User:Stormo555

 The Raid 

''' Note: The following is the interrogation of John Brown following the raid on Harper’s Ferry. In this copy we have changed most names due to personal requests ( except for well known people such as John Brown, we believe that in order for this interrogation to be somewhat credible we should keep their names just the way they are.) '''

''' Johnson: So Mr. Brown, I expect you know why you are here. '''

''' Brown: Yes, I do. What I don’t know is why you’re here, Mr. Johnson. '''

''' Johnson: I’m here because you’re going to tell me what happened. Why it happened. Why four innocent people are dead, why ten of your men are dead, and why the president had to send in the marines to stop you. '''

''' Brown: And if I refuse? '''

''' Johnson: Well, in that case we’ll make you talk. '''

''' Brown: Well, when you put it that way... I guess the idea started after the “Pottawatomie Massacre.” I still can’t believe they called it a massacre, only five people were killed. Do you remember that? You must have heard of it. '''

''' Johnson: It seems to ring a bell. '''

''' Brown: Anyway that’s when the idea came into my mind, I wanted to abolish slavery once and for all. '''

''' Johnson: Look Mr. Brown, can we just skip to when you started planning the raid? I don’t have all day, I have my family at home waiting for me. '''

''' Brown: Well I don’t recall when the actual planning started, but during the week before the raid my men and I had been reviewing the plan multiple times, trying to improve upon it to ensure it would not fail. Well we obviously overlooked something important or I would be destroying slavery instead of here. '''

''' Johnson: Mr Brown, could you please stay on topic? '''

''' Brown: Yes, anyway it was about four nights ago, October 15th, the night before the raid. My gang was going over the obviously flawed plan. I stepped outside for some fresh air. It was dark, the only light in the surrounding darkness was the moon, but as my eyes adjusted I could just barely make out two green circles in the distance. They seemed to be eyes but they were bigger than any I’d ever seen, and they didn’t blink. Not even once. Then they just disappeared like magic. I wondered if they were really there at all. Then I went back inside, I didn’t tell anyone, and as I rejoined my gang, they told me they had found no flaws in the plan. Suddenly wanting to retire to my bed for the night, I decided to call it a day. '''

''' Johnson: Is all this relevant Mr. Brown? '''

''' Brown: You wanted me to tell you what happened, so yes it is relevant. Why am I even telling you this anyway? You know exactly what happened. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Johnson: There are always two sides to a story,  we want to know yours. So please, continue. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Brown: It was the day of the raid, October 16th, I was prepared, I knew the plan like the back of my hand. However I had the strange feeling we had missed something during our planning, I felt something was about to go wrong, but I simply passed this off as nervousness and ignored it. The first thing I did was send some of my gang to capture Colonel Lewis Washington, enlist the help of some of his slaves, and take some weapons that had originally been given to George Washington as I believed these weapons to be good luck. That part of the plan was a success; we took more hostages. The plan had been going well but we needed to take the weapons from the armory and escape quickly. After cutting the telegraph wire, we seized a train that had made a stop there. However we were confronted by a free black who, from the look of him, worked aboard the train, we killed him. Then we got off and the train moved on. I felt good about the way the plan had been going so far. I believed the slaves would join our cause and aid us in destroying slavery, starting with Harper’s Ferry. However this wasn’t the case, none of them joined us. The townspeople began to fight back, but we did it, we captured the armory and decided to rest for the night. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Johnson: I just thought I should let you know that the conductor of the train was the one who had alerted the authorities. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Brown: Well, what’s done is done, there’s no changing it now. We woke up to find the armory workers had discovered us, and more importantly, we were surrounded. The local militia and townspeople had the armory completely surrounded. I realized that escape was impossible, refusing to surrender, my men and I took nine hostages into a smaller engine room. We blocked the doors and  windows. At one point I sent out my son Watson and another one of my men outside with a white flag. I saw something drop down from the roof of the engine house. It was a white, humanoid figure and it was heading straight for my son, I instinctively looked away but after half a minute I forced myself to look back, only to find that whatever had undoubtedly killed my son was looking back at me. The first thing I noticed was that there was no mouth, come to think of it, it didn’t have a nose either. But by far the worst thing about the absolute monstrosity that was looking hungrily back at me were the eyes, they were green and slightly bigger than human eyes. I was horrified at the thought that this thing had followed me, and wondered why it had followed me, what did it mean to do to me? Meanwhile the militia started to fire at the creature and my other son, Oliver was shot. One of my men panicked and ran out of the engine house and in the direction of the Potomac. I knew before I heard the shot that he was dead but I was too busy staring in horror at the creature to notice or even care. Could it have been the cause of all this, could he be why the plan was suddenly failing? I snapped out of it when I realized my son was screaming. I turned to look at him as his screams ceased and found that he had passed out, I glanced once more at the spot where the creature had killed my son only to find that it had disappeared. A short time after Oliver was shot, he died. Later on some members of a different militia broke into the guardroom of the armory and freed about two dozen slaves. The next day the marines had arrived and surrounded the engine house and talked amongst themselves, most likely planning on how to kill or capture us. A man with a white flag approached the engine house to discuss surrender, he said if we surrendered we would be spared. I refused surrender and sent him back. As he walked back I noticed he was signaling his superior commanders with a thumbs down. A few seconds later marines rushed to all of the doors and pounded at them with sledgehammers. They fell back but not for long they found a ladder and rammed it into the door. With the help of Lewis Washington the man who appeared to be in charge singled me out, he swung his sword as I was moving and cut into my neck, I fell over onto my side and he stabbed me in the left side of my chest, however due to how weak the sword was, it wasn’t a serious wound. It was over, I was defeated. There Mr. Johnson, that is what happened, I have told my story. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Johnson: Thank you Mr. Brown. I will leave now. Someone will be coming in shortly to escort you to whatever place or jail cell you are currently living in, if you can even call it that. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' End of interrogation. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Excerpt from the journal of John Wilkes booth. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:right;"> December 2, 1859 

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' I went to the hanging of John Brown today. It was mostly like any other hanging except that when they pulled the sack that he had been wearing while they took him to the gallows he gasped and his eyes became wide. But he wasn’t looking at the crowd, he was looking off in the distance so it couldn’t be that he was shocked by the size of the crowd. What I had first thought of as amazement, maybe even pride at the size of the crowd, I then identified as fear. I turned to see what he could be so dreadfully afraid of, and as I did I saw a strange humanoid creature. It was crouched over and it was really pale. I saw it was looking at Brown with its huge green eyes, it looked as if it were thinking “that’s right, me again” although I do not know how I perceived this as what it were saying because one cannot perceive this simply through the eyes and it had no nose or mouth to help me confirm that that is what it was trying to say. Could Brown be familiar with this creature? Was this the devil himself, here to take Brown’s soul with him to the fiery underworld? Then it suddenly became aware of the fact that I was watching it, it looked at me for a second and I perceived  another message, this one more frightening. It was almost as if the creature were saying “What’s this? Another? Well, this one looks promising.” It then ran off and I turned my attention back to Brown, who was now hanging there lifelessly at the end of a rope. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:right;"> December 3, 1859 

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' The creature I saw at the hanging visited me in my dream last night. I dreamed that it was in a field of bones, it told me to come closer and I did it against my will. I couldn’t control my body, I was at the creature’s mercy. It told me many things. It told me I have a mission that I must complete, and if I don’t, it will kill me. Upon asking what in god’s name the creature was, it told me that it has many, but the most common one is “The Rake.” It told me that in the next election, a man named Abraham Lincoln would win, that his victory would cause the southern states to secede and ultimately cause civil war to break out between the north and south. He told me that the north would win and that Lincoln would abolish slavery once and for all, he told me that on April 14, 1865 Lincoln would be at Ford’s Theater in Washington D.C. and my mission was to kill him. I didn’t get the chance to ask why it was important that I kill him because after he said that I had to kill Lincoln I awoke, I didn’t sleep the rest of the night. I don’t want to kill anyone but if I don’t then I myself will die. So I will do it. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:center;"> The Raid 

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Note: The following is the interrogation of John Brown following the raid on Harper’s Ferry. In this copy we have changed most names due to personal requests ( except for well known people such as John Brown, we believe that in order for this interrogation to be somewhat credible we should keep their names just the way they are.) '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Johnson: So Mr. Brown, I expect you know why you are here. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Brown: Yes, I do. What I don’t know is why you’re here, Mr. Johnson. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Johnson: I’m here because you’re going to tell me what happened. Why it happened. Why four innocent people are dead, why ten of your men are dead, and why the president had to send in the marines to stop you. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Brown: And if I refuse? '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Johnson: Well, in that case we’ll make you talk. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Brown: Well, when you put it that way... I guess the idea started after the “Pottawatomie Massacre.” I still can’t believe they called it a massacre, only five people were killed. Do you remember that? You must have heard of it. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Johnson: It seems to ring a bell. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Brown: Anyway that’s when the idea came into my mind, I wanted to abolish slavery once and for all. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Johnson: Look Mr. Brown, can we just skip to when you started planning the raid? I don’t have all day, I have my family at home waiting for me. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Brown: Well I don’t recall when the actual planning started, but during the week before the raid my men and I had been reviewing the plan multiple times, trying to improve upon it to ensure it would not fail. Well we obviously overlooked something important or I would be destroying slavery instead of here. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Johnson: Mr Brown, could you please stay on topic? '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Brown: Yes, anyway it was about four nights ago, October 15th, the night before the raid. My gang was going over the obviously flawed plan. I stepped outside for some fresh air. It was dark, the only light in the surrounding darkness was the moon, but as my eyes adjusted I could just barely make out two green circles in the distance. They seemed to be eyes but they were bigger than any I’d ever seen, and they didn’t blink. Not even once. Then they just disappeared like magic. I wondered if they were really there at all. Then I went back inside, I didn’t tell anyone, and as I rejoined my gang, they told me they had found no flaws in the plan. Suddenly wanting to retire to my bed for the night, I decided to call it a day. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Johnson: Is all this relevant Mr. Brown? '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Brown: You wanted me to tell you what happened, so yes it is relevant. Why am I even telling you this anyway? You know exactly what happened. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Johnson: There are always two sides to a story,  we want to know yours. So please, continue. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Brown: It was the day of the raid, October 16th, I was prepared, I knew the plan like the back of my hand. However I had the strange feeling we had missed something during our planning, I felt something was about to go wrong, but I simply passed this off as nervousness and ignored it. The first thing I did was send some of my gang to capture Colonel Lewis Washington, enlist the help of some of his slaves, and take some weapons that had originally been given to George Washington as I believed these weapons to be good luck. That part of the plan was a success; we took more hostages. The plan had been going well but we needed to take the weapons from the armory and escape quickly. After cutting the telegraph wire, we seized a train that had made a stop there. However we were confronted by a free black who, from the look of him, worked aboard the train, we killed him. Then we got off and the train moved on. I felt good about the way the plan had been going so far. I believed the slaves would join our cause and aid us in destroying slavery, starting with Harper’s Ferry. However this wasn’t the case, none of them joined us. The townspeople began to fight back, but we did it, we captured the armory and decided to rest for the night. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Johnson: I just thought I should let you know that the conductor of the train was the one who had alerted the authorities. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Brown: Well, what’s done is done, there’s no changing it now. We woke up to find the armory workers had discovered us, and more importantly, we were surrounded. The local militia and townspeople had the armory completely surrounded. I realized that escape was impossible, refusing to surrender, my men and I took nine hostages into a smaller engine room. We blocked the doors and  windows. At one point I sent out my son Watson and another one of my men outside with a white flag. I saw something drop down from the roof of the engine house. It was a white, humanoid figure and it was heading straight for my son, I instinctively looked away but after half a minute I forced myself to look back, only to find that whatever had undoubtedly killed my son was looking back at me. The first thing I noticed was that there was no mouth, come to think of it, it didn’t have a nose either. But by far the worst thing about the absolute monstrosity that was looking hungrily back at me were the eyes, they were green and slightly bigger than human eyes. I was horrified at the thought that this thing had followed me, and wondered why it had followed me, what did it mean to do to me? Meanwhile the militia started to fire at the creature and my other son, Oliver was shot. One of my men panicked and ran out of the engine house and in the direction of the Potomac. I knew before I heard the shot that he was dead but I was too busy staring in horror at the creature to notice or even care. Could it have been the cause of all this, could he be why the plan was suddenly failing? I snapped out of it when I realized my son was screaming. I turned to look at him as his screams ceased and found that he had passed out, I glanced once more at the spot where the creature had killed my son only to find that it had disappeared. A short time after Oliver was shot, he died. Later on some members of a different militia broke into the guardroom of the armory and freed about two dozen slaves. The next day the marines had arrived and surrounded the engine house and talked amongst themselves, most likely planning on how to kill or capture us. A man with a white flag approached the engine house to discuss surrender, he said if we surrendered we would be spared. I refused surrender and sent him back. As he walked back I noticed he was signaling his superior commanders with a thumbs down. A few seconds later marines rushed to all of the doors and pounded at them with sledgehammers. They fell back but not for long they found a ladder and rammed it into the door. With the help of Lewis Washington the man who appeared to be in charge singled me out, he swung his sword as I was moving and cut into my neck, I fell over onto my side and he stabbed me in the left side of my chest, however due to how weak the sword was, it wasn’t a serious wound. It was over, I was defeated. There Mr. Johnson, that is what happened, I have told my story. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Johnson: Thank you Mr. Brown. I will leave now. Someone will be coming in shortly to escort you to whatever place or jail cell you are currently living in, if you can even call it that. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' End of interrogation. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' Excerpt from the journal of John Wilkes booth. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:right;"> December 2, 1859 

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' I went to the hanging of John Brown today. It was mostly like any other hanging except that when they pulled the sack that he had been wearing while they took him to the gallows he gasped and his eyes became wide. But he wasn’t looking at the crowd, he was looking off in the distance so it couldn’t be that he was shocked by the size of the crowd. What I had first thought of as amazement, maybe even pride at the size of the crowd, I then identified as fear. I turned to see what he could be so dreadfully afraid of, and as I did I saw a strange humanoid creature. It was crouched over and it was really pale. I saw it was looking at Brown with its huge green eyes, it looked as if it were thinking “that’s right, me again” although I do not know how I perceived this as what it were saying because one cannot perceive this simply through the eyes and it had no nose or mouth to help me confirm that that is what it was trying to say. Could Brown be familiar with this creature? Was this the devil himself, here to take Brown’s soul with him to the fiery underworld? Then it suddenly became aware of the fact that I was watching it, it looked at me for a second and I perceived  another message, this one more frightening. It was almost as if the creature were saying “What’s this? Another? Well, this one looks promising.” It then ran off and I turned my attention back to Brown, who was now hanging there lifelessly at the end of a rope. '''

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:right;"> December 3, 1859 

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">''' The creature I saw at the hanging visited me in my dream last night. I dreamed that it was in a field of bones, it told me to come closer and I did it against my will. I couldn’t control my body, I was at the creature’s mercy. It told me many things. It told me I have a mission that I must complete, and if I don’t, it will kill me. Upon asking what in god’s name the creature was, it told me that it has many, but the most common one is “The Rake.” It told me that in the next election, a man named Abraham Lincoln would win, that his victory would cause the southern states to secede and ultimately cause civil war to break out between the north and south. He told me that the north would win and that Lincoln would abolish slavery once and for all, he told me that on April 14, 1865 Lincoln would be at Ford’s Theater in Washington D.C. and my mission was to kill him. I didn’t get the chance to ask why it was important that I kill him because after he said that I had to kill Lincoln I awoke, I didn’t sleep the rest of the night. I don’t want to kill anyone but if I don’t then I myself will die. So I will do it. '''