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During one of the most tumultuous periods in American history, the Civil War, honor-bound Kentuckians used negotiated formal fights, known as duels, as a way to settle their differences. It was a time
University Press of Kentucky In March 1856, a dead body washed onto the shore of the Mississippi River. The body belonged to a man who had been a passenger on the luxurious steamboat known as the Ohio Belle, and he was the son of a southern planter. Who had bound and pitched this wealthy man into the river? Why? As reports of the killing spread, one newspaper shuddered, "The details are truly awful and well calculated to cause a thrill of horror." That description was too much for Kentucky Historical Society advocate Stuart W. Sanders to ignore. Drawing on eyewitness ac...