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BY JOHN SEAWRIGHT
THE SORROWS OF THE
ALSTONS. Part 7.
The Florida territory had a white popu
lation of less than 20,000 when the Georgia
Alstons settled on Lake Miccosukee outside
Tallahassee in the late 1820s. Six years after
a capital had been hacked out of the wilder
ness in 1824 Tallahassee had only 542 free
inhabitants and 381 slaves but could boast
two banks and one of the first, and worst, rail
roads in the hemisphere. Augustus Alston was
a director of one of the banks, and his brother
Willis a director of the railroad. American
Florida was even in its earliest days a magnet
for criminals, castaways, adventurers and ex
iles: the Alstons’ Tallahassee neighbors in
cluded the Prussian John von Bulow who
killed one of his slaves for mishandling a tar
get during a shooting match, and “Prince”
Murat, the Emperor Napoleon’s quarrelsome
and corpulent nephew, whose indifferent per
sonal hygiene had to be forcibly attended to
by slaves under the direction of his wife, a
great-niece of George Washington.
In the closing months of
1835 the Seminoles and their
black allies undertook to
drive the white invaders from
the peninsula, setting in mo
tion the Second Seminole
War. The red-and-black alli
ance burned 16 plantations
in sparsely settled East Florida
and threatened St. August
ine. Hot-blooded white men
throughout the South took
up arms and hurried to the
defense of their beleaguered
brothers and sisters in ———
Florida, summoned by pleas such as this one
from John C. Casey: “We expect your Georgia
volunteers... and let them know that your
brother and my best friend after fighting til the
last... was butchered by the Indian Negroes.”
American military organization in those
days reflected the high value placed on local
and individual sovereignty in the young re
public. The armed forces in Florida were a
hodgepodge of regular army troops, volunteer
units and local militias from across the South.
Some officers were elected, some appointed,
few of them willing to subordinate the honor
and safety of their men to other command
ers. Some units were in for the duration of
the war, but most had signed up for fixed terms
of enlistment, usually six months. Their of
ficers brought personal, political and regional
rivalries into the field: from the humblest lieu
tenants of volunteers right up to the feuding
commanding generals Winfield Scott and
Edmund Gaines the army was a wasps nest
of jealousy and intrigue, and no officer was
“SHOOT
THE
DAMNED
DOG!”
.aura’s for this week's column and recommend
O! JCdlUUSy ouu • i j
more imperious or irritable than Augustus A. j diem, especially Mahon's definitive study, to ev
.... I • J * . -I _ C* - _ 1 _ ■ /1M/J T bt
Alston, Colonel of Florida Volunteers.
On Jan. 31, 1836, Lieutenant William
Ward, a regimental drillmaster, presented
Colonel Augustus Alston with a petition
signed by soldiers of the regiment drawing
Alston's attention to the fact that their six-
month enlistment was up and to their desire
to return home. Alston glanced at the peti
tion and turned to his second-in-command,
<5
%n
.t r
-m
Colonel William C. Parish, with a curt com
mand: “Shoot the damned dog.” Parish pro
duced his pistol and shot 1 eutenant Ward
dead on the spot.
An official inquiry cleared Parish of any
wrongdoing; Alston was not investigated.
Military justice was satisfied, but not the
honor of the Ward family. Colonel George T.
Ward, brother of the dead man, issued a chal
lenge to duel which Augustus Alston ac
cepted. The encounter took place in 1837 at
Houstoun’s Hill, the traditional Tallahassee
duelling ground a mile and a half from town.
Ward and Alston had agreed that the duel
would be to the death. Each was armed with
four single-shot pistols, one in each hand and
two at their waists. The duel began with the
combatants 30 paces apart; they were to ad
vance toward a barrier midway between them,
firing at will until one or both were dead.
Thirty-seven years later an old Tallahassean
published an account of the encounter:
The combatants ad
vanced quickly, Col. A. with
some difficulty, having been
on crutches some months,
with an unhealed gun-shot
wound. When within ter
paces, the firing com
menced. Col. Ward's first
shot struck and buried itself
in the pistol belt of Col. A.,
made impromptu of a
thickly folded silk handker
chief. The first and second
shots of Col. A. missed; his
third pistol failed to fire, and
was thrown from him with an oath; but his
fourth shot struck Ward a little below the
point of the shoulder blade, crossing the back
bone, making a most frightful wound. The
bullet was cut out 16 inches from where it
entered. The force of the ball was so great
that Col. W. was spun half round, and thrown
to the ground, (Col. A. exclaiming “1 have
killed him!”} but slowly rising and taking a
long sight, he fired, Col. A. standing erect
with his side presented and his arm down at
the side, receiving the ball u. his arm.
This was Wards third fire, when he fell,
exhausted, losing the fourth.
No reconciliation was attempted: Ward say-
ing bitterly as he lay in his blood, "He is safe and
I am the one to S'.ffer; how hard, how hard!”
Waid and ALston survived their injuries and
agreed rhrough intermediaries to resume the
duel when both had recovered, but Colonel
Ward was never to receive his “satisfaction.”
Note: I have used the following books as
DANCE / FITNESS VJ WELL-BEING CENTER
NOW OPEN! WITH CLASSES IN:
JAZZ! - Class focuses on jazz technique, rhythms and performance.-choreography
will include funk, hip-hop. adagio, olues. Broadway styles. Tcught by PAM WALDEN
FUNK! - Energetic combination of 'MTV Styles', modern jazz, hip-hop dance moves
is easy and fun to learn.
Taught by PETE POULOS
MODERN! - Class explores various dynamics and qualities of movement exnrossion-
incorporates conditioning, stretch, breath, creative expression.
Taught by TONI MALCOLM-BASS.
AFRO-HAITIAN! - African dance from Haiti. Rhythmic movement and dance
steps to live drummers. Taught by ELLEN BLEIER.
TAI-CHI CHUAN! - Chinese martial art and physical exercise form, valued by
Chinese for a thousand years for its psychological/physiological benefits
Taught by DR. WEICHERNG PAN. M.D.
YOGA! - Integral Hatha I Yoga (beginner) Integiates meditation/quieting of the mind,
breathing techniques, and postures that relax and tone muscles.
Taught by KERRY FULFORD
NOVEMBER SCHEDULE
Thurs: 6:U0pm Modem Perfo
7:15pm Funk
Set: 11:15a.p. Jazz
ance
Mon: 7:15pm Funk
Tues: 6:00om Atro-Haitian
7:15pm Hatha Yoga
Wed: 6:00pm Tai-Chi
7- 15pm Modern Elements
For Introductory Rates & Pi ^ 1110
For more information. Please Call 040" I I I 4
y _ 2026 S. Milledge Ave.
eryone interested in the Seminole wars and the
early history of American Florida: John K.
Mahon, History of the Second Seminole War,
1835-1842 (revised edition); Sidney W. Mar-
an, Florida During the Territorial Days; Clifton
Paisley, The Red Hills of Florida; and Bertram
H. Groene, Ante-bellum Tallahassee.
CONTINUED NEXT WEEK.
©1996 John Ryan Seawright
The Committee for Black Cultural Programming presents...
Dr. M. Joycelyn Elders
Monday, November 11,1996 • 7:30 pm
Georgia Hall, Tate Student Center
The former U.S. Surgeon General, to speak on
education Sc personal responsibility
Tickets cue on sale
now at the
Tate Student Center
Cashier's Window
and will be
available at the door
$2 For UGA Students
w/UGACard*
$4 General Admission
*UGACard must be
presented at the lime of
purchase and at the door
The University of Georgia
unlvarsityi
C3CF
L
/ 9 9 <*>
