Benjamin F. Gue

“ Anderson and Hazlett escaped across the river in the gathering darkness, the latter only to be captured and hung. The men on the Maryland side would not abandon their companions as long as there was a ray of hope. Led by Owen Brown they approached as near as possible to the Ferry and saw more than a thousand armed men between them and their comrades. Their rescue was hopeless, but the chivalrous Cook crept still closer, and climbing among the limbs of a huge oak, opened fire on the enemy. Twenty or thirty men in range of his rifle fled to shelter, while a hundred guns were turned upon him. ”

“ Volumes have been written in this country and Europe on John Brown the liberator and martyr, who gave his life without a murmur to free the slaves. The noblest men and women of his generation have paid tributes to his unselfish life and his fidelity to duty as he saw it—a fidelity which led him to the scaffold. ”

“ When his old leader came to Springdale, a year later, Barclay was ready to again take up arms against slavery. As we have seen, he was not in the desperate fight at Harper’s Ferry, from the fact that he was sent with Owen Brown’s party to guard their arms on Maryland side. After all was lost and they escaped to the mountains, Owen Brown was by common consent made their leader. A large reward was offered by Governor Wise for their arrest and delivery to the jail of Jefferson County. The country was soon alive with armed men hunting for the fugitives. ”

“ Braver men never lived; truer men to their plighted word never banded together. ... As our comrades fell we could not minister to their wants as they deserved, for we were surrounded by troops firing volley after volley, and we had to keep up a brisk fire in return to keep them from charging upon us. Watson Brown was wounded on Monday, at the same time Stevens was, while carrying a flag of truce; but he got back to the engine house. He fought as bravely as any man. ”

“ Even Governor Wise could not refrain from expressing his admiration for his noble bearing through all the trying scenes of the battle, surrender, trial and conviction. He asked no favors, made no complaints, but calmly accepted the consequences of his heroic effort to free the slaves. ”

“ They fully realized that death was far more likely to meet them than was success. And yet twenty-two men in the fervor of youth, freely offered their services and their lives, if need be, to strike a blow at American slavery, which, they firmly believed would, in some way not clearly developed, result in its final overthrow. ”

“ When the true story of the tragic affair came it was learned that twenty men captured Harper’s Ferry and seventeen of them held it for two days and three nights against Virginia citizens and militia, from one to two thousand strong. One by one the members of the heroic little band fell. Not a man flinched. When the third night came, John Brown, Edwin Coppoc, Shields Green, Jeremiah G. Anderson, Watson Brown and Dauphin A. Thompson were the only survivors cooped in the engine house. Ten had been killed and several more severely wounded; still Brown sternly refused to surrender. ”

“ They lived and died like brave men; we, I trust, shall do the same.” On the 19th Edwin Coppoc, Green and Copeland were taken to Charleston jail, which was guarded by State militia with two cannon trained on it. Edwin’s trial began on the afternoon of November 1st and ended the following day with conviction. He was sentenced to be hung on the 16th of December. He bore himself bravely through the ordeal and calmly awaited his doom. He and Cook were confined in the same cell and were very warm friends. Great sympathy was felt for Edwin Coppoc and it was not confined to his Ohio and Iowa friends. ”

“ ON the 3d of July, 1859, John Brown, his sons Owen and Oliver, and John E. Cook were at Harper’s Ferry carefully making observations and plans for the attack. The men enlisted for the enterprise were assembling at the Kennedy farm, a few miles distant on the Maryland side of the Potomac. Here the arms, including a large number of pikes, were selected. The appearance of a party of strange men at the farm had aroused suspicion in the neighborhood and warrants had been taken out for searching the premises. ”

“ They carted their prey toward their office and that was the last seen of Jeremiah G. Anderson, the close friend of John Browns and one of the bravest Iowa soldiers who ever marched to the field of death. Edwin Coppoc was born near Salem, Ohio, June 30, 1835. His father died when he was a child. He lived many years with his grandfather, going to district school and working on a farm. He is described as a studious, industrious boy of cheerful disposition. His eyes and hair were brown and his skin fair. His head was large and well formed; he was fond of athletic sports and a genial companion. ”