It is just before dawn. The civil war hasn't started yet, but it will. John Brown, his fellow abolitionists and some thirty hostages he has taken, are holed up in a fire engine house at Harpers Ferry. Colonel Robert E Lee, the marines, the militia, troops from Charles Town, Martinsburg, Shepherdstown and Fredericksburg surround the brick building. Inside, the man whose only aim in life is to free the slaves calmly commands his handful of men...