Internet forum bickering in 1839

[oddoneout]

Hilarious.

 

[AGBF]

Date: 3/23/2010 10:39:12 PM
Author: kenny

If you google the guys name with the date you can find a very funny, but NSFW, long thread on some other forum about it.
Some will find it very funny.
Others will find it quite offensive so google AYOR.

Kenny-First, what does, "NSFW" stand for? (I figured out that "AYOR" must stand for "at your own risk".)

Second, I went looking for the forum that had a discussion of the Tradewell placard, hoping for something juicy, but couldn't find it.

(What on earth could they have been saying about politics in 1839 that some of us would have found offensive? I really wanted to find that!) At any rate, I am a would-be historian (having failed to complete a Ph.D in history that I once started). That means that I am a dilettante who can't stop rummaging around on the Internet. So although I couldn't find the forum discussion I wanted I found an obituary for General Read; a discussion of a December 1839 duel between General Read and someone other than Dr. Tradewell; etcetera.

The story was pieced together. This is a précis of the story from a website I found.

Duel Placard. Political discussions sometimes led to heated arguments and then to deadly duels in the territory's "wild frontier" days.

This public notice pronouncing General Leigh Read to be a coward was posted by Whig party leader William Tradewell in March, 1839, after Read refused to apologize or duel following an argument. General Read, a leading Democrat, remarked at the time that if he were going to fight someone, it would be the head of the Whigs, Colonel Augustus Alston.

Hearing this, Colonel Alston challenged Read to a duel. This offer was accepted and the duel set for December 12, 1839. Alston was a seasoned duelist and Read was considered to be as good as dead.

"Yager" Rifle. General Read chose this unusual hunting rifle with a sensitive hair-trigger with which to duel. The over-confident Colonel Alston, unused to this heavy weapon, lost his balance and fired before he was able to aim. Read then calmly shot Alston in the chest, killing him.

Bullet Press and Bullet. Although the Alston-Read duel was considered "fair", Alston's grieving sisters thought of it as murder. They removed the bullet from Alston's body, and had it melted down and poured into a press to reshape it. They sent it to their older brother-insisting he avenge his brother's death using the same bullet. General Read was shot and killed by Willis Alston in April, 1841.

Deb/AGBF

 

[jewelz617]

NSFW= Not Safe For Work