Books of Historical Interest-John Brown-1903, page 2

JOHN BROWN IN IOWA

Although this is only one chapter from the book, it is longer than the 1888 article, so I am placing it on two pages.
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History of Iowa from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the 20th Century
Benjamin G. Gue
Chicago, Century History, 1903


Page 5

Edwin Coppoc (cont.)

On the 15th of July a letter came from John Brown requesting them to come on to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. On the 25th they bade their mother goodby and started and started ostensibly for Ohio. But their mother was not deceived; she knew too well their destination and expected never to see them again. Order No. 9, made out by Captain Brown the day of the attack, details "Lieut. Albert Hazlett and Edwin Coppoc to hold the armory opposite the engine house after it is taken, remaining there until morning, when further orders will be given." The fight began early in the forenoon and Brown was so hotly engaged that his usual good judgment failed him and he did not realize the great peril until his little band was hemmed in on all sides by overwhelming numbers and retreat to the mountains was impossible. His detachments, widely separated, stood at their posts with a courage never surpassed in the annals of warfare. One by one they fell before the volleys pouring in upon them from every side. We hear of Edwin Coppoc standing at his post at the armory gates, while balls rained around him like hailstones. Soon after he joined Brown at the engine house and the siege began. Watson and Oliver, sons of the leader, were mortally wounded, but the heroic Watson fought on to the last. John Brown, his son Watson, Jerry Anderson, Edwin Coppoc, Dauphin A. Thompson, Steward Taylor and Shields Green were now the only survivors left on the Virginia side. Escape was impossible, and they determined to die fighting, knowing that no mercy would be shown them as prisoners. Col. Robert E. Lee, who was now in command of their assailants, sent a message to Brown demanding his surrender.
"No!" said Brown, "we prefer to die here."
Firing began again on both sides, while Lee formed a column for assault.

Few know how near the coming Southern Confederacy came to losing its greatest military leader at this moment at the hands of an Iowa boy. Edwin Coppoc saw from his port-hole the blue uniform of the commander and instantly drew a deadly bead on Lee at close range. Jesse W. Graham, one of Brown's prisoners, who was watching Coppoc, knew Lee and saw his danger. Instantly springing forward he caught the rifle before Coppoc could fire and during the struggle Lee stepped out of range, and so lived to strike the deadliest blow against his country that it ever encountered. Had Coppoc's bullet gone to its brilliant mark, a hundred thousand lives of American soldiers might have been spared.

When the shock of the final charge came Brown, Anderson and Thompson went down beneath the thrusts of sabers and bayonets. Edwin Coppoc fired the last shot and he and Green alone were left unhurt to surrender. The fight was ended. Ten of the little band were slain. Brown and Stevens were desperately wounded and with Coppoc, Green and Copeland were prisoners. William Thompson and W.H. Leeman, who had before surrendered, were butchred in cold blood by the Virginia "chivalry." Harper's Ferry had been held fifty-eight hours by seventeen men against the assaults of from five hundred to 1,500 armed citizens and militia from Maryland and Virginia.*

Nowhere in modern warfare is there recorded such an unequal contest of similar duration. Of the immortal seventeen three were Iowa boys under twenty-four years of age. On the 22nd of November Edwin Coppoc wrote home an account of the battle in which he says:

"Eleven of our little band are now sleeping in their bloody garments with the cold earth above them. 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 eve 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 o truce; but he got back to the engine house. He fought as bravely as any man. When the fight was over he got worse. He and Green and myself were put in the watch-house. Watson kept getting worse until Wednesday morning, and begged hard for a bed, but could not get one. I pulled off my coat and put it under him and placed his head in my lap, and in that position he died,...Whatever may be our fate, rest assured eve shall not shame our dead companions by a shrinking fear. 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 Charlestown 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. 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. He faced his awful doom without a murmur. His grandfather and uncle from Salem, Ohio and Thomas Gwynn, of Cedar County, Iowa, went to Virginia to appeal to Governor Wise for a commutation of his sentence to imprisonment, and to his credit let it be known that the Governor made such a recommendation to the Legislature, as, in cases of treason, he had not the power to interfere. A committee of that body recommended the commutation, but the Virginia Legislature demanded his death. shields Green, the faithful negro, managed to secrete an old knife when captured, which he now gave to Coppoc. Edwin contrived to notch the blade into a rude saw. With this he and Cook sawed the shackles from their limbs and digging a hole through the brick wall of their cell the night before execution, made a bold strike for freedom. But the guards discovered them as they crept out and returned them to their cell.

*Hinton gives the loss of life as follows: Of Brown's band, ten were killed and seven more executed of the liberated slaves, seventeen were slain; of the citizens and soldiers, eight were killed and nine wounded. Total killed, forty-two.

The few remaining hours of their lives were spent in writing farewell letters to their friends. The morning of their last day dawned upon Cook and Coppoc. They were as calm and brave in death as they had been through the two days of fierce battle. Their comrades, Green and Copeland, were executed at 10:30 a.m., December 16th, and at half-past twelve Cook and Coppoc were taken from their cells. they were permitted to bid Hazlett and Stevens goodby on their way to the scaffold. When the black caps were drawn over their heads they clasped each other's hands in a last farewell and calmly met their doom. Edwin's body was taken by his friends to his boyhood home at Salem, and there laid to rest among his kindred.

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Page 7

Barclay Coppoc, Edwin's younger brother, was born January 4, 1839. He was somewhat taller than Edwin, of slender build, brown hair, bold, large eyes, and a determined expression. He was threatened with consumption from boyhood. When nineteen years of age he joined a party going to Kansas. Emigrant life improved his health and he enjoyed the stirring events of the Free-State conflict with the Missouri invaders.

Here he met Aaron D. Stevens, Richard Realf and John Brown, and enlisted in a number of the expeditions. 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 the 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. Governor Wise described Barclay Coppoc as follows:

"He is about twenty years of age; is about five feet seven and a half inches in height, with hazel eyes and brown hair, wears a light mustache, and has a consumptive look."

Each member of the party was as minutely described. Cook was so well known at Harper's Ferry that a perfect description was given of him and a reward of $1,000 was offered for his capture. As the men passed near Chambersburg, in the mountains, Cook could not resist the temptation to venture into that town in the darkness of night to see his young wife and say goodby before going on to Canada. His companions protested most earnestly but he started on, after appointing a place to meet them before morning. the waited at the meeting place long and anxiously but never saw him again.

The story of the fearful sufferings of these men as they wandered for thirty-six days through the wilds of Maryland and Pennsylvania mountains would fill a volume. Subsisting on unground field corn, occasional fruit, raw chicken now and then, without shelter or fire, huddling together when sleeping amid chilling rains, sleet and snow with feet lacerated by sharp rocks and thorns, always nearly perishing from hunger, human suffering reached its limit. They were pursued by human and brute bloodhounds - the first eager for blood money and the latter thirsting for their life blood. Merriam soon gave out. He was left on a left on a railroad track, entered an obscure station and, at great risk, took a train and escaped.

After reaching northern Pennsylvania, starving and utterly exhausted, the others at last ventured to seek shelter at a farmhouse. Weeks had elapsed since they had escaped and not a word had reached them of the fate of their comrades. A paper was lying on the table. Tidd took it up and began to read. his face paled as he read on. Owen and Barclay were watching him intently. With a forced calmness Tidd then began to read aloud the story of the trial and death sentence of John Brown and Edwin Coppoc and the capture of Cook and Hazlett. Tears rolled down Barclay's cheeks as the fate of his brother, the old captain and the gallant Cook was read; but not a word dared they utter. After leaving them, it seems that Cook had suddenly come to a clearing in the woods before dark, and found himself face to face with three woodchoppers. Two of them were stalwart brothers named Logan, professional slave-catchers.

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Page 8

they had seen the description of Cook and knew of the $1,000 reward. They recognized and seized him at once, and binding his arms, delivered him over to the Virginia officers and obtained the reward. One of the Logans joined the rebel army two years later and was killed by a Union bullet. The other lived many years, always suffering remorse for the infamous sale of the gallant Cook to the Virginia hangman. He was finally crushed to death beneath the wheels of a railroad train.

The three famished men traveled on, after a night's rest for the first time in month under a roof, and after a few days more felt reasonably safe to travel by daylight. Coppoc soon after took a train for Iowa, which he safely reached, worn almost to a skeleton by starvation and exposure. He appeared suddenly in his old home on the 17th of December and met a warm and tearful welcome. His brother Edwin and his comrade Cook had died on a Virginia scaffold the day before. Barclay was so near death from his terrible sufferings that his Springdale friends determined to defend him in his own home from surrender to the Virginia hangmen. Armed and drilled, the guard kept nightly watch over him for many weeks. F.C. Galbraith, of Springdale, thus describes the plans of his defenders:

"Springdale is in arms, and is prepared at a half-hour's notice to give his pursuers a reception of two hundred shots. There are three of our number who always know his whereabouts, and nobody else knows anthing of him. He is never seen at night where he was during the day, and there are men on watch at Davenport, Muscatine, Iowa City, West Liberty and Tipton. It is intended to baffle them in every possible way without bloodshed."



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