Thanks to Him, John Brown’s Body Lied A-Mouldering In Its Grave
While writing for this week’s issue about the football misfortunes at J.E.B. Stuart High, I mentioned that the fellow who gave the Falls Church school its name had put his West Point training to work killing Indians and fighting on the losing side in the Civil War.
I neglected to point out a career highlight, that, having been bludgeoned with local Civil War history throughout my public schooling in Fairfax County, I shouldn’t have missed: Stuart was also the point man in the military action that ended the 1859 siege at Harper’s Ferry.
The scenic West Virginia riverside burg, long before it became a fine antiquing outpost and pit stop on the way to betting on the ponies at Charles Town, was where abolitionist John Brown holed up in a firehouse.
Far as I can tell, Stuart, then with the U.S. Army, was to Harper’s Ferry as Janet Reno was to Waco. At Stuart’s orders, U.S. troops burst into Brown’s compound and killed or captured everybody in his gang. Survivors, including Brown, were put on trial for their violent activism and executed.
John Brown’s Raid and its aftermath accelerated the move to get rid of slavery and thereby helped trigger the War Between the States. Stuart jumped over to the Confederacy when his native Virginia seceded, and in his last battle for the losers in May 1964 1864 took a bullet to the head ribs outside Richmond. Stuart died the sort of death that every Civil War officer died, as this 19th Century record indicates:
[President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis], taking his hand, said, “General, how do you feel?” He
replied, “Easy, but willing to die, if God and my country think I
have fulfilled my destiny and done my duty.”
That concludes today’s installment of U.S. History from Dummies.
6 Responses to “Thanks to Him, John Brown’s Body Lied A-Mouldering In Its Grave”
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February 28th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Don’t tase me for this, bro, but it’s 1864, not 1964.
February 28th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Duke 84:
thanks for paying attention. i was the one who took a shot to the head in 1964, and have since been known to get my centuries confused. but, the correction’s been made! thanks again…
February 28th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
No problem, Dave - I’ve taken a few shots to the head myself.
I’ve heard from a former Stuart player that those Charlie Garner teams were damned good for NoVA.
February 28th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Duke:
i saw charlie garner and stuart play my alma mater, falls church, in his senior year in 1889…oh, wait, that was 1989…and the way i remember it he scored six touchdowns, including a punt return, an interception return, a kickoff return and a few runs from scrimmage. but i’m real worried about my memory after taking that shot to the head in 1864. yet, shot or no, my recollections are clear as a bell that to that point garner was the best high school football player i ever saw…(then i saw chris kelley from seneca valley a few years later, but that’s another story)…
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:00 am
Wow, Dave, can you exhibit any more disdain for Virginia, the Confederacy and JEB Stuart? You sound like you are trying to be a comedian, but your comments are a bit over the top and distasteful.
I am not sure about your comparison between Stuart and Reno, but the entry into the firehouse came only after Brown refused to surrender to Colonel Robert E. Lee, overall commander at that time, unless he and his party should be allowed to escape. Don’t think that was going to happen. Unfortunately for Brown and his insurrectionists, and despite our modern views on the subjecty of slavery, they were criminals hell bent on killing as many people as they could and the US Army and Marines did their duty.
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Charles:
i would hope i could exhibit more disdain for JEB Stuart, anyway. JEB Stuart was our rival, the rich kids (!) school that we’d go fight in the McDonald’s parking lot during my days at Falls Church High. and the Raiders always beat my Jaguars.
So, again, even after all these years, I could exhibit a whole lot more disdain!
and, I was kinda proud of my linking Harper’s Ferry and Waco, since I, to quote Sam Cooke, don’t know much about history…
but thanks for the rest of the story, and thanks for playing the feud!