The Hamilton family sure doesn't have much luck duelling.

Hamiltons story is so crazy, like straight out of a movie type thing

As someone who sends a lot of strongly-worded letters for a living, it’s kinda insane to think that in the olden days, me and the other guy would end up having a duel

Crazy to think that Aaron Burr was still the acting Vice President when this duel took place.

By the way, Jefferson had asked Burr to run as his Vice-President as the public viewed Jefferson as a coward as he ran off when the British came to Virginia and Burr was a Revolutionary War hero, who had been with Washington in the field and in extensive fighting for 5 years.

"...Death doesn't discriminate Between the sinners and the saints It takes and it takes and it takes.."

Hamilton could've just apologized. One historian said that in his letters Burr was practically pleading Hamilton to apologize and restore Burr's public honor so that it wouldn't come to violence. Burr's entire career depended on Hamilton retracting his statements or at least publicly saying the reporter misinterpreted what he said, which would've allowed them both to save face. If Hamilton really opposed dueling on such high grounds, there were plenty of ways to avoid it.

I remember this most famous American duel featured in the first commercial of the "Got Milk?" ad campaign from 1993. Who knew the Hamilton-Burr Duel would be used to sell milk 189 years later? 😂

About forty years ago they examined the dueling pistols , and they found that the one used by Hamilton had a hair-trigger, which might have caused an unintentional discharge when the pistol was raised.

Hamilton did write that he opposed dueling and did not intend to fire on Burr, but his letter was not released until after his death and there is no indication that Burr was aware of this. Hamilton’s behavior prior to the duel gave the impression that he did intend to harm Burr. He choose the better position and he put on his eyeglasses. He fired first and then Burr fired. Hamilton’s shot missed, but he gave no indication to Burr that he intended to miss. Burr followed the code of the time in returning fire on Hamilton. If Hamilton truly opposed the practice of dueling, he should have refused to participate. His conduct led to the duel as much as Burr’s did. As with many events, the witnesses to the duel gave differing accounts of the events at the dueling ground. I think Burr is too often condemned as the villain of this story.

This is the Alexander version of the duel. In the Burr version, Hamilton's bullet struck the tree next to Burr about 15 feet above him due to Hamilton squeezing the set trigger too soon. The pictures depicting Hamilton shooting straight up are false. Also the animosity between Burr and Hamilton was due to each other's efforts at rival banking interests in New York City. Both Hamilton's and Burr's banks exist to this day.

The rivalry started much sooner than the election of 1800. When they would both start banks in the 1790's where Aaron Burr helped start the Bank of Manhattan (that would later become Chase the largest retail and investment bank in America) and Hamilton helped with founding the Bank of New York (that later became the Bank of New York Mellon, the largest merchant bank in America).

Interesting information, however, it left out one very important fact. In 1976 those pistols were discovered to have a concealed hair trigger. If Hamilton knew of and used this, it could offer another theory to his shot into the air. See Smithsonian Magazine, November 1976... "The pistols that Hamilton provided had concealed hair triggers - what a modern target shooter would call a single-set trigger. Church had bought the pair in London. By using them, Hamilton could surreptitiously set his hair trigger without anyone's noticing. This would give Hamilton a theoretical advantage by allowing him to shoot very quickly with a tiny, half pound squeeze on the trigger. Burr's gun had the same trigger, but Burr probably didn't know it. He would fire with the ordinary 10 or 12 pound pull. Although Hamilton owned a fine pair of correct English dueling pistols, he elected to borrow the trick pair from Church."

“Everything is legal in New Jersey”

How many of us know about this event from that old commercial, where the guy had his mouth full, so he couldn't answer the trivia question about this duel. He kept trying to say "Aaron Burr", and was in some kind of museum of the duel. It was a funny commercial. I can't be the only one who remembers it.

I can't believe they found boats big enough to hold those GIANT BALLS

Several years ago, I read a description of the Weehawken Dueling Ground. It was a choice location, hidden from the water below, from above by an overhang and from the side by undergrowth. The ground itself was only 60 feet long, approximately 6 feet wide.

The tradition of dueling remained very much alive into the 20th century down here in the South. My father holds the distinction of being the last man arrested for dueling in Georgia. In 1973, my mother, oldest sister, and he, were living in a country neighborhood in middle Georgia where the houses were on 5 acre lots so that small farms and livestock could be held on the plots. My father had 2 German shepherds he had raised from puppies and they were treated like family and they often would watch over my sister, who was a baby at the time, like a litter mate. They had a large fenced in back yard and my parents would put them in the back yard when they would go to work where they had water, a back porch and food to keep themselves busy during the day. After several months a home was built next door and the father was from New York and held dispariging opinions of all his Southern neighbors and seemed to be quite vocal about it. Well my dad ignored the jerk for the most part until he brought 2 horses and built a paddock for them directly against the back yard fence, even failed to build his own fence and simply tied his horses fence into ours. With the neighbor doing this and putting his horses directly against the fence where the dogs were kept during the day caused issues when the horses would kick at the dogs through the fence and then the dogs would bark at the horses. The first time this happened, the neighbor came over screaming at my dad and mom and cussed quite heavily towards my mother, my father being the well brought up Southern gentleman, took issue with this and it almost came to blows. Luckily it didn't and the neighbor seems to calm down for a few days until my dad came home to find one of his German Shepherds dead with a shotgun blast in his back yard. To say he was pissed would be an understatement. My father was always one to hold his temper and in the 41 years I knew him, can only ever recall seeing him lose his temper on 3 occasions, and all 3 times were over something to do with his family. Well, my father walked next door and the Yankee neighbor answered and he politely asked if he knew how his dog and been killed, the neighbor blew up and him and screamed that he had killed his "damned dog" for barking at his horse. The fact the man's life didn't end there still amazes me to this day knowing my father. Well, dad calmed asked him to choose the weapons for a duel and offered guns, knives, or fist, but either way, the neighbor was going to pay for killing his dog. The neighbor demanded guns and told him he would be in the street in 5 minutes. Dad calmly walked back into his house, grabbed his 9mm Luger pistol and began to walk outside when he heard the neighbors car start. The neighbor had closed the door, watched dad walk into his house, then grabbed his wife and daughter and threw them in the car and squalled tires leaving. About 15 minutes later the local sheriff's deputy shows up and asks dad what happened, when he told him he had challenged the neighbor to a duel and that he had accepted and to use guns, the deputy arrested dad. So there dad was, sitting in jail for about 30 minutes when the sheriff sees him and stops and asks why he was there. It turns out that my dad and the sheriff were aqauintances through both church and the local gun club (dad had been a competition shooter for several years at this point) and dad explained what had happened. This infuriated the sheriff because he trained hunting dogs and loved dogs in general. He let dad out on the spot and walked him up to the office to be released, the neighbor was in the lobby and began getting upset about my dad seeming to be released after he had gotten him arrested. The sherif was next to dad and asked if this was the neighbor, to which dad said yes. Well the sheriff turns around and arrests the neighbor on the spot and throws his butt in jail with charges of cruelty to animals, destruction of private property and a couple of other charges. Dad walked free and the neighbor ended up moving out of the neighborhood and dad found out that after his jail term and probation was up, he went back up north.

He didn’t give away his shot

It wasn’t just that Hamilton thought Burr was despicable, he made comments to someone when he was drunk that Burr had an unnaturally close relationship with his daughter, if you catch my drift. When that comment got back to Burr, he asked Hamilton to clarify and/or retract. Hamilton wouldn’t and thus the dual. Hamilton knew he would lose so he wrote the letter about firing in the air to make Burr look bad after the fact. Read Gore Vidal’s novel Burr.

How likely is it that: - The pistols had a 'trick' hair trigger, which was engaged by pushing the trigger forward before pulling it back to fire the pistol. - Hamilton knew of the trick and set the hair trigger, which caused him to fire prematurely. - Burr did not know of the trick.

Good job i love American History and the duel of Hamilton and Burr is so deep and intense and so much history between them and ironies too just a great story loved it

If Burr realized Hamilton shot first and into the air, then Burr deliberately killed Hamilton. Also, have read several accounts that Hamilton shot high and above Burr hitting a tree. Supposedly, this was seen to be an accurate description upon inspection of the tree.

The main thing to remember about the duel is to always have some milk on hand. You never know when you'll be called upon to discuss it right after having had a peanut butter sandwich.

Fascinating, truly fascinating! I can't wait to hear more from you!

Yeeeears ago, i read a magazine article on the guns; they had a like hair trigger of some sort, unknown to the duellists, thus the missed shot

“They wont teach you this in your classes, but look it up hamilton was wearing his glasses” Is that so?

In 1976 in celebration of this countries foundings, Hamilton's guns were taken from Chase Manhattan Bank and examined . They were not duelling pistols because they had sights. Upon excaming the pistol that Hamilton used they found a set trigger. This type of trigger made the pistol more accurate. The pistol Burr use did not have a set trigger. This gave an unknown advantage to Hamilton. If Hamilton had won the duel, it really would have been murder. There are those, and I am one of them, being really familiar with this kind of trigger set up, that thinks Hamilton's shot in error. That he triggered the gun to soon, missing Burr.. It does seem that this part gets ignored a lot. Hamilton was far from the saint some would like us to believe.

I have driven past the monument to the duel but in watching this video I think I will make a conscious effort to go to the monument and really take in the atmosphere/environment and historical significance of the hallowed grounds.

Some years back, in a Hamilton bio I recall reading the theory that his death amounted to the equivalent of what today is known as an "assisted suicide", though the term wasn't used in the book. According to that scenario he didn't aim at Burr, but fired his gun in the air as an attempt at self-atonement over his infidelity committed against his wife Eliza. He made no such admission that we know of in his last moments, but, then, much of the lore surrounding the duel is in dispute, with eyewitnesses having different versions as to whether it was Hamilton or Burr who fired the first shot.

My mental picture of this duel is Lin and Leslie. I can no longer see them as they were.

Have you been to Blennerhasset Island? It is the historical home of Harmon Blennerhasset, who collaborated with Burr to start a new country. The island is in the middle of the Ohio River, outside of Parkersburg WV. It would make an excellent addition to your series

I like this video. The duel was also touched on in "Founding Brothers" by Joseph J. Ellis.

Just saw the play "Hamilton" here in Norfolk and I'm so glad to see the video of quality you have presented Thanks so much and best to real history!

The pistols used in this dual are still around.

I can never think of Burr without thinking of Gore Vidal's novel, Burr. But I actually think Burr was right about what a butt Hamilton was.

read about this duel and I never learned any of this; The intrigue and background and build up to the duel. Very well done. Just sub'd.

“I’m gonna get myself murdered out of spite” - Alexander Hamilton

Great stuff! Thanks for all your work.

Some historians and a few psychologists say that Hamilton suffered from a "dual personality".

Thank you for the concise, easy-to-understand facts of the event

ummmm. Burr didnt run for vice president. both Burr and Jefferson. back then 1st place was President, runner up got VP.. just clearing that up

It seems stupid to charge men who willingly participate in a duel with murder. This is akin to charging a MMA fighter with assault.

Thanks for the video! Would you be willing to cover the trail of tears? I dig your style and how you put the video together.

I remember taking my first oath as a police officer: most of the oath had to do with promise not to duel, act as second in a duel, officiate at a duel, watch a duel, ad infinitum. That was in 1988. Good gravy, was that outdated?

Have some old letters and alimony receipts signed by Burr to one of my ancestors

Informative and entertaining. Thank you.

Just wondering why Hamilton would accept the challenge of Burr to duel , if he knew he would not try to kill Burr . Therefore he agreed to knowingly take part in getting himself killed . Does that make sense ? No , it doesn't . Which is why he did not intentionally shoot to miss .

Hamilton's brother in law was a professional duelist. When the pistol set was auctioned off in the 1990s, the gunsmith restorer found a hidden switch built in the trigger mechanism. This switched the trigger pull from the normal 5 pound pull, to a hair trigger. Whether Hamilton knew about it and fired high accidentally prematurely, or not will never be known.

*Gore Vidal's best historical novel, "Burr," covers this event in history--and a great deal more surrounding the early days of the USA. I highly recommend it to anyone who is prepared not to accept everything in it as "gospel"--as Vidal himself always cautioned the reading public that his historical novels were just that: novels.*

Everything Burr did in this situation is exactly how any gentleman of the time would have behaved. Hamilton, on the other hand, did everything he could to force Burr to challenge. When told afterward that Hamilton had said he would throw away his shot Burr's reaction was "Contemptible, if true."

This was most excellent!

Excellent Film. Thank you. Joe

❤. Thank you for this historic review.

One last fight for great rivals

Very well done video!

A heck of a way to get your portrait on a ten dollar bill....

I was born July 12, 1948 in Jersey City NJ then lived at 26 49th street in Weehawken about a quarter block from the palisades, a short way from the dueling ground. After moving to Hillsdale NJ when I was three, we visited grandparents still living on 49th street virtually every Sunday. On the way home to Hillsdale after each visit, I got to see the beautiful NYC skyline at night. Thank you for this great history lesson!

Thank You for a most informative video

Can the fact, that the choice of pistol of Hamilton be the reason he missed? It is understood Hamilton hit a tree. His choice was a hair trigger device in the pistol he fired. By pushing the trigger forward the trigger became a hair trigger.

I didn’t know Aaron Burr was such a great singer

Vidal's account is perhaps more accurate than this one, which makes Hamilton appear almost saintly. Hamilton was in fact involved in almost ten duels or challenges at least, including one with future president, Monroe...

Great Video, Thank you

This was the duel that outlawed duels!

Hamilton was a bully of sorts. There parts of his politics that I agree and parts I don't, but he despised by many in his day.

You know I thought the musical exaggerated when they said the election came done to Hamilton

Wait... Aaron Burr isn't black?

OMG I had no idea that Hamilton was a true story

Take a look at the foot noted and large historical bibliography of Burr by Gore Vidal. Not the fairy tale Broadway play adaption.

Great video.....much thanks.

look him in the eyes aim no higher summon all the courage you require..

Just came from The Daily Belleinger. Looking forward to watching your content.

Thanks for the content

Thank you for making this video!

So interesting - before the Musical - I had never heard of this guy, but since, we have visited New York and Trinity church to pay our respects to them all.

Came here after watching Suits Season 7. Interesting story.

Maybe we need to bring this back.

According to one account I heard, Burr did not intend to harm Hamilton. Burr supposedly aimed at the ground at Hamilton's feet. But the recoil from his pistol caused Burr's hand to jerk upward. These dueling pistols were highly inaccurate. It was very difficult to hit a target while using them.

They need to bring back dueling. It would be better to watch than judge Judy.

Thank you for clarifying a topic that had been a question unanswered for me. New Sub!

Why go to the duel if you weren't truly going to participate? Insane.

“Let me tell you what I wish I know When I was young and dreamed of glory You have no control who lives, who dies, who tells your story” George Washington, Hamilton musical

OK so missed point, Hamilton was able to choose the pistols and chose them from his cousin a Philadelphia gunsmith. His cousin offered him 2 dueling pistols with a screw to either tighten or loosen the trigger control. Being Nervous prior to the duel he over tightened Burr's Pistol making it very hard to fire and over lightened his own. His pistol being too light fired into the tree and Burr being a big strong guy eventually was able to fire the weapon.

I also read that the doctor removed Hamilton’s shirt to stop the bleeding and to check his vital signs.

Love me some Burr. Gentile hero.

Please note: the right hand pistol, the one on top is A: left handed, very unusual for the time, B: has been fitted with a percussion nipple and hammer. This was not yet invented at the time of the Hamilton- Burr duel.

If only decades later brooks had possessed the balls to follow through with his duel at Niagara Falls. Hell of a story, I hadn’t realized that Alexander had refused to kill Aaron, and died anyway.

This establishing a precedent good to this day for all politicians : Plausible Deniability...

Never agree to a duel if you're going to half ass it.

you are a godsend and have helped me with my history essay so much thank you

It’s weird to think the crossed over to Jersey in boats, not a short ride. The length of the GWB.

Contrary to the statement in the video, Burr was not a Senator but was VP at the time of the duel.

Crossed flintlock dueling pistols. The logo of the US Army Military Police Corps.

As a fan of the Hamilton musical, it’s interesting to see how the duel actually played out as oppose to its depiction in the play (no shade on Hamilton btw Lin-Manuel has admitted to many inaccuracies)

Harts' horn. A hart is a male red deer.

There are a ton of aspects of American history which are under-explored and under-taught imho... there's a whole swath of eras during and after reconstruction which can be explored, and also specific events or pieces of legislation, such as the Smoot-Hawley tariff, which led to significant events afterwards.

The Play the "Fox and the Eagle" covered some of it. Burr wanted later to create another Nation West of the Appalachian Mountains.. Didn't go well .. the dueling Pistols were on display in Canton, Ohio due to Dr.Hamilton of the same family. Note; I had to load the Stage prop Blank Pistols used on stage.. our Father wrote the Play..

We could use a whole lot more duels between politicians. Maybe even mandatory duels…. With sawed off shotguns loaded with buckshot at 3 paces.

Nice job.

That commercial was hysterical. The guy was calling in to a radio quiz game, to answer a question about this duel. The caller was very excited, he was an Aaron Burr fan, and had the answer. However, he was munching on a peanut butter sandwich, his mouth got all gummed up, and he reached for his milk bottle to get a drink and break up the peanut butter logjam. Sadly, their was only a single drop of milk remaining…..thus…..Got Milk?