There was but one path, and the negroes entered single file.

The rebels lay behind a great log, and fired upon them.

John Brown, the leader, fell dead within six feet of the log,--probably the first black man who fell under arms in the war,--several other were wounded, and the band of raw recruits retreated; as did also the rebels, in the opposite direction.

This was the first armed encounter, so far as I know, between the rebels and their former slaves; and it is worth noticing that the attempt was a spontaneous thing and not accompanied by any white man.

The men were not soldiers, nor in uniform, though some of them afterwards enlisted in Trowbridge's company.
The father of this John Brown was afterwards a soldier in my regiment; and, after his discharge for old age, was, for a time, my servant.
"Uncle York," as we called him, was as good a specimen of a saint as I have ever met, and was quite the equal of Mrs.Stowe's "Uncle Tom." He was a fine-looking old man, with dignified and courtly manners, and his gray head was a perfect benediction, as he sat with us on the platform at our Sunday meetings.