Rumors by telegraph last night, about 8 o'clock: a negro insurrection at Harper's Ferry. Negroes, led by white men, have seized the arsenal and sent wagon loads of muskets to slaves in the surrounding country. Large numbers killed. The telegraph wires are cut.
Original passage & context
"Rumors reached this place last night, about 8 o clock, by telegraph, of a negro insurrection at Harper's Ferry. The dispatch was from the operator at Richmond, and stated that the negroes, under the lead of white men, had taken possession of the arsenal, and sent wagon loads of muskets and rifles to slaves in the surrounding country, and that large numbers had been killed.--They had cut and destroyed the telegraph wires."
First-night telegraph report in an Augusta County Whig paper, written before the raiders' identity was known — raw Southern panic at a rumored slave rising. '8 o clock' preserved as transcribed.
Read it in the original — Staunton Spectator, Oct 18, 1859 (Valley of the Shadow) ↗