Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 19, 1991 TAG: 9103190144
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Mark Morrison
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
In fact, there really haven't been any formal rifle duels in these parts since the celebrated Lewis-McHenry Duel of 1808.
That tragic swap of buckshot between friends Thomas Lewis and John McHenry put an end to the fatal practice once and for all, not to mention both men involved.
And it took place right here in Christiansburg, of all seemingly peaceful places.
You don't believe it?
Then look downtown. Across from the Montgomery County Courthouse stands your proof: a gray-and-black historical marker at the site of the duel.
Well, OK, not the exact site. The shootout actually took place a few blocks up the hill from the courthouse, in a grove of saplings off South Franklin Street.
But either way, the results remain the same. Two men died and their deaths led to the passage of the Barbour Bill of 1810, outlawing rifle duels in Virginia.
Which means, now, nearly two centuries later, you can't find a polite duel between gentlemen to save your mother. Nor can you participate in one yourself, at least not legally, even in those weak moments when you wish you could - like at a check-out line, for example:
Clerk: ". . . and your change comes to $3 even. Have a nice day."
You: "But I gave you a twenty."
Clerk: "Well, my register says you only gave me a five."
You: "Yeah, but I gave you a twenty."
Clerk: "I'm sorry. If the register says your change is $3, then your change is $3. That's our store policy."
Back in 1808, you could have taken this assault against your honor outside and settled it with long, powerful guns and a handful of gunpowder each. Nowadays, about the most you can do is ask to see the manager.
And that's fine by Montgomery County Sheriff Louis Barber, who is no relation to the Barbour Bill, for those of you wondering. No, Barber is glad dueling has gone out of vogue.
"Dueling is not a tolerable thing and I don't advocate it for anybody," he said. "It long ago became legally and socially unacceptable.
Shows you how much times have changed.
For John McHenry, himself, was a lawman in Montgomery County. According to Virginia State Library records, he and another man, Joseph King, were running for the General Assembly when things got ugly.
So, it was decided: rifles at 30 paces.
Only King's brother-in-law, Thomas Lewis, steped in to take King's place because King was needed more by his family. As it turns out, Lewis and McHenry were best friends.
But back in the age of rifle dueling, even close friendships didn't stand in the way of defending family honor.
Both men wore new suits ornamented with brass buttons. Hoping Lewis would chicken out, McHenry boasted that if they went through with the duel, he would drive the button over his friend's chest right into his heart. Lewis did not back down.
A witness to the duel then suggested they load the guns with blanks. Poppycock. This was no mere child's play. This was man's work, another witness reportedly said.
They fired at the count of three.
Lewis was shot in the heart, as McHenry had predicted, and died almost instantly. McHenry, shot in the stomach, died three days later.
Of course, this is not to say our own Sheriff Barber is some sort of milquetoast lawman because he doesn't duel. It's just that times have changed.
"I have seen shootouts between people where two people have died," he said. "But it was of a domestic or spontaneous nature or something like that. They were certainly not duels in the formal sense of the word."
No stranger to gunplay, Barber was shot once in the line of duty, sprayed with a sawed-off shotgun through the windshield of his patrol car. He suffered wounds to the head, but none of the buckshot penetrated his skull.
"I've got a good hard head, so there were no long-lasting effects," he said. ". . . the windshield took most of the beating."
Barber, 48, has been the sheriff in Montgomery County for nearly 14 years and comes up for re-election next fall. He plans to run a duel-free campaign.
Besides, politics here don't get that ornery anymore. In four races, Barber has been opposed only once. And afterward, he and his opponent, Russell Duncan, went to the auto races together in Charlotte.
"Russell was a friend before and he's a good friend now," Barber said.
Rifles were never necessary.
by CNB