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This collection highlights some of history's most famous duels, showcasing the dramatic and often deadly confrontations that once served as a means of settling disputes among politicians, writers, and other notable figures.
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In 1892, former Prime Minister of France Georges Clemenceau fought a duel against nationalist politician Paul Déroulède in response to accusations of corruption.
Six shots were fired at point-blank range, neither Clemenceau nor Déroulède was injured.
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On May 30, 1806, future president Andrew Jackson dueled attorney Charles Dickinson over insults to Jackson's wife and accusations of cheating on a horse bet.
After being shot in the chest by Dickinson, Jackson re-cocked his gun that had misfired on the first shot—a violation of dueling rules—and killed Dickinson, suffering chronic pain from his wound for the rest of his life.
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In 1826, John Randolph and Henry Clay engaged in a bizarre duel where Randolph, out of principle, refused to shoot at Clay.
Randolph purposely missed his shots and even accidentally fired his gun before the duel began due to a hair-trigger, while Clay shot true but missed, and the two men ended up parting on agreeable terms.
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The duel between Mikhail Lermontov and Nikolai Martynov on July 27, 1841, resulted in the death of the famous Russian poet at the young age of 27, allegedly fulfilling a midwife's prediction of his violent demise.
After Lermontov was fatally shot, his body was left at the duel site for hours during a terrible thunderstorm before being unceremoniously carted away, while Tsar Nicholas I reportedly greeted the news of the poet's death with the callous remark, "There is a road for him."
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The Burr-Hamilton duel in 1804 resulted in the death of Alexander Hamilton, one of America's Founding Fathers and the first U.S. Treasury Secretary, at the hands of sitting Vice President Aaron Burr.
The same set of dueling pistols was likely used three years earlier when Hamilton's son Philip was killed in a duel at nearly the same location.
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This duel in 1897 involved two gay men, author Marcel Proust and critic Jean Lorrain, fighting over the accusation that Proust was gay.
The asthmatic Proust challenged Lorrain to a pistol duel to defend his honor against the homosexuality claim, with both men missing their shots and Proust's honor being considered restored after the event.
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The Duke of Wellington, while serving as Prime Minister, fought a duel against the Earl of Winchilsea on March 23, 1829, over a dispute regarding Catholic emancipation.
After Wellington fired and missed, Winchilsea deliberately fired his pistol into the air, immediately apologized, and the sitting Prime Minister calmly returned to his duties, even reporting the event to King George IV later that day.
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In 1777, Button Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, engaged in a duel with Brigadier General Lachlan McIntosh over political disagreements, resulting in both men being shot in the thigh.
The duel was fought at an incredibly close range of just 12 feet, and after being fatally wounded, Gwinnett reportedly asked for another shot and said he would take it if someone helped him up.
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Évariste Galois, a brilliant 20-year-old mathematician, died in a mysterious duel on May 30, 1832, after spending the night furiously writing down his mathematical ideas in what became his final testament.
In a tragic twist, Galois had predicted his own death in a duel over a "coquette de bas étage" (low-class flirt) while drunk in prison just months earlier, adding a layer of eerie foreshadowing to his untimely demise.
Sam Houston, a Tennessee congressman, engaged in a pistol duel with Gen. William White on September 22, 1826, wounding White in the groin.
The duel was sparked by complex patronage politics involving Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams, and Houston later avoided prosecution when the governor of Tennessee refused to arrest or extradite him, arguing he had acted in self-defense.
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Georges-Charles de Heeckeren d'Anthès, a French military officer, fatally wounded the renowned Russian poet Alexander Pushkin in a duel in 1837 over a scandalous affair involving Pushkin's wife.
Pushkin later pardoned d'Anthès on his deathbed, and d'Anthès went on to have a successful political career in France, becoming a senator despite having killed one of Russia's greatest literary figures.
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In a duel arising from Lee's alleged insults to Washington, Hamilton's friend Laurens exchanged shots with Lee, wounding him slightly.
After the first exchange, Lee wanted to continue shooting despite being injured, but was dissuaded by the seconds, including Hamilton himself.
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Abraham Lincoln, then a 33-year-old state legislator, nearly fought a duel with James Shields in 1842 after Lincoln wrote satirical letters mocking Shields under the pseudonym "Rebecca."
The duel was averted at the last moment on a Mississippi River sandbar, but not before Lincoln, who chose cavalry broadswords as the weapons, demonstrated his reach advantage by chopping down a high tree branch with his sword.
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Charles Malo François Lameth fought a duel with the Duc de Castries in November 1790, where he was wounded and there were brief fears that the duke had used a poisoned sword.
The duel sparked such outrage among Lameth's supporters that an angry mob stormed and ransacked the Duke de Castries' house in retaliation.
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