John Brown The Hero Personal Reminiscences

Author : J. W. Winkley
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781973108641
Total Pages : 69 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (86 download)

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Download or read book John Brown the Hero written by J. W. Winkley and published by . This book was released on 2017-10-20 with total page 69 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The interest attaching to this little book demands from me some noticeof its author, and of my indebtedness to him while preparing, twentyyears ago, a "Life and Letters of John Brown," which has since becomethe basis of several biographies of that hero. Dr. J. W. Winkley, longa citizen of Boston, was one of those who, in 1856, became a Free Statecolonist of Kansas Territory, then the skirmish-ground of the longconflict between free labor and Negro slavery. His residence there wasbrief (1856 and 1857), as was that of many who went out in the years1855-'58 to take part on one side or the other of the contest; buthe had the good fortune, as a youth, in the perceptive and receptiveperiod of life, to come under the influence of a hero; and this bookportrays the incidents of that interesting acquaintance. Nearlythirty years later he communicated to me this story, and I succinctlymentioned it in my book. But it required a fuller statement; especiallysince it seems largely to have escaped the notice of the chroniclersof that disturbed and confused period of 1856. The partisan movementshere described came in between two of Brown's famous fights,--that ofBlack Jack, in early June, when he captured the Virginian captain,Pate, and that in the end of August, when he repelled the formidableattack of the Missourians upon the small settlement of Osawatomie. Thebrothers Winkley and their comrades took up arms in the neighborhoodof Osawatomie, after the engagements of the first two weeks in August,which culminated in the capture of several camps or "forts" of theSouthern invaders of eastern Kansas, August 14 and 16. Fort Saunders,not far from Lawrence was taken by a Free State force under GeneralLane, August 14. On the 16th, another Pro-slavery "fort," garrisonedby a Colonel Titus, was captured, near Lecompton. The reason forthese attacks was thus given by John Brown, Jr., then a prisoner atLecompton, guarded by Captain Sackett with a force of United Statesdragoons (August 16, 1856): "During the past month the Ruffians have been actively at work, and have made not less than five intrenched camps, where they have, in different parts of the Territory, established themselves in armed bands, well provided with arms, provisions, and ammunition. From these camps they sally out, steal horses, and rob Free State settlers (in several cases murdering them), and then slip back into their camp with their plunder. Last week, a body of our men made a descent upon Franklin (four miles south of Lawrence) and, after a skirmishing fight of about three hours, took their barracks and recovered some sixty guns and a cannon, of which our men had been robbed some months since, on the road from Westport. Yesterday our men invested another of their fortified camps, at Washington Creek.... Towards evening the enemy broke and fled, leaving behind, to fall into the hands of our men, a lot of provisions and 100 stand of arms.... This morning our men followed Colonel Titus closely, and fell upon his camp (near Lecompton), killed two of his men, liberated his prisoners, took him and ten other prisoners, and with a lot of arms, tents, provisions, etc., returned, having in the fight had only one of our men seriously wounded.... This series of victories has caused the greatest fear among the Pro-slavery men. Great numbers are leaving for Missouri.... I see by the Missouri papers that they regard John Brown as the most terrible foe they have to encounter. He stands very high with the Free State men who will fight, and the great majority of these have made up their minds that nothing short of war to the death can save us fromextermination."