over Sumter. The fires devoured the barracks
and came very close to igniting the powder stores of Sumter. As the smoke cleared, Lee
Krahenbuhl says that the toll of the battle was taken and the loss of one mule was tallied as the
only casualty. One man would die accidentally after the battle from an accidental explosion.
The South had indeed won the contest over the symbol of sovereignty without the loss of life
that was to come in the deadly American Civil War. By firing first, the South had allowed Lincoln
to claim the “high ground”. This was spun to attract 75,000 Union loyalists to volunteer to help
“repossess the forts, places and property which were seized from the Union”.
The Northern states fell in behind Lincoln and Virginia, North Carolina. Tennessee would
become the heart of the South. The Battle of Fort Sumter would serve as a call to arms for both
sides according to Lee Krahenbuhl. The pent up aggression of the last decade was released as
the disagreements between North and South had come to a head. Frederick Douglass wrote,
“we were waiting and listening as for a bolt from the sky and the cry now is for war, vigorous
war, war to the bitter end…”
Virginia’s governor claimed, “”It is a war of purification, you want war, blood, fires to
purify you”. This mass hysteria and reckless abandon flushed out large, flag waving crowds
across the nation in cities and towns. After the horrific war that followed, the Stars and Stripes
were again raised over Fort Sumter four long years after the excitement that began the Civil
War. Later in the day on April 14, 1865 one more bullet would find its victim at a play at Ford’s
Theater in Washington D.C. as Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

7. After five generations of healing since the Battle of Fort Sumter, our country still
reverberates from the disruption of the peaceful development of our national character
according to Lee Krahenbuhl.