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At the word both raised their weapons. Broderick’s was discharged before he had elevated it sufficiently, and his bullet struck the ground about six feet in front of Terry. Terry was surer and shot his antagonist through the lung. Terry, who acted throughout with cold-blooded indifference, watched his antagonist fall and remarked that the wound was not mortal, as he had struck two inches to the right. He then left the field.

When Broderick fell, one of the bystanders, named Davis, shouted out:

“That is murder, by God!”

Drawing his own weapon, he started for Terry, exclaiming: “I am Broderick’s friend. I’m not going to see him killed in that way. If you are men you will join me in avenging his death!”

Some cool heads in the multitude restrained him, pointing out that if he attacked Terry there would be a general melee, from which few on the ground would escape, and they finally succeeded in getting him away.

Broderick lingered for three days.

“They have killed me,” he said, “because I was opposed to slavery and a corrupt administration.”

Colonel Edward D. Baker, who was killed at Ball’s Bluff in the Civil War, received his friend’s last words.

“I tried to stand firm when I was wounded, but I could not. The blow blinded me.”

Terry was tried for murder, but by influence and other means he was never convicted, and escaped all punishment save that inflicted by his conscience.

In judging these affairs, it must be remembered that many of the most prominent Americans of the past–Benton, Clay, Calhoun and Houston among them–fought duels. And it is well known that only Abraham Lincoln’s wit and humor saved him from a deadly encounter with General James Shields, whose challenge he accepted.

NOTES:

[1] The reader may consult my book “The True Andrew Jackson” for a detailed account of this interesting transaction.

[2] See my “Border Fights and Fighters” in this series for an account of this dramatic and heroic adventure.