General View of Harper's Ferry
Harper's Weekly, 5 November 1859
(Virginia Historical Society, Call no. AP2 .H23)

Although John Brown and his followers easily captured the federal arsenal, no army of runaway slaves and sympathetic whites emerged to join his movement. Following a day-and-a-half of skirmishing with local militia units, the insurgency was put down by a detachment of U.S. Marines commanded by Robert E. Lee. Ten days later Brown was placed on trial and charged by the state of Virginia with treason, murder, and inciting slaves to revolt. Brown was convicted on all counts and sentenced to hang in December.