Captain Pate's Sharpshooters

Captain Pate's Sharpshooters are the armed force led by Captain Pate that John Brown's fighters pursue across Kansas. Their presence turns a search for Brown's captured men into a drawn-out campaign and, at Black Jack, a battle in which the Sharpshooters' reported numbers and confidence give way to disorder and retreat.

Formation and Pursuit

Brown learns that Captain Pate has a posse raiding homes along the Santa Fe Road and planning to attack Lawrence. Pate has taken Jason and John, whom Brown's men fear may be delivered to Fort Leavenworth for imprisonment. Brown calls his company to order and decides to pursue, while Owen asks about the opposing force's size; Brown reports an estimate of 150 to 200 men.

The estimate proves part of a pattern of unreliable intelligence. Brown's party rides out on a Saturday in October, but the pursuit stretches on for months as reports repeatedly send them toward Lawrence, Palmyra, or Fort Leavenworth, only for the reported fight or sighting to prove stale or false. Brown continues searching, spoiling for a fight that does not come, while his men grow exhausted. Their force gains roughly a dozen Free Staters during the wandering, reaching about thirty by late February, but the winter cold eventually makes fighting impossible.

The Battle of Black Jack

When Brown's force nears Black Jack, it has grown to nearly fifty, but prayer and the prospect of fighting unsettle or tire many of the men. Some turn back on the way; only about twenty remain by the time they arrive. The narrator describes those still with Brown as exhausted, while Brown himself is alert and determined. From a ridge, his men see what the narrator estimates as roughly three hundred men on the far side of the ravine, including Sharpshooters positioned to defend the town. The discrepancy between that sighting and Brown's earlier estimate underscores how uncertain the information surrounding the pursuit has been.

Brown's sons disagree over how to attack: Brown favors a frontal advance, while they prefer a surprise at night. The situation changes when Captain Shore's Free State company arrives, but Shore's men later abandon the line; Shore himself returns, leaving Brown and his remaining fighters to continue the engagement. Brown directs his men to aim carefully and conserve ammunition. The Sharpshooters, by contrast, fire without coordination and use up ammunition; as their line falls back, Brown orders Theo Weiner and another man to flank them and shoot their horses. The pressure forces further retreats, though the fighting becomes a stalemate behind the opposing ridges before a sudden shout interrupts Brown's planned advance.

Capture and Outcome

At the end of the engagement, Brown's men gather seventeen prisoners, including Captain Pate and Pardee. Pardee recognizes Bob, who is among Pate's men, and insults him; Brown stops the exchange and asks Pate where the captured John and Jason are. Pate replies that he does not have them: they are at Fort Leavenworth under federal dragoons. The pursuit has thus ended with Pate in Brown's hands, but without recovering the men whose capture prompted it.

Organization and Significance

The Sharpshooters' role in the story is defined by the contrast between their apparent scale and their performance. Brown's fighters first hear of a force estimated at 150 to 200, then see what appears to be a larger body defending Black Jack. Yet the narrator presents Pate's men as poorly organized and frightened under fire, while Brown's smaller force holds its position and applies more disciplined shooting. The encounter also shows the limits of pursuit: unreliable reports prolong the search, and victory over Pate does not undo the separate fact that John and Jason remain in federal custody.