The musical play “Hamilton” ends with his duel with Burr. A song leading up to it, the world was wide enough tells the audience that Hamilton “wore his glasses” at the duel, and that he “methodically fiddled with the trigger.” It doesn’t say why, but tries to imply a sort of death-wish where Hamilton “threw away his shot” (fired into the air) because he didn’t want to kill his first friend, or because he thought of his son, who died near the spot. The theory is supported by popular myth, though the details of the events are, by necessity, muddy. All the witnesses testified that they looked away before the shooting started –customary in duels at the time.
There are some problems I find with this theory, and I’d like to present another: that Hamilton was so eager to kill Burr that he over-stacked the deck in his favor. The witnesses noted that Hamilton performed some provocative actions that seem out of character for someone who wants to commit suicide: “As they were taking their places, he (Hamilton) asked that the proceedings stop, adjusted his spectacles, and slowly, repeatedly, sighted along his pistol to test his aim”[1]. This seems like a taunt, if anything. As I reading the letters too, I find Hamilton taunting Burr to duel. He could have bowed out in many ways, as Washington always had, or been neutral. Why taunt? Why wear glasses and fiddle with the trigger? Why test your aim and then throw away your shot?
The choice of guns is important too, along with where the shot actually went. First the shot: While Hamilton’s second originally thought Hamilton had shot in the air, when the seconds went back the next day they found the shot in a cedar limb, “at an elevation of about twelve feet and a half, perpendicularly from the ground, between thirteen and fourteen feet from the mark on which General Hamilton stood, and about four feet wide of the direct line between him and Col. Burr, on the right side”.[2] The men stood 10 paces apart (16-18 feet), so apparently the shot hit about 6 feet above Burr’s head on a line reasonably towards him. That’s not quite shooting in the air.
The Wogdon pistols used in the Hamilton – Burr duel. Currently the property of the JP Morgan Chase Manhattan Bank, in 1976 they were found to have a hidden hair trigger, something Hamilton knew, but Burr would not have known.
The choice of pistols is also suggestive. The pistols were the property of John Church, a brother-in-law to Hamilton, and a business partner of both men. Church had fought a duel with Burr some years before and, using Burr’s pistols, shot a button off Burr’s coat. Burr missed completely. Church then bought these new pistols in London — Wogdon pistols, with an extra-large bore and sights. Sights were not considered “sporting” for duels, and not ordinarily allowed. With sights on the pistols, one could not miss if one aimed. As for the bigger bore, this too was unusual. If you hit, you killed; most gentlemen preferred a less-deadly duel. Hamilton chose to use these pistols even though he owned two, “legal” pistols (smaller bore, no sight). As the challenged party, it was his right. Still, why not choose your own, if not to make use of the sight and the large-bore. And, according to his second, he seems to have practiced with the pistols beforehand [4].
Analysis of the guns, done in the late 1970s [3] turned up another illegal feature. While they appear to be normal dueling pistols, these guns have a hidden feature. If you move the trigger a fraction of an inch forward it sets a hidden, hair-trigger. It’s a hidden feature that Hamilton knew about [3] but Burr almost certainly did not. If Hamilton surreptitiously set the hair-trigger, it would give him a tremendous advantage. He would be able to shoot more quickly and more accurately, with a much lighter squeeze on the trigger. The sights ensured it would be a kill. Burr’s gun, unset, would have required the normal, heavy, 10-15 pound pull. His shot would have been slower and less accurate. As it was, it seems Burr fired second.
Ten paces is not very far apart. People missed because of the 10-20 lb pull and the lack of sights made it hard to hit anyone. Besides, with a small bore, you didn’t kill.
There are a couple of problems with using hair-trigger pistols, though. They can go off prematurely, even if you know the trigger’s been set [4], and it’s worse if you are not quite sure you’ve set the trigger. The Wogdon guns intentionally made it hard to tell if you have set the trigger or not, and made it impossible to unset the trigger without firing. I suspect that Hamilton cleaned his glasses, fiddled with the trigger, and sighted his aim because he was unsure whether he’d set the hair-trigger. My theory is he came to the wrong conclusion. According to the seconds, Burr’s shot was almost simultaneous, but his apparently achieved a lucky/ un-lucky hit. Burr killed his rival, but also killed his own political career, the unhappy end to a beautiful animosity, discussed in the play, and discussed by me from a different angle. [5]
References:
1. Testimony at trial, Centinel of Freedom, November 24, 1807, cited in Winfield, 1874, p. 220.
2. Nathanial Pendelton’s Amended testimony of Nathaniel Pendleton and William P. Ness’s Statement of July 11, 1804. Amended after the pair revisited the site and found the bullet.
3. “Pistols shed light on famed duel”, Merrill Lindsay, Smithsonian Magazine. 1976.
4. ibid. Hamilton told his second not to set the hair-trigger, and then seems to have set his own. Linsay’s theory is that Hamilton knew he’d set the trigger, but squeezed it too early.
5. Since the witnesses looked away, you might think of another explanation: that Burr fired first and Hamilton’s gun then went off in death throw, in the general direction of Burr. A couple of problems with this theory: for the gun to go off like that, Hamilton would have had to set the hair-trigger. The ordinary 10-15 lb trigger would require a determined squeeze. Also, for the bullet to hit the tree like that, Hamilton would have had to raise his gun past Burr, though not to the side or down as one might if he wished to throw away his shot. And Burr would have to have set the trigger himself to shoot so fast and so well. Randall’s book, “Alexander Hamilton, a life”, claims he did, p. 424, but looking at this video of the hair-trigger mechanism, I find the mechanism is too cleverly hidden for Burr to have noticed. It escaped detection for 170 years. Finally, for Burr to shoot to kill without provocation, would require that he murder in cold blood, and Burr shows no evidence of that. Besides, Burr would have had to worry that the witnesses might turn around and see his dastardly deed. As it was, even with Hamilton’s gun going off, Burr’s reputation was ruined. I reject this theory, and assert as others have: “Hamilton did fire his weapon intentionally, and he fired first.”
Robert E. Buxbaum, May 10, 2017. You may like these other songs from Hamilton, “your obedient servant,” and “the ten duel commandments.” And you may like this essay about Burr, Tammany Hall and the Manhattan bank.
I love this article and I do assume Hamilton wanted to be with his son and his mother on the other side. I also think he could of wanted to shoot Burr, but then decided he didint want to at the last minute, so in result, it did not hit Araon but it was close to his head.
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This was interesting. Do you think, because Hamilton was known to be a good shot, he could have intentionally shot first at the tree above Burr? Because that’s an unusual way to throw away the shot, Burr would have shot back quickly without realising it was a throwaway shot, and in that moment Hamilton gets the downfall of Burr along with the martyr death he seemed to always want?
He held very Socratic/Platonic beliefs, and the way he taunts Burr for a duel and his reasoning for going ahead with the duel is very reminiscent to Socrates’ death. His political career was unlikely to recover and he had lost friends and, of course, his son. Could it be that he saw an opportunity to lift some of his tarnished reputation with a death that showed him to be true to his beliefs, while simultaneously causing the political downfall of Burr? Hence his actions of putting his glasses on and checking the trigger, to make Burr truly believe he was going to shoot at him.
Also, I don’t know much about guns/duels so this is really just a question, but could Hamilton have set Burr’s hair trigger before the duel?
Despite the portrayal in the musical, I think Hamilton was set to murder Burr and then screwed up. He was the better shot, and knew how to set the hair trigger on the gun. He stopped the duel several times because he could not be sure if he’d set the hair trigger or not, and hit the tree because he guessed wrong. That’s my humble opinion. Not that Burr was a great guy either.
I wonder, do you think Hamilton didn’t actually care if he died or not, he just didn’t want burr to be successful? If Hamilton dies burr is then dishonored, but if burr dies he can’t be successful because he is dead. I have read letters from Hamilton to various acquaintances and his personality seems to change in each one. To Laurens he is honestly sort of silly. To Eliza he is very witty and caring. And to burr he is again witty and frankly rude. But it is evident in every letter that he knows what he wants and will do anything to get the upper hand for what he wants.
I find it damning that Hamilton chose to use guns with a hidden trick setting that Burr didn’t know about — that most no one knew about but Hamilton. That, and that he wore glasses and was fiddling with the trigger -switch tells me this was a murder attempt that went bad. Hamilton very much wanted to kill Burr and make it look like an innocent duel. The rudeness was chosen to make Burr challenge so he could use his special guns.
While that is true, Burr also wanted to murder Hamilton. Neither are in the right but they both had the same idea, something seemingly common between the two of them. But as I have not done as much professional research as the rest of the people in the comments I could be wrong in many ways.
From a strictly techincal point of view there are problems with the issues put forward. I recommend reading the book ‘Robert Wogdon’ by John O’OSullivan and De Witt Bailey that describes a dozen or so of Wogdon’s duelling pistols in great detail. All had set triggers and sights as was entirely normal in pistols made for duelling at the time. Gentlemen would sometimes take their pistols to galleries run by London gunmakers and shoot for wagers at cards, so the sights and set triggers were essential. From the photos in the book its clear some set triggers had an adjustment screw that was clearly visible in front of the trigger, some didn’t, but then the set trigger is set it is at a different angle that tells you it is set. It is very unlikely that any decent maker of duelling pistols would sell a pistol with an unset trigger pull as high as you suggest – my various examples have pulls of much less and can be fired without the effort you describe. Not as good as a set trigger but perfectly usable and possibly preferable if you are nervous – indeed,I might choose not to set the trigger in a stressful situation. It is quite unlikely that Burr didn’t know about set triggers if he had any experience of handling contemporary duelling pistols. The only underhand feature of a few duelling pistols was rifling in the barrel to give greater accuracy – it was normall not allowed but some pistols had ‘secret rifling’ that didn’t appear at the muzzle. Rifled duelling pistols were normal on the continent. There were various protocols for duels, some of which forbade carefully aimed shots. In simulated duels I have found that experienced rifle shooters can’t hit a man sized target at 10 paces with a duelling pistol under these conditions. Most duels didn’t end up with fatalities.
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This is an interesting article. Tho I’m pretty sure Aaron Burr said WAIT because he couldn’t stop the bullet as soon as he saw Hamilton aime at the sky, not because he was scared. Afterall Burr wanted to kill Hamilton because Hamilton was always ahead of him and Burr was always in Hamiltons shadow. He was always jealous of him and his achievemens.
who said wait at the end though?
aaron burr . he was scared hamilton would shoot . so he panicked .
Very interesting article.
I thought this article was very interesting in every way.
It was very logical and i agree that Hamilton ether didn’t shoot because he thought of being with his mother, his son, John Lauren’s, Washington or he didn’t shoot because he didn’t want to kill his first friend.
I was very intrigued by this article. I am a big fan of the Famous Broadway Production and I could not stop reading this.
You are reading in “Non-stop!!”
Me too, in fact I’m watching it right now
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My first thought is so he could see where he was shooting!?
Not exactly the behavior of someone who is about to “throw away his shot.” Then there is the fiddling with the trigger. Watch the video and you’ll have guess of what he was likely doing.