Mid-South Duels - Donald Harrison

Mid-South Duels: Walker- Marmaduke; Hamlin-Freeman; and Phelan-Brizzolera

Join Donald Harrison, local historian and docent at Elmwood Cemetery, as he relates stories behind three duels involving six participants, five of them Memphians, in duels that occurred in the Memphis area and also Little Rock between 1863 and 1870. 

The Marmaduke-Walker Duel was fought during the Civil War between Confederate brigadier generals John Sappington Marmaduke and Lucius Marshall (Marsh) Walker.  Edward Lumpkin Hamlin was killed in a dueling match against Edward Thomas Freeman just south of the Tennessee border in Mississippi.  Finally, one of the last known of such affrays -- and the only one described in minute detail in the local papers -- took place on 29 June 1870 between two young Memphis  lawyers -- Capt. James  Brizzolara, and Capt. George Richard Phelan,. The two attorneys were careful not to violate Tennessee law, taking their firearms across the river to Hopefield, Ark., just opposite Monroe Street in Memphis.  The talk touches on the history and tradition of American duels and also gives background information and causes of the three mentioned duels.