The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1894-11-07
A STORY OF SAND BAR FERRY.
Tragic Fate of two Charlestonians In Edge
field.
Sunday News.

lew udyS dSO, Was d Adoe0l plCOo Va
pathos and humor, wit and merriment,
incident and accident, romance and
history. Among many others he told
the following pathetic story Of a once
famous duel, so illustrative Of old
time Southern chivalry, and the con-
sequent death blow to a mother's s
heart. 1t is reproduced in his own
simple and eloquent words:
In the year 1923 there was in the
South Carolina College a beautiful,
brave, noble, gentle youth from Edge
field, of barely 18 years. His name
was Hampden Wigfall. The Wigfall
family had then lived in Edgefeld
only four years. They were rich HUI
guenot people Of the Parish Of St.
Thomas and St. Dennis, in Charles
ton District, where they built an
Episcopal church of brick, which is
still standing, and around which they
are buried. In 1920 old Durand Wig
fall bought summer home in Edge
field, where he died in 1925. His
widow, gentle, shrinking and de-
votedly pious woman, was left with
three sons and one daughter, Hamp-
den being the eldest. This lady was
the paternal grandmother Of my sister.
At college misunderstanding arose
between Hampden Wigfall and his
intimate friend, young Cogsdale, Of
Charleston, another very noble young
man, only l9 years of age. The mis-
understanding turned out to be abso-
lutely trivial, but the lie had been
passed and in those days Of extremely
strained chivalry and honor no recon
ciliation could be effected. The Code
Duello then reigned in its most abso-
lutte and pitiless power. The man
who was challenged to fight duel and
even wavered one second in accepting
it was forever socially damned, brand
ed, ostracized forever and ever. Young
Wigfall challenged young Cogsdale to
meet him in mortal combat. The boy
of 18 challenged the boy Of 10, whom
he loved and who loved him.
They met with all the formalities
the seconds, the doctors, and the in
evitable negro attendant at San Bar
Ferry, near Augusta, before that and
since the most noted duelling ground
in America. Mrs. Wigfall, the wild
owed mother, and my old grandmother,
who had also been widow for two
years, went to Augusta in Mrs. Wig
falls carriage to be near the scene and
await the result. The mother was
more dead than alive and bordered on
actual lunacy.
The duel was to take place at sun
down of summer day. Ats o'clock
in the afternoon, having sent their
carriage on before to prevent suspi-
cion, my grandmother and Mrs. Wig
fall crept out of Gen. Glascock' s house
in Augusta, travelled down the South
Carolina shore of the river on foot,
and hid themselves in a thick wood
not two hundred yards from the scene
of the duel. They could hear the
sounds, but could see nothing. The
carriage had been driven by my grand
mothers old coachman, "Uncle
Watt" and by his side, on the lofty
dickey seat, sat Matilda,
the negro waiting maid. The carriage
could not enter the woods, so it waited
on the outskirts, one hundred yards
off.
Hampden Wigfall fell at the first
fire, killed instantly. The mother
rushed frantically to the scene. The
seconds and doctors were terribly sur
prised. Such thing was unheard Of
as woman near q duel. And when
the mother threw herself also upon
the body Of his unhappy slayer, for
young Cogsdale, breaking away from
his seconds, had rushed to the body,
thrown himself prostrate upon the
earth by it, wound his arms around it
and was sobbing out like little child,
and in tones of unutterable anguish,
"Oh, Hammie, Hammie, Hammie p
as if trying to awake the dead boy.
My grandmother has often told me
that the cry of the slayer was ten
thousand times more heartrending
than even the cry of the mother. And
then followed scene of Christian
spirit perhaps unexampled in all his
tory. The hitherto wild mother calmly
the arms of young Cogsdale,
and lifting him up, kissed him ten
derly on the forehead and said, with
commingled pity and fervor "God be
with you, my child ; God be with
you You will need Him more than /
will, for I will soon be with Him, l
will soon be with my God and with
my child" And as the seconds led
the weeping boy away she cried out to
him, wringing her hands, "God be
with you, my child. In Heaven Ham
mie and will pray for YOU" It was
now quite nightfall and the twilight
upon the saddest picture that
was ever seen on sea or shore.
In the meantime the wretched moth
er had overheard the words, "We
must wait for the coroner" Creep
ing up to my grandmother she whis-
pered in tones Of terrible agony, ''No
coroner must touch the body Of my
child" and then, with what was seen
afterwards to be a woman's and a
mothers cunning, she went twenty
PAGES away, whittier the seconds, the
doctors, Gen. Glascock and the ne
groes had all Withdrawn, to leave her
somewhat alone with her dead, and
begged them all to retire for one hour
to the ferry, half mile away, that
she might pray beside the body Of her
child. Knowing her to be woman of
deepest and purest piety they quickly
departed, every one Of them, to the
ferry.
AS soon as they were fairly out of
sight, although a frail and slender
woman, she lifted the body of her
dead boy in her arms and bore it with
out shaking or staggering or resting a
moment to the carriage at the skirt OF
the wood. The carriage was an immense
old-fashioned, round bodied coach. My
grandmother and Matilda followed
her closely, pressing up in fact to
her very shoulders to catch her if she
should fall. But she did not waver a
moment, and as the carriage came in
view, she ran vigorously towards it.
This was mother bearing her dead
child away from what she considered