Bloody Island (Mississippi River)

Bloody Island was a sand bar in the Mississippi River, opposite St. Louis, Missouri, which became densely wooded and a rendezvous for duelists because it was considered "neutral" and not under Missouri or Illinois control.

Appearing first above water in 1798 its continuous growth menaced the harbor of Saint Louis. In 1837 Capt. Robert E. Lee, of U.S.A. Engineers, devised and established a system of dikes and dams that washed out the western channel and ultimately joined the island to the Illinois shore.

The south end of the island is now under the Poplar Street Bridge and is a train yard. Samuel Wiggins bought 800 acres around the island in the early 1800s and operated a ferry between East St. Louis and St. Louis (at one point using an 8-horse team on the ferry to provide the propulsion). The Wiggins Ferry Service would develop the train yards which in the 1870s carted train cars across the river one at a time until the Eads Bridge opened in 1879. The train yard is now owned by the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis.

Among the duels:

* Thomas Hart Benton and Charles Lucas (twice) in 1817 - Benton had challenged Lucas to a duel after Lucas accused him of not having a right to vote because he had not paid his property tax. Lucas was shot in the throat and Benton was grazed in the knee in a duel at 30 feet. They repeated after Lucas healed at 10 feet. Lucas missed and Benton killed him.
*Joshua Barton and Thomas C. Rector - June 30, 1823 - Barton was the first Missouri Secretary of State and a St. Louis federal district attorney and brother of Senator David Barton. The Senator was critical of reappointing Rector's brother William Rector to the surveyor general position in regards to the survey of the Louisiana Purchase territory. Joshua published the charges in the St. Louis Republican and was challenged by Thomas. Barton was killed and Rector escaped unhurt. Thomas would die two years later in a knife fight. President James Madison would not reappoint William Rector. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=6gyxWHRLAWgC&pg=PA34&lpg=PA34&dq=Joshua+Barton+Missouri&source=web&ots=D8Plzuk2e-&sig=pvxjIWVT6zxZnspJgCUkXgvLWmE&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA35,M1 Dictionary of Missouri Biography by Lawrence O. Christensen (Editor), William E. Foley (Editor), Gary R. Kremer (Editor), Kenneth H. Winn (Editor) - University of Missouri Press (October 1999)] ISBN 0826212220] Barton had been Lucas' second in his two duels with Senator Benton.

*Thomas Biddle and Spencer Darwin Pettis on August 26, 1831. Biddle challenged Pettis because of Pettis's complaints against Biddle's brother Nicholas Biddle who was president of the United States Bank. They fired at five feet and both were killed.
*Benjamin Gratz Brown and Thomas C. Reynolds on August 26, 1856. Brown at the time was editor of the St. Louis Democrat and Reynolds was district attorney. Brown favored emancipation and Reynolds opposed it. Reynolds challenged Brown. Brown was shot in the leg and limped for the rest of his life. Reynolds was not hurt. The duel was called the "Duel of the Governors" because Reynolds would become the state's Confederate Governor and Brown would be elected Governor after the war.

Sources

* "Dictionary of American History" by James Truslow Adams, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940
* [http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/education/dueling/political-duels.asp Missouri of State history of the duels]
* [http://www.riverweb.uiuc.edu/ENVIRON/ENVIRO6.htm Details on the formation and elimination of Bloody Island] from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

References