Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 June 1878 — Bloody Duel. [ARTICLE]

Bloody Duel.

A bloody encounter occurred near Forest Depot, Va., recently, resulting in the killing of one and probably fatal Wounding of another well-known citizen of that county. Alex. Sliey and Frost Coles, brothers-in-law, got into a quarrel on their farm near there, recently, about the heigth of growing com in the field. Coles called Sliey a liar. The latter challenged him to mortal combat, and bowie knives for weapons were chosen. There being no person on the place to act as second in the strange combat, an old negro man, a laborer on the farm, was pressed into the service and made to become an unwilling witness to the strange deed. The negro was directed to pitch in and participate whenever either one of the two combatants took an advantage of the other. Sliey and Coles were men of herculean strength, and the combat was a close one, lasting nearly an hour. After the first few lunges Coles received a painful wound in the shoulder, which, instead ©f disabling him, only seemed to madden him, and he pressed his antagonist more closely, inflicting three wounds in Sliey’s breast. At this juncture the old negro implored the combatants, with tearr in his eyes, to desist. The gladiators refused to listen, and the fight continued until both of the men fell, covered with wounds. Sliey had received four, one of these penetrating his left lung, from which he died before medical aid could reach him. Coles was wounded in three places, several of which are quite serious. He was removed to the woods in a conveyance, it is believed, furnished by the old negro who witnessed the fight. Sliey and Coles were wealthy and highly connected in the State. Before the war Coles was a prominent Whig politician.