Saturday, June 15, 2013

The History of Dueling

Etching of the famous Burr-Hamilton duel.

Famous duels

Dueling was amazingly popular in the United States from the country’s birth until about the 1860s. Before taking office, Andrew Jackson is thought to have fought in more than one hundred duels, almost all with pistols, and lived to tell the tale. One book, British Dueling Pistols, by John Atkinson, details that only some 6% of pistol duels ended in fatalities. However, the practice of firing away was not universally accepted.

National anthem composer Francis Scott Key, naval hero Steven Decatur, and the first Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton all died from pistol shots received in duels. Hamilton, who had fought in 11 previous honor trials, fired first and into the air while then-Vice President Aaron Burr returned fire and mortally wounded the man who now graces the $10 bill. Celebrated Russian author Alexander Pushkin, survivor of 29 previous duels before being killed in his 30th, is another example of how the practice of ‘shooting away’ was not universally followed.

By the 1860s, dueling had largely been regulated away but this did not stop it from becoming a sport in the 1906 and 1912 Olympics—with the shooters firing at mannequins dressed in frock coats. In most cases, the ‘high-noon’ gunfights of the Wild West were more Hollywood than the real deal although notable exceptions would have absolutely shattered the gentlemen of the 1700s sensibilities.

12 comments:

  1. But the founding fathers would be mortified by today's gun violence, right?

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    1. You're probably right, TS. There's so much of honor and integrity in today's gun violence.

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    2. Oh, I never knew that integrity was part of your argument. So if the gun deaths were a little more nobel they wouldn't be so bad. And what makes honor in death? Dueling? A chance to fight back vs cower on the phone? And when your side says the founding fathers would be disgusted, you guys weren't talking about the level of violence (especially since our murder rate is a fifth what theirs was), but rather that kids today are doing drive-bys instead of counting paces. Is that really what you mean?

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    3. The Founders showed a willingness to defend honor by dueling, but they would oppose such actions today?

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  2. Historical tidbit--The idea that Hamilton fired into the air was the story his second told. Burr's second and other witnesses told a different story, but Hamilton's side was believed due to him being generally better liked.

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    1. It was also common for those who would frequently partake in duels to intentionally aim for the hip or leg of their for in an attempt to inflict a crippling wound, (which would serve both as a perennial reminder of the loss, and as a debilitating mark of dishonor) rather than aiming with the deliberate intent to cause a lethal gunshot wound.

      Regardless of where Hamilton aimed, the fact remains that Burr, was in fact a renowned pistol shot, who intentionally benefited from the fact that his experience in the art of killing far outweighed that of Hamilton, who was lured by Burr to his demise, blinded by pride and arrogance.

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    2. Isn't part of it too, that those guns were extremely innacurate? This gets back to our other discussions about the Southern Rebels being such better marksmen than the Northerners.

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    3. It would depend on how the gun and bullet were made. A short barrel is inherently less accurate than a longer barrel--short sight radius, less time for any rifling to contact the bullet, etc.

      Most or all guns used round shot until the Mine Ball in the 1800's which was a great improvement. If the pistol had rifling, it would be more accurate, but it would be harder to load, and would take more time to load. I don't know how common rifling was in pistols of the time.


      Also, as for Ian's comment about the dishonourable Burr luring an inexperienced Hamilton, Burr wasn't renown as for his shooting, and Hamilton brought a set of duelling pistols with a secret hair trigger mechanism that he could use for an advantage.

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    4. Dueling pistols of the period were smoothbore. At ten paces or whatever close distance, that still was plenty accurate for a center of mass shot, but the notion of aiming for a leg or whatnot sounds more like wishful thinking than reality. Remember that the practice of dueling has buried within it the idea that God will sort out which of the two parties is actually at fault.

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  3. Is Dog Gone still around? If so, she should read that linked article about gunfights in the Old West, particularly the bit about how guns were carried.

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  4. Until you mentioned the mannequins my first thought about the Olympic event was its a hell of a way to save money on silver and bronze medals.

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