Page:Report of Senate Select Committee on the Invasion of Harper's Ferry.pdf/112

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
40
TESTIMONY.
40

Answer. No, sir.

Question. But a man whom you had hired from Dr. Fuller was drowned in the canal?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Did it excite any spirit of insubordination amongst your negroes?

Answer. Not the slightest. If anything, they were much more tractable than before.

Question. Had you any reason to believe that there was any alarm amongst them when they were carried off; had you any knowledge of that?

Answer. No; I could not see what transpired when they were taken; it was out of my sight.

By Mr. Collamer:

Question. What became of your carriage and carriage horses?

Answer. They were left in the yard, and I went to Brown and told him that if those horses remained there, some time they would get off and break the carriage all to pieces. The clerk of the hotel happened to be there, and I asked him to have those horses taken to the stable. The carriage was a good deal shot to pieces. The carriage remained in the armory yard; the horses were put in the tavern stable, and, I believe, they were something like myself, they did not get anything to eat or to drink for a good while. I got nothing to eat for forty hours. I ate nothing from Sunday at dinner until Tuesday at 10 o'clock. Brown, on Monday morning, came and invited me to breakfast; he had some breakfast ordered in the yard from the tavern. I went to several of the prisoners and suggested the impropriety of touching it, "for," said I, "you do not know what may be in it; the coffee may be drugged for the purpose of saving a guard over you." I advised them not to take it.

By the Chairman:

Question. I understood you to say that they carried off a pistol and sword belonging to your family relics; did you recover them?

Answer. I recovered the sword; Brown carried that in his hand all day Monday, and when the attacking party came on he laid it on a fire engine, and after the rescue I got it.

Question. By whom did you say that sword had been given to General Washington?

Answer. By Frederick the Great.

LEWIS W. WASHINGTON.

John H. Allstadt sworn and examined.

By the Chairman:

Question. Will you state your age, and where you reside, and what your occupation is?

Answer. I am fifty-one; I reside two and a half miles above Harper's Ferry, in the county of Jefferson, State of Virginia; I am a farmer.

Question. Are you a landholder and an owner of slaves?

Answer. Yes, sir.