Colonel Sharp

DESCRIPTION: A girl tells her lover that she was seduced by Colonel Sharp. Both are humiliated; they agree Sharp must die. They pursue the colonel; the man kills Sharp. He is taken and condemned to die. The two kill themselves
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (JAFL 28)
KEYWORDS: homicide seduction suicide punishment
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1825 - Murder of Colonel Sharp
July 7, 1826 - Deaths of Jeroboam Beauchamp and Ann Cook Beauchamp
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 790-792, "Colonel Sharp" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 247-248, "Colonel Sharp" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 38, #2 (1993), p, 33, "The Murder of Colonel Sharp" (1 text, 1 tune, the Douglas Wallin version)
Roud #4110
RECORDINGS:
Doug Wallin, "The Murder of Col. Sharp" (on FarMtns3)
NOTES [2859 words]: This song is item dF38 in Laws's Appendix II.
Earlier editions of this index dated Sharp's murder to 1824 (so, e.g., Patterson, p. 104; he also spells Sharp's name "Sharpe"; Cohen also dates it 1824), but the best sources I can find say 1825 (KentuckyEncyclopedia, Taylor, Kallsen).
Leach-TheBalladBook reports that this ballad is factually accurate except that the two lovers attempted suicide by poison rather than with a knife, and that the young man lived to be hung.
The Sing Out! article adds information from the 1915 JAFL account. It says that the girl was Ann Cook and her fiancee was Jeroboam Beauchamp. Cook agreed to marry Beauchamp on the condition that he kill Sharp. They were married, and then Beauchamp set out to eliminate Sharp. According to that account, "He and his wife both tried to commit suicide by drinking poison and the wife died an hour after her husband had been executed." This version of the story has been streamlined to the point of being somewhat deceptive.
The three principals are correct: Jeroboam Beauchamp, Ann Cook, and Solomon P. Sharp.
The curiosity is the question of what drew three such people into a relationship (not really a love triangle).
Sharp was the most noteworthy of the three. Born in 1787 and trained as a lawyer, he had served in the Kentucky House, then the U. S. house, and in 1821 he was elected to the Kentucky senate. He and his wife, the former Eliza Scott whom he had married in 1818, moved from Bowling Green to Frankfort (Taylor, p. 1). He served for a time as Kentucky Attorney General before again running for Senate (Taylor, p. 3).
I have little information about what Solomon Sharp was like, but his brother L. J. Sharp strikes me as a patent jerk as well as a bigot; he called Ann Clark "wholly destitute" or "moral and religious principles," and condemns her for being "an avowed disciple of Mary Woolsoncraft" (sic.; Kallsen, p. 134. What he meant was that she didn't believe that women should be slaves to men). This, of course, raises the question of why Solomon Sharp slept with this old, ugly, amoral woman -- and who seduced whom. Oh, and does he really think that insulting the dead makes his brother come out better?
Jeroboam Beauchamp, born 1802, was the son of farmer but himself taught school and then studied law (Kallsen, p. 6). He actually did legal work with Sharp for a while, and had sought to learn legal skills from the eloquent Sharp (Taylor, pp. 1-2; Kallsen, p. 6). However, they quarreled; Bauchamp claimed (Kallsen, p. 7) that it was over his treatment of Ann Cook.
Ann Cook (or Cooke; Beauchamp himself alternated between the spellings but usually used "Cooke," as on p. 6 of Kallsen) came from an Virginia family; she and her mother had come to Kentucky to be with her brother when her father died (Taylor, p. 2). It was after the move that Cook got in trouble. The details of this are murky, because most of it is from partisan sources -- but it appears that Cook became pregnant, probably by Sharp.
And the story came out, because Sharp had a political enemy, John V. Waring. A rival in the 1824 election, Waring had printed handbills accusing Sharp of seducing Cook and fathering a child on her in 1820 (KentuckyEncyclopedia). Taylor, p. 2, says that the baby was born dead -- but Ann Cook, in a letter to a friend (Kallsen, p. 151), says that it lived for six months before dying. Later, Sharp's own partisans printed a bill that said Sharp could not be the father of Cook's baby because it had been a negro (Taylor, p. 4). Thus both Sharp's enemies and Sharp himself, or his allies, had defamed Cook. (Incidentally, although we can't prove it now, it appears Cook did bear a child, and Sharp *did* father it, since Beauchamp said as much in his confession; Taylor, p. 12.)
Beauchamp came to visit her, then court her. Although at first she refused to see him -- it sounds as if she was trying to withdraw from the world -- eventually she consented to give him access to her library, and they ended up talking about books (Kallsen, pp. 8-9). And he courted her.
It is not obvious why. When they met, Beauchamp was just twenty. She was seventeen years older (Taylor, p. 3)! Also, Sharp's brother -- hardly a reliable witness, but almost the only witness we have -- said that she "was small, weighing about 90 pounds. She had dark hair and eyes. Her front teeth were gone. She was not very pretty and had a bad reputation" (Taylor, p. 12, condensing Kallsen, p. 334, where L. J. Sharp mentions her reading and her "vivacity" which was her "only recommendation" -- and even that tempered by her childish voice). Reading Beauchamp's confession, it sounds as if the handbills about her caused Beauchamp to become obsessed with her.
Whatever was going on in his mind, he proposed. She resisted for a time; Beauchamp's confession claims that the reason was that she would not marry anyone unless her husband was willing to kill Sharp -- she could only love a man who would give her revenge (Kallsen, p. 11). Indeed, she wanted to kill Sharp herself, and asked him to help her to learn to use a pistol (Kallsen, p. 17. Her last letter railed against Sharp: "Did he not wrong me -- rifle my innocence -- rob me of my character -- ruin my peace -- oppress and persecute me?" -- Kallsen, p. 162. Ironic that Beauchamp sought her out because she had been "ruined"). She seemingly did not have a chance to go after Sharp (they tried and failed to lure him to Bowling Green; Kallsen, p. 19), so it would have to be her husband who did it. But that was a condition he could live with (Taylor, p. 1; Beauchamp apparently felt the stain to her honor was bad enough that he proposed to go through with the murder (Taylor, p. 4). That settled, they were married in 1824 (Taylor, pp. 2-3).
Beauchamp and Cook lived in the Bowling Green/Green River area of Kentucky. It was a four day ride to Frankfort where Sharp lived (Taylor, p. 1).
KentuckyEncyclopedia says "On November 7, 1825, Colonel Solomon P. Sharp, a former attorney general of Kentucky, was murdered at his home in Frankfort. At approximately 2:00 a.m., he was awakened by a knock on the door, he was stabbed in the chest, severing his aorta and killing him almost instantly."
This isn't quite the way Beauchamp tells it; supposedly he wanted to fight a duel, but Cook convinced him that Sharp would not agree. So Beauchamp took two knives, offered one to Sharp and demanded that he fight (Kallsen, p. 13). Somehow Sharp convinced him to wait a day (Kallsen, p. 14) -- which makes little sense, since it would allow Sharp to find a way to protect himself. But we can't prove it wrong.
Beauchamp certainly came prepared; he wore clothes and used a knife that could not be traced to him. He claims that Ann had put poison on the knife (Kallsen, p. 26), though he doesn't say what poison, and it probably didn't matter anyway.
Political violence was suspected. (Indeed, Beauchamp claims he committed the murder when he did in order to encourage this idea; Kallsen, p. 23). Various parties pitched in to raise a reward of several thousand dollars (Taylor, p. 5). But although the murderer had been seen, detail were sketchy, and he did not use his own name, instead calling himself "John A. Covington" (Taylor, p. 5).
Suspicion quickly turned to Waring. But he had a very good alibi: He had been shot in the hips a few days before, and wasn't in Frankfort (Taylor, p. 5). Another political rival of Sharp's, Patrick Darby, also had an alibi (KentuckyEncyclopedia). Suspicion then turned to Beauchamp. He was known to have made a trip to Frankfort at the time of the murder.
Beauchamp made it to his home near Bowling Green, where Ann had given it out that they would move to Missouri (Kallsen, p.24; apparently explanation she gave for Beauchamp's absence was that he had already headed out of state). But, the next day, an arresting party arrived. According to Taylor, p. 7, a warrant had not yet been made out (it would be sworn out when he got back to Frankfort), and Beauchamp managed to covertly burn the only physical evidence they had (a bloody bandana from the murder scene). Despite these extreme irregularities, Beauchamp was tried in Frankfort on May 8, 1826 (KentuckyEncyclopedia), with the new Attorney General of Kentucky himself giving the closing argument (Taylor, p. 11). It took a pool of 48 to find twelve jurors who were thought to be unbiased (Kallsen, pp. 171-172).
Beauchamp, it seems to me, had done his own cause a great deal of damage. He had been seen in Frankfort, but that was no proof. Mrs. Sharp had apparently recognized his voice at the time of the murder -- but if Sharp himself had not known Beauchamp's voice, surely a good defense lawyer could have cast a reasonable doubt on that. However, Sharp's enemy Patrick Darby (who was worried about getting convicted himself) had a letter in which Beauchamp called on a friend to lie for him (Taylor, p. 10).
The jury needed about an hour to find him guilty of murder (Taylor, p. 11).
Ann had also been charged. Beauchamp's lawyers asked that sentencing be delayed until Ann had been tried. After a short trial, she was found innocent. The court then sentenced Beauchamp to die on June 16, 1826.
There was no appeal, but Beauchamp did try to gain clemency. (If I read the confession correctly, he had thought, before the murder, that the governor would be on his side.) It would not be granted (Taylor, pp. 12-13).
Beauchamp asked for a delay in the execution to allow him to write his memoirs. He was granted a delay until July 7 (Taylor, p. 11). His public memoirs constitute the first part of Kallsen (pp. 1-105). I found them extremely turgid and hard to follow. The preface to the work concludes with this statement: "I shall be unavoidably led, to give some few abstracted remarks, upon what sort of beings both myself and my wife are; for this murder [of Sharp] is neither imputable to the one or the other of us, but to both. And as my wife is, I know inflexible in her determination, that as I die for her, she will die with me, I have no motive to conceal the part which she has acted, -- the more especially, as she insists to let the world know all the agency she has had, in bringing about a revenge, for he deep indelible wrong, which Col. Sharp has done her, and her family" (Kallsen, p. 4).
In other words, Sharp had wronged her, and they both agreed that they should avenge her honor; both participated in the plan to kill him, and now they would jointly die for it.
Kallsen, pp. 113-163, is a collection of Cook's letters to a friend, "Ellen R." They are undated, but they certainly seem to reveal a woman descending into deep depression if not worse. And her hatred of Sharp is clear. Letter XII includes the words, "I said that I had become gloomy and silent after my recovery from the last delirium into which I had fallen by the cruelty of that cold blooded monster of treachery. My thoughts dwelt constantly on my condition, and the terrible magnitude of my wrongs" (Kallsen, p. 150).
Letter XIV (written July 4, presumably of 1826) is explicit: "This will be the last letter I shall ever write to you. The die is cast -- my fater is sealed. Before this reaches you I shall be no more; the cold grace, in which I have long wished to repose, will soon receive all that remains of your early and unfortunate friend" (Kallsen, p. 157). "Oh! Ellen, I have been long, long sick of life. It has been a weary and painful journey to me, and I hail its termination with a pleasure I cannot express, although under circumstances that society may deem horrible" (Kallsen, p. 161).
Beauchamp was kept closely confined in a windowless underground cell that could only be reached by a trap door (Taylor, p. 12). But his wife was allowed to visit him, spending the six weeks that remained of his life with him.
When Ann visited her husband in his cell on July 5, they took laudanum in a double suicide attempt -- but they botched it; apparently she took so much that she threw it up, and he perhaps didn't take enough.
KentuckyEncyclopedia continues: On July 7, the morning of the execution, they tried again. Ann smuggled in a knife, and managed to get the guard out of the cell by saying she needed to dress (KentuckyEncyclopedia). They both attempted suicide with the knife.
This time, they sort of succeeded: both had fatal wounds, hers probably worse than his, although neither died at once. Appended to the Confession is an "Account of His Execution" (Kallsen, pp. 105-107), apparently by Will H. Holmes. It confirms (p. 106) that Ann said she did not wish to live without her husband. It describes them drinking, then asking the guard to leave. Beauchamp then announced "tell my father, that my wife and myself are going straight to heaven -- we are dying." When the guard disagreed, Beauchamp answerd, "Yes, it is so -- we have killed ourselves" (pp. 106-107). The guard thought they had tried poison again. Then he saw the knife in her hand, which proved to be bloody. She had "a stab a little to the right of the centre of the abdomen.... She did not sigh, nor groan, nor show any symptom of pain.... He was stabbed about the centre of the body, just below the pit of the stomach, but his wound was not so wide as that of his wife. He said that he had taken the knife and struck first, but his wife had parried his arm, wrested the knife from him, and plunged it in herself. He said, he fared his wound was not mortal, and begged the guard to get some laudanum for him.".
Apparently Beauchamp, when the guards came in, asked that they try to save his wife. She declared, "I struck the fatal blow myelf, and am dying for my dear husband." After that, the pain finally hit her, and she started screaming (Kallsen, p. 107).
Doctors tried but failed to save Ann. They told Beauchamp that she would live -- but brought him to her, and he knew that she was dying. He was there when she died, kissed her goodbye, then told him he was ready to die in turn (Kallsen, p. 108)
Jeroboam was too weak to stand, but the officials weren't going to let the mere fact that he was apparently dying stop them from killing him! They had two men hold him up so they could string him up. At his request, they played "Bonaparte's Retreat" as they hung him (Patterson, p. 104; Taylor, pp. 15-16; KentuckyEncyclopedia; Kallsen, p. 108).
It took him two minutes to die (Taylor, p. 16), which makes me suspect that the execution was botched; they didn't break his neck.
The two were buried in a joint grave (Kallsen, p. 109) inscribed with a poem Ann had written. (It doesn't strike me as very good.) The gravestone, as transcribed by Taylor, p. 16, called her "Anna," not "Ann."
This song seems to be the only surviving one about the event, but there was also a poem or something (perhaps a printed broadside) called "Beauchamp's Confession," which either inspired "Frankie Silvers" [Laws E13] (Patterson, p. 105) or both of them were inspired by a still earlier, lost, gallows confession.
Taylor, p. 3, has a painting of Sharp.
There was a book published about this at the time, The Life of Jeroboam O. Beauchamp, Who Was Hung at Frankfort, Kentucky, for the Murder of Col. Solomon P. Sharp; Comprising, a Full and Complete History of His Intercourse and Marriage with the Beautiful, Accomplished, But Unfortunate Miss Anna Cooke.... There are print-on-demand reprints, but I wouldn't trust a word it says; it looks like another of those slapdash last-confession narratives. Taylor, Three Kentucky Tragedies, sounds better, since it's by a university press; I bought it on that basis. But it turns out to be a tiny little book (56 pages) written for an adult literacy program; it's not very deep. Kallsen is much longer, but it is a collection of four source documents only -- Beauchamp's written confession, a collection of Ann Cook's letters, transcripts of Beauchamp's trial, and a "vindication" of Sharp. These are important but heavily biased.
Other books which I have not seen are Coleman J. Winston, Beauchamp-Sharp Tragedy: An Episode of Kentucky History During the Middle 1820s's, Roberts Printing Company 1950 (a thin book, listed as 77 pages); and L. F. Johnson, Famous Kentucky Tragedies and Trials, The Baldwin Law Book Company, 1916 (apparently a revised edition was put out by Henry Clay Press in 1972). There is also a 1977 doctoral dissertation by Jack Edward Surrency, "The Kentucky Tragedy in American Literature: From Thomas Holley Chivers to Robert Warren." This can be found by searching for "Surrency the Kentucky tragedy."
The event also inspired a play by Thomas Holley Chivers, Conrad and Eudora, or, The death of Alonzo : a tragedy. In five acts : founded on the murder of Sharpe, by Beauchamp, in Kentucky 1834. One can presumably guess the quality of *that* from the fact that the date is nine years wrong! (According to Kalless, p. vii, it was never performed.) Kalless, p. vii, lists half a dozen other works inspired by the event, culminating in Robert Penn Warren's 1950 World Enough and Time, which Kalless considers the best. For other works about the event, see the Surrency thesis.- RBW
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