On Sunday night, October 16, 1859, the abolitionist John Brown led a band of 22 in a raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (since 1863, West Virginia).
Composition of the group
The group of men varied in social class and education.
They had come from all over the country and Canada, and were from diverse social classes, from fugitive slaves to the upper middle class. John Brown was 59, Dangerfield Newby was 44, and Owen Brown was 35. All the rest were under 30. Oliver Brown, Barclay Coppoc, and William H. Leeman were under 21.
Of the members of Brown's party, 17 were white and 5 (23%) were Black. Of the five black people, two (Leary, Newby) died during the raid, two (Copeland and Green) were tried and executed, and one (Osborne Anderson) escaped. Two (Green and Newby) had been enslaved, with Newby having been granted his freedom and Green a fugitive; three (Osborne Anderson, Copeland, and Leary) were free black people, but Copeland was a fugitive from the charge of participating in the 1858 Oberlin-Wellington Rescue, of which he was a leader.
Three of Brown's sons participated in the raid. Two, Oliver and Watson, were shot on Monday at the engine house; Oliver died after a few hours in agony, but Watson not until early Wednesday morning. Owen Brown escaped and became an officer in the Union Army. Watson's body was recovered in 1882; Oliver's not until 1899. Salmon Brown, though he had been with his father and brothers in Kansas, did not want to participate in the Harpers Ferry raid and remained in North Elba, running the farm. John Jr. and Jason also declined to participate.
All but 5, who successfully escaped north, were either killed during the raid, or captured, tried, and executed. Of the 22, 10 were killed during the raid or died shortly after of their wounds (Jerry Anderson, Oliver Brown, Watson Brown, Kagi, Leary, Leeman, Newby, Taylor, Adolphus Thompson, William Thompson) 7 were tried and executed, 5 who were taken prisoner on the spot (John Brown, Cook, Copeland, Edwin Coppock, Green) plus 2 who escaped but were captured (Hazlitt, Stevens) 5 escaped north and were not captured (Osborne Anderson, Owen Brown, Barclay Coppock, Meriam, Tidd).
Raiders
The men who participated in the raid are made up of two groups, depending whether or not they fought with Brown in Kansas.
As of 2012, there had never been a book on any of Brown's raiders. Three appeared in quick succession: 2012 on John E. Cook, 2015 on John Anthony Copeland, and in 2020 on Shields Green, plus a 2018 book on Brown's five Black raiders, Five for Freedom: the African American Soldiers in John Brown's Army.
Fought with Brown in Kansas
A group that fought with him in Kansas and gathered at Springdale, Iowa, to prepare and drill for the raid,
‡ Jeremiah Goldsmith Anderson, 26, born in Indiana, served with Brown in Kansas. Brown was "attended, generally, in his movements about the city [Boston] and its neighborhood, by a faithful henchman, Jerry Anderson." He was killed by a Marine's bayonet during the final assault on the engine house. He had in his pocket a letter from his brother John J. (or G. or Q.) Anderson, of Chillicothe, Ohio. His body was taken by Winchester Medical College; last resting place unknown.
† Oliver Brown, 20, John Brown's son, served in Kansas, and he was mortally wounded during the raid Oliver, the youngest of John Brown's three sons to participate in the action. He was described by his mother as the child "most like his father, caring most for learning of all our children." He was mortally wounded on the 17th inside the engine house, and died beside his father. First buried in one of two unmarked boxes near Harpers Ferry; re-interred in 1899 in a common coffin in North Elba.
Owen Brown, about 35, John Brown's son, fought in Kansas. He escaped the raid. Owen, one of three of Brown's sons to participate in the raid, was the last surviving raider following the death of Osborn P. Anderson in 1873.
John E. Cook, 29, reformer and former soldier, attended Oberlin College, he initially escaped capture, but was found and hanged The book, John Brown's Spy. The Adventurous Life and Tragic Confession of John E. Cook, was written about him and published in 2012.
Albert Hazlett, 23, fought in Kansas, escaped following the raid, but was captured and hanged.