Saturday, July 11, 2020

The Burr-Hamilton Duel on This Day in History

This Day In History: The famous duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton happened on this day in 1804 (Hamilton would go on to die from his wounds). Andrew Jackson would also be involved in several duels and Lincoln was once called out for a duel, but cooler heads eventually prevailed. The French were especially creative when it came to dueling. In 1808, two Frenchmen fought in balloons over Paris, each attempting to shoot and puncture the other's balloon, and in 1843, two other Frenchmen fought a duel by means of throwing billiard balls at each other. Dueling eventually fell out favor in the mid-1800's.

The last duel that I could find to take place on British soil at Battle, East Sussex. Ben Salfield fought against an unknown adversary with cavalry swords, over an insult allegedly made to a lady. The musician apparently won, and neither party suffered serious injury. He later recalled the incident as happening "on a hillside at dawn, dressed in 17th century clothes", and described it as "a brutal but fair way to decide a matter of honour"

See also The Bloody History of Dueling
https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-bloody-history-of-duelling.html

See also Notorious Criminals, Crimes & Criminology - 100 Books on DVDrom

For a list of all of my disks and downloads click here

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