Chatham County GaArchives History .....Savannah Duels - Chapter X 1923 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 25, 2004, 8:06 pm CHAPTER X. POLITICAL FEUDS AND RESULTING DUELS. A STRIKING ILLUSTRATION FURNISHED IN THE TROUBLES BETWEEN THE McINTOSHES AND HOPKINSES, LEADING FINALLY TO A SHOOTING AFFRAY, WITH ONE KILLED AND ONE WOUNDED, A TRIAL FOR MURDER, A CONVICTION FOR MANSLAUGHTER, AND ESCAPE TO EUROPE—A PICTURE OF LIFE IN THE BORDERLAND OF SOUTHEAST GEORGIA WHEN NEARLY EVERY MAN CARRIED A PISTOL OR BOWIE KNIFE, OR BOTH—DUELS BETWEEN HOPKINS AND KEITH, AND HOPKINS AND FLOYD. Feuds that soon embraced all the members of a family frequently led to challenges and duels, or sometimes to encounters in which code formalities were dispensed with and pistols and knives were quickly brought into deadly play. In the first three decades of the last century it is said that only two men in McIntosh and Camden counties—and doubtless other counties, as well—appeared in public at any time unarmed. To church or to social functions, to market or to political gatherings, pistols and bowie knives went as their inseparable companions. Two pistols were frequently carried in the inside coat pockets and by a quick double movement both could be brought into the open and to bear upon an adversary. The bowie knife was the weapon for a close encounter. If the two shots that the single barrel pistols supplied were ineffective the pistols were sometimes thrown at the enemy's head and the knife drawn for further hostilities. No more striking illustration could be had of the bitterness that sometimes sprang up between those once enjoying the most cordial relations, and the aftermath of violence, than is afforded by the Hopkins and McIntosh families. Both were of prominence in eastern Georgia, with their roots firmly planted in the soil of McIntosh county and branches cropping out in Chatham and other counties. To tell in full detail the origin and incidents of the troubles between members of the families would require a book by itself. Mainly political in origin, their animosities increased in bitterness quickly, and what had been a state of friendly intercourse became one of envenomed antipathy that led to challenges and finally to a street brawl, with a McIntosh left dead upon the ground and a Hopkins wounded and prisoner. Members of the family and others in Savannah were involved in a way, and the succession of dramatic incidents stirred the city as it had seldom been disturbed by such occurrences beyond the confines of Chatham. It was in 1817-19. The dramatis personae included several figures of note in their section of the state. They were: Gen. Francis Hopkins, a prominent planter, and his son, Col. John L. Hopkins, at one time an officer in the navy, and at the time of the difficulties with the McIntoshes a planter on Sapelo Island; Gen. Lachlan H. McIntosh, Capt. William R. McIntosh, who had also served in the navy; his brother, Dr. John McIntosh, and their cousins, William Augustus McIntosh and McQueen McIntosh. It is not necessary to sketch the pedigree of the McIntosh clan. The Hopkinses were an early family, whose descendants to-day occupy positions of prominence in Georgia and other states. The first of the family in America was Francis Hopkins, an officer in the British navy, who married Mary Martinangelo, daughter of Filippo Martinangelo, one of the first settlers of Daufuskie Island, better known as Capt. Philip Martinangelo, of the Loyal Militia of South Carolina during the Revolution. Their only son, Francis Hopkins, was born near Bluffton, in 1772. Before the revolutionary storm broke Francis Hopkins, wife and child, removed to the West Indies, where he died in 1780. The mother and son returned to Daufuskie Island and in the first census of the United States, that of 1790, Francis Hopkins, aged eighteen, appears as the head of the family of two, his widowed mother and himself, in the Beaufort district. In April, 1794, he married Rebecca Sayre, daughter of Benjamin Sayre, formerly of Elizabeth, N. J., and Elizabeth Fripp, of Hilton Head, S. C. They lived with his mother on a large plantation on May river until the terrible storm of 1804, which wrought great destruction to property along the coast. Soon after this, his friend, Thomas Spalding, of McIntosh county, persuaded him to move with his family to that section of Georgia. Among the children he brought with him was the oldest, John Livingston Hopkins, born near Bluffton in 1795. Francis Hopkins served in the Georgia legislature, 1808-13, when he resigned to enter the military service of the State for the war then in progress with Great Britain. He was given the title of Major. After the war he is frequently referred to as General Hopkins, but the exact origin of the higher title does not appear. Six of his sons served in the legislatures of Georgia or Florida. John Livingston Hopkins when a youth enlisted in the United States navy as midshipman and saw service on the frigate Constitution, on the African coast, in the war with the Barbary States. On the return of his ship to home waters it was stationed at Hoboken. There, a correspondent tells me, he became involved in a difficulty with a lieutenant, named Keith. It seems that an amusing caricature of this brother officer was circulated, much to the annoyance of Keith. He became obsessed with the idea that Hopkins, who was clever with his pencil, was the artist, and called him to account in an insulting way. Hopkins was innocent of the charge, but feeling outraged by the grossness of the lieutenant's attitude resigned his commission and sent him a challenge, which was accepted. In the duel Hopkins slew Keith. Strange to say, several years later, in McIntosh county, another caricature drawn by Hopkins came very near involving him in a duel with a prominent citizen there, and only prompt and proper explanations avoided such a meeting. It was a day when men were sensitive, and pictures or comments which put them in a ridiculous or ludicrous attitude before their friends and neighbors were a sufficient cause for a cartel. After the duel with Keith young Hopkins returned home, studied law, and was admitted to the bar. In 1817 he was elected as one of the representatives from McIntosh county in the Georgia legislature. From his service therein came many months of personal and political discord. His aggressive attitude at the capital and at home antagonized many of the older, conservative citizens, including his father's friend, Spalding. At this session of the legislature Capt. McIntosh also represented McIntosh. The establishment of free schools in that county came up for consideration. Hopkins spoke in favor of the bill if sufficient funds could be provided under the plan proposed. When the next election came the charge was made that he had opposed the measure. This' became a hot issue of the campaign. Major Hopkins, or General, as he was called, had previously been active in establishing the McIntosh Academy, and this doubtless had its bearing on the acute situation which developed. Prior to this, ugly feeling between members of the McIntosh clan had shown its head. At a militia rally the cousins, Capt. William R. and William A. McIntosh, had a difficulty, weapons were drawn, and the latter requested Col. Hopkins to carry a challenge to Capt. McIntosh. When Hopkins called on Capt. McIntosh he met with a rebuff: "Sir," said the captain to the colonel, "Your friend is not upon a footing with me; I shall treat him with contempt, as I have ever intended to do." Accepting this as a personal reflection and insult to himself—as it was' under the code—Col. Hopkins drafted a note demanding an honorable apology from Capt. McIntosh. This was done at the Darien postoffice. Coming out of that building, the captain and his brother, the doctor, were met. Hopkins, as he told the story, presented his pistols to the captain and asked him to take his choice, intending to settle the trouble then and there. The McIntoshes, he stated, refused to accept the tendered weapon. "I shall post you on the highway and in the town of Darien," said Hopkins. "Do it at your peril," was the reply from Dr. McIntosh. That evening Col. Hopkins carried out his threat and posted McIntosh. General McIntosh sought to reconcile the matter at a dinner at his home. Capt. McIntosh declined to meet Col. Hopkins there. Eventually this particular trouble was seemingly settled at a conference at the court house McQueen McIntosh had not been on good terms with the other members of his clan. His associations with Col. Hopkins had been pleasant and after the peaceable adjustment of this difficulty he spent the summer at the colonel's home. "We were generally alone, but always surrounded by a good collection of books," writes Col. Hopkins. "At length the spoiler came and peace and happiness eloped." One day McQueen McIntosh visited Capt. McIntosh. There, while under the influence of liquor, he indulged, as the report came to Hopkins, in "virulent abuse of the Hopkinses, father and son," although he returned to the Hopkins house that night. Col. Hopkins overlooked the incident so far as McQueen went, but felt that it showed the continued enmity of Capt. W. R. McIntosh. Soon after this politics awakened in McIntosh. Legislators were again to be chosen. The McIntoshes 'began a quiet campaign for the election of Mr. Dunwody over Col. Hopkins. McQueen McIntosh warned Hopkins of this, and that Senator Allen B. Powell had been told by Capt. McIntosh of what was going on and "had smiled thereat." Finding all three men together, Powell was called to account by Col. Hopkins, and denied the story. McQueen McIntosh adhered to his statement. Col. Hopkins afterwards said that until then he had implicit faith in McQueen McIntosh. "A few months previous to this unpleasant interview I had borne the brunt of a fight for him in which I had received three dangerous stabs, two in the head and one in the breast, from which I was confined to bed for seventy days." Enraged at his cousin for betraying political plans, Capt. McIntosh attempted to strike McQueen with a club. Col. Hopkins and his father protected him. Dr. John McIntosh then threatened the life of McQueen, and it was understood those two cousins were to meet in the vicinity of Darien and fight a duel the next morning. Hopkins declined to act as McQueen's second. He recalled an expression of General Hopkins, that "The McIntosh quarrels are frequent and soon made up." As expected, when the McIntoshes met, instead of shedding each other's blood, "Their animosity was wiped away with the Tuscan sponge," as Hopkins expressed it. Political slander now became rampant, it seems. The fight became a more open one. Stories came to Col. Hopkins that Major McIntosh had declared him a drunkard, that Capt. McIntosh had called him a fool and a coward, and that some young ladies influenced by them had called him a "cyclop," because he had lost his left eye. The free school issue came to the front. Senator Powell charged Col. Hopkins with having opposed it. Hopkins held his reputation had been unjustly assailed, and "addressed a note to the Senator, not a challenge express, but an epistle of the same purport." "to which the Senator very properly replied, verbally, that he had a wife and children and was consequently not in that situation from which he would be censured for refusing to fight." This was carried to General Hopkins by some one, with "delectable additions," evidently meaning reflections on the Hopkins family. Of course a challenge went then from Gen. Hopkins. Seconds were appointed and the day selected. Capt. Mctosh "Ground his cane sword" to a sharper point, "loaded his pistols, and hurried to Darien" to participate in an affair with which "he had no earthly concern"; and with the avowed purpose of settling his accounts with Col. Hopkins. Col. Hopkins and his father met all the parties interested at the Exchange in Darien. A verbal quarrel began between the older Hopkins and the Senator, then a physical altercation, and Capt. McIntosh drawing his sword rushed on the General. Col. Hopkins seized the sword. From that time there could be nothing but enmity. The difficulty between Gen. Hopkins and Senator Powell was amicably adjusted, and with friends the Hopkinses turned in to dine at the Darien hotel. Capt. McIntosh came in, and took a seat. A quarrel ensued. Col. Hopkins threw a glass of wine in his face and McIntosh threw a bottle of wine at Hopkins' head—a waste of good wine on both sides. Hopkins was induced to enter another room. McIntosh and his father sought to enter and Hopkins drewa pistol. "Lachlan H. McIntosh, of Savannah, requested that he give up his pistol and sword cane," pledging that there would be no further attempt at violence. This he did, but later when the Macintoshes1 endeavored to force themselves into the room the weapons were returned to him. McIntosh posted Hopkins at Darien as a coward. Hopkins posted McIntosh at that place, claiming that McIntosh was derelict in leading his forces to the Wayne county border where there had been trouble with the Indians. Hopkins became exceedingly bitter in his comments: "You posted me at Darien, hero, while I was at home fifteen or sixteen miles off, the day after I left Darien, though I had remained there two days for you. "I will never tremble at the frowns of such a contemptible enemy as you are. "I have never refused to meet my equal in the field. "Did you go to St. Mary's on your return from Milledgeville, and challenge or horsewhip the commander of the U. S. Brig Saranac for writing to the Secretary of the Navy to request your dismissal from the navy as a barbarian, devoid of human sympathy or feeling ? "Did you retort upon those who had posted your want of courage? Did you not tremble at the very smile of your enemy? How often did you reject the hazard of the field of equal combat for the most trivial causes? Did you ever resent an insult?" Capt. McIntosh professed to regard Col. Hopkins as beneath the notice of a McIntosh. "To the charge of cowardice, I have to reply to Col. John L. Hopkins that I never expect to establish a fair reputation by duelling with men who are unworthy the notice of gentlemen. I am always prepared to repel the assaults of an assassin. You have threatened violence to my person. At your peril make your vaunting true. "WM. R. McINTOSH." Hopkins closed his side of this part of the controversy with a fine specimen of the epistolary art of that day as developed by such hostile conditions. It beautifully illustrates the early Georgia method of impaling an enemy on what has been termed "a vitriolic pen." "Go on, infatuated man," said Hopkins to his enemy. "Pursue the same contemptible round of folly, falsehood and idle boasting. Leprous with crimes, bloated with vanity, inflated with anger, and shrouded with timidity, you shall corrode and waste your substance on the wind of error." Col. Hopkins was defeated in the election that came on soon after. He sneeringly expressed the belief that Capt. McIntosh was entirely incapable of writing the correspondence coming from him and attributed its authorship to McQueen McIntosh. Capt. McIntosh's letters were referred to as "A scurrilous and voluminous compilation of the most profound fatuity." Some days later, while at court at Jefferson, Hopkins received a challenge from his old friend and companion, McQueen McIntosh, which was accepted. The articles of arrangement are of interest, having some features not usual in Georgia duels: Article 1st: Lieutenant of Marines Charles C. Floyd, and Doctor John McIntosh shall second challengee and challenger. Article 2d: The parties shall meet at 10:00 o'clock a. m., on Amelia Island, each armed with a brace of pistols and sword, each pistol to be loaded with powder and ball. Article 3d: They shall take post at 20 steps apart, holding in their right and left hands loaded pistols. Article 4th. Their swords shall be posted within their reach and immediately in the:r rear, and shall be used at their option after the exclamation of the acting second, 'Gentlemen, you are ready!' Article 5th: The combatants will fire as they please, and not be restricted from reserving their fire and advancing as near as they desire to each other, and, after the exclamation named in article the fourth, they shall receive no orders from their seconds, but fight as they please within the distance stated in article the third. A real duel seemed to be in prospect. Accompanied by their seconds, Lieut. Floyd for Hopkins, Dr. McMcIntosh for McIntosh, the principals met at the appointed place. McIntosh objected to the swords being used in addition to the pistols. "He did not like hackling". Lieut. Floyd, for Hopkins, yielded this point. "The fatal moment had arrived," wrote Hopkins, "which was to send one or both, for neither of us were bad shots, unannointed and unannealed into the presence of an avenging God." Then came more objections. The pistols to be used by Hopkins had barrels two inches longer than those McIntosh had brought. An hour was given the latter to get other pistols. When they came "McIntosh snapped one, and swore he preferred to use the ones he had brought." About this time a party of gentlemen arrived with a desire to prevent bloodshed, if possible. Among them were three Savannahians1, Judge John MacPherson Berrien, Solicitor-General William Law, and Attorney George Ker. With them came Mayor Archibald Clarke, of St. Mary's. McIntosh resumed his position, holding his first brace of pistols in his hands. Hopkins was in position, awaiting the signal to fire. Dr. McIntosh, to whom had fallen the duty of giving the word, stood ready. Then Judge Berrien and the other gentlemen urged delay and reconsideration. As a result the following papers were prepared and signed: "I withdraw my challenge to Colonel Hopkins, together with any and every expression which I may have used calculated to injure the feelings either of Mr. Hopkins or General Hopkins, and without hostility I do implicitly believe them to be gentlemen, soldiers and men of honor. "McQUEEN McINTOSH."” "In consequence of the above signed McQueen McIntosh, I declare that my attack upon him was predicated upon a supposed insult at that time, viz. in Darien on the 31st August. "JOHN LIVINGSTON HOPKINS." Unfortunately, Hopkins gave copies of these cards to a friend. Some time after, while visiting Savannah, McQueen McIntosh had an interview with this party, was chagrined to find how others looked at the card he had signed, and returning to McIntosh county the ill-feeling between the parties reasserted itself. McIntosh claimed he had been betrayed by Hopkins violating a mutual promise that only one copy of the agreement should be preserved, in General Floyd's hands, all others being destroyed. The McIntosh clan in Georgia, like their progenitors in the Highlands of Caledonia and in early colonial days, were probably all high-strung, easily irritated, quick to take offence, and not overly courteous in language while under the stress of passion. They were courageous, as Georgia's history of a century and a half has shown, and bloodshed again seemed inevitable. But it came not through the medium of the established code. After several incidents which intensified the bitterness, McQueen McIntosh published some correspondence offensive to Hopkins. The Hopklnses and McQueen and Dr. John McIntosh met in Darien. Col. Hopkins, according to his statement, hearing that the McIntoshes threatened his life, borrowed a pair of pistols and a sword cane. Conflicting stories are told of the meeting on the highway of the little town between the four men. Hopkins' statement said that the fight was in the open: "Dr. McIntosh was advancing to fire upon me. No alternative was left to me but to shoot the one and throw the empty pistol at the other, or to sustain the fire of both and die." "McQueen McIntosh and myself raised our pistols and fired together—I fired first and hit him—I threw the empty pistol at the doctor, who fired. I put my left hand to my breast, and at that moment I felt a wound in my right arm, and walked away to the hotel." On the other hand, the McIntoshes claimed that Hopkins had concealed his body behind a corner of the building, and after McIntosh "fired without effect, Hopkins, availing himself of this concealment, took deliberate aim and shot his heroic antagonist through the body", and that McIntosh, while falling, "presented his second pistol and with well-directed ball shattered the fugitive's arm, though twelve yards distant." McQueen McIntosh lay dead on the ground and Hopkins' arm was shattered. He was1 arrested and confined in jail with his father, a military guard being put over the jail to guard the prisoners from attack and prevent their rescue. Politics were exceedingly bitter. The Hopkinses and the Macintoshes stood for contending factions. The friends of the McIntosh family are alleged to have controlled the grand jury. General Hopkins and his son were indicted for murder. They were brought to Savannah soon after and remained in jail here until October, 1819, when they were tried before Judge Berrien, at Eulonia Court House, McIntosh county. The father was acquitted but the son was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to a term of years in the penitentiary. Judge Berrien's charge in this noted case is said to have been a masterpiece of judicial eloquence and was long referred to as evidence of the high forensic ability of the Georgia bench. During the trial Col. Hopkins' wife died, with her twin babies, at their birth, at the old home in Beaufort. In view of these circumstances Judge Berrien permitted Col. Hopkins to visit his home at "High Point',' Sapelo Island, before beginning to serve his sentence. All of the records of McIntosh county were destroyed by fire in 1873 and the only sources of information to-day are family records, tradition, and scanty allusions' in the newspapers of that time. As the accounts come down to us, Col. Hopkins' friends felt outraged by his conviction for a crime as a result of what they deemed purely an "Affair of Honor," and steps were taken to enable him to escape from the country. Judge Berrien's' own son-in-law, Mr. Burroughs, father of the late William B. Burroughs, of Brunswick, who was a warm friend of the Hopkins' family, without the knowledge of the Judge, is said to have been a party to the plan whereby Col. Hopkins was rowed out of Sapelo sound to the ocean, where a sailing vessel received him, and under a payment of $5,000 the captain carried him to safety in England. Col. Hopkins, it is stated, spent three years in Europe, part of the time with a cousin on the River Thames, but for months wandering over the continent in the guise of a physician. His father died in 1821, broken in body and in spirit. A year later Col. Hopkins returned to America and Gov. John Clark issued a pardon to him. Locating soon after in Tennessee he resumed the practice of law. He became Judge of the Superior Court in Monroe county. In October, 1828, while on the way home from court he was assassinated by three men whom he had threatened to prosecute for violations of the law. In the short life of thirty-three years he had crowded dramatic experiences that fall to the lot of very few men. He had married a second time, Miss Anne Stephens, daughter of Maj. Henry Stephens, of Monroe county, Tenn. His son, John Livingston Hopkins, was born on October 5, three days before the judge was slain. He became one of Georgia's noted lawyers and jurists, dying at Atlanta in 1912. While in jail awaiting trial for the killing of McIntosh, Col. Hopkins wrote a little pamphlet reviewing the whole circumstances from his standpoint, only one complete copy of which is known to be in existence now. Much of the bitter correspondence between them was printed in the Savannah and Darien papers at the time. Out of the affray grew uncalled-for charges against Judge Berrien and perhaps the duel elsewhere referred to between Edward F. Tattnall, representative from Chatham, and another legislator, whose name is not obtainable, In which Tattnall was wounded. "John Abercromby was one of the leading men of the session of the legislature of 1819," wrote Governor Gilmer. "He was a large, fat, pot-bellied man, with his head stuck upon his shoulders without neck. His mind was uncultivated by books, but quick and intelligent. His passions and prejudices were strong and indulged in freely. "Abercromby, whose opinion of Judge Berrien was' not very favorable, was excited by the report of the Judge's conduct to introduce into the House of Representatives a strongly condemnatory resolution, without any evidence but a short street conversation. "A very angry debate took place. Col. Tattnall, who was one of the Representatives and a neighbor of Judge Berrien, was very indignant. He and Abercromby were soon in a fighting mood. Abercromby reflected upon the lawyers for the support they gave their 'Brother Chip', as he called Judge Berrien, "He and I occupied seats1 and were upon very friendly terms. I succeeded in (what I am not very successful at) exciting the laugh of the House at Abercromby, and putting everybody into good humor. Col. Tattnall offered a resolution of inquiry into Judge Berrien's conduct, which was referred to a large committee. Judge Berrien was immediately notified of the proceedings of the House and came to Milledgeville, attended by several friends of the bar. "The committee held its meetings in the Senate Chamber, after the adjournment for the clay of the two Houses. A great crowd assembled below and in the gallery. Col. Tattnall, the mover of the resolution of inquiry, was chairman of the committee. Before he took his seat in the president's chair, he told me that Abercromby's violent conduct had so excited him that he believed he would find it impossible to restrain his temper if it was repeated, and requested ms to move, as soon as the committee was ready to act, that he should be excused from' presiding over it, and another chairman appointed. "I did so, and nominated Col. Murray. The investigation was made upon the evidence given by Judge Berrien's friends and resulted in his entire acquittal by the committee. Abercromby was alone in his attack, and without any offensive materials to carry it on. He had to submit, but he did so with bad temper.” Such was one phase of life in Georgia a century ago. Col. John L. Hopkins did not monopolize the duelling honors of his family. A younger brother, Edward Stevens Hopkins: fought a more famous duel, his antagonist being the redoubtable Gen. John Floyd, descendants of whom are to be found to-day in Savannah and elsewhere in Georgia. Edward Stevens Hopkins was corn in 18C9 and lived to a ripe old age, passing away in 1887. His affair with Gen. Floyd is generally referred to as “The Three Weapon Duel". The stories of this meeting are very conflicting—each family has its own traditions, irreconcilable in their versions as to what occurred, reflecting to this day family prejudice and family pride. Shotguns, pistols and bowie knives were the weapons. This duel has merely an incidental Savannah interest and belongs' more to a volume dealing with Georgia "Affairs of Honor" in general. Additional Comments: From: ANNALS OF SAVANNAH SAVANNAH DUELS AND DUELLISTS 1733-1877 BY Thomas Gamble COPYRIGHT 1923 REVIEW PUBLISHING & PRINTING COMPANY SAVANNAH, GEORGIA File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/chatham/history/other/gms414savannah.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 28.4 Kb