and by instilling fear into the hostile Indian tribes in the vicinityrnof Jamestown. He browbeat and threatened Powhatan untilrnthe chief and his subordinates begged for peace with therncolonists. One example will suffice to show that Smith had notrnforgotten the lesson learned against Turbishaw and his comradesrnat the Transvlvanian redoubt of Regall. WhenrnPowhatan’s half-brother Opechancanough surrounded Smith’srnsmall party of Englishmen, the fiery captain challenged him tornsingle combat. The chief, aware of Smith’s prowess, declined.rnUndeterred, Smith seized him by the hair, shoved a pistol to hisrnchest, and paraded him among his astonished followers with arnwarning to them all: “If you shoot but one arrow to shed butrnone drop of blood of any of my men . . . I will not cease revengern(if once I begin) so long as I can hear where to find one of yourrnnation.” So bewildered were the natives that they attributedrnSmith’s bravado to tlie supernatural. Could a mere mortal bernso terrible a foe?rnAndrew Jackson (1767-1845), born of Scotch-Irish parentsrnin the South Carolina backcountry, was a product of hisrnfrontier heritage. He fought and was captured in the AmericanrnWar for Independence and thereafter settled in Tennessee tornbecome a backwoods lawyer. But Jackson was more interestedrnin horse-racing, cock-fighting, gambling, and dueling than inrnstudying law, and among his 100 or so “fights or violent andrnabusive quarrels” was a famous duel with Charles Dickinson,rnwho had angered “Old Hickory” by making untoward remarksrnabout his wife Rachel. The two men met at only eight paces,rnand Dickinson’s first shot hit Jackson’s right shoulder. He triedrnto return fire, but his dueling pistol misfired. Calmly, thernbleeding Jackson reloaded, fired, and hit his adversary squarelyrnbetween the eyes. As historian Grady McWhiney writes, “Jacksonrnrecovered to become judge, general, and President—and tornfight more duels.”rnThough Jackson is famous for his many duels, he is betterrnknown as the tenacious general who led what amounted to arnSouthern militia on rigorous campaigns against the British atrnNew Odeans, the Creek Indians in Alabama, and the Spanishrnin Florida. His buckskinned backwoodsmen were expert withrntheir famous “squirrel guns,” which destroyed the ranks of MajorrnGeneral Edward Pakenham’s redcoats from behind the mudrnramparts on Rodriguez Canal, east of New Orleans, in Decemberrn1814. The victory at New Orleans immortalized “OldrnHickory” as one of America’s most successful practitioners of irregularrnwarfare. His “Dirty Shirts,” as the British derisivelyrncalled them because of their dingy homespun attire, werernamong the most able fighters of their day, and prefigured therngray-and-butternut-clad Confederate soldiers of the 1860’s inrnboth guts and esprit de corps.rnJames Bowie (c. 1796-1836), the son of South CarolinianrnRezin Bowie (who fought in the War for American Independencernunder the fabled “Swamp Fox,” Brigadier General FrancisrnMarion), was already a legend on the Southern frontier evenrnbefore he was immortalized at the Alamo. A fiery, muscular,rnand intelligent man, Jim Bowie spent most of his days goingrnfrom one adventure to the next, and amassed a fortune fromrnland speculating and slave trading (where he met the famousrnpirate, Jean Laffite). It is unlikely that Bowie “invented” thernmagnificent knife that bears his name; however, he indeed wasrnits most skillful user, making his mark through the numerousrnduels he fought.rnBowie killed between 15 and 20 men in “nonmilitary” combat,rnmost of them falling to his deadly trademark, thern”Arkansas toothpick.” But Bowie was no cold-blooded killer;rnrather, he used his courage and skill with the blade often tornright wrongs committed against innocent men and women byrnthe various miscreants who inhabited the Mississippi andrnLouisiana frontier. His three most famous duels—the fightrnwith Major Norris Wright in 1826, the noted “Sandbar Duel”rnin 1827, and the fracas with “Bloody” John Sturdivant inrn1829—reveal that Bowie did not go looking for trouble, butrnthat it often seemed to find him. The first two affairs were littlernmore than brawls involving several men on each side, butrnthe run-in with Sturdivant was a face-off in which the two opponents’rnleft wrists were tied together across a gaming table.rnThe Sturdivant duel took place in a dive in the infamousrnNatchez-under-the-hill district and was the direct resultrnof Bowie’s having exposed a crooked faro game run by hisrnantagonist. Bowie quickly disabled Sturdivant’s right arm,rnbut mercifully spared his life. Several months later, “Bloody”rnJohn hired three assassins to dispatch Bowie, but Jim killed allrnthree.rnThe South has historically beenrnhome to gentlemen who tookrnaffronts to their honor seriously andrnwho understood that the manly arts ofrnself-defense were necessary componentsrnof civilization.rnPerhaps the most provocative story surrounding Bowie’s careerrnas a knife-fighter is one in which he and an adversary enteredrnan abandoned cabin after dark and grappled for a bladernthat had been stuck in the floorboards. This was a simple contestrn—the man who walked out was the winner. ThoughrnBowie’s gory fighting techniques would have been scorned brnmore formal practitioners of the Code Duello, we ought to rememberrnthat the Southern frontier in the I820’s and 1830’srnwas a rough-and-tumble backwater in which a man’s reputationrnfor toughness served as his first line of defense. No doubt, JimrnBowie would have killed more men than he did had not hisrnfearsome reputation caused the more circumspect of his acquaintancesrnto avoid crossing him in the first place.rnIndeed, a reputation for toughness was, and is still, the bestrnkeeper of the peace, and this is why the South (or at least thernsmall towns and rural areas) remains an oasis of civilization.rnWe can only hope that coming generations of white Southernrnmen will carry on this tradition of honorable self-defense. Otherwise,rnwhence shall come our Rolands, our Don Juans, ourrnBedford Forrests, our Smiths, Jacksons, and Bowies? Shouldrnthis life-sustaining pugnacity disappear, so too will the South.rnAnd with the South will go the last remnant of a vigorous, selfconfident,rnand manly Western civilization. ernAUGUST 1997/19rnrnrn