Modern Military Duels
One on one combat for honor since the Napoleonic era.
While the ancient blood feud known as the duel was in decline in Western Europe it was on the rise elsewhere.
The military annuals of the United States carry some of the most interesting and most modern instances of dueling. During the revolutionary war Colonel John Laurens, an aide to George Washington, challenged loudmouthed General Charles Lee, basically at one time the second in command of the Continental Army to a duel in 1780 in which Lee was wounded in the side. Commodore Stephen Decatur of the United States Navy, an experienced duelist and the hero of the Barbary Wars, died at the hands of another commodore, James Barron. Confederate Generals Lucius M. Walker and John S. Marmaduke fought a duel at dawn along the Arkansas River in 1863 because the latter had questioned the formers bravery in battle. They fought appropriately enough for the time period with Colt Navy revolvers at 15 paces. Walker was killed and Marmaduke was arrested. During the last days of the Civil war Brig. Gen. Theodore Read, of the United States army and Brigadier General James Dearing of the Confederate army fought in personal combat as their troops looked on. The two generals (both in their 20's) met April 5, 1865 at the High Bridge on the Appomattox River and fought with pistols. General Read died on the spot and General Dearing a few days later. He was the last Confederate general to die of a battle wound and the last American officer known to have been killed in a duel.
This was not the last duel between flag officers in the US military. Just after the sensational 1893 football game between West Point (Army) and Annapolis (Navy), a shouting match at the Army-Navy Club in Washington DC between a rear admiral and a brigadier general turned into a pistol duel that was only narrowly called off at the last minute.
The three ‘empires of the eagles’ (Austria, Germany and Russia) were the last strongholds of the military duel. While it was disapproved of officially and publicly for civilians to engage in duels in these countries, it was still allowed for officers who felt that had been gravely insulted and remained allowable until World War one. In the Austro-Hungarian Army chaplains were required to wear swords with their uniforms and therefore were also allowed to engage in duels. In the 19th century there was an average of one duel each month between officers of the Royal Prussian Army, many of whom carried dueling scars as the ultimate decoration. A Tsarist officer and writer, Mikhail Lermontov (who incidentally wrote of the first game of Russian roulette in his "A Hero of Our Time") was killed in a duel with another officer. Just before world war one, arguably the last tsar of Russia- the Grand Duke Michael- narrowly avoided a duel with a Lt Wufert of the Imperial Horse Guards (that Michael in his role as an army offier was in command of) because he was having an affair with his wife whom he later married morganically. The Tsar's own Prime Minister, Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin, was nearly crippled in a duel trying to avenge his brother's death in the same manner.
The last hurrah of this school of thought was seen in 1931 when retired American General William Graves wrote of his wartime experiences in Siberia during the Russian Civil War that followed the Bolshevik Revolution. His criticism of the aristocratic White Russian leadership in his memoir provoked a challenge to duel from Lt. Col. Constantine Sakharov, who had commanded the White Russian forces in question.
The challenge went unanswered.
Currently in the United States Military the Uniform Code of Military Justice is Article 114. Established in 1951 it states that : ‘Any person subject to this chapter who fights or promotes, or is concerned in or connives at fighting a duel, or who, having knowledge of a challenge sent or about to be sent, fails to report the facts promptly to the proper authority, shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.’ However, in Great Britain officers of the Royal Army are still allowed and even encouraged to settle disagreements in the boxing ring by the Queensbury Rules.
So you can go ahead and put your dueling pistols away now.
Sources for this and the first article in this series:
- Dueling Kevin McAleer
- The History of Dueling: John Gideon Millingen
- The Encyclopedia of the Sword, Nick Evangeliasa.
