In July 1859, abolitionist John Brown, using the pseudonym Isaac Smith, leased the Kennedy farmhouse from Dr. Robert Kennedy's heirs, ostensibly for prospecting, but turned it into the headquarters for planning his attack on the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, five miles away. Brown's fifteen-year-old daughter Annie Brown called it "Headquarters: War Department." The farm served as a barracks, arsenal, supply depot, mess hall, debate club, and home for Brown, his daughter-in-law Martha Brown, his sons Owen, Watson, and Oliver Brown, and eighteen other men, five of whom were African American. Crates labeled "mining tools" concealed about 400 rifles and pistols, ammunition, black powder, 1,000 pikes, tools, tents, clothing, and other supplies. Annie and Martha Brown diverted suspicious neighbors while the men hid in the attic, and Brown urged his young followers, whose average age was 25, to debate the attack plans; when objections arose, he offered to resign as commander but received a vote of confidence in the kitchen. On October 16, Brown and his "army" marched from the farm to Harpers Ferry, hoping to help end slavery. After the raid failed, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee sent Lt. J.E.B. Stuart and U.S. marines to the farm, where maps, letters, spare weapons, and equipment exposed the full scope of Brown's plan and further incriminated his supporters.
