Bloody Island: Missouri’s Infamous Dueling Ground

 In the late 1790s, as a result of the shifting of the Mississippi current and the accumulation of silt and river debris, a large sandy island emerged in the middle of the Mississippi River, across from St. Louis, Missouri. This newly formed island was under the jurisdiction of neither Missouri nor Illinois. As a result, the island soon became a center of illegal activities and transactions. The island hosted everything from boxing matches to cockfights, but what made the island so notorious and earned it the nickname Bloody Island were the many duels that took place there.

The practice of dueling was often seen as a means for individuals to settle disputes over honor. If someone felt bad or was insulted, they would issue a challenge. If the challenge is accepted, the party being challenged will determine the parameters of the duel, including location, time, weapon, and distance in the case of the use of a firearm. The participants in the duel, accompanied by witnesses and often a medical professional, would gather at a designated location. They would then engage in a duel according to agreed upon rules, with the confrontation continuing until one or both parties were dead or their honor was deemed satisfied.

Like many early American customs, this tradition originally began in Europe and was imported to the New World in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Like its European counterpart, dueling in America is inextricably linked to a broader code of honor that delineates the expected behavior for aristocrats and gentlemen. Adherence to this code, which included adherence to dueling etiquette, was important for individuals wishing to achieve and maintain their position within the dominant social class.

Dueling became illegal in both Missouri and Illinois in the early 1800s, making the unregulated and neutral grounds of Bloody Island attractive to those who wanted to settle their differences by shooting each other at close range.

The first recorded duel took place in late December 1810 between lawyer James Graham and Dr. Bernard G. Graham, the first American physician to practice west of the Mississippi. It happened in the middle of Farrar. Controversy arose when Graham accused a friend of Dr. Farrar of cheating at cards, causing the physician to step in to defend his friend's honor. Graham was seriously injured in the encounter and died of his wounds.

Bloody Island's notoriety as the site of deadly duels continued with a particularly infamous confrontation on August 12, 1817, involving two prominent St. Louis lawyers, Thomas Hart Benton and Charles Lucas. This feud began due to a bitter land dispute between the two men, which involved sharp accusations and insults. The rising tension led Lucas to challenge Benton to a duel, and the stage was set on Bloody Island at dawn.

As the duel began, Benton fired the first shot, which hit Lucas in the neck. In response, Lucas' shot only hit Benton's knee. However, when Lucas became unable to stand in the second round, the duel was temporarily stopped. Despite appeals for reconciliation by friends, both men stood firm, and after several weeks, Lucas had recovered enough to arrange a rematch. On the morning of September 27, in the second duel, Benton took aim with deadly accuracy and shot his opponent in the heart. Lucas died within minutes, bringing a tragic end to their feud.

Benton later became a United States Senator for Missouri and served for 30 years from 1821–51, becoming the first senator to serve five terms.

Another notable duel at Bloody Island took place on June 30, 1823, between U.S. District Attorney Joshua Barton and U.S. Surveyor General William Rector of Illinois, Missouri. Barton accused the Rector of corruption in office, leading the Rector to challenge Barton to a duel, which he promptly accepted. The two combatants met on Bloody Island, and Barton was killed in the first encounter.

One of the most famous duels to occur on Bloody Island was between distinguished War of 1812 veteran Major Thomas Biddle and U.S. Representative Spencer Pettis. Pettis, a staunch Jacksonian Democrat, challenged Biddle, brother of banker Nicholas Biddle, after Biddle had publicly humiliated Pettis. They met on Bloody Island on August 26, 1831, and because Biddle was nearsighted, they chose a dueling distance of only five feet. Biddle thought that such close distance would convince Pettis not to duel, but Pettis was undeterred. They opened fire from a distance of five feet and both were killed.

Bloody Island continued to grow throughout the 1830s, creating a breach in the Mississippi that threatened to ruin the port at St. Louis. The river's current was continually depositing silt on the Missouri side, while deepening on the Illinois side, creating shallow water downstream from the island and endangering river commerce in St. Louis. In 1837 Captain Robert E. Lee of the US Army Engineers designed and installed two dams, one diverting the current from the Illinois coast past Bloody Island, and the other directing the water to Duncan's Island. As time went on, Duncan Island and the banks below St. Louis disappeared and Bloody Island gradually became attached to the Illinois coast, becoming a part of the mainland.

Despite no longer being an island, duels continued to take place between men on the infamous tract of land.

On August 26, 1856, Benjamin Gratz Brown, editor of The Daily Missouri Democrat, and Thomas Cott Reynolds, an American attorney in St. Louis, met on Bloody Island to resolve their years-long bitter political dispute. Brown was shot in the leg and limped for the rest of his life. Reynolds emerged unharmed. Brown became Governor of Missouri in 1870. Reynolds, on the other hand, became the Confederate governor of Missouri in 1862.

This match, which came to be known as the "Duel of the Governors", was the last known duel on Bloody Island.