The Duel in Military History
This ode to Ritualized Personal Violence had been common to the mili
The annuals of military history are filled with instances of one on one duels fought only for the sake of honor.
Before time and history two early Homo sapiens circled each other in personal combat. This early combat was most likely fought over something very important such as basic survival. As time grew and society evolved this personal combat often became fought for ideas rather than survival. When two warriors became locked into combat outside the scope of warfare or survival, it became a matter of honor. An early version of dueling was known as "judicial combat," so called because God allegedly judged the man in the right and let him win. Dueling rises from the mists of military history and legend. Hector challenged Achilles to a personal duel in front of the gates of Troy. During the Three Kingdoms period of China, warlord Sun Ce fought an enemy general named Taishi Ci during a journey past a temple. The two fought alone until the arrival of their respective armies. Medieval European nobles had defended their honor in man-to-man battles. This practice was thought to be one of the origins of the Joust. This practice became even more widespread in the renaissance period and by the modern age had reached levels that had become ludicrous. During an amphibious landing at Barcelona in 1704, two colonels of the British Royal Marines got into a disagreement, exchanged challenges, and had a quick duel leaving only one of them alive enough to go on and fight the Spanish. In the last recorded duel fought in 1845 England Lieutenant Henry Hawkey killed Captain James Alexander Seton over an undisclosed matter of honor.
The height of this lunacy came about in the Napoleonic era. General Baron Daumesnil, 'napoleons lucky charm' who fought in every major battle of the Napoleonic wars and earned twenty wounds in combat, drew his first blood in a duel at the age of 17. The most infamous pair of duelists was a certain group of cavalry officers in the French Army named Fournier and DuPont. In 1794 they fought their first duel from which Fournier demanded a rematch. This rematch lasted for no less than 19 years as the two officers fought at least 30 regular duels dismounted and on horse, with swords, rapiers, sabers and almost every other weapon imaginable. In 1908 Joseph Conrad (author of the Heart of Darkness) wrote the short story The Duel based on this combat. He changed the officers names to D'Hubert and Feraud with artistic license. In 1977 Ridley Scott adapted the story as the film The Duelists, with Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel.
The two officers so wanted to celebrate their aggression with each other by agreeing in a written contract to keep dueling until one of them died. Described by author Charles G. Shanks, in 1869, the terms were:
- A fight shall be arranged whenever the parties are within thirty leagues (100 miles) of one another.
- There shall be no excuse from fighting except illness or military duty.
- Pistols shall not be used except by mutual consent.
- Death, surrender, or mutual agreement, shall alone terminate the fight.
