Duels of Honor

Jack Parrott

Farmer

Eng. 113-241

November 25, 2013

Duels of Honor

It was a brisk cool morning. Sounds of the woodland wildlife were coming alive and engulfing the leading softness of dawn. Suddenly, footsteps arose competing with the melody of the coppice. Unexpectedly, an edgy sense of quietness filled the air. Then a startling outburst of dual gunfire erupted through the foliage. Screams of agony and pain were heard coming from a nearby clearing that was next to the edge of the forest. A duel of honor had just been fought by two southern gentlemen. One duelist lay dying. The other dueler dashed for his horse in an attempt to escape the local authorities. This scene was a regular occurrence prior to the Civil War. Dueling in the United States embodied the essence of honor to the southern gentleman only to be abolished by anti-dueling laws: laws that reformed dueling by altering the format of its role in governmental situations and relationships.

Dueling is a fight until one’s death to prove that the partakers are honorable, a complicated and multifaceted concept that historians have closely identified with the Old South. The duel is carried out with pistols or swords. Initially, only swords were used in dueling and, consequently, there were few fatalities. Participants would arrive, at a mutually agreed-upon location, at a predetermined time. The duelists would advance and stand back to back. They would then slowly take ten paces in opposite directions. They then proceeded to turn and fire their weapons at one another. The duelists would then have their seconds, individuals used to mediate between the dueling parties (Dueling), reload their pistols and then the duelists would continue firing upon each other, until one was either mortally wounded or conceded to offending the other. The “Code Duello” was the guideline that was adhered to during a duel. The “Code Duello”, covering the practice of dueling and points of honor, was drawn up and settled at...