Article 114. Dueling.
22 MARCH 1820
ARTICLE 114. DUELING.
James Barron and Stephen Decatur enjoyed distinguished careers during the wars with the Barbary pirates. They became not just colleagues, but good friends. Thus, Decatur was disheartened in 1807 when Barron, then in command of the frigate CHESAPEAKE, 36, fell victim to HMS LEOPARD, 56. The British suspected CHESAPEAKE of harboring Royal Navy deserters and watched for her departure from Virginia for the Mediterranean. Once Barron had sailed beyond the Virginia Capes, CHESAPEAKE was halted and fired upon by LEOPARD. The action caught Barron totally by surprise. His guns had been stowed for the long voyage ahead, compelling him to strike his colors.
Barron later faced a court-martial over this incident. Presiding at this trial, reluctantly, after his requests to the contrary had been denied, was Stephen Decatur. The court found Barron negligent and suspended him from duty, whereupon he entered the merchant service. As circumstance would have it, Barron was in England when hostilities in the War of 1812 commenced and was unable to secure passage to America until the War’s end. Upon his return, murmurings sprang up that his detention in England had not been completely accidental, reflecting a hint of cowardice in his character. It was rumored to Barron that Decatur was party to these murmurings, and he challenged his former friend to gentlemanly redress on the field of honor.
On this morning in 1820, the two met in a valley near Bladensburg, Maryland. In retrospect, Decatur’s second, CDORE William Bainbridge, and Barron’s second, CAPT Jesse D. Elliott, could probably have resolved the quarrel had they acted on the opportunity that now presented. Just before the two faced off Barron expressed to Decatur the hope that “…on meeting in another world, they would be better friends than in this,” to which Decatur replied, “I have never been your enemy, Sir.” From a short eight paces they turned and fired, neither aiming to kill.
Barron was wounded in the thigh but survived. Barron’s bullet entered Decatur’s hip and was deflected into his pelvis, causing substantial hemorrhage. About 12 hours later, Stephen Decatur, one of the most promising officers in the history of our Navy, died at his home in Lafayette Square.
Though this was certainly not the only duel between military officers in our history, it was arguably the most costly. A revision of the Navy Regulations in 1837 forbade dueling as does our modern UCMJ. James Barron eventually returned to the active duty list and ascended to the position of senior Commodore of the Navy, though he never again commanded at sea.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 26-27 MAR 24
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Beach, Edward L. The United States Navy: 200 Years. New York, NY: Henry Holt Co., 1986, pp. 143-46.
Site visit, Stephen Decatur House, Lafayette Square, Washington, DC, 23 May 2007.
Sweetman, Jack. American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3rd ed. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, p. 36.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: Edward Beach contends that the real instigator in this duel was Jesse Elliott. Branded since the War of 1812 as the “coward of Lake Erie” for failing to come to the aid of his Commodore, Oliver Hazard Perry, Elliott is known to have harbored a desire to recover his honor against Perry. His desires were thwarted, however, when Perry died in August 1819 of yellow fever. Elliott and Barron had agreed to act as each other’s second in their respective duels.
Two other Navy officers were present that morning as well. CAPT’s David Porter and John Rodgers had both refused offers to be Decatur’s second, and both had discouraged Decatur’s participation. Both had ridden independently to Bladensburg that morning and secreted themselves in the nearby wood. When Barron and Decatur both fell, Elliott was suddenly overcome by the fear of becoming an accessory to murder. Dueling was illegal even back in 1820, though existing laws were seldom enforced. Elliott fled the scene, and it was Porter who reportedly ran him down on the road back to Washington and forced Elliott to return to Barron’s side.
Though dueling was unlawful and Barron, Bainbridge, and Elliott were widely known to be participants in this duel, none was ever censured by the Navy. All three continued to rise within the Navy’s hierarchy. As a result, the respectability of Naval officers in the public’s eye (as compared to Army officers) suffered for decades.
