, 1877-10-20
"REMINISCENCES.

THE YOUNG LADY WHO CAUSED ToUBLE BE
TWEEN LINCOLN AND SHIELDs-NOw TIL
WIFE OF DISTINGUISHED STATESMAN.
It was somewhere about the year lS4(
that the writer, then q small boy, living in
a little village on the line of the old state
road running from st. Louis to indianapolis,
met one morning, as he was going to market,
one of the cOlored boys who had been house
servant Gf his fathers in the state Of Ala
hama, seated upon tirst-class carriage.
asked Hiram-for that was his name-where
he came from and where he was going to !
lie replied: Prom Springfield, sir, and l
| am taking one or two gentlemen down to
Bloody Island to fight"
Bloody Island is now known as east St.
Louis, and from 1870 I'll lS47, under the first
constitution of Illinois, there we're perhaps
not less than one hundred duels fought there
on. 1t turned out that the gentlemen 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. And here
let NE say that it was because they stopped
for breakfast at our little village that per
haps Lincoln was spared and saved to make
for himself such grand and glorious name
throughout the world as he afterwards did,
and that Shields became true and honored
soldier, not only in the Mexican, but in the
war to preserve the Union, for the circuit
court was then III session for that county,
and in attendance were some Of the leading
lawyers Of the district, among whom were
Lincoln and Shields personal and political
&. L. ,oI IL
as it was Immediately after breakfast-that
they had gone to Bloody Island to fight, then
it was that Stephen A. Douglas-who was
at that time prosecuting attorney for our
district-R. W. English, our member Of as
sembly, and A. W. Cavarly, our senator, all
three Of whom were warm political friends
of captain Shields, colonel John j. Hardin,
afterwards killed at Buena Vista, and colo.
mel Edwin u. Baker, killed at Balls Bluff,
friends of Lincoln, started in hot haste to
Oyertake the duellsts. In this they did not
succeed until they reached the ground upon
which the fight was to take place.
Upon their arrival they found both Lin
coin and Shields ready for combat. They
soon succeeded in inducing Shields to with
draw the challenge for five minutes, In order
that Lincoln might make an explanation,
and should this be satisfactory to Shields,
he tShields) 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 his challenge MIR. Lincoln
at once assured him, on his honor as a man,
that he had never seen or heard of the article
in question till he read the same In the morn
ing paper, and that he was in no ssnse res
ponsib!e for the same, but had simply es-
poused the authorship of it in order to pro-
tect the good name of an estlmable young
girl in Springfield. This settled what might
have terminated in a bloody affair. The
would-be combatants shook hands and were
afterwards good friends. But for years the
question Was, who wrote the article! 1t Is
now an open secret in Springfield
1t seems that a Miss Jayne who had re-
Gently graduated from Monticello seminary,
and was quite a belle at the capital. bad
three young lawyers as her admirers. Mr.,
Lincoln was one and captain Shields was an
other, and she had written the article which
the Irish soldier thought was reflection
upon himself, for he, be it known. was very
vain man, and considered himself handsome.
Neither Shields nor Lincoln married the girl,
but she became the loving and honored wife
of Lyman Trumbull