A bit of history

If You Like ‘Hamilton,’ Here’s a Famous Duel Near Route 1 You Should Know, so says the Hyattsville Wire.

The March 22, 1820, duel between naval officer Stephen Decatur and Commodore James Barron led to the death of one of the nation’s top military officers, shocking the nation and leading to an outpouring of grief.

Decatur was a naval hero, a veteran of the Barbary wars and the War of 1812 and a member of Washington’s high society — something like a young and dashing version of a John McCain with a little Colin Powell thrown in.

Barron was another naval officer who had been court-martialed for being unprepared in a fight with a British ship searching for deserters, a controversy known as the Chesapeake–Leopard affair after the names of the two ships. 

Six years later, Barron sought reinstatement to the Navy. Decatur, who served on the court-martial panel, was among those who opposed it and made disparaging remarks about Barron. Seeing an affront to his honor, Barron challenged him to a duel.

At the time, duels were a common way for military officers to settle disputes, and they didn’t always end in death. Sometimes, the seconds — trusted friends brought by each party — negotiated an apology at the dueling site. At other times, duelists would start back-to-back and then pace away from each other before turning to fire, which made it more likely they would miss. And duelists also purposefully missed each other.

. . .  Dueling persisted through the 1860s, but it gradually declined.