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