The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1877-09-20
The LincOln-Shields Duel.

A writer i'm the New York World
gives the following reminisence:
1t was somewhere about the year
1840 that the writer, then q small boy,
living i'm little village on the line of
the old State road running from st.
Louis to Indianapolis, met one MORN
ing as he was going to market one of
the col0red boys who had been house
servsnt of his fathers in the State of
Alabama, seated in first class car
rage. / asked Hiram-for that was
his name-where he came from and
where he was going to? He replied
"from Springfield, sir, and am taking
one of two gentlemen down to Bloody
Island to fight" "BloOdy Islandr Is
now, known as East st. Louis, and
from 1920 till 1916, under the first con-
stitution of Illinois, there were perhaps
not less than one hundred duels fought
thereon. 1t turned out that the gen.
tleIneli who were to slaughter one
another upon this bloody field were
none less than Abraham Lincoln, of
"Black Hawk" war fame, and the then
Captain Paddy Shields, who had seen
service in the British army. The cir
cult court was i'm session for that coun-
ty, and in attendance were some of the
leading lawyers of the district, among
whom were Lincoln's and Shields's
personal and political friends, and as
soon as it was noised about-as it was
Immediately after break fast-that they
had goiie to "Bloody Island" to fight,
then 1t was that Stephen A. Douglas,
who was at the time prosecuting at
torney for our district-R. w. Eng
lish, our member of assembly,
and A. w. Cavalry, our senator, all
three of whom were warm politi-
cal friends of Captain Shields; Colonel
John J. Hardin, afterwards killed at
Buena Vista, and Colonel Edwin ID.
Baker, killed at Balls Bluff, friends of
Lincoln, started In hot pursuit to over
take the duellists. In this they did
not succeed till they reached the
ground upon which the fight was to
take place. Upon their arrival they
found both Lincoln and Shields ready
for the combat. They soon succeeded
in inducing Shields to withdraw the
challenge for five minutes In order
that Lincoln might make an explana-
ton, and should this be satisfactory to
Shields, he (Shields) should not In
future attempt to find out or discover
who might have been the author of the
newspaper article from which the
trouble arose. As soon as Captain
Shields withdrew the challenge, Mr..
Lincoln Mt once assured him, on his
honor as o man, that he had never
seen or heard Of the article In question
till he read the same I'm the morning
paper, and that he was in no sense re
sponsible for the same, but he had
simply espoused the authorship of 1t
in order to protect the good name or q
most estimable young girl In Spring
field. This settled what might have
terminated in a bloody affair. The
would-be combatants shook hands and
were ever afterwards good friends.
But for years the question was, " Who
wrote the article ~ 1t Is now an open
secret i'm Springfield. 1t seems that
Miss Jayne, who had recently gradu-'
ated from Monticello Seminary and
who was quite belle at the capital,
had three young lawyers a. her adj
mirers. Mr.. Lincoln was one and
Captain Shields was another, and she
had written the article which the Irish
soldier thought was Q reflection upon
himself, for ne, be it known, was a
very vain man and considered himself
handsome. Neither Shields nor Lin
coin married the girl, but she became
the loving and honored wifeof Lyman
Trumbull. i9fHN 80