National Museum of American History January 29, 1830, armory worker Ebenezer Cox entered the office of Harpers Ferry Armory Superintendent Thomas B. Dunn armed with a Harpers Ferry musket and shot him at point-blank range. Superintendent Dunn suffered a ghastly wound to the stomach and perished shortly afterward. Thomas B. Dunn was named superintendent of the Harpers Ferry Armory in August, 1829 and had a reputation for being a strict authoritarian. The new superintendent posted meticulous rules forbidding loitering, gambling, and drinking on the armory’s premises. Dunn favored downsizing and production speed ups and ordered shop inspectors to follow a special set of instructions known as the “Yellow Book” which imposed strict standards of inspection that cut into the armorer’s piece-work wages. Dunn was immediately detested by most employees of the armory. Ebenezer Cox was an armory worker who was fired for alleged drunkenness. After Superintendent Dunn refused to hire him back, other armory workers who were angered by the strict rules plotted vengeance--the premeditated murder of Thomas Dunn. According to a report in a county newspaper, the Shepherdstown Pioneer: - “that to affect their purpose they all met on a certain evening, in the rear of the Superintendent's house, dressed in women's clothes, and snapped their muskets at Mr. Dunn, whilst he was sitting by a candle, examining papers; but that the night being damp it injured the powder so much that none of the guns could be discharged! They then fell on the expedient of drawing lots, which were made from broom corn and held by Mills, one of the conspirators. He, Cox, drew the shortest which was the fatal one, and they urged him until he committed the deed.” On the next day, January 29, 1830, Cox entered Superintendent Thomas Dunn’s office and confronted him with a .54 caliber 1803 Harpers Ferry flintlock musket. After an exchange of words, a shot rang out. Dunn’s wife who was nearby heard the shot and entered the office to find her husband dead and the murderer gone. Cox was immediately suspected and was quickly found in the armory’s wheelhouse. After surrendering and being taken to the jail in nearby Charles Town, Cox willingly confessed his guilt to the crime. Cox also implicated several other armory workers as accessories involved in the plot to murder Superintendent Dunn. Cox’s trial commenced on July 20, 1830. He was found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death. The other co-conspirators pleaded innocent and were acquitted for lack of proof or testimony to support the accusations. Ebenezer Cox was executed by public hanging in Charles Town at 1:30 p.m. on August 27, 1830. Upon the scaffold Cox publicly announced ‘Look at me, here under the gallows, brought to it by associating with reprobates. Instead of taking the advice of my parents and friends, I listened to persuasions of others. When you are tempted to sin, place your hands on your hearts, and think of God – let my fate be a warning to you all!’ “ Afterward the rope was cut, and Cox was hanged. After a half hour his body was taken down and given to his friends for internment in Loudoun County, Virginia.
Ebenezer Cox’s execution for this crime made him a folk hero among Harpers Ferry Armory workers and a symbol of rebellion against management interference and the factory discipline they detested. For armory workers this was just a sign of things to come as by the 1840’s military officers instead of civilians assumed leadership at the Harpers Ferry Armory. Much stricter rules would soon be established including the creation of a standard workday and the installation of a time clock.
The Harpers Ferry Armory was one of the first federal armories in American history when it commenced operations in the year 1800. The management of the federal armory and its civilian workforce had a tenuous relationship at times from friction over the craft system vs mass production, labor strikes, safety concerns, and clashes over perceived unfair workplace rules. However, no labor disagreement ever rose to the level of violence until this incident in 1830. 
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Last updated: January 30, 2023