Page:John Brown (1899).pdf/145

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

his prisoners into the engine-house, where there were small windows and port-holes which he could fire through. Several of his men, including his son Watson and William Thompson, were shot and captured about the town. On their part, his men killed several of the townspeople. Some Maryland militia came up, across the Potomac, but were beaten back for a little time. Several companies of Virginia militia arrived at Harper's Ferry in the course of the day. The little garrisons at the rifle-works and the armory were killed or captured, with the exception of two men who escaped. The bodies of Kagi, Leary, and Thompson were hurled savagely into the Potomac River. Owen Brown, the Bostonian Merriam, and Barclay Coppoc, who were trying to move the arms down from the Kennedy farm, found themselves cut off, and, after some shooting from a distance, fled to the North.

When Brown finally barricaded him