Chatham County GaArchives History .....Savannah Duels - Chapter XI 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, 9:53 pm CHAPTER XI THE SLAYING OF A POET'S BROTHER. DEATH OF PAYMASTER WILDE, SHOT THROUGH 1HE HEART BY CAPT. JOHNSON—ENSIGN BRYAN SLAIN BY LIEUT. BRIDGES—THE KILLING OF AARON MENDES —HOW TEFFT THRASHED AN ASSAILANT AND REFUSED HIS CHALLENGE—TWO SAVANNAH CONNOISSEURS OF ANTE-BELLUM TIMES—ORIGIN OF THE GEORGIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY. While many duels were fought in the decade from 1810 to 1820, of only a few does the most diligent research reward one with more than meagre information. Most tragical of them all seems that meeting in which the much loved brother of Richard Henry Wilde, scholar, statesman and poet, met death at the hands of one who had been his comrade and friend. Even to-day, more than a century later, one is saddened by the story of the useless sacrifice of a noble young life. In the old Colonial cemetery, not far from the walk which connects the two ends of Lincoln street, and directly west of the vault of the Johnston family, is the well preserved stone above the brave boy's grave. It is scanned now and then by the curious, wondering as to the tragedy of which the graven lines give but a hint. It is a strange epitaph, both a eulogy and an indictment: This humble stone records the filial piety fraternal affection and manly virtues of JAMES WILDE, Esquire, late District Paymaster in the army of the U. S. He fell in a Duel on the 16th of January, 1815, by the hand of a man who, a short time ago, would have been friendless but for him; and expired instantly in his 22d year: dying, as he had lived: with unshaken courage & unblemished reputation. By his untimely death the prop of a Mother's age is broken: The hope and consolation of Sisters is destroyed, the pride of Brothers humbled in the dust and a whole Family, happy until then, overwhelmed with affliction. It was this stone which attracted the attention of William Dean Howells on one of his visits to Savannah and lead him to direct especial attention to it in his delightful "Savannah Twice Visited," in Harper's Magazine of February, 1919: "The duel is now apparently quite extinct. There is a record of it incomparably touching in an epitaph of that beautiful, old cemetery which the city keeps for a playground of the neighboring school children, and the resort of the sympathetic frequenters. In rural grave yards everywhere the grief of the survivor is apt to express itself with unsparing passion, but here, beyond elsewhere, it imparted the pang of indignant anguish. 'He fell,' this epitaph said, 'by the hand of a man who a short time before would have been friendless but for him.' The words must have been primarily meant for the eye of the homicide, but they wrung my heart with abhorrence for the custom which wronged him and his victim alike, and made me feel its atrocity and stupidity as never before." Only one other record than the tombstone exists in Savannah, as far as known, of this duel. Once more the old burial book at the City Hall yields from its pages, crispened by the passage of over a century, some details that but for it would not be obtainable. The official who kept that book little knew that only through its medium would some day information be had concerning not only this but many other deaths of interest to Savannahians. Here is what he wrote: "James Wilde, aged 2S, native of Baltimore, died January 16, 1815, paymaster 8th Regt. U. S. Infantry; duel; buried 17th. He was shot through the heart at the fourth discharge by his antagonist, Capt. R. P. Johnson, of the 8th Regt. U. S. Infantry. His corpse was conveyed from the fatal spot, on the north side of the Savannah river in South Carolina, to Mrs. Wilson's Boarding House, facing the Baptist Church, and thence buried with military honors." James Wilde was the beloved brother of the poet. The incident of the duel is inseparably interwoven with the writing of Wilde's beautiful poem, "My life is like a summer rose," a poem which, as Anthony Barclay so well said, by "The pathetic and tender feelings which it conveys, the exquisite truth of its images, and the melody of its verse, conspired to confer upon its author a fame which nothing so brief had previously ever secured even to the masters of the lyre." Barclay, a classical scholar and lover of literature, for years the British consul in Savannah, in his little work on "Richard Henry Wilde's Summer Rose, or the Lament of the Captive", quotes from a letter from the poet to an intimate friend in this city: "The lines were originally intended as part of a longer poem. My brother, the late James Wilde, was an officer of the United States army, and held a subaltern rank in the expedition of Colonel John Williams against the Seminole Indians' in Florida, which first broke up their towns and stopped their atrocities. When James returned, he amused my mother, my sisters and myself, with descriptions of the orange groves and transparent lakes, the beauty of the St. John's river and of the woods and swamps of Florida—a kind of fairy land—interspersed with anecdotes of his campaign and companions. As he had some taste himself, I used to laugh and tell him I'd immortalize his exploits in an epic. Some stanzas were accordingly written for the amusement of the family at our meetings. That, alas, was destined never to take place. He was killed in a duel. His violent and melancholy death put an end to my poem; the third stanza of the first fragment, which alludes to his fate, being all that was written afterward." The third stanza to which Wilde referred read as follows: "I, too, had once a brother; he was there Among the foremost, bravest of the brave; To him this lay was framed with fruitless care; Sisters for him sigh in the secret grave; For him a mother poured the fervent prayer. But sigh or prayer availeth not to save A generous victim in a villain's snare: He found a bloody but inglorious grave, And never nobler heart was racked by baser glaive." The only portion of the poem that has lived, is, of course, the "Lament of the Captive," lines which promise to endure as long as there are lovers of the beautiful in literature. Known to many, there may be others to whom they are new, and so their republication be justified. Prominent though Richard Henry Wilde was in Congress as one of Georgia's representatives, world-wide though his recognition was as a great Dante-Tasso scholar, his fame rests not upon his speeches at Washington, nor his scholarly work in Italy, but solely upon these three verses the world will not willingly let die: My life is like the summer rose, That opens to the morning sky; And ere the shades of evening close, Is scattered on the ground—to die; Yet, on that rose's humble bed The softest dews of night are shed; As if sine wept such waste to see: But none shall drop a tear for me. My life is like the autumn leaf, That trembles in the moon's pale ray; Its hold is frail, its date is brief— Restless, and soon to pass away; Yet, when that leaf shall fall and fade, The parent tree will mourn its shade; The wind bewail the leafless tree: But none shall breathe a sigh for me. My life is like the print, which feet Have left on Tampa's desert strand; Soon as the rising tide shall beat, Their track will vanish from the sand: Yet, as if grieving to efface All vestige of the human race, On that lone shore loud moans the sea: But none shall thus lament for me. Lord Byron is said to have expressed the opinion that "No finer American poem has met my eye than Wilde's 'Summer Rose'." No local newspapers of the period of 1813-16 are to be found in Savannah. In the Congressional Library at Washington are the files of the Savannah "Republican" of those years, and to them I turned with the hope of bringing to light more details as to the duel and its causes. The papers carried a formal funeral invitation, and that alone. They told nothing beyond the facts already in hand. Nor did investigations North in other newspapers of 1815 bring to light the origin of the trouble between Wilde and Johnson. Apparently it must forever remain a mystery unless some family papers reveal it. The bitterness of the Wilde family against Capt. Johnson is apparent from the allusion in the stanza quoted from the unfinished poem, and is more clearly displayed in the inscription on the tombstone. There is no reason to believe, though, that this feeling was shared by the people of Savannah, or that they did not regard the circumstances surrounding the meeting with a less severe eye than the kinsfolk of the unfortunate young soldier. Eight months before this the American forces stationed for the defence of Savannah had lost another young officer through the code. Again one is thwarted in the effort to discover the cause of the meeting, except that it was of small moment. "The Republican," of May 10, 1814, carried this brief account: "DUEL—A duel was fought yesterday morning at daybreak near this place between Ensign Samuel H. Bryan and Lieut. George R. Bridges, both of the 10th regiment, with pistols, at a distance of twelve paces. The former was killed at the second fire without having fired at all, his pistol having missed fire twice. They fell out, it is said, about a trifling affair." Two years after the Wilde-Johnson duel came another, likewise fatal, of which the only record is the notice in the burial book: "Dennis O'Driscoll, 22 years, native of South Carolina, lawyer, August 17, 1817. Fell in a duel by John Edwards, of South Carolina. Died at and was buried from Col. Shellman's." These parties were doubtless South Carolinians who came to Savannah to settle their dispute. How many other duels, fatal and otherwise, were fought during this period no one know. Those in which no one was injured, or in which the wounds were not mortal, were ignored, as were doubtless others in which the results were fatal if the interested parties were influential and exerted themselves to suppress the particulars. Particularly, it is said, was this the case when a woman was involved. On April 2, 1818, another Savannah victim was added to the list. Here again the cause and the weapons used were not divulged in the public prints. The "Columbian Museum" gave the following account, furnished by a friend of the deceased, whose signature of H was appended to his contribution: "DIED. In this city on Monday evening, in consequence of a wound in the stomach received in a duel, Mr. Aaron Mendes, a native of Charleston. The character of this gentleman among his friends and acquaintances bore that dignity and fame which had long noted him as the polar star of virtue, honesty and sobriety. His quiet disposition was of that nature which gained him the esteem and affection of all who knew him, although the magnanimity of his courage could not brook injustice. Had the unfortunate circumstance of his untimely demise been timely circulated, friends who in the last moments of his life (left him not to die bereft) would have taken such measures as to have prohibited this unfortunate occurrence. But the deed, alas! was' too precipitately concluded—yet this remains to be said: He died with that resolution which would have distinguished even the greatest hero." The city's burial book simply records of Mendes (or Mendez): "April 2. Native of Jamaica. Died 3d inst. Fell in a duel; died at the corner of Barnard street and Bay lane." Not far from the Cottineau graves in the old cemetery, lying flat upon the earth, on a line with the north side of Hull street, is a heavy granite slab with an inscription which frequently attracts attention. Tradition, which is so often merely the mother of "historical" lies, tells us that he who lies beneath fell in a duel. In a way this is a companion to the Wilde stone, with the difference that the latter did not give the name of the man who slew the poet's brother, while on this memorial tablet the slayer's name was deeply graven, only to be removed by some one connected with him, who properly resented the perpetuation of his memory as a homicide. The chipping of the name until it became undecipherable has done more to centre attention on the inscription and awaken comment and conjecture than if it still told the passer-by who it was that slew Odrey Miller. Ordinarily the defacement of a grave stone would not prevent the interested from ascertaining who it was that sent the fatal bullet into the brain of Miller. Nowadays reference to the newspaper files would bring to light the full story. But ninety years ago the local newspapers kindly refrained from any allusion to the affair, not even a death notice and funeral invitation appearing. This was not uncommon, as in several instances where Savannahians were killed in affairs of honor not a line is to be found in print. "The Georgian's" columns threw no light on the slaying of Miller, and a search through the pages of "The Republican" files at Washington was' equally fruitless. The burial book at the City Hall supplied the only information beyond that of the stone itself. There one learns that Odrey Miller was 33 years of age, that he was a Kentuckian by birth, a horse trader by occupation, that he was wounded in the head on July 13,1831, and that Doctors Daniell, Arnold and Richardson gave their surgical services in vain. He was buried the next day. Miller's profession naturally suggests a quarrel over a horse. Savannah had its jockey club in those days, its young men owned fine stock and were keen judges of the merits of horse flesh. Racing was the sport of the day and more than one quarrel finally arbitrated with duelling pistols originated at the track. Did Miller take advantage of a patron in a horse deal? Did the trouble originate in charges of misdoing at a race? Either explanation is probable. From the race track to the duelling ground, from the duelling ground to the hospital, from the hospital to the old cemetery—all in a few hours—completed the life story of the Kentuckian who had come to Savannah and lived on State street. If it had been a murder, or ordinary manslaughter, the daily papers would doubtless have alluded to it. Being a duel it came within the scope of private affairs about which good taste and ordinary prudence dictated silence. The very absence of newspaper comment sustains the tradition of a duel. The inscription on the tombstone, with the obliterated name of the slayer, follows: To the Memory of ODREY MILLER a native of Scott County, Kentucky who died from a wound inflicted by _________ on the 13th July, 1831 aged 33 years & 3 months. A just, honest and benevolent man, is the report which his deportment among strangers has earned for him; he possessed a generous and noble spirit which could readily forgive & as readily ask forgiveness but which was ever indignant at cruelty, oppression and wholly irreconcilable to an ignoble submission. Though this stone is designed to mark the spot where they have laid him, his name and his virtues will be perpetuated in the affections and friendship of many who mourn his untimely fate. Challenges were not always accepted, nor posting regarded as rendering a duel necessary, nor did the refusal always carry with it an implication of cowardice or injure the future position in the community of the man who declined a meeting. This was signally shown in the case of Israel K. Tefft. In Tefft's early manhood he was a member of the Chatham Artillery, and in 1824 aspired to an election as sergeant in that company. When the election was held he wa." defeated through what he regarded as underhand methods by William Turner. Tefft, who resigned from the company, held that the result of the election "was not the voice of the corps," but that "new members were influenced by the intrigues of Turner." "Had I been unsuccessful by the employment of fair means I would not have uttered a word," said he, "but who is safe against plots and combinations?" Tefft sent a communication to the Chathams, which was read at the parade of the company on Washington's birthday. Soon after this Turner attacked him on the street, but Tefft got the better of his assailant and inflicted more punishment than he received. Turner then challenged him, demanding "a prompt and ample apology," or "direct your friend to act in conjunction with mine." When Tefft refused to consider the cartel Turner proceeded to post him. Tefft held that by the code he was under no obligation to meet Turner. "He has chosen his mode and felt the consequences," said he. "The challenge," Tefft maintained, "was merely an effort by Turner to recover lost ground in public esteem." "I declined the glorious pomp and circumstance of a duel, but assured him that if he attacked I would defend my person and reputation." Turner printed a card signed by fifteen of the new members of the Chathams, certifying that he had not influenced their votes. Further, he insisted that Tefft while a corporal was "a burlesque as a non-commissioned officer," and that if it had not been for outside interference he would have worsted him in the street encounter. To remove Tefft's contention as to the street attack having put Turner outside the pale of the code, Turner apologized in the public prints for the assault and renewed the invitation to settle the affair with pistols. Turner's posting accomplished nothing. "Mr. Turner," said Tefft, "is perfectly welcome to any advantage he may flatter himself he has derived from his posting system. The public need not be told that its importance must depend upon the truth or falsity of the assertions the paper contains." "You assailed me in the street and received at my hands the chastisement you merited," said he, in closing. A meeting of the Chathams held that it was a personal matter between the two men and refused to have the company drawn into it further. Evidently other friends intervened, as there is no record of any meeting. Mr. Tefft became a very prominent citizen of Savannah. He had been joint proprietor of the "Georgian" with the actor Harry James Fenn in 1821-22. In 1822 he entered the service of the Bank of the State of Georgia as a clerk, was for twenty years teller, and then in 1848 became cashier. It was he who suggested the Georgia Historical Society and became one of its founders and its secretary from its organization in 1839 until his death in 1862. The story goes that Tefft mentioned the idea to Dr. William Bacon Stevens, afterwards Bishop Stevens, and the two discussed such an organization with Dr. Richard D. Arnold. Out of their conferences grew the Georgia Historical Society. "Dr. Arnold was the only disinterested party," said a Savannahian of that day. Mr. Tefft's hobby was autographs, and he keenly appreciated the value of a historical society in bringing him into touch with men of prominence in literature, art and politics the world over, and the opportunities it might afford of securing rare American and foreign letters' and engravings through other collectors. Dr. Stevens, who was then practicing medicine, was intent on writing a history of Georgia, the need of which was appreciated 'by all educated Georgians of that day. It was the hope of his life to be in a position where he could gratify this laudable ambition. The backing of a society dedicated to the acquisition of historical materials' concerning colonial and revolutionary days would be of inestimable value to him. Dr. Arnold had no axe to grind, no private motive, no matter how commendable, to influence him. He was, as tradition says, the sole disinterested organizer of the movement. Mr. Tefft's desires were gratified. His memory still lives as one of the leading early American collectors of autographs—probably the most widely-known of his day—and his collection at his death had no equal in this country. The story is frequently told of the visit to him of Frederika Bremer, the Swedish novelist, and her delight in examining the wonderful aggregation of historical documents, signatures and portraits. Miss Bremer styled him "The greatest autograph collector in the world." "His collection of autographs," wrote she, "is the first which I have ever been able to examine with interest and respect, not because it occupied many folios and could not be fully examined in less than six months, but because a portrait is appended to the handwriting of each distinguished person, usually an excellent copper plate engraving, together with some letter or interesting document." Some years after Mr. Tefft's death his unrivaled collection was sold at auction in New York. Collecting had not then attained the wide vogue it now has, but the richness and variety of the Savannah collection awakened a degree of attention hitherto unknown in the metropolis. It and the famous library of A. A. Smets, represented the life interests of those two scholarly companions, whose homes at the corners of Bull and Jones streets were among the intellectual centres of ante-bellum Georgia. Money has now become the great factor in the fad of collecting, but with Tefft and Smets it was not so much lavish expenditure of money as rare taste and a wide knowledge of art, history and literature, a genuine love in their pursuits of antique and modern books of more than ordinary merit, and the search for historic papers, signatures and engravings. There was a wide appreciation of the intrinsic value of the Smets collection and a desire that it be preserved in its entirety to serve the public. Soon after his death a movement began to have the State take it over. The matter was brought to the attention of the legislators in April, 1863, and they directed Governor Brown to confer with the executors of the Smets estate as "to the terms on which his extensive and valuable library may be purchased by the State, and to report the terms at the next session of the General Assembly." The Journals of the General Assembly do not show any report or further action in this connection, which is not surprising- in view of the disturbed conditions resulting from the invasion of the State. Mr. Smets' library was taken to New York and sold in 1867 for $10,000, said to have been far less than it would have brought in Savannah, although the financial havoc wrought by the war was still sadly omnipresent in the South. An amusing story is told in this connection of A. T. Stewart, the "merchant prince." Those in charge of the sale naturally presumed that with great wealth had come the desire on the part of Stewart to play the part of the bibliophile, or at least become the seeming patron of literature by the accumulation of books accredited as of unusual interest and value. The Smets collection was accordingly brought to his attention and he requested that a catalog be sent to him. This was done. Hearing nothing further from him some one ventured to again direct attention to the opportunity to enrich his library at the sale. To the astonishment and amusement of those handling the books there came back from the canny Scotchman the reply: "The books are entirely too old to suit me." Evidently the merchant prince looked upon the treasures the Savannah lover of books had gathered from the marts of the world as though they were merely so much second-hand merchandise, out of place in his vast emporium or palatial home. Yet, had he but known it, the treasures he so ignorantly rejected would have brought to his estate, in the fullness of time, a vastly greater increment of profit than the bulk of his investments, skilfully made though they were. What would not the multi-millionaire bibliophiles' of to-day bid in competition for the rare items of this Savannah library which was sold for a fraction of its value? In it were manuscripts of the 9th to the 14th century, including curious parchment deeds of the 12th century. Black letter books- of the 16th century of extreme rarity stood on the shelves of Smets' library with actual impressions from the presses of Gutenberg, Fust and Schoffer, the immortal triumvirate of Mayence printers, and close by them volumes from the press of William Caxton, father of printing in England. Egyptian papyrus, three thousand and more years old, contested in interest with manuscripts of Horace Walpole, Laurence Sterne, Addison and others. From the rich stores of despoiled monasteries there had come to this collection parchment missals, illuminated with numerous paintings in miniature, in their original bindings, over which the mediaeval monks had labored with love and a keen sense of the truly beautiful and enduring. The oldest manuscript had been executed in the 9th century, a copy of a work by Pope Gregory in the 6th century. Such were a few of the wonders of a library to which visitors of culture sought admission as the most interesting thing Savannah had to offer for their inspection and delight. No wonder an unknown local lover of art and literature, bewailing its departure, said of the Smets collection: "Its loss to Savannah must be reckoned among the calamities of the war—a misfortune which can be borne the more cheerfully, however, when it is reflected that this library has at least escaped the ravages of an invading army which destroyed so many other monuments of wealth and culture in the South." Smets was a director of the Bank of the State of Georgia, of which, as stated, Tefft was' cashier. He was librarian of the Georgia Historical Society in 1843 and its treasurer 1855-1862, holding that office at his death. There were other Savannah professional and business men who had tastes in common with them, making a group of connoisseurs such as one would find in few of the smaller cities' of the country at that time. It was fortunate, one feels, that Tefft did not, in a moment of unreasoning anger, accept the challenge from the irate Turner, or Savannah might have been deprived of one who was a most valuable citizen over a long period of years, a leader in its higher cultural life as well as an exponent of the sterling integrity of its men of business affairs. His unceasing interest was a great factor in the development of the Georgia Historical Society and to him Savannah is indebted for much of the wealth of historical matter gathered at Hodgson Hall. It is interesting to recall that the long life of the Society, eighty-four years, from 1839 to 1923, is spanned by two of its officials, Mr. Tefft and the present librarian, Mr. William Harden, who assumed that position in 1866. During "The War Between the States," the activities of the Society lapsed. Mr. Harden's service of fifty-seven years is probably a record unequalled by any other American librarian. 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/gms415savannah.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 27.5 Kb