Chatham County GaArchives History .....Savannah Duels - Chapter XVIII 1923
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CHAPTER XVIII 

SAVANNAH'S LAST FATAL DUEL, IN 1870

A BOAT RACE AND ITS TRAGIC RESULT?SPLENDID NERVE OF LUDLOW COHEN WHO FELL
MORTALLY WOUNDED ON THE FIFTH EXCHANGE OF SHOTS WITH "OLD DICK" AIKEN?JUDGE
GIBSON'S COMMENT AND WHAT THE CODE HELD AS TO CONTINUED EXCHANGE OF SHOTS.

    The last fatal duel between Savannahians was that in which Ludlow Cohen fell
from a bullet from a pistol of Richardson F. ("Dick") Aiken. This was in 1870.
Both were men of recognized courage. Aiken was about sixty years of age, a rice
planter from near Darien, a frequent visitor to Savannah, a lover of the water
and owner of one or more fast sailing pleasure boats. In Savannah his only
associates were the lovers of sport. That was the period when aquatic sports
flourished here. Cohen was in his early 30's, of the firm of Wilkins & Cohen,
dealers in fertilizers. He had come from "over home," as Charleston was even
then dubbed, and was popular not only with the young element of sportsmen but
with all who became acquainted with him. Like Aiken, he was the owner of a fast
sailing boat. A half century ago the Savannah owner of a yacht felt the same
keen interest and pride in its good points and performances that the owner of a
race horse did, constantly extolling his boat's merits, and was ever open to a
challenge.

    It was out of this jealousy of the racing qualities of their boats that this
duel came. One day the two men and a number of companions of similar tastes were
gathered at the house of John Anderson, at Beaulieu, afterwards the Lester place
on the point. There was a good racing breeze and a test of the boats of Aiken
and Cohen was suggested and agreed upon. Aiken's son was placed in charge of the
stake boat, stationed a mile or two from the starting point, and the race began
with the usual zest. Cohen's yacht lead and turned the stake boat a considerable
distance ahead of Aiken's. The breeze then died out and the contest degenerated
into a drifting match back to Beaulieu.

    Gathered at the Anderson house the merits of the boats were the topic of
conversation among the group of young men who remained for social intercourse.
It was suggested that as Aiken's boat had seemed to be gaining on Cohen's boat,
another race between the two should be arranged to determine which was the
better craft.

    "I will not race with Aiken again," said Cohen. "He is not a gentleman."

    "What do you mean by that ?" demanded B. B. Ferrill, a close friend of
Aiken's, who had made the suggestion that the race be run over, and who is still
remembered by many Savannahians as "Benny" Ferrill.

    ?I mean what I said," replied Cohen. "His son moved the stake boat forward
in order to give his father an advantage of shorter distance. I will not race
with a man who would profit by such a move as that."

    Ferrill is described as quickly resenting this, as he had suggested the
second race.

    "If you do not retract what you have said," came his sharp rejoinder, "I
will tell your comments to Aiken immediately."

    "I have nothing to retract," was Cohen's final remark as he turned away, and
nothing could convince him that he was in error in his suspicion as to improper
practice in the race.

    True to his threat, Ferrill at once sought Aiken, who was still in the
Anderson house, and informed him of Cohen's words.

    Dictated by Aiken, Ferrill penned a peremptory challenge to Cohen and
delivered it at once.

    It demanded a full retraction and apology, and in lieu of that an immediate
meeting with such weapons as Cohen might select.

    Cohen declined to consider the suggestion of friends that he withdraw his
offensive remarks. The fact that he was a poor shot and that Aiken had had much
greater experience in the use of firearms did not deter him from the meeting.

    The regular duelling pistols were selected as weapons. Several friends
refused to act as seconds and urged a settlement of the trouble. Capt. David
Waldhauer, of the Georgia Hussars, a one-arm veteran of the Civil War, became
Cohen's second, while Ferrill acted in that capacity for his friend Aiken.

    Late that afternoon, Thursday, August 18, the two parties left the city.
Aiken and his friends spent the night at the McAlpin place, the Hermitage, while
Cohen and his friends slept at the adjoining Brampton, the plantation of Dr. J.
B. Read. Dr. William Duncan and Dr. Thomas J. Charlton accompanied them as
surgeons.

    At daybreak on Friday morning the duellists met at the place selected, on
the Brampton plantation, about four miles from the city, near a little cluster
of trees, on the left-hand side of the Augusta road.

    Twelve paces had been decided upon as the distance and were at once stepped
off, and the seconds went through the usual preliminaries.

    Captain Waldhauer, having lost his right arm at Gettysburg, was unable to
load the pistol for Cohen, and that duty was performed by Dwight Roberts, the
only living witness today of the duel. The pistols were the old style smooth
bore, the calibre being a one-fourth ounce ball.

    It was the freshness of the early dawn. The dew was still on the grass and
shrubbery, the birds were singing their matins, butterflies fluttered about
them, the varied insect life of the woods and fields was astir, nature was just
awakening from its night's rest.

    The darkness had been one of little slumber for the principals and those
accompanying them, and while the sun was dissipating the mists that still
obscured a part of the landscape it could not rob the two groups, that faced
each other with cold and formal salutations, of a sombreness which seemed to
foreshadow the tragedy that lay within the womb of the next half hour.

    The seconds drew for positions, and to Cohen fell the choice. He selected
the east, with the sun's glints falling over his shoulders and lighting and
warming up the little stretch of ground, half sand and half grass, that lay
between him and the man who felt that only in the shedding of Cohen's blood
could be washed out the stigma that had been attached to him in the young man's
intemperate utterances.

    No efforts at reconciliation were made, it being apparent from the attitude
of the two men that nothing could be accomplished in that direction.

    Four shots were exchanged, without either of the duellists being hit. Under
the ordinary procedure, after each exchange of shots, the seconds were supposed
to seek an amicable adjustment, or an expression from the challenging party that
he was satisfied. For some reason this appears not to have been done.

    For the fifth time the pistols were loaded and the two men confronted each
other with the same grim determination that had marked them from the beginning.

    It was evident from the spirit of the principals that the exchange of shots
would continue until one or both of them fell wounded.

    Just before they took their positions for the last time one of Cohen's
friends said to him:

    "Aiken will try to kill you. You must keep cool. Are you nervous?"
Cohen laughed.

    "Nervous? Not a bit," and with a careless swing he threw the pistol into the
air and caught it by the end of the barrel as it came down, and once more calmly
faced his adversary.

    Again came the usual question, and again the two nodded their heads that
they were ready.

Again came the word, "Fire! One, two, three.   Stop!"

    But the admonition not to fire, if either man had failed to do so at the
signal, was unnecessary.

    As quickly as the word "Fire" came, Cohen had pulled his trigger. His fifth
bullet failed of its mark.

    Aiken's aim was better than his preceding efforts to lodge a bullet in his
living target. The report of the pistol came distinctly after that of Cohen's,
and the bullet from it entered Cohen's right side, passing through the abdomen,
cutting the intestines.

    Cohen's right arm dropped to his side, the empty pistol fell from his grasp,
and the unfortunate young man sank to the ground.

    Instantly the surgeons came to his aid. Their examination showed that the
wound was in all likelihood fatal. Placing him in a carriage they brought Cohen
quickly to the city to his residence. Other surgeons were called in, but he was
beyond human aid. Shortly before 3 o'clock that afternoon he breathed his last.

    There has come down a story that Aiken was really a good shot, that he could
have wounded or killed Cohen in one of the first exchanges of bullets, but
refrained from doing so in the belief that his antagonist would express a
willingness to apologize or retract, and that he only took more careful aim on
the fifth round from a recognition of the fact that Cohen's persistence in
shooting might eventuate in his own death.

    The facts do not sustain this tradition.

    Aiken and his friends came to the city and Aiken delivered himself xo
Justice Isaac M. March, who held him in bond of $5,000. Coroner Harden later
gathered a jury to investigate the killing.

    The surgeons were called upon to testify.

    "Was the shot that proved fatal given in self-defense ?" was asked of Dr.
Charlton.

    "It was," he replied. "Mr. Cohen fired first and it was after he fired that
he received the fatal wound."

    Dr. Duncan and Mr. Roberts confirmed this. Mr. Roberts added: "I think there
would have been another exchange of shots if Mr. Cohen had not been wounded."

The jury's deliberations were brief. Its verdict was:

    "We find that the deceased came to his death from a gunshot wound received
at the hands of Richard F. Aiken, whilst fighting a duel, contrary to the laws
of Georgia."

    For a time it seemed as though an example might be made of Aiken. The
coroner discharged his jury, stating that the case would be brought to the
attention of the grand jury. Aiken was released by Judge Schley on $20,000 bond.
Apparently that was the end of the matter. The newspapers gave more details than
of previous duels, but the present-day instinct to cover tragedies fully was
absent, and much of the information herewith presented was obtained from other
sources. In its brief account of the hearing the "Morning News" said:

    "The questions involved are nice legal ones, and as the unfortunate affair
has attracted much attention, there will doubtless be a crowd to listen to the
arguments involved in the case." And it further informed its readers that "It
was currently reported that Governor Bullock had telegraphed, upon hearing that
a duel had been fought with fatal results, to arrest all parties engaged in the
affair of honor."
    Perhaps that was a move to awaken sympathy for the living duellist,
interference by Bullock in a Chatham affair not being relished here. But there
was not a word of editorial protest against duelling as a practice, not an
expression of disapprobation by the journals of public opinion.

    If the grand jury considered the duel, it refused to bring in an indictment.
    The pistols used in this affair are now the property of Mr. A. G. Guerard.
As far as known, they are the only pistols extant in Savannah used in a duel
with a fatal ending. The Anderson house, where the trouble brewed, was burned to
the ground on December 26, 1877.

    The killing of Cohen caused much excitement. Those who recall it tell of the
feeling which swept the community and the sentiment it awakened against recourse
to the code to settle personal difficulties.

    Cohen had become quite popular during his residence in Savannah. He was a
young man of high principles and drew many friends to him. That his life should
have been snuffed out, in violation of law, in response to an old code of honor
that many thinking men looked upon with disapproval, if not horror, awakened
hostile criticism that did not entirely die out after the proverbial ten days'
sensation.

    There were more meetings of this nature afterwards, in which no one was
wounded, but the era of duelling for Savannahians was nearly over.

    Its tragedies ceased when Cohen's life blood gushed out on the sands of
Brampton.

    It is related that Judge R. T. Gibson, who had been City Treasurer several
years before this, and was conversant with various affairs of honor, was at the
old Habersham office on the Bay when told of the details of the duel.

    "My God!" said he, when informed it was on the fifth exchange of shots that
Cohen received his mortal wound. "Five shots! Did they not know that one, or at
the most two shots, amply satisfies a man's honor ?"

    And the old man was right to a certain extent. It all depended on how
serious Aiken considered Cohen's statement to be that "He was not a gentleman."

    An old writer on duelling held that if more than two shots were exchanged,
it was evidence of a malevolent desire to slay, or of an ignorance in the use of
weapons that brought the custom into disrepute.

    Governor John Lyde Wilson, of South Carolina, the noted authority on
duelling, in his Code published in 1838, said to have been the first prepared in
this country, and which became the accepted standard in the South Atlantic
section, pointed out that after an exchange of shots, neither party being hit,
"It is the duty of the second of the challengee to approach the second of the
challenger, and say: 'Our friends have exchanged shots; are you satisfied, or is
there any cause why this contest should be continued ?'

    "If the meeting be of no serious cause of complaint, where the party
complaining has in no way been deeply injured, or grossly insulted," Governor
Wilson went on to say, "the second of the party challenging should reply: 'The
point of honor being settled, there can, I conceive, be no objection to a
reconciliation, and I propose that our principals meet in middle ground, shake
hands and be friends.'

    "If this be acceded to by the seconds of the challengee, the second of the
party challenging says: 'We have agreed that the present duel shall cease, the
honor of each of you is preserved, and you will meet in middle ground, shake
hands, and be reconciled.'

    "If the insult be of a serious character, it will be the duty of the second
of the challenger to say, in reply to the second of the challengee, 'We have
been deeply wronged, and if you are not disposed to repair the injury, the
contest must continue.' And if the challengee offers nothing in way of
reparation, the fight continues until one or the other of the principals is hit."

    Aiken and his second may have considered Cohen's accusation of unfair
practice in the race as coming under the last provision of the code.

    A number of Cohen's friends accompanied the body to his former home,
Charleston, S. C. The Charleston "Courier," of August 22, 1870, said:

    "Obsequies of Mr. Ludlow Cohen: The remains of this gentleman who fell in a
duel on Friday last, in Savannah, Ga., were brought to the city on Saturday, and
carried to the residence of his uncle, D. D. DeLeon, Esq., corner of Wentworth
and Smith streets. The funeral took place yesterday at the house and continued
at the cemetery, Coming street, according to his faith, and were concluded by
the lodge of which he was a member. The deceased was well known here as a young
gentleman of high tone and character."


Additional Comments:
From:

ANNALS   OF   SAVANNAH

SAVANNAH DUELS AND DUELLISTS

1733-1877
BY

Thomas Gamble

COPYRIGHT 1923
REVIEW PUBLISHING & PRINTING COMPANY SAVANNAH, GEORGIA


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