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Indiana University 
and with heavy oaken doors in front. In it were two old- 
fashioned hre engines. Here he prepared for a final stand. 
His prisoners were placed where there would be the least 
danger, the doors were barred, and portholes cut thru the 
walls. During the entire afternoon of Monday, October 17, a 
terrific hre was poured upon the engine-house. Brown and 
his men kept at their posts, returning the hre whenever armed 
assailants could be seen. His men were directed to shoot 
only at those who had weapons in their hands. That was a 
terrible afternoon. One of Brown’s sons was instantly killed 
and another was shot thru and lay dying. The old man felt 
the pulse of his dying son with one hand while he loaded and 
hred his rihe with the other. Night came and the bring 
ceased.23 
Before the dawn of Tuesday the steady tramp of soldiers 
could be heard entering the town. Colonel Robert E. Lee 
(afterward the famous Confederate general) arrived with 
two companies of U.S. marines from Washington. Guards 
were immediately placed so that no raiders could escape.^^ 
The hrst move in the morning was to send a hag of truce 
to the engine-house with a demand for an unconditional sur- 
render, which was refused. The honor of carrying the strong- 
hold by assault was then tendered to the Virginia militia. 
After consideration of the offer it was declined. They were 
afraid they might kill some of their own friends and rela- 
tives who were prisoners in the engine-house.^^ 
A storming party was now formed and provided with sledge 
hammers. The party was to be followed by a supporting 
column. The attempt was a failure. Something more power- 
ful than sledge hammers was needed. A heavy forty-foot 
ladder was now used as a battering ram by an assaulting 
column of the marines. The doors hnally yielded to repeated 
blows. A portion of one of them was knocked in. Just at that 
moment there came the crack of Sharpe’s rihes from within, 
and two of the marines reeled and fell wounded, one of them 
mortally. Lieutenant Green and others now rushed in, and 
after knocking Brown senseless and killing two of his men. 
Speech of Governor Wise at Richmond, Va., a day or two after the raid in 
Redpath, op. cit., 273 ; statement of Captain Dangerfield, one of Brown’s prisoners in 
the engine-house, in Century Magazine, June, 1885. 
Villard, op. cit., 449, 450. 
Statement of Captain Dangerfield, in Century Magazine, June, 1885 ; Villard, 
op. cit., 450 ff. 
