the duel: a history
by Robert Baldick (1970)

This is a beautiful book with thick pages and great illustrations and I'd die defending it if someone forces my hand. In The Duel: A History, Baldick runs down the most interesting duels from the first recorded in 501 A.D. They were for all the usual reasons, to pass judgment, preserve honor, promote chivalry, avenge insults. The style was in how you approached the duel, and what sort of ground rules you requested. Most reasons for duels, in retrospect, are ridiculous but make for great entertainment. Before pistols came on the scene and made it more like target practice, the earliest duels were accomplished with swords and daggers. Besides not being the guy to shoot second, the principal challenge of dueling with pistols was that you risked it exploding in your hand or having it not fire. The Second (the assistant who made sure the duel was honorable and prepared your weapon) was supposed to take care of that, but he might have been some kid.
The big early push in duels was in France between 1589 and 1607, when about 4000 macho types died despite an edict from the King telling the aristocrats to knock it off. There are tons of great stories from this era, such as that of Lagarde, who sent a rival an ugly hat and said, "Wear this and you die." After the predictable response and challenge, Lagarde speared his rival through three times with a sword, crying out, "This is for the hat! This is for the feathers! This is for the tassel!" The guy managed to stab Lagarde 14 times with a dagger in the face and neck, and somehow both survived. Chevalier de Guise was another well-known duelist, although also a major asshole. He once challenged an elderly man to draw his sword after an argument, and when the old guy managed to get it out, de Guise promptly ran him through. The guy's son then challenged de Guise to a duel the next day, so he killed him too. (As was then customary, the Seconds also dueled.) Dueling was so much a part of the culture that one lady told a suitor who asked for her hand, "It is not time yet to marry. If you will be a brave man, you must first kill in single combat two or three men, then marry, and engender two or three children, and the world will neither have gained nor lost by you."
The first duel in the New World took place in 1621 between two servants fresh off the boat. They wounded each other, one with a sword and the other with a dagger, and were sentenced to have their hands and feet tied together for 24 hours without food or water because they were idiots. By the beginning of the 18th century, duels were commonplace in the United States, although more so in the South than North and especially in New Orleans. Probably the most famous American duel was when Vice President Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in 1804 because Hamilton said Burr shouldn't be trusted in a government position. Hamilton was mortally wounded on the same spot where his son Philip had died in a duel three years earlier. Two years later, in 1806, Andrew Jackson killed Charles Dickinson, who he claimed had slandered his beloved wife. Both men were great shots and hit each other with their first volley, although Dickinson thought he missed because Jackson didn't flinch. Jackson then fired again and offed Dickinson. Later Jackson was criticized for wearing loose-fitting clothing so that Dickinson couldn't fix his aim as easily.
The typical pistol duel either had the combatants pacing away from each other or holding their guns to their sides at a certain distance until one of the Seconds yelled, "One, two, three, fire, stop." You could fire anytime between "One" and "Stop." If both men missed, each could take a second shot or request that the duel end. There was also a variation in France called duel au monchoir, where you stood apart only the length of a handkerchief, so most likely both men died. Never caught on. No matter the method, the particulars were all spelled out formally beforehand, and the custom in the U.S. evolved into "posting," where you let everyone know you were pissed off: "To do justice to my character, I denounce to the world John Randolph, a member of Congress, as a prevaricating, base, calumniating scoundrel, poltroon and coward." By the 1850s, dueling had moved west to California where men challenged each other over gold and women. In 1859, a U.S. Senator and a former California judge went at it because the judge opposed slavery (the judge lost the battle but won the war). By the 1860s dueling was on the decline because of legislation and public disapproval. It was also sputtering in Europe, where it was believed the American duel involved drawing lots and having the loser shoot himself. In 1894, one American put that myth to rest, writing, "Why this should be supposed to be the American way of dueling I cannot imagine. If there is any such thing as an American duel, it is what is familiarly known as 'shooting on sight.' The challenger sends word to his enemy that he will shoot him the next time he sees him, and thereupon the latter arms himself, and takes his walks abroad with much caution, until the two meet, when both begin a fusillade with their revolvers, and one of them is usually killed, together with from four to six of the bystanders." A hundred years later, we're still at it.