Page 24 - 2021 March Sealed Bid Catalogue

Lot 10—CHARLES M. RUSSELL—Carson Defeats French Bully in Horseback Duel
This pen and ink depicts a very famous true event that occurred in a summer 1835 rendezvous of fur trappers. Twenty-five year old Kit Carson is facing off in a gunfight against an antagonistic Frenchman also at the rendezvous. Many considered him a disreputable bully. The challenge to duel involved competition for the attention of Singing Grass, a young Arapaho woman who Carson considered to have been offended by Joseph Chouinard (aka Shunar). There are at least five different biographies or historical accounts about Carson describing why and how he became a legendary figure in this epic tale of the American Westward expansion. In every case, Carson’s duel with the French bully is presented in some detail as definitive evidence of his character, bravery, and ability to persevere even when wounded.
The actual conclusion of the event varies depending on the party recounting it. Following the challenge to duel the Frenchman grabbed a rifle and mounted his horse; Carson took a pistol and did the same. Carson‘s aim was better but he too took a grazing shot that proved to be a lasting scar. Whether the Frenchman died or not is unclear, but he reportedly stopped being a bully. Charlie Russell’s cousin, George Bent, reportedly stated “that he always understood that Kit killed Shunar.”
This pen and ink image of the event was executed for a story published in a newspaper history series that also appeared in the hardcover reprint titled, Back-Trailing On The Old Frontiers. The successful bidder for this work will receive a copy of that volume as well.
Almost a decade after this incident occurred, Kit Carson became famous as the lead scout skillfully guiding Colonel John C. Fremont on multiple survey expeditions to California and back to the U.S. beginning in 1843.
Literature:
• Hampton Sides, Blood & Thunder: An Epic of the American West, Fifty-one Stories of Noted Occurrences Along The Trails of The Oil West, Doubleday, 2006, pages 29-33.
• M. Morgan Estergreen, Kit Carson: A Portrait In Courage, University of Oklahoma Press, 1962, pages 67-69.
• Noel B. Gerson, Kit Carson: Folk hero and man, Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1964, pages 65-70.
• Milo Milton Quaife, Kit Carson’s Autobiography, Bison Book, 1966, pages 42-44.
• Charles M. Russell, Back-Trailing on the Old Frontiers, John Osterberg, Aurora, Colorado, 1990, pages 41-43.