John Brown, born at Torrington, Connecticut, on May 9th, 1800, emigrated to Kansas in 1855 and took an active part in the contest against the pro-slavery party. In August 1856 he gained a victory at Osawatomie over a superior number of Missourians who had invaded Kansas, from which came his surname "Osawatomie." He later conceived the idea of becoming a liberator of the negro slaves in the South, and on the night of October 16, 1859, at the head of a devoted band of 22 followers, he seized the United States Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, with the view of arming the negroes who might come to his fortified camp. In the fight with United States troops and civilians that followed, he was overpowered and taken prisoner on October 18, 1859, tried by the commonwealth of Virginia at Charlestown, Virginia, and executed on December 2, 1859. Buried with him are twelve of his followers: Watson Brown, Oliver Brown, William Thompson, Dauphin Adolphus Thompson, John Henri Kagi, William H. Leeman, Jeremiah G. Anderson, Steward Taylor, Dangerfield Newby, Lewis S. Leary, Aaron D. Stevens, and Albert Hazlett. The first ten were killed in the Harper's Ferry fight, and the latter two were taken prisoner and hanged on March 16, 1860. Other men of John Brown's band who escaped but were later captured and hanged on December 16, 1859, were John E. Cook, Edwin Coppoc, Shields Green, and John A. Copeland. Men of the band who escaped were Owen Brown, Francis Jackson Merriam, Charles Plummer Tidd, Barclay Coppoc, Osborne P. Anderson, and John Anderson.