LINCOLN'S DUEL

On September 22, 1842, Abraham Lincoln rowed out from Alton, Illinois to “Bloody Island” in the Mississippi River in order to fight a duel with Illinois State Auditor James Shields. Bloody Island was often the site of such activities for Illinois residents, as it was part of Missouri (where dueling was legal) and not Illinois (where dueling was not). Shields challenged Lincoln to the duel because Lincoln had written (under the false name of “Rebecca”) a letter to the newspaper condemning both Shields’s official policies and personal demeanor. 

Lincoln, as the challengee, had the right to choose the weapons and terms of the duel. Lincoln eschewed pistols because he thought that there would be a good chance that Shields would kill him with such an instrument. Instead, Lincoln chose cavalry broadswords. He also required that the combatants be separated by a wide board with the further admonition that if one of the duelers stepped upon the board, he would “forfeit his life.” Lincoln, being substantially taller than Shields, thought that he would have a great advantage both in wielding a huge sword and in being able to reach over the board much further than his opponent.

Lincoln hoped that the unfair conditions would cause Shields to call off the duel. However, although Shields was a vain popinjay (I know, “vain popinjay” is redundant), he was not a coward and had in fact exhibited considerable valor during the war with Mexico. Shields showed up on Bloody Island with every intention of fighting.

History might have been quite different had he actually done so. However, a mutual friend also rowed out to the island and talked the parties out of the combat. Twenty years later, Lincoln signed a commission appointing Shields as a brigadier general in the Union Army.

Oh—what were Shields’s policies denounced by Lincoln in his letter? Lincoln had asserted that Shields and the rest of the Democrats in the state government had driven Illinois into fiscal ruin and that they were also welshing on paying the state’s lawful debts.* 

For further information on Lincoln's duel, please see the Civil War Trust's website.

*"Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it."--George Santayana