| Notes |
- Edwin, one of John Brown's men at Harper's Ferry, was captured along with Brown in the engine house. His trial immediately followed Browns. He was sentenced on Nov. 2. and hung on Dec. 2 along with rebel, John Cook. His father died when he was just six. Starting in the spring after his father's death, he spent the next eight or nine years of his childhood under the care of neighbor and farmer, John Butler, in Salem, Ohio. He moved with his mother to Springdale, Iowa in 1850. (C-376, 1508) Edwin was one of the few raiders that were trapped fighting against an army of over 1000 soldiers directed under Col. Lee.
The following account is from the "History of Iowa from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the 20th Century", by Benjamin G. Gue. "Col. Robert E. Lee, who was now in command of their assailants, sent a message to Brown demanding his surrender. "No!" said Brown, "we prefer to die here." Firing began again on both sides, while Lee formed a column for assault. Few know how near the coming Southern Confederacy came to losing its greatest military leader at this moment at the hands of an Iowa boy. Edwin Coppoc saw from his port-hole the blue uniform of the commander and instantly drew a deadly bead on Lee at close range. Jesse W. Graham, one of Brown's prisoners, who was watching Coppoc, knew Lee and saw his danger. Instantly springing forward he caught the rifle before Coppoc could fire and during the struggle Lee stepped out of range, and so lived to strike the deadliest blow against his country that it ever encountered. Had Coppoc's bullet gone to its brilliant mark, a hundred thousand lives of American soldiers might have been spared."
He was known as a brave, honest, straightforward, well-behaved Quaker. His letters to his mother while in jail apologized for his dishonorable death that was to come. He had not fully realized the consequences of raiding to free the slaves. He was nearly pardoned, but for a letter he wrote calling the Harper Ferrians the enemy.
He and Cook nearly escaped the night of Dec. 14th. A northern ally had enrolled for service as a prison guard for the sole purpose of helping the raiders free themselves. This Charles Lenhart had told Coppock and Cook that he would be on duty August 14th. For the week before, Edwin and John had dug a whole in the wall of their cell and freed themselves from their chains using a knife they'd kept from a meal. However, they did not attempt the escape till the 15th, because Cook was a brother in law to the Governor of Indiana who had visited that day. He urged Cook not to leave until he was out of town, as that would have reflected on he and his sister. Coppoc would not leave his friend behind. On the 15th they tried their escape instead, left the cell, dropped 5 feet to the jail yard and climbed the final barrier. On their climb, Cook was spotted and they were forced back into a cell. They were hung together the next day.
Here is an account of the hanging from C.B. Galbreath. "Intense excitement followed the attempt of the prisoners to escape. The people flocked in from the surrounding country to witness the executions. These were times when a legal hanging was still regarded as something of a holiday. The exhibition had not yet beendriven by public opinion from the light of day to the darkness of midnight, and the seclusion of the dungeon. It is claimed that four or five times as many were present as at the execution of John Brown. The place and scaffold were the same." (C-2246) Edwin died with complete determination and honor. He was originally buried at Winona, but his relatives had him reburied in Salem, Ohio where the entire town came to his funeral.
It is a strange conflict of Quaker mind, as they did not believe in taking up arms. However, they deplored slavery so, that many of the Coppock's community supported John Brown's men with their full hearts. (C-745)
The following are records about Edwin that were forwarded to me by my Uncle Richard Coate. "Edwin Coppock's Last Letter -- to His Uncle Joshua Coppock CHARLESTON, Dec. 13, 1859.JOSHUA COPPOCK: My Dear Uncle -I seat myself by the stand to write for the first and last time to thee and thy family. Though far from home and overtaken by misfortune, I have not forgotten you. Your generous hospitality towards me, during my short stay with you last spring, is stamped indelibly upon my heart, and also the generosity bestowed upon my poor brother who now wanders an outcast from his native land. But thank God he is free. I am thankful it is I who have to suffer instead of him. The time may come when He will remember me. And the time may come when He may still further remember the cause in which I die. Thank God the principles of the cause in which we were engaged will not die with me and my brave comrades. They will spread wider and wider and gather strength with each hour that passes. The voice of truth will echo through our land, bringing conviction to the erring and adding members to that glorious army who will follow its banner. The cause of everlasting truth and justice will go on conquering and to conquer until our broad and beautiful land shall rest beneath the banner of freedom. I had fondly hoped to live to see the principles of the Declaration of Independence fully realized. I had hoped to see the dark stain of slavery blotted from our land, and the libel of our boasted freedom erased, when we can say in truth that our beloved country is the land of the free and the home of the brave; but that cannot be. I have heard my sentence passed, my doom is sealed. But two more short days remain for me to fulfill my earthly destiny. But two brief days between me and eternity. At the expiration of those two days I shall stand upon the scaffold to take my last look of earthly scenes. But that scaffold has but little dread for me, for I honestly believe that I am innocent of any crime justifying such punishment. But by the taking of my life and the lives of my comrades, Virginia is but hastening on that glorious day, when the slave will rejoice in his freedom. When he can say, "I too am a man," and am groaning no more under the yoke of oppression. But I must now close. Accept this short, scrawl as a remembrance of me. Give my love to all the f amily. Kiss little Joey for me. Remember me to all my relatives and friends. And now farewell for the last time. From thy nephew, EDWIN COPPOCK Source: From Historical Collections of Ohio, by Henry Howe (1898)*************************************************************** Quote from a novel about Brown on the Internet: http://wwwfac.mcdaniel.edu/History/koce.htmlSource:KATY OF CATOCTIN George Alfred Townsend New York D. Appleton and Company1886"Only one man applauded when he was sentenced, and him the judge severely rebuked, so that in after-years he was afraid to shout at all, and grew timid of his own natural emotions. Little Ned Coppock had been tried, as John Brown came up for sentence, and when they sentenced him, who was almost a favorite with the populace, so fair and young he was, Ned also spoke: "I never committed murder. When I escaped to the engine-house and found the captain and his prisoners surrounded there, I saw no way of deliverance but by fighting a little. If anybody was killed on that occasion, it was in a fair fight."Coppock had been a poor orphan boy, but the Quaker who raised him found somewhere in him the spirit of the wild copack, or Russian lanceman, whence may have come his name; and when John Brown discovered him in Iowa he entered the crusade cordially, and it was not to his disparagement in Virginia that he had fought bravely. He stood up to be sentenced with his arms behind him, abreast of John Cook, whose arms were folded; and between them stood two negroes, Green, the South Carolinian, and Copeland from Oberlin - a college which educated blacks with whites." This novel about John Brown also included a character by the name of John Wilkes Booth.*********************
The following is an excerpt from "David Hunter Strother's Lecture on John Brown in Cleveland, 1868 SOURCE DOCUMENT: A: M 2894, Box 8, FF16, West Virginia and Regional History Collection, West Virginia University Libraries. [http://72.14.207.104/search?www.libraries.wvu.edu/theses/Attfield/HTML/abc.html+Coppock+who+was+executed+with+John+Brown,+Abolitionist&hl=enin] in which the Coppock who was executed with John Brown is mentioned. Page 51rBrown takes leave of his Fellow Prisoners doubts whether the money had actually been forwarded. Brown then produced a bundle of letters carefully filed and the one in dispute was opened & examined. In the body of the writing the enclosure was mentioned, but it was discovered noted on the margin in pencil that upon consideration, the writer had withdrawn it & sent the amount to Mrs. Brown. The solution of this misunderstanding seemed to give the Old Man peculiar satisfaction & taking his visitors hand, apologized for the trouble he had given and took leave of him with unusual warmth. This was the last business transaction of his life. An hour afterward he was called on by the officers who were to convey him to the place of execution. Accompanied by them he visited the adjoining rooms to take a final leave of his fellow prisoners and late followers. To Stephens, Coppock, Copeland and Green he gave each a silver quarter of a dollar as a remembrance exhorting them to be of good cheer to die like men and not to betray their friends. To Cook he gave nothing but scathing words, reproaching him with falsehood & cowardice. Cook denied the charges & attempted to justify himself but was sternly silenced by his former commander. At any early hour the field which had been selected as the place of Execution was strongly occupied & guarded by the Military. The scaffold had been erected on a gentle swell."
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1835 - 1859 (24 years)
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