History buffs retrace John Brown’s journey

HAGERSTOWN, Md. — Just as cold, damp weather couldn’t quench John Brown’s incendiary fervor, it didn’t discourage those determined to follow the radical abolitionist’s footsteps last week, 150 years after he launched the raid that kindled the Civil War.

As many as 300 people, some in period attire, planned to march nearly five miles from a log farmhouse along dark rural roads and across the Potomac River to Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia.

The event led by park chief historian Dennis Frye kicks off the Civil War sesquicentennial. Historians cite the failed attempt by Brown and 18 fervent followers to seize weapons from the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry as the opening salvo in the War Between the States because it incited strong passions.

The war was fought from 1861 to 1865.

Three of Brown’s 21 disciples stayed behind to stand guard. The rest quietly seized the arsenal by midnight.

But the situation became a standoff when local militia and townsfolk sealed escape routes, killed some of the raiders and surrounded the armory. Marines finally broke in and captured the wounded Brown, who was hanged six weeks later.