On October 16, 1859, John Brown and a small band of abolitionists famously set out to raid the National Armory at Harpers Ferry which contained 100,000 muskets and rifles. After capturing a large number of firearms, Brown planned to distribute them among local slaves and entice the collapse of slavery throughout the south. Having been given two hundred breechloading Sharps carbines and pikes by northern abolition societies to accomplish this task, Brown and his raiders were well prepared for their time.
Sharps rifles were very innovative among firearms in the 1850s and were highly sought after by abolitionist men looking to gain political advantage in territorial Kansas. The rifles soon became known by the nickname "Breecher's Bibles" after Henry Ward Breecher, a well-known abolitionist preacher, wrote an article on the weapon's effectiveness in 1856. The Sharps' superior accuracy, high rate of fire, and quality craftsmanship made it very popular during the period.
Many of the arms to be used by Brown and his men had been secretly moved to staging points near the government arms factory, situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers.
Although they had hoped for a force of a few thousand men, Brown's force numberd only 21 and the raiders soon ran into a number of complications. After initial success by the raiders, they incountered a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad passenger train that Brown, for reasons unknown, let continue to Washington DC, where it alerted authorities. Soon afterward, local farmers, shopkeepers, and militia began pinning the raiders down with fire, forcing Brown and his followers to fortify themselves in a small armory building.
On October 18, a company of U.S. Marines, led by Colonel Robert E. Lee, surrounded Brown's "fort" and asked that the men surrender. After a young Army lieutenant, J.E.B. Stuart, was unable to get the men to put down their arms, and signaled for Marines to storm the building. Three minutes later, the raiders had been taken into custody and Brown's subsequent trial and execution for treason to the state of Virginia were important origins for the American Civil War that started sixteen months later.
Some lucky bystanders and townspeople who were at Harpers Ferry during the incident acquired some of the raiders' .52-cal. Sharps carbines. Our very own National Firearms Museum has one of these rifles on display, engraved with the name of the Philadelphia-bound traveler stranded in town when the abolitionists disrupted travel. Other Sharps carbines, picked up by civil and military authorities, were later issued to northern cavalry units during the Civil War years. Many of these historic carbines can be identified by a serial number list compiled by investigators tracing the origin of Brown's arms.
