Existing comment:
Fighting for his Government
Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee, commander of the US Marines sent to Harpers Ferry, reported on the storming of the enginehouse:
"Three marines were furnished with sledgehammers to break in the doors, and the men were instructed how to distinguish our citizens from the insurgents; to attack with bayonet, and not to injure the blacks detained in custody unless they resisted.
"The men... [used] as a battering ram a heavy ladder, with which they dashed in part of the door and gave admittance to the storming party. The fire of the insurgents up to this time had been harmless. At the threshold one marine fell mortally wounded."
The fallen marine was Private Luke Quinn. He was the only member of the military, either US Marine or Virginia Militia, killed during Brown's raid. His last words were "Oh Major, I am gone, for the love of God will you send for the priest."
Quinn in buried in nearby St. Peter's Catholic Cemetery. |