Wednesday, February 12, 2025

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. The fact that Lincoln cut off a branch of tree high above him with his sword to demonstrate his long reach probably also was a factor in convincing Shields to abandon the duel. Twenty years later, Lincoln signed a commission appointing Shields as a brigadier general in the Union Army.

Lincoln later on in his life when asked about the near-duel did not deny the veracity of the story but made it clear that he was embarrassed and uncomfortable about the incident and did not wish to discuss it.

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.* 

An account of Abe's altercation can be found in the children's book Abraham Lincoln's Dueling Words as well as in the blog of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (which is a cool place to visit if you are ever in Springfield, Illinois).

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

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