moon phases for October 1859
They jumped the gun, though. The raid was supposed to be on the 24th, and everybody was getting ready for the 24th. This wasn’t that much of a secret. A lot of people knew what was going on and were getting ready. There were even more troops on the way. But Brown jumped the gun and suddenly informed everyone on the night of the 15th that they were doing it tomorrow. Would the raid have gone better if they had stuck to the plan? Undoubtedly, yes. Every time Brown deviated from the plan it resulted in disaster.