Son of Virginia, Father of Missouri: The Political Battles of Edward Bates, Lincoln’s Attorney General

In conjunction with the publication of a new biography of Edward Bates, Lincoln’s Attorney General, Dr. Mark Neels assesses Bates’s conservative philosophy, rooting it in Bates’s status as a son of Virginia and a founding father of Missouri, and explains how those values influenced Bates’s role as advisor to the sixteenth president of the United States.

The Barbarous Custom of Dueling: Honor and Death on St. Louis’ Bloody Island

Political scandal and murder often went hand in hand during Missouri’s frontier years; no more so than in the city of St. Louis where a special dueling ground was established on an island in the middle of the Mississippi River. Having rediscovered a long-overlooked file at the Missouri History Museum containing letters, newspaper clippings, diaries, and eye witness reports, Dr. Mark A. Neels has assembled a narrative account of some of the most salacious affairs of honor in St. Louis’ early history. This presentation is derived from an article written by Dr. Neels for the fall 2010 edition of the Lindenwood Confluence Magazine as well as an interview with Dr. Neels appearing in a fall 2017 edition of St. Louis Magazine.