I am going to be basing most of this post off of David Reynolds biography of Brown.

How Brown intended to get the slaves armed and organized is unclear. He seems to have thought that word of the raid would spread and that spontaneously blacks in nearby plantations would flock to his banner. As such, he forbid any preperation or warning of slaves prior to this attack in order to keep suspicions away.

The raid was intended to be very quick- arms would be taken, trains would be stopped, slaves would rise up, organize, and the. The band would escape into the Appalachians where a Maroon style resistance would take place.

This did not happen. When Brown and his men stroked Harpers Ferry, they also raided Lewis Washington's plantation (relative of George Washington) recruited some of his slaves, and took Washington's sword (a symbolic blade from the American Revolution.). After this, Harpers Ferry was occupied; the Mayor was accidentally killed; The black driver of a train was shot, the train was stopped, the later allowed on its way; no slave uprising materialized; Southern militias appeared near the outskirts, drank, and did not advance; Federal troops were mobilized; Brown realized he had waited to long to escape, the anti-Brown forces advanced up the bridge, taking and inflict ting several casualties; John Kagi (a key member of Brown's party) and another raider were killed crossing a river; at this point parts of Brown's group had escaped, the rest had fallen back into the brick building; a siege commenced, and Browns surrender was requested; this was denied, a party of Marines stormed Browns fort, nearly killed Brown, rescued the hostages, and captured the raiders they did not kill. At this point Brown's men had been active from the night the raid commenced the following day where militias formed up and started to advance, the night when Lee arrived, and the next morning.

Again the original strategy had been to rally around Harpers Ferry, raid the arsenal, and tun leave, raiding plantations and recruiting slaves on the way to the Appalachians. A provisional constitution would be declared, and an insurgency which raided plantations, armed slaves, and used the forested hills and mountains to defend themselves in a fashion inspired by slave revolts.

This failed because

• Slaves did not rise up to join Brown in the numbers or speed he had counted on

• He delayed his escape to wait for them until Harpers ferry as surrounded and escape impossible

• Reynolds suggests Brown lost faith in his plan due to the lack of revolting slaves, had a mental crisis, and decided to martyr himself.

I am basing this off of David S. Reynolds John Brown: The Man who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights

It's been a few months so the chronology of the battle may be slightly off, but the book itself is a very cohesive and interesting read.