Heyward Shepherd gives a passphrase to Onion, for use when the men reach Harpers Ferry. However, Onion forgets to tell them. Jason Brown shoots Shepherd after he is confronted for not knowing the phrase. Now Shepherd cannot rally the local blacks, as he was supposed to do. Brown's ragtag army is gathered together, prepping them for the night's assault on Harper's Ferry. Owen stayed behind to rally the supposed crew of hiving bees. Brown is the only member of the posse who believes in the hiving, so sure that he has the Lord's backing that he neglects the need for a human plan. The negroes that are to help him never appear. Brown and his men take the Armory and station themselves inside the Armory's fire engine house, taking fifty hostages with them. He trades a hostage for breakfast for all. His men want to leave while they still can, but Brown is sure that negroes will appear. Onion disobeys Brown's order to leave and save himself; he and two others return to Col. Washington's, take him hostage and set his slaves free. Jim, Washington's coachman, who kicked Onion off the plantation, tells Col. Washington he has had too many years of him; Washington had sold his mother away. They return to Harpers Ferry in Washington's coach. The raiders that were supposed to hold the bridge are all dead. The survivors cannot flee. The townspeople realize that there has been a murder, an insurrection, and call out the alarm. A stopped train departs and can give an alarm in the next town. Bullets are exchanged; the mayor of Harpers Ferry is killed, and Oliver Brown dies in his father's arms. Federal troops arrive.
