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THE DUEL

 Famous American Duels

The famous Hamilton-Burr duel of 1804, showing former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton's shot into the air and Vice President Aaron Burr's fire at Hamilton. From Baldick, at 128.

Hamilton-Burr (1804).

Without doubt, the 1804 Hamilton-Burr duel is recognized as simultaneously the most famous and the most distressing duel in American history. The “interview at Weehawken” matched the sitting Vice President and lawyer Aaron Burr against the popular former Secretary of the Treasury and lawyer Alexander Hamilton. The two men never had been congenial personally, and combined with political differences of long standing they were led inexorably to duel after an exchange of letters initiated by Burr. Burr took issue with Hamilton’s purported use of the word “despicable” in describing his opinion of Burr. Hamilton’s cocksure yet evasive response vexed Burr even more, and after further exchanges a challenge was issued by Burr’s second, Van Ness, and accepted by Hamilton’s second, Pendleton. Hamilton’s last writing before the duel was a declaration stating his opposition to duelling, but explaining his inability to decline this duel, citing reasons of honor and politics:

To those who, with me, abhorring the practice of duelling, may think that I ought on no account to have added to the number of bad examples, I answer, that my relative situation, as well in public as in private, enforcing all the considerations which constitute what men of the world denominate honor, imposed on me (as I thought) a peculiar necessity not to decline the call. The ability to be in the future useful, whether in resisting mischief or effecting good, in those crises of our public affairs which seem likely to happen, would probably be inseparable from a conformity with public prejudice in this particular. [17] 

The popular analysis of the outcome was that Burr was a cold-blooded killer. Public regard for Hamilton was so intense that “[w]ith the exception of the death of Washington and the assassinations of Lincoln and Kennedy, probably no death in the history of the United States has caused such widespread sorrow as the killing of Alexander Hamilton.” [18] Burr was charged with murder in New Jersey, and began a steady political, professional, and personal decline, dying penniless in 1836.  

President Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) and his wife Rachel Jackson. "Old Hickory" fought more than a hundred duels in his lifetime, killing Charles Dickinson as the result of slander regarding his wife, Rachel. From Seitz, at 162, and Truman, at 222, respectively.

 Jackson-Dickinson (1806) .

Future President and lawyer Andrew Jackson and Charles Dickinson, a prominent Maryland landowner and horse breeder, similarly entertained a longstanding antipathy, beginning over a bet on a horse race. Both were sportsmen and crack shots. When Dickinson slandered Jackson’s wife Rachel, a duel was inevitable, and both intended to kill the other and expected to be wounded as well. Dickinson fired first at the signal. Jackson took the bullet in the chest, but this was not apparent to the men assembled. He stood firm, took aim, but his pistol stopped at half-cock. Jackson adjusted the pistol, took aim again at Dickinson, and fired. The shot was a mortal wound. Jackson’s own wound was serious, breaking ribs and bleeding copiously; it necessitated a prolonged recovery. His wound never healed properly, causing him pain for the rest of his life. This Kentucky duel, although it did not prevent Jackson from eventually being elected President, caused transitory damage to his reputation, since he was considered to have coldly murdered Dickinson.

No stranger to duels, dashing Commodore Stephen Decatur (1779-1820) was mortally wounded at Bladensburg, and died at his home across from the White House in Washington. From Seitz at 188.	Senator David Broderick (1820-1859) lying in state in San Francisco after his ill-fated encounter with Judge David Terry.  From Truman, at 108.

Other famous American duels. Of the countless duels fought in America, those with prominent participants included the 1777 Button Gwinnett - Lachlan McIntosh duel in Georgia (Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was mortally wounded), the 1820 James Barron - Stephen Decatur duel (naval hero Commodore Decatur was mortally wounded), and the 1859 David Terry - David Broderick duel in San Francisco. Broderick was a United States Senator from California, and Terry was the former Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court. Their duel was sparked by opposing views on slavery, Broderick as a critic and Terry as a proponent. Broderick was mortally wounded. Terry was indicted for murder and arrested, and ultimately was acquitted at trial. The reputations of the victors of all three of these duels suffered damage from which they never recovered fully.

The Bladensburg Duelling Grounds, just over the Washington, D.C. - Maryland line, was the site of many 19th century duels, a number of which were fought between prominent men, including lawmakers, of the era. From Truman, at 34.

 Our own local duelling ground. The Bladensburg Duelling Grounds, just over the District of Columbia line in Prince Georges County, Maryland, saw many duels, including the fatal Stephen Decatur duel of 1820. The son of Francis Scott Key, Daniel Key, also was killed in a duel at Bladensburg in 1836. The famous Cilley-Graves duel (1838) between two members of the U.S. House of Representatives took place here. The death of Representative Jonathan Cilley of Maine, a highly-regarded man of honor, was the impetus to Congress for enactment of Washington, D.C.’s anti-duelling law (1839).

U.S. Representative Jonathan Cilley (1802-1838) was felled in a Bladensburg duel by U.S. Representative William Graves of Kentucky. This duel provided the impetus for passage of the District of Columbia's anti-duelling legislation. From Seitz, at 252.

Although this measure assuaged public demand for a ban on duelling, like most duelling laws it proved ineffective, and duellists continued to meet at Bladensburg, mostly in the darkness. Ghosts of the duelling dead are reputed to haunt the Bladensburg Duelling Grounds, which are designated by a historical marker on Route 450 in Maryland, near Fort Lincoln Cemetery. Only a small section of the grounds remains, development over the years having claimed the greatest part of the land.