2022-11 Raynors HCA Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/19/2022
A complete and authentic issue of the NILES WEEKLY REGISTER, Baltimore, November 17, 1827, 16pp., disbound, 6-1/4' x 9-3/4", VG. The "eye witness" account of events that defined the legend of Jim Bowie begins at the bottom left column of page 182, under the headline "Terrible Rencontre". Long standing political and personal animosities led to a September 1827 duel by Samuel Wells and Thomas Maddox on a sandbar in the Mississippi River between the states of Louisiana and Mississippi. Both men brought their pistols and their seconds for the confrontation. After the requisite formalities, both men fired without anyone being hit. Another shot was fired by the men, again, without the bullets finding their mark. The duel ended without bloodshed, but the assembled onlookers, men loyal to both Wells and Maddox, drew guns on each other and shots were fired. One of the men firing was Jim Bowie, a friend of Wells. In the ensuing violence Bowie was hit in the side and killed another man. Bowie shouted, "You have shot me, I'll kill you if I can" and lunged at his attackers. He then, "...drew a large butcher-knife and endeavored to put his threat into action." Two men set upon Bowie, one with a gun and the other with a sword cane. The newspaper account states, "Bowie stabbed Wright through the arm in two places, he then left him and went to Alfred Blanchard --- made three stabs at him, one of which struck him in the left side: he then returned to Wright, and gave him a stab in the breast, which went to his heart --- he died instantly." One of the earliest records of Jim Bowie using his renowned knife. Heritage has sold this item for $1015, #52550, June 26, 2010.
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