The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1902-08-15
THE MARLING -ZOLLICOFFER
DUEL I'm THE FIFTIES

has long since passed into that
bourne of dead things from whence
none return, but the imprint left
upon the record of the State Of
Tennessee by that period or school
still remains as fresh and strong as
If the characters who animated it
were alive in all of their virile
vigor. Chapter after chapter,
tome after tome, could be written
with the incidents and episodes,
the men and the work, of that day
as their subject. Nowhere could
a richer field be found and amidst
all of its pages there stands one
name resplendant for its erudition
and intellectual force, as we'll as
for it's gallantrY and chivalry.
That name is Felix -Kirke Zolli-
Golfer, who fell upon the bloody
field of Fisher Greek with the
hard earned epaulets of a Confed
crate General upon his shoulders.
But it is not with his death that
this story runs. 1t is of the duel
which he fought in Nashville in
1852 with John L. Marling and
the beautiful way in which the af-
fair was sealed.
That year was the scene of the
Pierce and Scott Presidential cam
paign. John L. Marling, who was
a caustic and fearless writer, was
editor of The Union, and General
Zollicoffer was editor of The Re
publican Banner. Over the issues
of the campaign quite heated ar
gument had been created and sar-
casm and invective ran riot in
the pages of the two antagonistic
journals. The Union, dated Au-
gust 20, capped the climax. Even
the printers who set the editorial
matter up in that issue knew that
there would be trouble as soon as
they began setting it up.
General Zollicoffer felt that the
editorial of that date was entirely
too personal, and he sent word to
Marling that he demanded redress.
Matt Brown, of Nashville, acted |
as best man for General Zolicof-
fer, and, after parley with Mar
ling, he told him that early the
next morning General Zollicoffer
intended to pay his compliments
to Marling in such language as
was required to express his idea
of him. Brown set the time and
the place for the "cussing out"
as we would call it. AS pro
grammed, General ZollicoHer
made his appearance upon the cor
ner of Cherry and Cedar streets at
8 o'clock the next morning, and
Marling stepped out of his office,
near by, at the same moment. 1t
was with a wide and scorching 70
cabulary of profanity that General
Zollcoffer opened his "exchange
of compliments with Marling.
AS he concluded in peroration
particularly lurid the latter re
sponded with a ball from a der
ringer, and in half a inmate both
men were playing upon each other
with their pistols. The first shot
from Markings gun had struck
that belonging to General ZoIli-
Golfer near the trigger and had
temporarily disabled it, but calmly
and cody he repaired the slight
damage while under Markings fire,
and then, taking deliberate aim,
be fired, and Marling dropped to
the sidewalk. He was not dead, /
however. General Zollicoffer's
bullet had struck him on the fore
head and had felled him, but he
soon afterwards recovered, and it
was not long afterwards that c
President Pierce appointed him 5
consul to the Guatemalan repub- a
ic. .
The climate in that South Amer l
can country ruined Markings +
health and he was forced to return I
o his native heath. He came up y
rom New Orleans by boat on his t
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