Year: 1877




Very few people know President Lincoln once came
very fighting duel. newspaper correspondent In
Illinois thus tells the story 1t was somewhere about the
year 1910 that the writer, then a small boy living in y


little village the line of the old State road running
from ST. Louis to indianapolis met one morning as he
going to market Of the colored boys who had
been house OF his fathers in the State Of Ala
bama seated upon iirst-cass carriage. | asked Hiram
for that his namewhere he came from and where ne
going TO? He replied From Springfield sir and
taking one of two gentlemen down to Bloody Island
fight " Bloody Island" is known as East St.
Louis and from 1920 till 1877 under the first Constitution
OF Illinois, there perhaps not less than one hundred
dues fought thereon 1t turned that the gentlemen
who slaughter another upon this bloody field
less than Abraham Lincoln, of Black Hawk
fame, and the then Captain Paddy Shields, who had
seen service iii the British Army And here let me say
that because they stopped for breakfast little
village that perhaps Lincoln spared and saved make
for himself such grand and glorious throughout
the world he afterwards did, and that Shields became
and honored soldier, only in the Mexican but in
the preserve the Unon for the Circuit Court
then in session for that county, and in attendance
OF the leading lawyers OF the district among whom
Lincons and Shields personal and political friends
and it noised about-as it Immediately
after breafast-that they had gone Bloody Island
to fight then it that Stephen A. Douglas who
the time prosecuting attorney for district r. W. Eng
a.
Senator all three of whom political friends OF
Captain Shields; Colonel John j. Hardin afterwards
! killed at Buena Vista, and Colonel Edwin d. Baker
killed at Balls Bluff friends of Lncoln started in hot
pursuit overake the duelsts. In this they did not sue
ceed till they reached the ground npon which the fight
take place. Upon their arrival they found both
Lincoln and Shields ready for the combat They soon
succeeded in inducing Shields withdraw the challenge
for five minutes in order that Lincoln might make
planaon and should this be satisfactory Shields
(Sheds) should not in future attempt tind dis
who might have been the author of the newspaper
article from which the trouble arose AS Captain
Shields withdrew the challenge Mr.. Lincon as
sured him, his honor man, that he had
heard of the article in question till he read the


the morning paper and that he in response
BILE for the same but had simply espoused the authorship
of in order protect the good of estimabe
young girl in Springfield This settled what might have
terminated in bloody affair The would-be combatans
shook hands, and afterwards good friends. But
for years the question Who wrote the article? 1t is
now open secret in Springfield 1t that a Miss
Jayne who had recently graduated from Monticello Sem
mary and who quite belle at the capital had three
Captain Shields another, and she had written the
article which the Irish soldier thought a reflection
upon himself for he, be it known, very vain man.
and considered himself handsome. Neither Shields
Lincoln married the girl but she became the honored
| and loving wife OF Lyman Trumbul.