by Dan Gutman
Sometimes the shooter would miss on purpose—fire at the ground or up in the air. That’s what Hamilton said he was going to do in the letter he wrote the night before the duel. Sometimes, a duelist would aim at an arm or a leg to injure his opponent without killing him.
The point of dueling was not to demonstrate how accurately you could shoot a gun. It was to keep your honor and demonstrate your courage. It was pretty courageous to be willing to die for your honor. In fact, shooting and killing your opponent was just about the worst outcome of a duel—you could be indicted for murder.
Basically, dueling was a complicated and dangerous game that two men played in which they were both willing to sacrifice their life for their honor. There were even formal rules for the game. They were written down in a pamphlet titled Code Duello, which meant “the rules of dueling.”
After you had been insulted, it was proper etiquette to write a letter to the other person demanding an apology or explanation. If the response didn’t satisfy you, you would follow up with another letter challenging the man to a duel.
After Hamilton called Burr “despicable,” Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel. It would have been cowardly for Hamilton to decline, or to not show up. It would have damaged his reputation. At the same time, shooting Burr (or anyone) would have violated his moral principles. So it made sense for Hamilton to accept the duel and then “throw away his shot.” It would show the world he was a man of courage, principles, and honor.
I should point out that some historians have speculated that Alexander Hamilton had a death wish. It has even been suggested that Hamilton and Burr were so much alike that their duel was a case of assisted suicide. I’ll leave that to the psychologists to debate.
In any case, after the Hamilton-Burr episode, dueling fell out of favor and gradually faded away. Nowadays, people don’t resolve their differences by dueling. No, today we sue each other! Instead of saying, “Meet me in Weehawken at dawn,” we say, “I’ll see you in court!”
But enough of this talk about dueling. Back to the duel . . .
CHAPTER 17
READY . . . AIM . . .
“OKAY, GET READY,” JULIA WHISPERED TO LUKE AS they crouched behind the fallen tree. “This could go very fast.”
“I’m ready,” Luke whispered back, his head poking just above the tree trunk.
The Flashback Four were expecting the duel to be sort of like one of those Wild West gunfights we’ve all seen in old movies. You know, two gunslingers face off against each other on an empty street. Terrified townspeople cower off to the side. One of the gunslingers shouts, “Draw!” Both men pull their pistols out of their holsters as fast as they can. Two gunshots ring out. The one who was a millisecond slower drops to the ground, clutching his chest in agony. The quicker one blows the smoke from the end of his barrel and calmly walks off into the sunset.
But that’s not the way it happened with Hamilton and Burr. Dueling in the nineteenth century had an elaborate ceremony to it. First, the positioning of the duelists had to be determined. It went something like this. . . .
Aaron Burr’s second, William Van Ness, took a pair of dice out of his pocket. He got down on one knee and shook the dice in his hand.
“Two!” called out Burr.
“Eleven!” called out Hamilton.
Van Ness rolled the dice on a patch of dirt.
“It is ten,” announced Mr. Van Ness as he picked up the dice and stood. “General Hamilton will choose his position.”
Hamilton looked around and leaned his head toward Nathaniel Pendleton. They whispered back and forth as they pointed in various directions.
“General Hamilton chooses north,” Pendleton announced, pointing toward the side of the dueling ground that faced the river and New York City.
“Why did he choose that side?” whispered Luke. “Won’t he have the sun in his eyes?”
“Dumb move,” agreed David. “That’s like a football team winning the coin toss and electing to kick off.”
“Shhhhh!” whispered Julia. “Will you two quiet down? They’ll hear you.”
Mr. Van Ness got down on one knee again.
“Now we will determine which one of us will supervise the interview,” he said, shaking the dice in his hand.
“Two!” called out Hamilton.
“Ten!” called out Burr.
Van Ness rolled the dice.
“It is three,” he announced, shaking his head in dismay. “General Hamilton wins yet again. This must be your lucky day, sir.”
“That remains to be seen,” mumbled Aaron Burr. “The day is young.”
Hamilton’s second—Nathaniel Pendleton—would supervise the duel.
As the one who had been challenged, it was Alexander Hamilton’s responsibility to bring the weapons to the duel. Hamilton was not a gun owner himself, but many upper-class gentlemen of the day kept a set of pistols around, if only for decoration.
Nathaniel Pendleton walked about ten feet to the side to get the brown leather case he had left on the ground. It was called a portmanteau. He loosened the straps and opened the case. There were two pistols inside.
“I was wondering what was in that case,” Isabel whispered from behind the tree trunk.
The guns had been borrowed from Hamilton’s brother-in-law John Barker Church. These were the same pistols that Hamilton’s son Philip had used in his fatal duel three years earlier. They were made in the 1790s by a well-known London gunsmith named Wogdon. The guns had been stored in the portmanteau for a reason. If there was a trial after the duel was over, the men rowing the boats could truthfully swear under oath that they had not seen any weapons.
Reader, I must confess that I’m uncomfortable talking about guns in a book for young readers. The whole topic is a very controversial one in America, as you know. Some people believe gun ownership should be strictly controlled. Others feel we would be safer if all citizens were armed. Both sides, hopefully, agree that guns are very dangerous weapons that should not be touched without a grown-up present.
Some people may feel this whole book is inappropriate for children. But the Hamilton-Burr duel is a part of our history, and you should know about it.
Now, you’re probably thinking that the pistols in this duel worked like the ones you’ve seen in movies. Six shots. Six trigger pulls. Boom. Boom. Boom. Like that.
In fact, the revolver—a gun that could fire six bullets from a chamber that revolved—wasn’t invented until ten years after this duel. The guns Hamilton and Burr used were flintlock pistols. That meant when the trigger was pulled, a piece of steel would hit a piece of flint. That produced a spark, which created a small explosion, which sent a bullet flying through the barrel. These were much more primitive than modern pistols.
Pendleton handed one weapon to Burr and the other one to Hamilton. Neither man was wearing a holster. They just held the gun in their hands.
At that moment, there was a buzz in Isabel’s pocket.
DID THE DUEL START YET? read the message on the TTT screen.
Isabel typed back, irritated . . .
CAN’T TALK THEY’RE ABOUT TO DUEL!
Aaron Burr and William Van Ness inspected their gun carefully. The barrel was close to a foot long. It looked like it would be heavy to hold up, and in fact it weighed several pounds. The handle was made from carved walnut, with fancy designs on each side. There were gold mountings along the brass barrel.
“It is acceptable,” Burr said.
Alexander Hamilton seemed less interested in examining his weapon. The day before, Pendleton had come over to Hamilton’s house to show him the pistols. Hamilton had simply picked one up and put it down. If he was really going to throw away his shot, the gun in his hand didn’t matter much. He probably hadn’t fired one since the Revolutionary War. Aaron Burr, some people said later, had been practicing his marksmanship the week before the duel.
“Acceptable,” Hamilton said.
In Isabel’s pocket, the TTT buzzed again.
&
nbsp; IS THE DUEL OVER?
NO!
Next, it was Van Ness and Pendleton’s job to load the weapons. Still standing next to each other, they each took a small container of black powder with sulfur in it and carefully poured a little into the barrels of their respective guns. Then they dropped one bullet—a .56-caliber lead ball that weighed an ounce—into each of the barrels. The balls were wrapped in a small piece of paper called wadding. Finally, a metal plunger called a ramrod was used to push the bullet down to the end of the barrel. This whole process took around twenty seconds.
“Those guns can only fire one bullet at a time,” Luke marveled.
“They’re lame,” whispered David.
“Shhhhh!”
Not only were the guns incapable of shooting more than one bullet, but they weren’t very accurate either. These pistols were “smoothbore,” which meant the inside of the barrel was perfectly smooth. Modern guns have grooves inside the barrel, which puts a spin on the bullet. This makes it fly straighter, the same way a football flies straighter when the quarterback throws a perfect spiral pass. And you might know that these days bullets are shaped more like footballs than baseballs.
With the weapons loaded, Pendleton and Van Ness cocked the triggers with a loud click and carefully handed the guns to Hamilton and Burr.
“Would you like me to set the hair spring?” Pendleton asked Hamilton.
“Not this time,” he replied.
The guns had a hair trigger, which was an optional setting that made the trigger easier to pull. Without it, a shooter needed to use twenty pounds of pressure to fire. With the hair trigger on, he only needed one pound of pressure.
Next, Pendleton and Van Ness had the job of determining where each of the duelists would be positioned. They chose a starting point in the middle of the dueling ground and marked out ten paces between them until they were about twenty feet apart. Hamilton and Burr walked over to their assigned spots.
Pendleton and Van Ness stepped off to the side so they would be far away from the line of fire.
“This is it,” Julia whispered, taking a deep breath so she could hold it.
But there was one last task for the seconds to do. Nathaniel Pendleton pulled a small pamphlet from his pocket and began to read from it. It was the Code Duello.
“Gentlemen,” he announced loudly. “This is how we shall proceed. I will ask you if you are ready. If so, you will say the word ‘present.’ You may then fire your weapon when you please. If one party fires his weapon and the other does not, the gentleman who withheld fire must wait for his second to say, ‘One, two, three, fire’ before firing. If the opponent refuses to do so, then both duelists will confer to see if the dispute can be settled verbally or whether a second round is required.”
“Huh?” Luke whispered. “Did that make any sense to you?”
“No,” replied David.
“Those rules are complicated,” whispered Isabel.
“They’ll have to load the guns all over again if nobody gets hit in the first round,” whispered Julia.
It may have seemed confusing to the Flashback Four, but Hamilton and Burr knew exactly what to do. As mentioned earlier, this was not the first duel for either of them.
“Do all parties understand the rules as they have been stated?” asked Pendleton.
“I do,” both duelists replied.
“Then let us commence,” said Pendleton.
There was another buzz in Isabel’s pocket.
HOW ABOUT NOW? it said on the screen of the TTT.
Isabel didn’t even open the case to read that text this time. She wasn’t about to take her eyes off the duel now.
CHAPTER 18
. . . FIRE!
THIS WAS IT.
The preliminary nonsense was finished. It had all come down to this moment. The Flashback Four held their collective breath. Luke prayed that there would still be enough memory left in the Hot Head to capture the two or three crucial seconds when shots were actually fired. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. He was afraid to wipe them away.
Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr both turned their bodies sideways, the way fencers do, to make a smaller target for their opponent to hit.
“I don’t want to look!” whispered Isabel, half covering her eyes.
“Are you kidding?” whispered Julia. “This is why we’re here!”
“Are both parties ready?” announced Nathaniel Pendleton.
“Present,” said Aaron Burr, raising his pistol.
“Stop,” said Hamilton suddenly.
Burr lowered his pistol.
“What is the matter, General?” asked Pendleton.
Hamilton was squinting his eyes. It seemed as though he suddenly realized that he should not have chosen the side of the dueling ground that faced the sun.
“In certain situations of light, one requires glasses,” Hamilton said as he reached into his pocket. He pulled out a pair of eyeglasses and put them on with his free hand. Then he raised his pistol and pointed it in several directions, as if he was testing his aim.
While Hamilton was going through these maneuvers, the TTT buzzed in Isabel’s pocket.
WHAT IS GOING ON? REPORT BACK ASAP.
Isabel had the TTT in her hand, but she ignored it.
Hamilton seemed satisfied with his vision now and got into position once again.
“This will do,” he said. “Now you may proceed.”
Did Hamilton put on his glasses to improve his chances of hitting Burr, or to make sure that he wouldn’t hit him? Was he sending a subtle message to Burr that he was going to throw away his shot? Or maybe he just stopped the duel to throw off Burr’s rhythm. Nobody will ever know.
Either way, Aaron Burr glared at him. He didn’t find Hamilton’s little charade to be amusing.
Van Ness and Pendleton turned around, so they were facing away from the duelists. That way, they would be able to honestly claim in a court of law that they did not actually see any guns being fired. Unfortunately, it also meant they would not be able to see exactly what happened and pass it on for the historical record. But the Flashback Four would.
“Are both parties ready now?” Pendleton shouted over his shoulder.
“Present,” said Aaron Burr.
“Present,” said Alexander Hamilton.
Both men lifted their pistols slowly.
“I can’t look!” whispered Isabel.
Hamilton raised his pistol a little higher and to the side of his target. He pulled the trigger.
BANG!
A shower of sparks and smoke sprayed forward from the muzzle of Hamilton’s gun. The bullet shot out and struck the limb of a cedar tree about twelve feet off the ground and four feet wide of Burr. It was obvious that Hamilton had “thrown away his shot.” Burr smiled a little after he realized the bullet had whistled past him. Hamilton’s gun was empty.
Burr pointed his pistol straight at Hamilton. That’s when things got crazy.
“Wait! Stop!” someone shouted.
It was Isabel.
She jumped up from behind the fallen tree, her hands waving in the air. All eyes turned to face her.
“Isabel!” Luke shouted. “What are you doing?”
She jumped over the tree trunk, out into the open area of the dueling ground. Hamilton, Burr, Pendleton, and Van Ness looked at her, dumbfounded.
“Who are you?” Pendleton shouted.
“Get back, Isabel!” shouted David.
“Are you crazy?” hollered Julia. “You’ll get yourself killed!”
All of the Flashback Four were up on their feet now. There was no reason to hide anymore.
“I don’t care!” yelled Isabel. “I can’t take this! It’s insane!”
She marched right to the middle of the dueling ground, between Hamilton and Burr.
“Young lady!” hollered Hamilton. “This is no place—”
“Seize her!” shouted William Van Ness.
Van Ness and Pendleton advanced toward Is
abel.
“Don’t you touch her!” Luke shouted at them.
“Shut up, all of you!” Isabel pleaded. She was in tears now. “Enough! Can’t you see that dueling is stupid and barbaric?”
“How long have you been hiding behind that tree, young lady?” asked Van Ness.
“My friends and I have been watching you the whole time,” Isabel replied.
“Where did you come from?” asked Pendleton.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Isabel shouted. “Look, it doesn’t matter where we came from! The important thing is, you don’t have to do this! You are two intelligent men! You don’t need guns! You can settle your differences peacefully!”
“General Hamilton referred to me as despicable,” said Aaron Burr. “I have every right to defend my honor.”
“Despicable?” shouted Isabel. “So you’re going to shoot him over an adjective? Didn’t you ever hear that sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me?”
“I have never heard that,” Burr said.
Judging by the looks on the faces of Hamilton, Pendleton, and Van Ness, nobody had heard that expression in 1804.
“Mr. Burr, you’re the vice president of the United States, for goodness’ sake!” shouted Isabel. “And you, Mr. Hamilton, you’re one of the most famous Americans in history. Your picture is going to be on the ten-dollar bill! There’s going to be a Broadway show about you!”
“Ten-dollar bill?” asked Pendleton. “Broadway show? The young woman is clearly insane.”
“You are two great men!” Isabel continued. “Do you have any idea of how childish you look right now? Fighting over a silly word? You’re being ridiculous!”
David and Luke climbed over the tree trunk to try and pull Isabel out of harm’s way. But she pushed them back.
“Who are they?” asked Burr.
“Leave them out of this!” Isabel shouted. “The point is, if you shoot Mr. Hamilton now, it’s cold-blooded murder, that’s all it is! And I’m a witness! I’ll testify in court that I saw you do it! So I’m begging you! Just stop all this silliness and go home! Nobody has to die here today! You’re both honorable men!”