A strange occurrence happened at the execution of John Brown. Unlike typical 19th-century public hangings, no civilians were allowed to watch. Instead, nearly 2,000 Virginia militiamen surrounded Charles Town, ordered by Governor Henry Wise to prevent a rumored rescue attempt.

Among the troops was Maj. Thomas J. Jackson (18 months before earning the nickname "Stonewall"), who described Brown riding atop his coffin to the gallows, calm and composed. “I hope he was prepared to die,” Jackson wrote.

Brown was. “I await my public murder with composure,” he told his wife, convinced his death would advance the fight against slavery. Comparing himself to Jesus, he felt no shame.

Many in the North feared his hanging would make him a martyr. “To hang a fanatic is to make a martyr of him,” warned the New York Journal of Commerce.

At 11:30 a.m., Brown ascended the scaffold. “He behaved with unflinching firmness,” Jackson noted. A cap was placed over his head, the rope tightened, and the trap was sprung. “John Brown was hanging between heaven and earth,” a witness declared, followed by the cry, “So perish all such enemies of Virginia!”

Just before his death, Brown handed the jailor a note:

“I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land: will never be purged away; but with Blood.”

Sixteen months later, the nation crashed into the Civil War—America’s bloodiest conflict.