Dueling

FONTS

Dueling Information

What a duel Is

In the early 1800s gentlemen who felt they had been offended or insulted resorted to issuing a challenge to a duel, and the result could be gunfire in a rather formal setting.

The object of a duel was not necessarily to kill or even wound one’s opponent. Duels were all about honor and demonstrating one’s bravery.

The tradition of dueling goes back centuries, and it is believed the word duel, derived from a Latin term (duellum) meaning war between two, entered the English language in the early 1600s. By the mid-1700s dueling had become common enough that fairly formal codes began to dictate how duels were to be conducted.

A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.

Duels in this form were chiefly practiced in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period (19Th to early 20th centuries) especially among military officers. During the 17Th and 18Th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly fought with swords (the rapier, later the small sword, and finally the French foil), but beginning in the late 18th century and during the 19th century, duels were more commonly fought using pistols; fencing and pistol duels continued to co-exist throughout the 19Th century. Pistol dueling was employed many times in the Colonial United States until it fell out of favor in Eastern America in the 18Th century. It was retained however in the American Old West for quite some time due to the absence of common law.

The duel was based on a code of honor. Duels were fought not so much to kill the opponent as to gain "satisfaction", that is, to restore one's honor by demonstrating a willingness to risk one's life for it, and as such the tradition of dueling was originally reserved for the male members of nobility; however, in the modern era it extended to those of the upper classes generally. From the early 17th century duels became illegal in the countries where they were practiced.

Dueling

Prominent Men Participated in Duels

It should be noted that dueling was almost always illegal, yet fairly prominent members of society participated in duels both in Europe and in America.

Notable duels of the early 1800s included the famous encounter between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, a duel in Ireland in which Daniel O'Connell killed his opponent, and the duel in which American naval hero Stephen Decatur was killed.

List of duels

Dueling Had Formalized Rules

May 30, 1806: Andrew Jackson and Charles Dickinson; Dickinson was killed, Jackson wounded, becoming the only President to have killed a man in a duel.

August 12, 1817: Thomas Hart Benton and Charles Lucas on Bloody Island; Attorneys on opposite sides of a court battle - Lucas challenged Ben ton's right to vote and Benton accused Lucas of being a "puppy"; Lucas was shot in the throat and Benton shot in the leg; Benton released Lucas from his obligation.

August 26, 1831: Thomas Biddle and Spencer Darwin Pettis on Bloody Island (Mississippi River); Biddle challenged Pettis for comments about Biddle's brother who was president of the United States bank. Both died after firing from five feet.

July 26, 1847: Albert Pike and John Weldon Roan; declared a draw, no injuries.

June 1, 1853: U.S. Senator William McKendree Gwin and U.S. Congressman J.W. McCorkle, no injuries.

August 26, 1856: Benjamin Gratz Brown and Thomas C. Reynolds on Bloody Island (Mississippi River); In what would be called the "Duel of the Governors" Brown was then the abolitionist editor of the St. Louis Democrat and Reynolds a pro-slavery St. Louis district attorney fought with Brown being shot in the leg and limping for the rest of his life while Reynolds was unhurt. Brown would become a Missouri Governor and Reynolds would become a Confederate Governor of Missouri.

September 13, 1859: U.S. Senator David C. Broderick and David S. Terry, formerly Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California; Broderick was killed.

July 21, 1865: Wild Bill Hickok and David Tutt quarrelled over a pocket watch during a card game. Wild Bill wanted the pocket watch back, was refused and so they decided to have a gunfight. Tutt was killed.

June 7, 1882: Louisiana State Treasurer Edward A. Burke was seriously wounded by C. Harrison Parker, the editor of the New Orleans Daily Picayune, in a duel with pistols. After Parker published unflattering remarks about Burke, Burke challenged him to a duel.[7]

February 8, 1887: Jim Courtright killed by Luke Short during a duel at Fort Worth, Texas.

In 1777, delegates from the west of Ireland met at Clonmel and came up with the Code Duello, a dueling code which became standard in Ireland and in Britain. The rules of the Code Duello crossed the Atlantic and became the generally standard rules for dueling in the United States.

Much of the Code Duello dealt with how challenges were to be issued and answered. And it has been noted that many duels were avoided by the men involved either apologizing or somehow smoothing over their differences.

Many duelists would merely try to strike a non-fatal wound, by, for instance, shooting at their opponent's hip. Yet the flintlock pistols of the day were not terribly accurate. So any duel was bound to be fraught with danger.