The Sandbar Fight, also known as the Vidalia Sandbar Fight, was a formal one-on-one duel that erupted into a violent brawl involving a number of combatants on September 19, 1827. It took place on a large sandbar in the Mississippi River, a few miles north of Vidalia, Louisiana and Natchez, Mississippi. The fight resulted in the death of General Samuel Cuny and Major Norris Wright. American pioneer and folk hero James Bowie survived, but was seriously injured in the fight.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandbar_Fight
Duel
- On Wednesday, September 19, 1827, at midday, Wells and Maddox, accompanied by their seconds and supporters, met on a sandbar near the town of Natchez, Mississippi. Jim Bowie supported Wells, while Norris Wright favored Maddox. In total, 17 named men were present. The Wells party arrived first by a small boat from the Louisiana shore. The Maddox party and local observers then arrived by horse from a nearby Mississippi plantation house, fording a bayou. The duel was conducted by formal rules of the time, with a lengthy delay between exchanges of fire. The noncombatant witnesses (including the surgeons) kept a reasonable distance from the duel for the duration of the fight.
Wells and Maddox each fired two shots, and as neither man was injured, resolved the formal duel with a handshake.
Brawl
- At the conclusion of the initial duel, the party of six (Wells, Maddox, McWorter, Crain, Dr. Cuny, and Dr. Denny) prepared to celebrate survival. They walked towards the remaining Maddox partisans, because no participant of the duel had a violent relationship with that group. The duel participants were balanced in number (three each) and unarmed with the exception of the seconds. Crain carried a loaded pistol in each hand. The duel participants were intercepted by the remaining Wells partisans; Crain now faced three additional armed men. Seeing this from a distance, the remaining Maddox partisans began running forward to join the group. General Cuny, who had previously fought with Crain, is recorded as having called out to him, "Col. Crain, this is a good time to settle our difficulty." Crain fired, missing Cuny but striking Bowie in the hip and knocking him to the ground. Cuny and Crain then exchanged fire, with Crain sustaining a flesh wound in the arm and Cuny dying from a shot to the chest or thigh.
Bowie, rising to his feet, drew his knife and charged at Crain, who struck him so hard upon the head with his empty pistol that it broke and sent Bowie to his knees. Wright appeared, drew a pistol, and shot at the fallen Bowie, missing. Wright then drew his sword cane and stabbed Bowie in the chest, but the thin blade was deflected by his sternum. As Wright attempted to pull the blade free, Bowie reached up, grabbed his shirt, and pulled him down upon the point of his Bowie knife. Wright died quickly and Bowie was shot again and stabbed by another member of the group. As Bowie stood, both Blanchard brothers fired at him, and he was struck once in the arm. Bowie spun and cut off part of Alfred's forearm; Carey fired a second shot at Bowie, but missed. As the Blanchard brothers fled, Alfred was shot "through the arm" by Jefferson Wells, while Carey was shot at by Major McWorter "without effect".
The brief (90-second) brawl left Samuel Cuny and Norris Wright dead, and Alfred Blanchard and Jim Bowie badly wounded. The unarmed Dr. Denny was shot in a finger and a thigh. Others may have suffered minor injuries; Crain claimed that a bullet "grazed the skin" of his arm.
Crain helped carry Bowie away, with Bowie recorded as having thanked him, saying, "Col. Crain, I do not think, under the circumstances, you ought to have shot me." One doctor reputedly said, "How he [Bowie] lived is a mystery to me, but live he did." The five doctors who had been present for the duel managed to patch Bowie's wounds. The dead and wounded (at least, and perhaps all partisans) promptly crossed the river by boat soon after the death of General Cuny.
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