Bloody Island (Mississippi River)
1853 Map of Bloody Island towhead
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| Geography | |
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| Location |
Mississippi River, East St. Louis, Illinois |
| Coordinates | 38°38′18″N 90°10′26″W / 38.6384°N 90.1738°WCoordinates: 38°38′18″N 90°10′26″W / 38.6384°N 90.1738°W |
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| Additional information | |
| The neutral ground, between Illinois and Missouri, of many notorious duels in the 19th Century, including the duel between Abraham Lincoln and James Shields. | |
Earliest known photograph of Abraham Lincoln, circa 1845-1847. Lincoln, a Whig, participated in only one known duel: with James Shields, a Democrat, in 1842. After the bloodless "affair of honor", they became the best of friends.
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| Duration | 1817-1856 |
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| Location | Bloody Island Dueling Grounds |
| Participants |
Thomas Hart Benton vs. Charles Lucas (fought two duels in 1817) Joshua Barton vs. Thomas C. Rector (1823) Thomas Biddle vs. Spencer Darwin Pettis (1831) Abraham Lincoln vs. James Shields (1842) Benjamin Gratz Brown vs. Thomas C. Reynolds (1856) |
| Casualties | |
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Thomas Hart Benton and Charles Lucas, both wounded in first duel Charles Lucas, killed in second duel Joshua Barton, killed Thomas Biddle vs. Spencer Darwin Pettis, both killed Benjamin Gratz Brown, wounded |
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Thomas Hart Benton vs. Charles Lucas (fought two duels in 1817)
Joshua Barton vs. Thomas C. Rector (1823)
Thomas Biddle vs. Spencer Darwin Pettis (1831)
Abraham Lincoln vs. James Shields (1842)
Thomas Hart Benton and Charles Lucas, both wounded in first duel
Charles Lucas, killed in second duel
Joshua Barton, killed
Thomas Biddle vs. Spencer Darwin Pettis, both killed
Bloody Island was a sandbar or "towhead" (river island) 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.
After its first appearance above water in 1798, its continuous growth menaced the harbor of St. Louis. In 1837 Capt. Robert E. Lee, of U.S. Army 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 at the site of a train yard. Samuel Wiggins bought 800 acres (3.2 km2) around the island in the early 19th century 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.
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Wikipedia