President Abraham Lincoln and General Joe Shields, who married sisters,
once arranged to fight a duel at Alton, Ill. It is remembered yet by the
old settlers. Shields had offended a young lady at Springfield, and she
got even by sending an article about it to a Springfield paper, signing
a nom de plume. The next day General Shields called upon the editor
and gave him 24 hours during which to divulge the name of the author
or to take the consequences. The editor, who was a friend of Abraham
Lincoln, called upon him and asked what to do. Not thinking it was a
very serious affair, Lincoln promptly said, “Tell him that I wrote it.”
The editor did so, and General Shields challenged Lincoln to a duel, the
latter accepting and choosing broadswords as the weapons and an island
opposite Alton as the place. The principals and seconds went to the place
appointed, when a chance remark of Lincoln that he hated to have to kill
Shields because he caused him to believe that he wrote the article in
order to protect a lady, brought about a reconciliation, and the duel
failed to come off. Hundreds of people were on the bank of the river,
and to carry out a joke a log was dressed up, placed in a skiff, the
occupants fanning it with their hats as though it was an injured man, and
the excitement was intense. It always remained a sore spot with Lincoln,
and but little was ever said about it.