Edwin Coppock
By C. B. Galbreath.

Ohio History: The Scholarly Journal of the Ohio Historical Society, Vol. 30 pp. 396-451

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Among many villages of our state that pursue the even tenor of their way so peacefully and quietly that they earn their way to honorable obscurity, is Winona, Columbiana County. This name was chosen from Longfellow's Hiawatha, for the citizens of this place find time to read, enjoy what we dignify as "literature" and are in a very useful and unpretentious way "cultured." The church and the school are liberally patronized. The moral standard of the community is high.

Through the bellum and ante-bellum days this village was simply a crossroads, unnamed as yet, with little to distinguish it from the surrounding country, which is rolling, well watered and fertile. It was not christened Winona until the year 1868.

Hither in pioneer days at the opening of the last century came the Quakers, chiefly from North Carolina. The admission of Ohio as a free state in 1803 made it attractive to these people. They were uncompromisingly opposed to slavery. They did not seek controversies with slaveholding neighbors in the South, but preferred to make their homes in a land dedicated to universal liberty.

As a people they were frugal, industrious, honest, a little inconsistent, strangers say, in their plain clothes and plain language, but opposed with uncompromising firmness to all forms of organized injustice, intolerance and oppression. In the new state they found congenial environment, the opportunity to practice unmolested the tenets of their simple faith and a form of government that disturbed them little in the course of their uneventful and peaceful lives.

The settlement about what afterward became Winona was typically Quaker. Year in and year out these people tilled the earth, sowed the seed and gathered the harvests in. On First Day of each week they met for silent worship. They bowed in silence before partaking of their daily bread. They were a law unto themselves and very seldom needed either the restraining or directing hand of government. This is about the last place that we should expect to give birth to any one who should startle the community or aid in startling the world.

And yet on some subjects these people thought seriously and profoundly. The slavery question was to them one of absorbing interest. On it they read and meditated. To many of them it was a source of education. They became familiar with all the anti-slavery arguments. To "remember those in bonds as bound with them," was for them invested with all the force a direct command from Mt. Sinai. Opposition to slavery grew with the passing years and the appeals of Lundy and Garrison found a fervid response in this farming community.

We have heard much of the "isolation of the rural districts." This did not apply to the region of which we write in the three decades before the Civil War, for it was located in Columbiana County and only six miles distant was the town of Salem, a center of anti-slavery agitation, from which radiated the itineraries of the agents of the Western Anti-Slavery Society.



In this community, when the movement was in full swing, the Coppoc brothers, Edwin and Barclay, were born. Their grandfather John Coppock and his wife moved to Mount Pleasant, then in the Northwestern Territory, but one year later in the state of Ohio. In the year following, 1803, he moved to what in 1806 became Butler Township, Columbiana County, Ohio.

John Coppock was descended from Aaron Coppock, of Cheshire, England, who was born August 19, 1662 and came to America in 1683. He was a minister of the gospel forty-two years. His son John, born July 1, 1709, married Margaret Coulston. To them were born five children. The youngest son, Samuel, born November 3, 1748, married Anne Stillwell. Their oldest son, John, born November 4, 1776, married Catherine Kirk. Their son, Samuel, married Anne Lynch. Of this union six children were born, Levi, Maria, Edwin, Barclay, Lydia and Joseph L. Levi and the two daughters died before they reached the age of twenty-five years. Joseph L. Coppoc saw very active service in the Civil War and rose to the rank of major. He was for many years a minister in the Baptist church. A number of children survive him.1

The sons of Samuel Coppock spelled their family name Coppoc, omitting the final k. A cousin explains the change in spelling as follows: Levi, the oldest son of the family, who died in his twenty-fourth year, was an expert speller and inclined to favor simplified spelling, which even at that early day had a few advocates. He and his brothers and sisters omitted the k in spelling the family name, but their father always retained it. While there seems to have been no authority for changing the name from "Coppock" to "Coppoc," this latter spelling will be used in the names of those who had adopted it. In other words, each person will be accepted as authority on the spelling of his own name.

It will be seen that the Coppocks were of colonial ancestry. They came from Pennsylvania to that part of the Northwest Territory which afterward became Ohio.

Edwin Coppoc, the third child of Samuel and Anne (Lynch) Coppock, was born in Butler Township, Columbiana County, Ohio, June 30, 1835. His brother Barclay was born at the same place January 4, 1839. Their father died when the boys were young. They grew up under the influence of a devout mother, grandparents and other relatives. The father died early in 1842, leaving a wife and six children, ranging in ages from one to ten years. In the spring of 1842, a few months after the death of his father, Edwin was placed with John Butler, a farmer of sterling character with whom he remained for eight years. During this time he attended school in the winter and performed the work that usually fell to the lot of farmer boys in the neighborhood.

The years from 1842 to 1850 were eventful. They covered not only the brief period of the Mexican war but the anti-slavery agitation which had been intensified by the results of that war, including a substantial extension of slave territory, and the exciting debates in Congress leading up to the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law. It is needless to say that discussion of the burning question of the hour was carried on almost without interruption in the Quaker communities of Ohio and much that was said sank deep in the receptive minds of the young. The talk in front of the ample fireplace, at the table, in the church and on the rostrum turned upon the wrongs of those in bonds and the aggressions of the slave power. To all this Edwin Coppoc was an attentive and serious listener. His impressions were lasting; what he heard had much to do with what he became when he reached young manhood's estate.

At the age of fifteen years, somewhat to the regret of Mr. Butler, young Coppoc went to Springdale, Iowa, in what was then known as the far West, to join his mother who had married a man by the name of Raley and was re-establishing a home for her children. She was a woman of native intelligence and strong convictions. Already she had known the trials and vicissitudes of life. She had lost the sight of one eye when she was a child and the other was beginning to fail. Two daugh ters and a son were soon to follow their father to the grave. As Edwin grew into sturdy young manhood she looked to him as a source of comfort and support. He was industrious, frugal and bade fair to become a successful farmer in the new western home. In 1859, Thomas Winn of Springdale, Iowa, wrote of him:

He came to Iowa with his widowed mother some seven or eight years ago and settled here. I have been well and intimately acquainted with him and the whole family during the greater part of the time mentioned. For more than a year Edwin was an inmate of my family, [I] having employed him as a hired hand on a farm, in which capacity he discharged his duties most faithfully, and I can truly say that by his uniform industry, correct habits and amiable deportment he gained the confidence and esteem of every member of my family. His reputation has always been good as an honest, truth-speaking, straightforward, industrious person.2

In a similar vein, Charles Adams, of Philadelphia, in December of the same year wrote of Edwin and his mother in part as follows:

About three years since, I visited Iowa and was at his mother's house in Springdale settlement: her sons were then at home; Edwin was a farmer, owned a team of oxen and followed breaking prairie. He was industrious and much respected, and had the reputation of being thrifty and attending closely to his business. He broke some prairie for me also, and from his manner and appearance and his mother's representation of him as a dutiful and attentive son, I took quite an interest in him. In December last, I had business again in Iowa, and dined at his mother's house. Edwin had been on a visit to some of his rela- tives in Kansas and returned the day before -so that I dined with him also: He then talked of renting a farm in the spring, and I inferred that it was his intention to marry.

The mother is a member of the Society of Friends, [orthodox] and is largely and respectably connected in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. She is an exemplary woman and has been visited with many and grievous affictions, lost one eye in her childhood and is now nearly blind. Of six children three have died of consumption.2

Late in December, 1857, an event of unusual importance occurred in the village of Springdale. It was the arrival of John Brown and his party on their way from Kansas to Canada preparatory to the attack on Harper's Ferry. It had not been the intention of John Brown to stop long at Springdale. He had expected to press on to Ashtabula County, Ohio, as soon as he could sell his teams and wagons and thus realize sufficient money to proceed on the journey by rail. Times were very hard, however, and he could not raise sufficient money to proceed. While cash was scarce, food in this Iowa village was abundant and he found that it would be much cheaper to winter there than to continue eastward.

Besides he found the people of this community in hearty accord with his anti-slavery views. Springdale was settled by the Quakers, a number of them from Ohio. An Iowa writer thus describes the early settlers:

Among the first residents were John H. Painter, a Quaker, who came in 1849; and Anne Coppoc, a Quakeress, and Dr. H. C. Gill who came in 1850. During the next few years many came, almost all of them Quakers; so that when visited by Brown and his band in 1857, it was a thriving Quaker settlement. Its one street, which in fact is but a part of the public highway, is bordered on either hand by modest frame houses surrounded by spacious yards and shaded by overhanging branches of trees. On all sides of the village the green and undulating fields stretch away to the horizon. Within its homes the pleasant 'thee' and 'thy' of the Quaker are constantly heard; and there prevails an air of peace and serenity which is inexpressibly soothing and comforting.

It was not, of course, the natural beauty of the place and surrounding country that especially appealed to Brown and his followers but the friendly attitude of the people who threw open their homes and bade the storm beaten little expedition of anti-slavery warriors a cordial welcome.

John Brown himself lived, while in Springdale, with John H. Painter, a Quaker who became his staunch friend. His men, however, were quartered in the home of William Maxson about three miles distant from the village. Here they found a haven of rest and social enjoyment that contrasted sharply with the excitement and turmoil of the border warfare in Kansas. Maxson was not a Quaker but an ardent abolitionist.

They had regular camp duties to perform under the direction of Aaron D. Stevens, one of their number who had served in the United States army and was an ideal instructor in military tactics. The men began their daily work at five o'clock in the morning. Immediately following breakfast they took up their studies and continued until about ten o'clock. Books were then laid aside and the remainder of the forenoon was devoted to drill in the school of the soldier. A portion of each afternoon was spent in gymnastics, sword drill and company movements. This training was conducted in an open space close to the Maxson home. There was perhaps a double purpose in this. It was conveniently located with reference to "winter quarters" and the exhibition of arms, "carnal weapons", was not obtruded upon the peace-loving Quakers of the village.

Of course these "conscientious objectors" to the use of arms knew what was in progress at the drill grounds. They also understood in a general way that Brown and his followers believed that slavery must be overthrown by force of arms, but their religious objections to war were very materially modified by the thought that the projected warfare was to be launched against the institution of slavery, which they considered the supreme iniquity of the age. They were in full sympathy with Brown in the object to be attained and while they did not approve they were disposed to excuse the means by which he sought to achieve the end. Had he and his followers come on a mission to return fugitive slaves to their masters, they would have found Springdale at this time a most inhospitable abiding place.

With a community of views on the slavery question as a basis, there were other considerations that aroused in the people of this pioneer village additional interest in their guests. Had not these young men and their chieftain already achieved fame on the plains of Kansas? These were the heroes of Black Jack and Ossawatomie, who had opposed the border ruffians from Missouri.

Free State papers and the New York Tribune had brought the news to the community. Besides, the new comers by their social deportment and their manifest interest in literary attainment most favorably impressed their Quaker friends, especially those of about their own age. Kagi was a ready writer, a skillful debater and an able speaker. Cook was of a poetic temperament, fluent and impressive on the rostrum. Richard Raelf had already written poetry of genuine merit, was a born orator and a lecturer who was heard with genuine pleasure. He had come from England, had travelled much, was reputed to have been the protege of Lady Byron and it was even hinted that he was related to her husband, the famous poet. That he was a youth with claim to native genius is attested by the substantial volume of his poetry that was collected and published after his death by his friend, Colonel Richard J. Hinton. All the members of the little band had had thrilling experiences on the border which furnished interesting narratives for the long winter evenings around the hospitable firesides. In addition to this all of the men, except John Brown himself, were young and of attractive personality.

Brown's men found a pleasing diversion in organizing and successfully conducting a literary or debating society. Tuesday and Friday evenings of each week were set aside for this purpose. A mock legislature was organized which included not only their own number but interested young men in the community who wished to take part. Irving B. Richman thus describes the work of this moot body:

The sessions were held either in the large sitting room of the Maxsons, or in the larger room of the district school building, a mile and a half away. There were a speaker, a clerk of the House, and regular standing committees. Bills were introduced, referred, reported back. debated with intense earnestness and no little ability, and finally brought to a vote. Kagi was the keenest debater and Raelf and Cook orators of very considerable powers.3

It is scarcely necessary to state that from the day of the arrival of these guests, Edwin and Barclay Coppoc were sympathetic observers and listeners. "They both took much interest in Brown, his men and his cause, and at length enlisted under his leadership."

If these two boys and the good people of Springdale were favorably impressed with John Brown and his men in the winter of 1857-58 and shed tears when they took their departure on April 27 of the latter year, it will be readily understood that great interest was aroused by the arrival, on February 25, 1859, of John Brown and a part of his faithful band with the eleven negroes whom he had liberated in his famous foray into Missouri. Was this not a practical demonstration of the efficacy of Brown's plans? Here were the men, women and children that he had delivered from the land of bondage, now well on their way to freedom under the protecting folds of the British flag. The dusky charges were distributed among the homes of Springdale and here for a time they rested before starting on the final stage of their journey to freedom. To the young men of the village especially there was a strong appeal in this spectacular exploit and its antecedent adventure.

But among the older citizens of Springdale misgivings began to find guarded expression. The news came that the United States authorities were on the trail of this band of liberators, that a large reward had been offered for the capture of Brown.

The officers of the government might appear at any time. The young men of the village, a number of them, were ready to take up arms to prevent the return of the slaves and the awful possibility loomed up of a pitched and bloody battle in the streets of Springdale. The Quakers, of course, did not wish to witness this. They were not yet ready for the results to which their agitation and teachings were unintentionally but inevitably leading.

Much to their relief the armed conflict did not occur and John Brown with his dusky freedmen, on March 9, left to take the train and continue their journey to Canada. They went to West Liberty, from which station Richman thus graphically describes their departure:

Huddled together in a little group near the track, stand the negroes, patient, wondering. Near them, leaning on their Sharp's rifles, heavy revolvers in their belts, on the alert, stand Kagi and Stephens. In a few minutes the freight car which has been got with so much trouble, and by not a little prevarication as to the use to which it is to be put, is pushed by a crowd of men down the side-track to a point convenient for the loading. Brown mounts into it and shakes the door and lays hold of the sides that he may judge of its capacity for resistance in case of attack. Clean straw is then brought to him which he spreads over the floor. After this, the negro babes and small children, of whom there are several, are handed up to him and he tenderly deposits them among the straw. The older negroes are next helped in, and all is ready. The passenger train on the Chicago and Rock Island Road rolls in from the west. For a moment there is suspense. Is the United States Marshal on board? No! The train draws out from the station, stops, backs down on the side- track and is coupled to the freight car. Kagi and Stephens get into one of the passenger coaches, and John Brown is leaving Iowa for the last time.3

Many of the Quakers of Springdale heaved an audible sigh of relief when Brown and the negroes de- parted, but they followed him with ardent prayers for the success of his enterprise and the hope that he might reach Canada in safety and permanently liberate the fugitives without "the snapping of a gun" or the shed- ding of a drop of blood. It need not be added that there was sincere rejoicing when the news finally came that the long journey of Brown was successfully accom- plished. Among those to whom this news was especially gratifying were the Coppoc brothers, who had already enlisted in the great adventure, the details of which were rapidly taking shape in the secretive mind of their visionary and indomitable leader.

After the final departure of Brown from Iowa, Edwin and Barclay Coppoc remained for a time in Springdale and then went to visit friends in the old neighborhood near their birthplace south of Salem, Ohio. This is attested by the letter of their uncle, Joshua Coppock, to Governor Wise under date of November 24, 1859, in which he says:

He [Edwin] lived with John Butler a number of years until his mother went to Iowa where he remained the most of the time until last spring. He came back and worked here for some time and went from here to Kansas.2

Edwin Coppoc in his last letter to his uncle Joshua also refers to this visit:

Your generous hospitality towards me during my short stay with you last spring is stamped indelibly upon my heart; and also the generosity bestowed upon my poor brother.

Just what the motive of this visit was is not very clear, but it was certainly fitting that the brothers should visit again the scenes and kindred about their old home before entering upon the enterprise that was to mean so much of loss and gain to each of them.

Early in July, 1859, John Brown wrote a memorandum for Kagi in which occurs the following direction: "Write Carpenter [supposed to be Edwin Coppoc] and Hazlett that we are all right and ready as soon as we can get our boarding house fixed; we will write them to come and by what route."4

On July 25 Barclay Coppoc is reported to have said to his mother:

"We are going to start for Ohio today." "Ohio," said his mother, "I believe you are going with old Brown. When you get the halters round your necks will you think of me?"

After they left Springdale little was heard of them until the village was thrilled and the country was startled with the news of the attack on Harper's Ferry.

The exact date of the arrival of the brothers at the Kennedy Farm in Maryland, where John Brown's men were assembling for the attack on Harper's Ferry, is not definitely known. They were probably there before the end of the first week in August, however, and did not leave for excursions to any great distance before the night of the attack. Brown's men did not all live at the Kennedy Farm but it was the rendezvous of the band and the Coppocs were among the regular boarders.

As early as July 19, Annie Brown, afterward Annie Brown Adams, the daughter of John Brown, and Martha, the wife of his son Oliver, came to take charge of the housekeeping at the Kennedy Farm. Both were young; the former only sixteen and the latter seventeen years old. Years later Mrs. Adams gave interesting accounts of life on the Farm from the date of their arrival to September 19, when they left for their home in North Elba, New York. Colonel Richard J. Hinton in his John Brown and His Men, quotes one of her accounts at length. In writing of the evenings on the Farm she says:

All questions on religion or any other subject were very freely discussed by the men, and father always took an interested part in the discussions, and encouraged every one to express his opinion on any subject, no matter whether he agreed with him or not. Stevens had a copy of Paine's 'Age of Reason' there; that was read by some of the men and discussed. Father subscribed for the Baltimore Sun, and Kagi used to send down a bundle of papers and magazines from Chambersburg when the wagon went up. They had a manual of military tactics that was studied a good deal. Cook obtained directions for browning or coloring rifle-barrels in the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, and the men spent a part of the time in this work on their Sharp's rifle-barrels, making belts, pistol holsters, etc. They also played checkers, cards, and other games, and sang a deal of the time. Stevens and Tidd were very fine singers, the former having an excellent baritone. They often sang 'All the Old Folks Are Gone,' sub- stituting 'All the Dear Ones' for the first words; 'Faded Flowers,' and 'Nearer My God to Thee.'4

The days of August slipped away. September came and long before it waned the men of Brown's party began to grow impatient at the delay. Each had to be constantly on his guard to avoid suspicion which was ever rife near the boundary between the free and the slave states. Efforts of slaves to escape from their masters in this region were not infrequent and the agents of the Underground Railroad were increasingly active.

The days of September were finally gone and time moved on with leaden feet through the early days of October. In the meantime commissions were issued to a number of Brown's men, designating the rank of each in the little army to be formed if the raid should prove successful. Following is a copy of the one issued to Edwin Coppoc:

No. 10.

GREETING

HEAD-QUARTERS WAR-DEPARTMENT
NEAR HARPER'S FERRY, MD.

WHEREAS, EDWIN COPPOC has been nominated a Lieutenant of Company in the Army Established under the PROVISIONAL CONSTITUTION,

NOW, THEREFORE, In pursuance of the authority vested in Us by said Constitution, We do hereby Appoint and Commission the said EDWIN COPPOC a Lieutenant.

Given at the office of the Secretary of War, this day, October 13, 1859.

JOHN BROWN, Commander-in-chief.

H. KAGY, Secretary of War.

At last on Sunday night, October 16, nineteen men fully armed marched from the Kennedy Farm. Edwin Coppoc was among the number. Barclay remained behind with Merriam and Owen Brown to guard arms and stores.

Onward in silence under the shades of night the resolute little band marched into Harper's Ferry. In accordance with previous plans, carefully laid, Albert Hazlett and Edwin Coppoc took charge of the United States armory as soon as the guards there were overpowered and made prisoners. Long before dawn of the next day Harper's Ferry, the United States arsenal, the rifle works, the engine house and the approaches to the town were in the hands of the invaders. As the startled inhabitants awoke they realized that they were captives in the hands of an unknown military force. The story of the fighting that followed on those memorable days, October 17 and 18, between Brown and his followers and the Virginia militia and the United States marines under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee, now in a uniform of blue but later in a uniform of gray and commander-in-chief of the Confederate army, has been told often in graphic detail and need not here be dwelt upon at length. On the day following the attack Edwin Coppoc was driven under fire from the armory into the engine house where John Brown made his last stand, fighting the infuriated Virginians and the marines as they battered in the doors behind which he and the remnant of his followers were beaten down and captured. Strange to say, Edwin was not even wounded.

Jesse W. Graham, a workman in the United States armory and a captive of John Brown, related this inter- esting incident of the siege of the engine house, after the arrival of the marines under Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee:

Early on Tuesday morning I peeped out of a hole and saw Colonel Lee, whom I had seen before at the Ferry, standing close by with the troops behind him. A negro stood near him, holding a large military cloak. Just then Edwin Coppoc thrust me aside, and thrust the muzzle of his gun into the hole, drawing a bead on Lee. I interposed, putting my hand on the rifle and begging the man not to shoot, as that was Colonel Lee, of the United States army, and if he were hurt the building would be torn down and they'd all be killed. Green again put up his pistol and Coppoc readjusted his rifle. During this momentary altercation, Robert E. Lee had stepped aside, and thus his life was saved to the slaveholder's Confederacy.4

Shortly after the capture of the engine house, S. K. Donovan, the first newspaper correspondent on the ground after the raid commenced, impressed with the apparent youth of Edwin Coppoc, his bearing and frank face that seemed out of harmony with the tragic experi- ences of the last two days and nights went up to him and said:

"My God, boy, what are you doing at a place like this?" "'With remarkable coolness' said Donovan 'the boy answered, as I recall the words, I believe in the principles that we are trying to advance and I have no apologies for being here. I think it is a good place to be.' "

* F. B. Sanborn quotes Coppec as making the following statement to the Virginians after his capture: "I am a Republican philanthropist and came here to aid in liberating negroes. I made the acquaintance of Captain Brown in Iowa as he returned from Kansas, and agreed to join his company. Brown wrote to me in July to come on to Chambersburg, where he first revealed the whole plot. The whole company was opposed to making the first demonstration at Harper's Ferry, but Captain Brown would have it his own way. and we had to obey orders."

The capture took place on the morning of October 18. Coppoc was held with the other prisoners in the armory guard room until noon of the following day and then taken with them to the jail at Charlestown, Virginia, the seat of justice of the county in which the raid occurred.*



Governor Henry A. Wise, of Virginia, went on the train that carried the prisoners. Years afterward, Rev. Joseph L. Coppoc, a younger brother who was not at Harper's Ferry, in a magazine article said:

While on the train carrying the prisoners from Harper's Ferry to Charlestown, Governor Wise approached my brother and eyeing him a moment said to him, 'You look like too honest a man to be found with a band of robbers.' 'But, Governor,' he replied, 'we look upon you as the rob- bers.'

It was while in jail that Edwin wrote to Dr. H. C. Gill and other friends at Springdale, Iowa, a character- istic letter containing a tribute to his comrades and a description of the fight as he saw it. Following are the essential portions of the letter:

And with them are the forms and faces of those that, to me, were more than comrades, who fell in the fearful struggle. Eleven of our little band are sleeping now in their bloody garments with the cold earth above them. Braver men never lived; truer men to the plighted word never banded together. Five of them fell while fighting in self-defense for the cause for which they had enlisted; three on the afternoon of the 17th; the first a negro by the name of Dangerfield Newby; he fell on the street by my side, whilst we were running to the aid of some of our friends who were surrounded by the enemy. Two men, Steward Taylor and Oliver Brown, fell by the engine-house. Taylor lived about three hours after he was shot; he suffered very much and begged of us to kill him. Oliver died in about fifteen minutes after he was shot; he said nothing. During these last moments we could not administer to their wants such as they deserved, for we were surrounded by the troops who were firing volley after volley, so that we had to keep up a brisk fire in return to keep them from charging upon us. Two more fell in the engine-house on the morning of the 18th, when the last charge was made-Jeremiah Anderson and Dolph Thompson.

They both had surrendered after the first charge, which was repulsed, but, owing to the noise and confusion, they were not heard. Captain Brown and I were the only ones that fought to the last. The negro Green, after I had stationed him behind one of the engines, the safest place in the house, laid down his rifle and pulled off his cartridge-box, and passed himself off for one of the prisoners. He and I were the only ones not wounded.

Watson Brown was wounded about 10 o'clock on Monday at the same time Stevens was, while passing along the street with a flag of truce, but was not so badly wounded but he got back in the engine-house. During the fight in the afternoon he fought as brave as ever any man fought, but as soon as the fight was over he got worse. When we were taken in the morning he was just able to walk. He and Green and myself were put in the watch-house. Watson kept getting worse from then until about three o'clock Wednesday morning when he died. I did everything in my power to make him comfortable. He begged hard for a bed, but could not get one, so I pulled off my coat and put it under him, and placed his head in my lap, and in that position he died.

Cook and Tidd had left the Ferry early in the morning, by order of Captain Brown, to cross the river for the purpose of taking some prisoners and to convey the arms to a schoolhouse about one and a half miles from the Ferry, there to guard them until the Captain came, but, hearing a heavy firing, Cook went down to learn the cause. On gaining the side of the river opposite the Ferry, he found we were surrounded, so he ascended the mountain in order to get a better view; while there he saw parties firing on us. In order to relieve us he fired on them and in doing so he drew the fire on himself, the result of which was the cutting of a limb and giving him a fall of about fifteen feet down the mountain side, tearing his clothes, and lacerating his flesh. There were thirty or forty men in the first party he fired on who, after the second shot, were taken with a sudden leaving, having no doubt important business elsewhere. The Virginians who were present give him the credit of being a splendid shot at a long range, as they admit they made a very near acquaintance with some of his bullets.

But enough of this. Whatever may be our fate, rest assured we shall not shame our dead companions by a shrinking fear. They lived and died like brave men. We, I trust, shall do the same. And our souls with no sin of intention on their robes will gaze unmoved upon the scaffold and the tomb. We were deceived in some things. Even Captain Brown acknowledges that; but all is over now, so let it pass. There are true and brave men in Virginia who deeply sympathize with us in our misfortune. I suppose within the last two days from eight hundred to one thousand persons have visited us, some through sympathy, but more through animosity.

Among those who called to-day were three young ladies from Harper's Ferry, friends and acquaintances of Cook. They stood and gazed on us for a moment with deep earnestness and then burst into tears. One of them told Cook that all of his friends and acquaintances at the Ferry had formed the highest opinion of him and regretted he should have gone into such a scheme. They parted from us with tear-dimmed eyes and the deepest expression of sympathy for us in our sad position. * * * I have not seen the Captain or Stevens since our trials, but the jailer tells me they are doing well; their wounds will soon be healed. J. E. Cook sends his love to all."4

Edwin Coppoc was brought into court for arraign- ment chained to his old leader, John Brown. His trial immediately followed that of Brown. When asked if he had anything to say why sentence should not be passed, he spoke briefly as follows:

The charges that have been made against me are not true. I never committed any treason against the State of Virginia. I never made war upon it. I never conspired with anybody to in- duce your slaves to rebel and I never even exchanged a word with any of your servants. What I came here for I always told you. It was to run off slaves to a free state and liberate them. This is an offense against your laws, I admit, but I never com- mitted murder. When I escaped to the engine house and found the captain and his prisoners surrounded there, I saw no way of deliverance but by fighting a little. If anyone was killed on that occasion it was in fair fight. I have, as I said, committed an offense against your laws, but the punishment for that offense would be very different from what you are going to inflict now. I have no more to say.5

The meditations of this youth while in prison doubtless took a wide range. There were hours of regret and the feeling that his allegiance to the cause of freedom did not require or justify the hazardous enterprise on which he had embarked. There were recurrent hours of sadness that he should have taken up and used arms against his fellowman, in violation of the principles that had guided his early life at home and in the church. Then there was the natural longing at times for the peace and comfort that he had known on the farm in Columbiana County or later with his mother at Springdale. In such reflective mood he penned the following letter:

CHARLESTOWN, Nov. 5th, 1859.

Dear Mother and Father: It is with much sorrow that I now address you, and under very different circumstances than I ever expected to be placed, but I have seen my folly too late and must now suffer the consequences, which I suppose will be death, but which I shall try and bear as every man should; though it would be a source of much comfort to me to have died at home. It has always been my desire, that, when I came to die, my last breath should be among my friends; that in my last moments they could be near me to console me. But alas! such is not my fate. I am condemned and must die a dishonorable death, among my enemies, and hundreds of miles from home.

I hope you will not reflect on me for what I have done, for I am not at fault, at least my conscience tells me so, and there are others that feel as I do. We were led into it by those that ought to have known better, but who did not anticipate any danger; but after stopping at Harper's Ferry we were surrounded and compelled to fight, to save our own lives, for we saw our friends falling on all sides. Our leader would not surrender and there seemed to be no other resort than to fight, though I am happy to say that no one fell by my hand, and am sorry to say that I was ever induced to raise a gun. I was not looking for such a thing. I am sorry, very sorry, that such has been the case. Never did I suppose that my hand would be guilty of raising a gun against my fellow men. After our capture, which was on the morning of the 18th, we were kept there until the evening of the 19th when we were removed to this place, where we have been ever since. We are well cared for. The jailer seems to do all he can to make us comfortable.

Nov. 6th. -I have just finished a letter to Mr. Painter, which I expect to send out tomorrow with this. I sent one yesterday to Dr. Gill, stating to him that it was not worth while for any of you to come, but on thinking more about it, I concluded that I would like to see some one from there, so tomorrow I intend -to telegraph for the Doctor to come.

I have written J. Painter and told him what to do with my land, but whatever money is spent by anyone coming here, I wish to have it replaced out of the land.

The captain has had some apple pies and preserves sent him from Ohio, by some friends. I presume they do not go bad though I have not had a taste.

If the Doctor has not started when this gets there, and you have any sweet cakes or other nick-nacks, just send them along. They will go very good here between the iron bars. We get plenty to eat here, but it is not from home. It is not baked by the hands of those we love at home, or by those whom I never expect to see.

I don't feel like writing more. I hope and trust the Doctor will come, and if anything is in the way so he cannot come, I hope some one else will come in his stead. I believe I have nothing more to say. This may be the last letter you may get from me. If it is, think of me as one who thought he was doing right.

Give my love to Brigss' and Maxsons' folks and to all in- quiring friends for [of] such I feel I have a large circle, and I trust that what I have done will not make them enemies. My love to all the family.

No more,
EDWIN COPPOC.5

In prison and condemned to die, Coppoc was yet jealous of the honorable reputation he had borne in the communities where he had lived. An anonymous writer had sent to the New York Tribune a letter which had been published in that paper, derogatory of his character. This was copied in many papers including the Virginia Free Press, published in Charlestown. To this letter Edwin Coppoc replied through the same paper in a communication bearing date of November 14, 1859, as follows:

MR. EDITOR:

I see in your last issue, a letter purporting to come from Salem, Ohio, which was published in the New York Tribune. In regard to the statements which are made in that letter, which place my character in an unenviable light before the public, I will only say, that they are fake from beginning to end. Any person, who under the circumstances in which I am placed, would stoop so low as to circulate such a libel about a doomed man, places himself below the level of the brute.

And then the base and cowardly manner in which it has been done bears at once the mark of fakehood on its front. No name has been signed, but simply the letter S. at the conclusion. If he was a man; if he was telling the truth, why was he afraid to sign his name to it? It is true, my Father died when I but six years of age, when I went to live with John Butler four miles from Salem, Ohio, and with whom I lived nine years, and might have remained until the present time, had not my mother wished me to go with her and the other members of our family to Springdale, Cedar County, Iowa, where I remained till the spring of 1858, when I went to Kansas for the express purpose of purchasing some land.

I took no part in the difficulties of Kansas, and never, while there, had any association or acquaintance with Capt. Brown or any of his company. I remained in Kansas till the following autumn, when I returned to Iowa. I had no acquaintance with Capt. Brown until last winter, and last spring agreed to join him, while he was at Springfield [Springdale].

In regard to the truth of my statement I will refer you to Mr. John Butler, my former guardian, Amos Fossit, and David Parker, William Fisher, Jacob Heaton, Isaac Carr, and William Mead, all of Salem, Ohio, and its neighborhood. In Springdale, Cedar County, Iowa I would refer [to] Messrs. Thomas Winn, P. M., Dr. H. C. Gill, Thomas James, Emmor Rood, Jesse Bowersock, John Parynive, Moses Varney, Nathan Tabor, James Schooler, Ebenezer Gray, Steven Dean and William Madison, all of Springdale and its vicinity.

In Pedee, of the same county and state, I would refer to William Street, P. M., Samuel Moore, John Moore, Preston Roberts, and Burton Gifford. In Pardee, Atchison County, Kansas Territory, I would refer to Dr. Moore, P. M., James Booth, Amos D. Taylor, Mahlon Oliphant, Ben- jamin Ball, William Cummings and Richard Allen. If these are not references enough I can give you ten for every one I have here named, who will testify to the falsity of the statements of the cowardly calumniator, who has written from Salem, Ohio.

By giving the above an insertion in your paper you will greatly oblige, -Yours truly,

EDWIN COPPOC.2

In contradiction to the anonymous letter, John Butler made a statement which appeared in the Salem (Ohio) Republican of November 29, 1859. The following excerpt is here reproduced:

* * * In the spring of 1842 his mother applied to me to take Edwin into my family and have the care of him, he then being, as we supposed, near seven years old, his father having died a few months previous to that time. He accordingly came without any time being fixed then how long he should remain and stayed with us until the spring of 1850, during which time there was nothing particular to remark in point of character, except that he gave evidences of an unusually strong will in trying to carry out his own views and also that he was very fearless, never manifesting anything like cowardice in times of danger or by night. He was a very industrious and careful boy, more careful and particular that everything was kept in its proper place on the farm and about the buildings and to have his work done well and prompt to have it done in a given time, than is common for boys of his age. * * *

In the meantime strenuous efforts were made to save Edwin's life. His previous good record, his deportment in prison, his courage and frankness, together with the large number of highly respectable Quaker friends who interceded in his behalf, appealed very strongly to the Virginia authorities, including Prosecutor Hunter, Judge Parker and Governor Wise. Thomas Winn, a Quaker friend of the Coppoc family from Springdale, took the lead in the effort to have the sentence commuted to life imprisonment. And most adroitly and effectively he pressed the plea for mercy. In reading the papers he presented, one cannot fail to be impressed with the pursuasive power that he brought to bear to accomplish his great desire. Himself a consistent Quaker who was opposed to the settlement of any question by the arbitrament of war, he was in a position to disclaim all sympathy with the armed invasion of Virginia. The following extract from his letter to Governor Wise, dated "Springdale, Cedar County, Iowa, 11th mo. 4th, 1859," indicates the line of his plea:

Edwin Coppoc is a Quaker by birth and education although not strictly a member of that body of Christians. He has mingled almost daily in the society of those who in relation to the vexed question of slavery and other questions of public interest, are known by all the world to believe in and pray for a peaceful solution of surrounding difficulties as alone desirable and most truly calculated to secure the Divine favor Knowing this I cannot but believe that his being found at Harper's Ferry in a course of conduct so totally repugnant to all his previous modes of thought and action must have been the result of a temporary alienation of mind, something akin to insanity, if not insanity itself. I have no sort of sympathy whatever for the leaders in this movement. In my opinion all such proceedings involve a grievous wrong, and result in serious and widespread mischief to both sections of our common country. They must be con- demned by all right-thinking persons.

In the case of Edwin Coppoc, however, there are mitigating circumstances which I have endeavored to bring into view and I beg the Governor to take these calmly into consideration. I feel encouraged to invoke thy friendly offices in his behalf, on the score of his youth and inexperience, and because having known him from his boyhood I am constrained to believe that in embarking on the enterprise he was not in his right mind and had no adequate conception of its character. * * * I believe Edwin to be incapable of doing, intentionally, a mean or unworthy action. Indeed there is a native nobility of character about him which I think must have been observed by those who have been brought into contact with him since the sad event which we all deplore. I fervently hope, therefore, that his life may not be taken. * * * Surely in a case like this the 'Old Dominion' can well afford to be magnanimous. * * * In the consciousness of her strength, let her pity this child's weakness. Spare the fatherless boy to his poor, broken-hearted mother now fast passing into the evening of her days -then shall the language be truly applicable, 'The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me and I caused the widow's heart to sing with joy.'

"Very respectfully and truly thy friend,
THOMAS WINN,
Postmaster of Springdale."2

Mr. Winn afterward went to Harper's Ferry, Charlestown and Richmond, Virginia. On his arrival in the last named city he at once addressed a letter to Governor Wise in a friendly and grateful vein, expressing the hope that his mission might be successful. He wrote in part:

On my arrival in Charlestown, 3oth ult. I immediately reported myself to Andrew Hunter, Esq., and was most cordially received by him and his excellent family. I frankly stated to them the object of my visit to Virginia, and my hopes were greatly strengthened at finding that their sympathies were already kindly enlisted on behalf of Edwin. The fact of his youth, and having been undoubtedly deluded into John Brown's wicked schemes without a full appreciation of their true nature and extent; his uniformly good conduct since his confinement in jail, and the unexceptionable character of his correspondence, had already produced a favorable impression. 'He is the best of all our prisoners,' said Mr. Hunter to me. 'I give him all the letters that come for him. I find them so entirely unexceptionable.' It was also very gratifying to learn that Judge Parker was inclined to a merciful view of this case, and that the feeling of sympathy is general and the desire freely expressed by influential persons that Edwin's sentence might be commuted.

At Harper's Ferry I found the same sentiment existed. Armistead Ball and some other gentlemen to whom I was introduced stating very clearly their belief that no one fell by Edwin's hand, and that his conduct throughout was very different from that of those with whom he had (although but for a brief period) most unfortunately connected himself, and concluded by expressing the hope and belief that Governor Wise would commute his punishment."2

That these letters and petitions had much weight with the Governor is evidenced by the remarks of Hon. A. H. H. Stuart, who on December 12, 1859, presented to the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates the memorial of Thomas Winn, asking for commutation of the death sentence of Edwin Coppoc. Mr. Stuart said in part:

I called to see the Governor, and he authorized me to say that, from his personal knowledge, and from information gathered by him during his stay in Charlestown, the case of this man stands upon a very different footing from that of the other individuals who have been sentenced. He informs me that he is a youth of about 23 years of age and that he has borne an unexceptionable character up to the time of the difficulty. There are present here in our lobby several members of the Society of Friends, who have an intimate knowledge of this man since he was seven years of age. * * * These gentlemen inform me that he was their trusted agent in the transaction of business, and frequently in the collection of money, and that in all circumstances he acquitted himself with fidelity and truthfulness. They express the deepest sympathy for him and the Governor informs me, moreover, that this young man, while he was in the engine house at Harper's Ferry, was the means of saving the lives of the prisoners * * * that he frequently remonstrated with them about the exposure of their persons and pointed out places of safety which he insisted they should occupy, while he remonstrated against the murder of others on the street by some of his associates. I know nothing of the facts myself, * * * I give them to you as they have been communicated to me."6

Mr. Thomas of Fairfax, in discussing the report of the legislative committee on the memorial of Thomas Winn, made an even more explicit statement of the favorable attitude of Governor Wise:

The Governor of Virginia appeared before the committee and enlightened that body very much in reference to the action and extent of Coppoc's guilt in the Harper's Ferry affair so far as it was known to him. He said, moreover, that from his knowledge of Coppoc's relation to the whole movement, and particularly his course with reference to the prisoners whom Brown had captured, he would have taken upon himself the responsibility of commuting his sentence to imprisonment for life, though in that act he should not have the approval or sanction of a single individual in the State. And this he said he would do because he believed the act to be just and right."6

Among the papers of Governor Wise is the petition of Thomas Winn endorsed by the governor as follows:

This man's plea for Coppoc coincides with my own view of the case, from his confession to me in this:--that he is the only one entitled to the least mercy. Whether he is, is questionable."

Novm. 15, 1859.                 H. A. WISE..

This was written before Winn's visit to Virginia. Later the Governor was confirmed in his view and recommended the commutation of Coppoc's sentence as indicated in the address of Mr. Thomas.

In an interview published in the St. Louis Globe Democrat, as late as 1888, Andrew Hunter referring to the persistence of an "old gentleman," evidently Thomas Winn, gives the following interesting reminiscence:

"When he (Coppoc) was in jail an old gentleman came all the way from his people to see him, bringing him a pound cake to comfort him. The old gentleman stopped at my house on the way in, and I advised him to wait until I went down town, but he would hurry on ahead with his pound cake, and when I got down, sure enough, he was in the guard house, as I anticipated. I got him out and passed him into the jail, with the cake for Coppoc. After he had visited the prisoner, he went all the way to Richmond to intercede. I believe he would have got commutation for Coppoc if I had not shown that treason could not be pardoned."6

Among the touching appeals for mercy is a letter from the young man's uncle, Joshua Coppock, dated "Salem the 11 mo. 24th 1859." After explaining his relationship to the prisoner he said:

I feel for my dear nephew. I hope thee will not have him hung. * * * Thee will see by his advice to the prisoners in the arsenal to keep out of danger he did not want to see them hurt. Governor Wise, please to read this, and if thee can avoid hanging, do, I entreat thee.2

It was left for Mr. Isbell, the member from the county of Jefferson in the Legislature, to voice the attitude of Virginia, not only toward the imprisoned Harper's Ferry raiders, but toward the North. Because of the representative character of his address, a somewhat extended extract is here presented. Mr. Isbell said:

This is the first time that so grave an offense has been committed against the state of Virginia, and, so far as I am informed, the first proceeding under the law of treason that has ever taken place. This proceeding sprang from an offense which is calculated to disturb the inhabitants of our whole northern border and it becomes us to make such examples of the marauders now convicted and under sentence as will operate to restore confidence to these people and deter others from similar acts of murder and rapine. It is said, Mr. President, that this man Coppic was deceived as to the motives of John Brown in coming to Virginia. He could not have been deceived. He was one of that band who had put upon his conscience the oath of fidelity to Brown in subverting the government and exciting the slaves to rebellion. He is as much guilty of murder as any man convicted before the courts-as much guilty, if not more guilty, than John Brown himself; for, so far as I am aware, it was not shown in evidence that Brown shot anybody in that struggle. This man Coppic was, moreover, fully cognizant of and participator in the military preparations set on foot at Brown's farm, some months previous to the invasion. He stands precisely in the same position with the other prisoners who were convicted of murder and exciting slaves to rebellion. All of them presented the plea that they came not for the purpose of slaughtering our citizens, but of carrying off their property--with the intention not to commit any act of personal violence upon the people of the commonwealth except when that people decided to resist them in their unlawful course. In view of these facts, Mr. President, I am in favor of withholding, from the executive of this state, the power of pardoning Coppic, or any other of the prisoners convicted at Charlestown for their connection with the Harper's Ferry invasion. But, sir, it is said that having upheld our laws, and enforced our authority-that having vindicated ourselves before the whole country, and shown to the North and to the South, and to the whole world in fact, that we can defend ourselves, and mean to do it, and enforce our laws against whomsoever may dare to violate them - that having presented these vindications to the world we might temper justice with mercy and pardon these men who have been the greatest offenders against our laws that have ever been brought before our courts for trial. I say that, in the existing relations between the North and South, it becomes rather the duty of Virginia to give notice to the whole world--that he who dares place his foot upon her soil, with the same hellish purpose that actuated the prisoners now in custody at Charlestown, shall hang as high as Haman, and that no mercy shall be accorded to him who comes in the dead of night to murder our citizens. I believe that it is impolitic to extend this pardon to Coppic, or any other of those prisoners. I believe that we shall best subserve our interests by upholding our laws and executing all persons of this class as soon after conviction as may be convenient. While I am a law abiding man, while I have been educated to believe that all criminals should be brought before a court of justice and have the benefit of all the forms of trial, yet, on occasions of this sort, on the spur and excitement of the actual transaction itself, with all these preconceived opinions and feelings, I fear I should almost doubt my ability to insist that the criminals should have the benefit of a trial, should they be taken by our own citizens. For this reason I am utterly opposed, in every aspect in which this case can be presented, to any mercy being shown to this man.6

"In the existing relations between the North and South." This is the real basis of the fervid appeal of Mr. Isbell. Governor Wise and other individual Virginians in high position might be willing to extend clemency, and under all the circumstances the attitude of the Governor was generous, chivalrous and courageous, but no power could withstand the resolution of the chosen representatives of the commonwealth, of Virginia. The "irrepressible conflict" was already on, and the Legislature of Virginia was resolved from the first that no guilty man from the North should escape.

Among those who sought other excuse for withholding clemency were some who found it in the publication in the New York Tribune of December 12, 1859, of a letter of November -, purporting to have been written from Coppoc to the wife of John Brown. As this letter has figured somewhat prominently in the case and was referred to in the Legislature when the memorial of Thomas Winn was up for consideration, it is here reproduced in full:

Mrs. John Brown -Dear Madam: I was very sorry that your request to see the rest of the prisoners was not complied with. Mrs. Avis brought me a book, whose pages are full of truth and beauty, entitled 'Voice of the True-Hearted,' which she told me was a present from you. For this dear token of remembrance, please accept my thanks.

My comrade, J. E. Cook, and myself, deeply sympathize with you in your sad bereavement. We were both acquainted with Anna and Martha. They were to us as sisters, and as brothers we sympathize with them in the dark hour of trial and affliction.

I was with your sons when they fell. Oliver lived but a few moments after he was shot. He spoke no word but yielded calmly to his fate. Watson was shot at 10 o'clock on Monday morning, and died about 3 o'clock on Wednesday morning. He suffered much. Though mortally wounded at 10 o'clock, yet at 3 o'clock Monday afternoon he fought bravely against the men who charged on us. When the enemy were repulsed, and the excitement of the charge was over, he began to sink rapidly. "After we were taken prisoners, he was placed in the guard house with me. He complained of the hardness of the bench on which he was lying. I begged hard for a bed for him, or even a blanket, but could obtain none for him. I took off my coat and placed it under him, and held his head in my lap, in which position he died without a groan or a struggle. "I have stated these facts, thinking that they may afford to you, and to the bereaved widows they have left, a mournful consolation.

Give my love to Anna and Martha, with our last farewell.

Yours truly,
"EDWIN COPPOC."

Some of the members of the Virginia senate spoke of this letter and made certain expressions in it the occasion for their vote in withholding sanction of executive clemency. Thomas Winn was convinced that the publication of this letter at the critical time when it appeared was the chief influence that turned the scale again the life of Coppoc. In a letter to the widow of John Brown, written January 13, 1860, he says:

Governor Wise appeared before the committee and ably advocated the commutation of his punishment. Many of the most influential senators were also in favor of it. Unfortunately, however, while the subject was before the Legislature the New York Tribune made its appearance, containing a letter signed Edwin Coppic, addressed to thyself, which was used success- fully to defeat the application for mercy. Senators objected to the tone of the letter and particularly to the paragraph which speaks of the Virginians as 'enemies' and refused to show him any mercy.10

Winn states further that Edwin denied writing the letter and said that it had been written by Cook, his fellow prisoner. It is said to have been sent by Mrs. Brown to Winn and soon afterward to have disap- peared.

It should be explained in this connection that the letter got into the Tribune in an account of the funeral of John Brown at North Elba, New York. Rev. J. M. McKim, in delivering the funeral sermon, read the letter.

It appears that neither Cook nor Coppoc left any written statement in regard to the letter, and in the absence of the original manuscript discussion as to its authorship would probably leave the reader in doubt. It must be admitted, however, that the language is much like that of Coppoc and does not resemble the style of Cook's letters. If Cook wrote it, the motive for not signing it himself, of course, would be that he thought Mrs. Brown would appreciate the letter more if it were not signed by him, but it expresses sentiment and relates experiences that were Coppoc's, not Cook's.

After all it is much more than probable that the etter had little weight in determining Edwin's fate.

* Hazlett and Stevens were not executed until March 16, 1860. The part of the former in the raid was slight and the latter was shot down while bearing a flag of truce, but no mercy was shown to either. Virginia was determined to have the life of each of these condemned men.

The speech of Isbell in any event would have swept away all pleas for mercy. It made Coppoc the chief offender in the raid, and the result would doubtless have been the same regardless of the letter. Virginia at this time was determined to go to the limit in dealing with "invaders and traitors," and to hang "as high as Haman" those who came with arms in their hands to liberate the slave. From the beginning, there was small reason to expect clemency from the Legislature of Virginia. That hope went out when it became known that Governor Wise did not have the power to commute the sentence of Edwin Coppoc.*

The time for his execution was rapidly approaching. On December 13, 1859, he wrote to his uncle, Joshua Coppock, the remarkable letter that deserves to rank among the poignant and prophetic utterances called forth by the long anti-slavery struggle preceding the Civil War. If at other times what he wrote had the tone of regret to be expected from a farmer boy caught in the net of circumstance, this letter reveals the man, mindful still of his impending fate, but sustained by devotion to a cause and faith in the speedy coming of that "glorious day" which he could see in vision almost from the platform of the scaffold. Following is the letter:

CHARLESTOWN, Dec. 13th, 1859.

"MY DEAR UNCLE;

I seat myself by the stand, to write for the first, and last time, to thee and thy family. Though far from home and overtaken by misfortune, I have not forgotten you. Your generous hospitality towards me, during my short stay with you last spring, is stamped indelibly upon my heart; and also the generosity bestowed upon my poor brother, who now wanders an outcast from his native land. But thank God he is free. I am thankful that it is I, who has to suffer, instead of him. "The time may come when he will remember me, and the time may come when he will still further remember the cause in which I die. Thank God, the principles of the cause in which we were engaged will not die with me and my brave comrades They will spread wider and wider, and gather strength with each hour that passes. The voice of truth will echo through our land, bringing conviction to the erring, and adding numbers to that glorious army who will follow its banner. The cause of everlasting truth and justice will go on conquering, to conquer, until our broad and beautiful land shall rest beneath the banner of freedom.

I had hoped to live to see the dawn of that glorious day. I had hoped to live to see the principles of the Declaration of our Independence fully realized. I had hoped to see the dark stain of slavery blotted from our land, and the libel of our boasted freedom erased, when we can say in truth, that our beloved country is the land of the free, and the home of the brave.

But this cannot be. I have heard my sentence passed. My doom is sealed. But two more short days remain for me to fulfill my earthly destiny. But two brief days between me and eternity. At the expiration of those two days, I shall stand upon the scaffold to take my last look of earthly scenes, but that scaffold has but little dread for me; for I honestly believe that I am innocent of any crime justifying such punishment. But by the taking of my life, and the lives of my comrades, Virginia is but hastening on that glorious day, when the slave shall rejoice in his freedom. When he can say, "I too am a man, and am groaning no more under the yoke of oppression."

But I must now close. Accept this short scrawl as a remembrance of me. Give my love to all the family. Kiss little Josey for me. Remember me to all my relatives and friends. And now farewell for the last time.

From thy Nephew,
EDWIN COPPOC.

P. S. Thee wished to know who was here with me from Iowa.

Thomas Winn is here and expects to stay until after the execution; and then will convey my body, to Springdale. It is my wish to be buried there.

I would of [have] been glad to see thee or any of my other relatives: but it is now too late.

I did not like to send for any of you, as I did not know whether any of you would be willing to come.

I will say, for I know that it will be a satisfaction to all of you, that we are all kindly treated and I hope that the North will not fail to give Sheriff Campbell and Captain Avis due acknowledgment for their kind and noble actions. "E."7

"While there is life there is hope," -so runs the trite adage. When Edwin Coppoc wrote the foregoing letter he did not expect to escape execution, but he was even then working out with his fellow prisoner, John E. Cook, a plan devised by them to regain their liberty. Along one side of the cell in which they were confined was a heavy plank, held in place by screws. With the aid of two knives and a long heavy screw taken from their bedstead they loosened the plank and under the shadow of darkness took out some of the bricks from the jail wall. A few of these were concealed in the bed; others were left loose in the aperture that was forming back of the single outer layer of brick that remained to be removed on the night chosen to make the final effort for freedom.

And a faithful friend was ready to assist, just outside of the prison walls, - an active Free State partisan from Kansas, who had arrived at the Ferry too late to join the followers of John Brown in the attack. His name was Charles Lenhart. In the hope that he might in some way aid his old leader and the other prisoners

* Colonel Richard J. Hinton, in his John Brown and His Men, states that Charles Lenhart was in all probability in the same file of Virginia militiamen with John Wilkes Booth at the execution of John Brown. In his account of the attempted escape of Coppoc and Cook he says: "In the town was a Kansas man, Charles Lenhart, who under disguise was striving to be of service. On the night of the 14th of December, Lenhart was on guard at the angle of the jail wall where, the next night, the spectacle of their heads above its edge created the alarm of a faithful pro-slavery sentinel." Lenhart enlisted in the Union army at the outbreak of the Civil War, was commissioned lieutenant, and died in the service in 1863.

he took on the disguise of a pro-slavery sympathizer, denounced the raiders, enlisted in the Virginia militia, was present at the execution of John Brown and had remained in Charlestown in the hope that he might be of service to his friends. On the night chosen by Cook and Coppoc for the escape, Lenhart was sentinel at the angle of the jail where they had planned to scale the wall. He of course was not to see them, they were to flee to the mountains - and liberty.*

Thus far fortune had favored their efforts. On the evening of December 14, Lenhart was at the post outside of the prison wall. The shadows of night fell on the valley and over the mountains. The sentry paced

PLAN OF JAIL AT CHARLESTOWN This plan and the explanation are taken from John Brown and His Men, by Colonel Richard J. Hinton.

back and forth eagerly looking through the darkness for the appearance of his friends on top of the wall back of the jail. Anxiously he watched and listened. Midnight, and no sign from the gloomy prison. Slowly and silently passed the hours until a new day faintly dawned over the mountains, - and the imprisoned men did not come forth.

In the meantime Cook and Coppoc were in serious whispered conference in their cell. On the very day preceding this night, Cook's brother-in-law, Governor Ashbel P. Willard, of Indiana, Mrs. Willard, his sister, and a lady friend of the family had called for their final farewell. The parting was very affecting, for Mrs. Willard was strongly attached to her brother. She was so overcome that she and her husband did not leave Charlestown that evening as they had planned.

Cook felt that his escape that night in accordance with the carefully laid plans would involve his brother-in-law and his sister in charges of complicity, and he refused to leave the jail.* He urged Edwin Coppoc to go, but he would not desert his comrade in the crisis. They decided to wait until the next night and take their chances when a stranger was on guard outside.

* In these times political excitement ran high in Indiana. Governor Willard, the brother-in-law of Cook, had been attacked by an influential Republican paper of Indianapolis as a confidant in the Harper's Ferry raid. Democratic papers very generally were charging that Republicans were responsible for this and the Republican press in Indiana could not forego the opportunity to retaliate by ascribing all sorts of motives to Governor Willard, who was a Democrat and who did all he could, with the aid of Daniel W. Voorhees and Joseph E. McDonald, both afterward United States senators, to save Cook's life. Governor Willard was wholly innocent of the charges brought against him by the politicians and his course throughout this trying experience was highly honorable. He died in 1860, before the expiration of his term of office. It was because of this unjust criticism that Cook was resolved to do nothing to make his brother-in-law still further an object of suspicion.

Early in the night of December 15, they removed the thin layer of brick and without difficulty reached the open space in the jail yard. The scaffold on which John Brown had been executed was there. Up this Coppoc climbed to the top of the outer wall and lay there at full length. Cook followed, but before mounting the wall held up his hat on a stick to learn whether the guard outside was on the watch. The prisoners were detected, the alarm given and the chance to escape was gone. Had the attempt been made the night before with Charles Lenhart on guard it is needless to say that there would have been a very different record to write. On the morning of the execution, Cook wrote an account of the attempt to escape which was signed by him and Coppoc. It is as follows:

Having been called upon to make a fair statement in regard to the ways and means of our breaking jail, I have agreed to do so from a sense of duty to the sheriff of the county, our jailer, and the jail guard. We do not wish that any one should be unjustly censured on our account. The principal implements with which we opened a passage through the wall of the jail were a barlow knife and a screw which we took out of the bed- stead.

The knife was borrowed from one of the jail guards to cut a lemon with. We did not return it to him. He had no idea of any intention on our part to break out, neither did the sheriff, jailer, or any of the guard, have any knowledge of our plans.

We received no aid from any person or persons whatever. We had, as we supposed, removed all the brick except the last tier, several days ago, but on the evening previous to our breaking out, we found our mistake in regard to that matter. "We had intended to go out on the evening that my sister and brother-in-law were here, but I knew that it would reflect on them, and we postponed it -but I urged Coppoc to go and I would remain, but he refused. We then concluded to wait.

I got a knife blade from Shields Green, and with that made some teeth in the barlow knife, with which we sawed off our shackles. We had them all off the night previous to our getting out. Coppoc went out first and I followed. We then got up on the wall, when I was discovered and shot at. The guard outside the wall immediately came up to the wall.

We saw there was no chance to escape, and as it was discovered that we had broken jail, we walked in deliberately and gave ourselves up to the sheriff, Captain Avis, and the jail guard. There was no person or persons who aided us in our escape. This is true, so help us God.

JOHN E. COOK,
EDWIN COPPOC.4

Intense excitement followed the attempt of the prisoners to escape. The people flocked in from the surrounding country to witness the executions. These were times when a legal hanging was still regarded as something of a holiday. The exhibition had not yet been driven by public opinion from the light of day to the darkness of midnight and the seclusion of the dungeon. It is claimed that four or five times as many were present as at the execution of John Brown. The place and scaffold were the same. Newspaper reports differ in detail, even in the statements in regard to the weather. From the Associated Press we learn that "the weather was bright and cheerful and much milder than for several preceding days," while the correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette reports that "the heavens were overcast, the air raw and bitter and the ground covered with a slight snow."

So far as known, the very last letter written by Edwin Coppoc was the short note to his faithful and resourceful friend, Thomas Winn. It was as follows:

MY DEAR FRIEND THOMAS WINN: For thy love and sympathy, and for thy unwearied efforts in my behalf, accept my warmest thanks. I have no words to tell the gratitude and love I have for thee. And may God bless thee and thy family, for the love and kindness thee has always shown towards my family and me. And when life with thee is over, may we meet on that shore where there is no parting, is the farewell prayer of thy true Friend,

EDWIN COPPOC.8

On the morning of December 16 the prisoners were aroused early and prepared for execution. The ministers and a few others besides the officers were permitted to meet them before they left the jail.

"It is hard to die," remarked a Quaker to Coppoc.
"It is the parting of friends, not the dread of death that moves us," was the reply.

The two men were remarkably cheerful before leaving but seated on their coffins their expressions changed. One correspondent wrote:

The countenance of Coppoc changed; his face wore a settled expression of despair. He looked wildly around upon the crowd, and his large eyes lighted with an unnatural luster. Many a heart sighed for him. Most of the community were anxious for a commutation of his sentence.

Like John Brown, this youth in his last hours was sustained by the faith that the cause was worthy of the sacrifice. But he was young and the current of health coursing through his veins made life precious and its surrender sad.

Arriving at the scaffold, "the calm and collected manner of both was very marked." "They both exhibited the most unflinching firmness, saying nothing, with the exception of bidding farewell to the ministers and sheriff." "After the cap had been placed on their heads, Coppoc turned toward Cook and stretched forth his hand as far as possible. At the same time Cook said, 'Stop a minute -where is Edwin's hand?' They then shook hands cordially and Cook said, 'God bless you'."

After everything was in readiness, Cook said "Be quick -as quick as possible," which was echoed by Coppoc, and in a few moments they departed this life forever.

After receiving a letter from his nephew, Joshua Coppoc had gone at once to Charlestown. The day before the execution he talked over with Edwin and Thomas Winn matters of mutual interest and the former changed the request, expressed in his letter, to a preference for burial near his birthplace in Columbiana County.

Back to Salem Joshua Coppock and Thomas Winn brought the body in a coffin provided by the state of Virginia. Arrangements were promptly made for a quiet funeral in accord with Quaker custom. No daily papers then announced the latest news to the people in the rural districts, but in spite of that fact they came in great numbers on December 18 to attend the funeral. Until late in the afternoon they continued to come, some through curiosity no doubt, but very generally through sympathy. All were seriously respectful. The number that came, many to remain but a short time, was estimated at between two and three thousand, and the last simple rites took on the aspect of a large public funeral. In the little room at the home of Joshua Coppock where the body lay, a neighbor woman, Rachel Whinnery, from an adjoining farm, rose and in fitting voice read the following address that she had prepared only the evening before:

"Friends: A brother lies before us, murdered by brothers' hands! Every heart present should swell up in deepest sympathy for the youth, who, apparently, is taking a calm slumber here, to recuperate a system which looks full of health and vigor. How can we realize that this is Death? No sickness has wasted his natural form, nor has an unforeseen accident laid him low. With the stamina of life about him to have lengthened his time to fourscore years and ten, the cord of life is rent asunder at twenty- four years. The violent hands of man have been laid upon him. His own words are, 'I am thankful that no one fell by my hands!' He, as one of old, fell among thieves, and though the good Samaritans were there to bind up his bleeding, mental wounds, his physical life was sacrificed, and he was murdered for a principle, and that principle was Freedom! On that broad and expanded brow, may be traced the lineaments of Liberty. Slavery has snatched, as it were, a birdling from our own dove- cote, a brother from our own fireside-what can she more?

The people of Virginia have manifested a great degree of hospitality towards the friends of the departed, who were with him; but what can they give equivalent to that which they have taken away? Can that mother, whose sight is almost obliterated, feel that she can be thus recompensed for so sad a bereavement? Every mother's heart that looks on the lifeless form before us, will feel that Virginia has not only done HER, but themselves, too, a grievous wrong. Would that I could this day summon Governor Wise and the Legislative body of Virginia here to let them gaze on the victim of their barbarous vengeance, and from thence direct it to the aged grandmother, over whose head the snows of four-score winters have passed, bowed with grief, that one so full of life, and so young in years must cross the valley of the shadow of Death before his time. I would have them gaze on the saddened faces, the falling tears of Other relatives and friends, and if they were not affected by this, need we wonder at the infamous deed they have committed.

Not one smiling face is here today. Sadness overhangs us like a pall! But this is only for the physical; mortality has put on immortality, and to him the physical is laid aside. He died, as died other martyrs before him, and the good and the true, among the present and coming generations, will feel that for him there is a crown of glory, where dungeon walls will not loom over him; where manacles cannot gall his limbs, and where that awful feature of barbarism, THE GIBBET, will not appall his soul. With the beautified throng of angels, we leave thee, Oh! our Brother! Thy physical form we consign to Mother Earth; thy soul to thy Father, God, who gave it."8

As evening approached the body was borne out into the yard and permitted to rest a short time while the silence was broken briefly by a solemn voice closing with this appeal:

Let us here over this lifeless body and as if standing at the altar of Christ, consecrate our lives anew to go and battle manfully for truth and righteousness, and for the overthrow of the bloody system that sacrifices millions of our fellow men.9

As the setting sun in bars of red cloud passed below the horizon, the remains of Edwin Coppoc were lowered into the grave in the Friends' Churchyard, among the quiet hills and valleys of his childhood days. When the shadows of night had fallen and the funeral crowd had vanished, a few sturdy men entered the Friends' Church with arms in their hands to guard the dead, for a rumor had gone abroad that an effort would be made to rob the new made grave.

The salutation to John Brown when he arrived at Springdale, Iowa, among the Quakers was, "Thee is welcome, but we have no use for thy guns." For the first time rifles were carried into the little Ohio church and some Quakers were beginning to have "use for guns."

After the funeral, of course it was the one topic of conversation about the country firesides for many miles around, and there was much sympathy and resentment in the town of Salem. Dissatisfaction was felt at the quiet funeral. Fear was expressed that the body would be removed by pro-slavery sympathizers. Someone said in the midst of a crowd of listeners that it was little short of a disgrace to permit the body of this young martyr to remain in a coffin furnished by the slave state of Virginia. This view soon found frequent expression. There was a demand for a more public funeral in order that the sentiment of Salem and the surrounding country might have adequate expression. Announcement was made in the papers and in a handbill signed by prominent citizens of Salem, a facsimile of which appears on another page. December 30 was fixed upon as the date for the second and final burial, in Hope Cemetery, Salem, Ohio.

It occurred to one of the anti-slavery leaders of the town that the handbill with a personal letter should go to Governor Wise, of Virginia. A copy of the original, which is still in the archives of the state of Virginia, is here presented for the first time in print:

SALEM COL. Co. O. 12th Mo 28th 1859.
To HENRY A. WISE:

It has been on my mind for some time to address a few lines to thee but have waited until the great tragedy in which thee has been engaged is over.

I am satisfied that an awful doom rests over Virginia, not only for her hugging the accursed System of Slavery so close to her vitals, but for the wilful murder of some of the best men that have graced the pages of history for many generations. I mean John Brown and his most noble followers.

Enclosed thee will find an advertisement. We expect to have 8 or ten thousand people present on its occasion.

Thine respectfully,
DANIEL BONSALL.

N. B. We shall not bury Edwin Coppick in the Virginia Coffin, but would be rejoiced if her Governor would Come, or send for it.
"D. BONSALL.2

The appointed day brought a very large crowd of people to Salem to attend the final obsequies. The following account in the main is a paraphrase of the one published in the Salem Republican: In the morning the people began to arrive, some of them from a considerable distance. Long before the appointed hour, one o'clock in the afternoon, the town was thronged with thousands of strangers, who came to pay the final tributes of respect and sympathy.
The body of the dead youth was still well preserved but his face, so lifelike at the former funeral, had begun to discolor. It was shrouded in a costly metallic coffin to which it had been transferred. Alfred Wright at the head of a committee of arrangements had charge of the funeral. The body lay in the Town Hall, which had so often, in the years gone by, rung with appeals for the cause that took Edwin Coppoc to Harper's Ferry.

Rev. James A. Thome,* of Ohio City, now a part of Cleveland, offered a prayer, which he followed with brief remarks. He declared that Coppoc's purpose was righteous and that he died "a martyr to the sacred cause of liberty."

Rev. James A. Thome was born in Augusta, Kentucky, January 20, 1813. He died in Chattanooga, Tennessee, March 4, 1873. In 1833 he entered Lane Theological Seminary, but withdrew from that institution with other students rather than withdraw from an anti-slavery society that had demanded immediate emancipation. In 1835, he entered the theological school at Oberlin, Ohio, from which he was graduated in 1836. Soon afterward he became active as an agent of the American Anti- Slavery Society and was chosen as one of its representatives to make a tour of the West Indies and report the effect of emancipation in the British West Indies. He and his associate made a report on their return, which was widely circulated as an anti-slavery document. He was a professor in Oberlin college 1838-1848. He then became pastor of the Congregational Church of Ohio City, later a part of Cleveland, and continued to preach there for twenty-three years. In November, 1871, he accepted a call to Chattanooga where he preached until near the date of his death. Prior to the war, after his graduation from Oberlin, he was frequently on the lecture platform advocating the emancipation of the slaves. His near relatives in his native state liberated their slaves, largely through his influence. With William Lloyd Garrison he was a delegate to the International Anti-Slavery Society that met in Paris after the close of the Civil War. His funeral services were conducted from the First Congregational Church of Cleveland where he was buried.

"I visited this place more than twenty years ago," he said, "before this young man was born, to defend the doctrine of human rights. Here before me lies the victim of that irrepressible warfare upon human rights, waged by the bloody system of the slave states."

Through the Town Hall passed the throng, estimated at six thousand, unusually silent and solemn, even for such an occasion.

Later the body was borne out of the hall to the hearse and the procession moved to the grave on the hill in the following order: First, the near relatives; Second, the pall bearers; Third, the colored people for whose race the deceased had given his life; Fourth, citizens on foot, followed by those from a distance in carriages.

The coffin was lowered into a strong plank box, well ironed, in a grave of unusual depth.

In the evening all that could enter the Town Hall listened to the impressive funeral discourse by Rev. Thome. The meeting was organized by calling to the chair Jacob Heaton, who for years had been a recognized leader in the anti-slavery cause. After prayer by Rev. Burke of Wayne County, the congregation sang the stirring hymn, "Blow, ye trumpet, blow." The speaker took as his theme, Daniel and the writing on the wall, declaring that "like the message to Belshazzar was John Brown's to enthroned iniquity." "Here," said he, "is grandeur; here is God's own work and grace, here where it is treason to proclaim God's truth; here in an age of sounding brass - are these great souls, like living organs through whose trumpet notes God has blown an anthem that shakes the land like an earthquake."

The sermon was described by one who heard it as remarkably eloquent - such as one is permitted to hear only once in a lifetime.5

And thus the remains of this unpretentious youth, this warrior in the anti-slavery cause, whose life was full of vicissitudes, found a final resting place in a spot that he had known in childhood days. His warfare was over and his sleep so deep that it could not be broken by the opening gun at Fort Sumpter, the marching of "that glorious army" to the southland, the thunders of contending hosts on a hundred battle fields, the final overthrow of Lee whom he had spared to lead the Confederate legions, the triumph of liberty and union, the "Declaration of Independence fully realized." All this, which he was not permitted to witness with mortal eye, he saw in vision before he went to his final rest.

A number of estimates of the character of Edwin Coppoc are now at hand. Without exception they are favorable. Mrs. Annie Brown Adams, the daughter of John Brown, who knew Coppoc at Harper's Ferry, thus speaks of him:

He was of fair skin, had a well balanced, large head, dark brown hair and eyes. * * * He was quite simple and fascinating in his ways: - a rare young fellow caring for and fearing nothing, he yet possessed great social traits and no better comrade have I ever met.4

George B. Gill has left the following interesting estimate:

Edwin had a birthright in the Society of Friends. All of his nearest relatives, with the exception of his brothers, were zealous adherents of that Society. [Edwin] early developed a business capacity, accumulating horses, oxen and also land. He was a young man of great force and decision, accompanied by the most winning manner and amiable ways. Intellectually his peers in his country home were few. His courage was equal apparently to any emergency. Amiable, loving and brave, no gathering whether of mind or muscle, whether the aims were physical or social, was complete without him. Honorable, loyal and true, mirthful, yet full of the thoughtful sympathies of life; a magnetism attracting and holding all within the firm clasp of friendship; some five feet seven or eight inches in height, with a rugged, well-knit frame which accepted without fear all the tests that a life of labor gives. One world at a time, and that world this, was all the world that he knew; another to him was a thing of beauty, full of joy and song.

But the world went wrong. A blight came-a crushing of hopes in a manhood whose intensity could not dream of love's resurrection or time's healing power.* Amid the dream a larger love was born and for that love he died.10

*There are traditions of this disappointment, but nothing more definite than the above statement.

Edwin Coppoc was not forgotten in the section of Ohio where he was born. His death made a deep impression which did not pass with his obsequies. It inspired the volunteers who answered their country's call when the slogan, "No union with slaveholders" was changed to "The union with no slaveholders"; and many a Quaker boy renounced the non-resistant article of his creed, put on the uniform of blue and marched away under the flag to battle for liberty and union. When the struggle ended and the country was electrified by the news that Lee had surrendered, the people of Salem, men, women and children, came forth to celebrate "that glorious day." Among them was a youth, a teacher in the high school, born and reared a Quaker in the country south of the town, who suggested that an effigy of General Lee be placed in the coffin in which the body of Edwin Coppoc had been brought from Harper's Ferry - an exhibit of the compensating justice of history. This was promptly done, and on the shoulders of this youth and three others the coffin with the effigy was borne at the head of the great procession in the midst of the wildest enthusiasm that Salem had ever known.

The youth who figured in this event still lives to tell, in his modest way, the story which will be found on succeeding pages. Our readers will recognize in him one of the leading scholars and teachers that Ohio has produced, whose fame as such is state-wide, nation-wide and international.

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NOTES

1. Rebecca J. Douglas of Indianapolis, Indiana, is preparing a genealogy of the Coppoc family. She has kindly consented to the use of her notes in the preparation of the preceding and succeeding articles on Edwin and Barclay Coppoc.

2. Oswald Garrison Villard, grandson of William Lloyd Garrison, editor of the Nation and author of John Brown, A Biography Fifty Years After, in the preparation of the latter work collected much material relating to John Brown's men. He kindly loaned this to the writer for use in the preparation of the skecthes of Edwin and Barclay Coppoc. This included (2) papers from the Virginia archives; (6) manuscript extracts from scrapbooks and other papers in the library of the Kansas Historical Society; (10) copies of manuscripts and letters in the possession of the Brown family. This material has been of very great value, as will be seen, in the preparation of these sketches.

3. Irving B. Richman wrote a contribution for the Historical Society of Iowa entitled John Brown Among the Quakers. This was afterwards published in separate form. The references bearing this number are to this interesting contribution.

4. Colonel Richard J. Hinton, in 1894, published his well known work, John Brown and His Men. He was personally acquainted with all of Brown's men and was himself one of them. He had expected to be at Harper's Ferry but the precipitation of the attack there prevented his participation. The writer is under obligations to this work for somewhat copious extracts and frequent references. It is an invaluable source of information on the men who went with John Brown on his foray into Virginia.

5. The references bearing this number are to the Salem (Ohio) Republican, the early files of which are in the public library at Salem, Ohio. Extracts from these files were made by the writer, by the Librarian, Miss Anna P. Cook, and her assistant, Mrs. Blanche C. H. Lease, for whose copy in typewritten form grateful acknowledgment is here made.

6. See (6) in note 2.

7. This is from the original letter, long in the possession of Sarah Coppock Bailey, daughter of Joshua Coppock. This letter is now, through her kindness, in the possession of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society.

8. Typewritten copy furnished by Mrs. Samuel Coppock who has kindly given much information to the author in the preparation of these sketches.

9. Cleveland Leader, January, 1860.

10. See (10) in note 2.

This graphic of Edwin Coppoc's hair did not appear in the article but has been added by RWT.

LOCK OF EDWIN COPPOC'S HAIR. Recently the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society has received from Samuel Coppock, of Winona, Ohio, a lock of the hair of Edwin Coppoc, which is now to be seen with the other mementos in the museum of the Society.

LETTER OF EDWIN COPPOC.

The letter of Edwin Coppoc to his uncle Joshua is reproduced verbatim with a single exception: in the twelfth line from the top of page 431, between the word "say" and "I" in the original the word "that" occurs. The italicized portions were underscored in the letter. Slight faults in orthography have been corrected. The letter is written in a clear and steady hand. In view of the circumstances under which it was written, it is a remarkable production, as is also the address of Rachael Whinnery at the funeral.