Sandbar Fight

The Sandbar Fight, also known as the Vidalia Sandbar Fight, was a formal one-on-one duel that erupted into a violent brawl involving multiple combatants on September 19, 1827. It took place on a large sandbar in the Mississippi River, near present-day Vidalia, Louisiana. American pioneer and folk hero Jim Bowie was seriously injured in the fight.

Though the site of the brawl was originally a neutral island in the middle of the river, the main course of the river has since changed, and the site is now located west of the modern river on Giles Island. The river's original path, however, still serves as the border between the states of Mississippi and Louisiana, and the site of the brawl is therefore within Mississippi.

The Sandbar Fight followed prior conflicts that had occurred in central Louisiana. Members of the wealthy and established Wells and Cuny families, who were close relatives, were engaged in ongoing feuds with many of the region's newer families. The subjects of the disputes included competing financial interests, allegations of vote-fixing in a sheriff's election, dishonored notes (bad loans), denied bank loans, and, it is rumored, the honor of a woman. Several participants in the brawl had engaged in prior duels, fist fights, and exchanges of gunfire. Two prior attempts at resolving disputes by dueling had ended without resolution, because they either devolved into shouting matches between seconds or because one party failed to appear.

The duel that became the Sandbar Fight was initially arranged over grievances between Samuel L. Wells III and Dr. Thomas H. Maddox, both of Alexandria, Louisiana. They agreed to a duel at a neutral site, eventually choosing a wide, sandy shoal in the middle of the Mississippi River because it was considered outside the jurisdiction of local law enforcement and thus less likely subject to anti-dueling laws. Both Wells and Maddox, the primary duelists, were attended by seconds and several friends and supporters.

There was apparently little cause for enmity between Wells and Maddox, who had been friends, but a great deal of acrimony between the heavily armed groups that accompanied them. The relationship between Jim Bowie and Major (formerly sheriff) Norris Wright, in particular, was known to be violent. In a previous encounter, Wright shot Bowie; the intervention of observers prevented Bowie from then killing the smaller Wright. Afterward, Bowie carried a sheath knife in preparation for a rematch, which occurred in the Sandbar Fight.

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