In 1859, John Brown and his followers were tried in this building on charges of treason against Virginia, inciting slaves to rebel, and murder, with Judge Richard Parker presiding. The trial began on October 25, a week after the raiders were captured, and ended on November 2. Those tried then and later included Brown, John Cook, John Copeland, Shields Green, Edwin Coppic, Albert Hazlett, and Aaron Stevens. Col. Lewis W. Washington, kidnapped by Brown's men from his home, Beallair, and held hostage, was a principal witness for the prosecution. The jury convicted Brown in forty-five minutes, and he told the court that if it was deemed necessary that he should forfeit his life for the furtherance of justice and mingle his blood with that of his children and of millions in this slave country whose rights were disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, he submitted. Brown and his men were hanged nearby on December 2 and December 16, 1859, and March 16, 1860. On October 18, 1863, Confederate Gen. John D. Imboden attacked Union Col. Benjamin Simpson's Charles Town garrison. Simpson and his infantry took shelter in the courthouse, which Imboden shelled after his surrender demand was refused. The garrison fled, was attacked in a nearby field, and surrendered after Simpson and his staff escaped. Imboden withdrew later that day as additional Union forces arrived. The first courthouse here was completed in 1803, and the present Greek Revival-style courthouse replaced it in 1836. The county seat moved to Shepherdstown in 1865 because of wartime damage to the courthouse and returned to Charles Town in 1872 after repairs. In 1922, leaders of the United Mine Workers were tried here for treason against West Virginia for the coal miners' war, and union leader Bill Blizzard and several others were acquitted. Trials for treason against two states were thus held in this courthouse.
