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Hazlett and Stephens [Stevens], who were engaged with John Brown in the Harper’s Ferry invasion, were hung on Friday last at Charlestown, Virginia, in the presence of a large military guard and a vast crowd of citizens. They died with firmness and resignation. The following account of the execution we take from the Baltimore Sun of Saturday:
The third act in the great Virginia tragedy was performed at Charlestown on Friday, in presence of a vast assemblage of spectators who flocked in from the surrounding country in vast numbers, there being no military law to prevent their free ingress and egress. The scaffold was erected in the same spot where Capt. Brown and his associates were previously suspended, and the throng of spectators was larger than at either of the preceding executions. At noon, the prisoners were brought out of the jail, where a large military escort composed of all the companies of Jefferson county, the Berkeley and Clarke Guards, and the Winchester companies, were drawn up in line around the jail. Hazlett and Stephens [Stevens] both advanced with firm steps, and took their seats on their respective coffins, and the military procession and guard forming around them, they proceeded to the place of execution. At eight minutes past 12 o’clock, after bidding adieu to their jailors and friends on the gallows, the ropes were attacked to their necks, and they were swung off. Hazlett seemed to die very easily, but Stephens, who was a powerfully and elegantly formed man with strong muscular development, struggled for a considerable time, and appeared to suffer very much. Both Hazlett and Stephens [Stevens] exhibited great firmness and resignation, fully equal to that displayed by Capt. Brown and their other companions in the Harper’s Ferry insurrection.
