Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

514 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
dead letter, and, to procure an acquittal from an average jury it was
only necessary to show that the duel was fought in a decorous manner,
according to the strict ethics of the Code of Honor. Here the law
stopped. It required something more than a legislative enactment to
uproot the traditions of chivalry in a land of Cavaliers.
Perhaps the most famous of G-eorgia 's Indian fighters was Gen. John
Floyd, who won renown on the frontier during the W.ar of 1812. Skilled
in the exercise of arms, there was scarcely any sort of weapon, from
a shot-gun to a bowie-knife, with whose effective use he was not familiar;
nor was it solely with Indian warriors that this seasoned old regular
engaged in hand-to-hand encounters. Down in Camden County, Georgia,
where General Floyd spent most of his life and where he lies buried on
one of his plantations, tradition credits him with having fought what in
some respects was the most extraordinary duel of which there is any
record in the bloody chronicles of the Code.
His antagonist, a Mr. Hopkins, was equally skilled in the use of
weapons, and equally fearless. It was Greek against Greek. As the
challenged party, Mr. Hopkins claimed the right to choose weapons; but,
instead of satisfying himself with one kind, he chose three—a most
radical departure from the venerated traditions. To settle the grievance
between them it was agreed to fire a round with shot-guns, at a certain'
specified distance. In the event neither was killed or disabled in this
exchange of shots, they were to approach several feet nearer with drawn
pistols, and if both remained on foot after this second fire, they were to
end the affair in a hand-to-hand grapple with bowie-knives, fighting till
one or both should fall mortally wounded.
On both sides, this program was commenced in deadly earnest. But
General Floyd's antagonist, in either the first or second round, was so
effectually disabled by loss of blood that resort to bowie-knives as a
finality was abandoned. The incident suffices to show General Floyd's
grim hardihood as a fighter. His characteristics in this respect were
transmitted to his son, Gen. Charles L. Floyd, and to his grandson,
Capt. Richard S. Floyd, both of whom are credited with affairs of honor.
Hon.. Win. G. McAdoo, the present distinguished secretary of the treas
ury in President Wilson's cabinet, and the latter's son-in-law, is a lineal
descendant of General Floyd; and, while he has not emulated the prowess
of his ancestor as a duellist, he has turned the fighting spirit of his
family into industrial channels, with the result that he is today credited
with one of the greatest achievements of modern times: the construc
tion of the Hudson River tunnels.
Hon. Bb. T. Williams, of Atlanta, a distinguished member of the
Georgia bar, owns a duelling pistol which figured in one of the most dra
matic episodes of Georgia's history prior to the Civil war. It is an old
flint-and-steel weapon, made by Manton and Son, of London, famous in
an earlier day for the manufacture of firearms used on the field of honor.
The barrel is one of very large bore, inlaid with platinum and encircled
by silver bands. The device for sighting is also of silver, while the
powder pan is covered with a layer of platinum. From end to end, the
pistol measures some eighteen inches in length. It is handsomely en-