<P> In three minutes, all of the raiders still alive were taken prisoner and the action was over . </P> <P> Robert E. Lee made a synopsis of the events that took place at Harpers Ferry . According to Lee's notes, Lee believed John Brown was a madman, "...the plan (raiding the Harpers Ferry Arsenal) was the attempt of a fanatic or madman ." Lee also believed that the blacks in the raid were forced by Brown . "The blacks, whom he (John Brown) forced from their homes in this neighborhood, as far as I could learn, gave him no voluntary assistance ." Lee attributed John Brown's "temporary success" by creating panic and confusion and by "magnifying" the number of participants involved in the raid . </P> <P> Colonel Lee and John Stuart searched the surrounding country for fugitives who had participated in the attack . Few of Brown's associates escaped, and among those who did, some were sheltered by abolitionists in the north, including William Still . Brown was taken to the court house in nearby Charles Town for trial . He was found guilty of treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia and was hanged on December 2 . (This execution was witnessed by the actor John Wilkes Booth, who would later assassinate President Abraham Lincoln .) On the day of his execution, Brown wrote his last testament, which said, </P> <P>' I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty, land: will never be purged away; but with Blood . I had as I now think: vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed; it might be done .' </P>

What was the significance of the raid on harpers ferry