General Earl Van Dorn was assasinated by Dr. George Boddie Peters, apparently because Van Dorn had carried out an adultrous affair from March-May, 1863, with Jessie Helen McKissack Peters, wife of George Boddie Peters. After the murder of Van Dorn, George Peters took off and spent the next two years as a fugitive. Jessie was heard to remark, “I have lost my husband and my lover in the same day!” George and Jessie Peters were divorced in 1866, but reconciled and remarried in 1869.

On January 26, 1864 (8 1/2 months after Van Dorn’s murder), Jessie McKissack delivered a daughter, Medora Wharton Peters. It is believed by her descendants that she was fathered by Van Dorn.255

Earl Van Dorn and Martha Goodbread (abt 1836 - early 1870s) had three children during the years he was stationed in Texas. Family members feel that it is unlikely that his Mississippi family ever knew of the Texas family. A son Percy Van Dorn was born in Texas in 1857; a daughter Lammie Van Dorn in 1858; and a son Douglas Van Dorn in 1860.253

Martha Goodbread cannot be located in the 1850 census, when she would have been ca 14. The family of Thomas and Malinda Goodbread only inludes daughters Elizabeth and Mary, ages 17 and 12, respectively.