n swords were employed and first
blood usually constituted "satisfaction." Up to the time of the Civil
War the man who refused a challenge became a sort of outcast, and I have
been told that even to this day a duel is occasionally fought. Governor
Claiborne, first American governor of Louisiana, was a duelist, and his
monument--a family monument in the annex of the old Basin Street
division of St. Louis cemetery--bears upon one side an inscription in
memory of his brother-in-law, Micajah Lewis, "who fell in a duel,
January 14, 1804."

Gayarre, in his history of Louisiana, tells a story of six young French
noblemen who, one night, paired off and fought for no reason whatever
save out of bravado. Two of them were killed.

Two famous characters of New Orleans, about the middle of the last
century, were Major Joe Howell, a brother-in-law of Jefferson Davis, and
Major Henry, a dare-devil soldier of fortune who had filibustered in
Nicaragua and fought in the Mexican War. One day while drinking together
they quarreled, and as a result a duel was arranged to take place the
same afternoon. Henry kept on drinking, but Howell went to sleep and
slept until it was time to go to the dueling ground, when he took one
cocktail, and departed.

Feeling that a duel over a disagreement the occasion for which neither
contestant could remember, was the height of folly, friends intervened,
and finally succeeded in getting Major Henry to say that the fight could
be called off if Howell would apologize.

"For what?" he was asked.

"Don't know and don't care," returned the old warrior.

As Howell would not apologize, navy revolvers were produced and the two
faced each other, the understanding being that they should begin at ten
paces with six barrels loaded, firing at will and advancing. At the word
"Fire!" both shot and missed, but Howell cocked his revolver with his
right thumb and fired again immediately, wounding Henry in the arm.
Henry then fired and missed a second time, while Howell's third shot
struck his antagonist in the abdomen. Wounded as he was, Henry managed
to fire again, narrowly missing the other, who was not only a giant in
size, but was a conspicuous mark, owing to the white clothing which he
wore. At this Howell advanced a step and took steady aim, and he would
almost certainly have killed his opponent had not his own second
reached out and thrown his pistol up, sending the shot wild. This
occurred after the other side