It was appropriate that the new rules [of the Code Duello, a handbook on dueling] came from South Carolina, home to the country’s only known dueling club. Its officers were chosen on the basis of the number of men they’d killed or wounded, and of course the president was the man with the most. One day a British naval officer was visiting Charleston to investigate some property of his wife’s and chanced to quarrel with the club president, who challenged him. The officer accepted, and the next day eight or ten club members paid him a warning visit: His opponent was an expert, all by invincible, such as might be called a professional duelist, and it would be prudent to find some way to back out of the engagement without dishonor.
His country’s reputation at stake, the Englishman retorted, “I am not afraid of any duelist in the world” and, to everyone’s dismay, mortally wounded the president at first fire. Expiring, that gentleman called his club members to his bedside and told them the club had been a bad idea and they ought to disband it. The day after he was buried, they formally did so.
Source:
Holland, Barbara. “VIII. Southern Spirits.” Gentlemen’s Blood: A History of Dueling From Swords at Dawn to Pistols at Dusk. Bloomsbury, 2004. 152-53. Print.
Further Reading:
No comments, yet...