The Duel

Dickinson duel with Jackson
May 1806, Logan County, Kentucky

Duel fought just outside of Adairville, KY, near the Kentucky-Tennessee state line. Dickinson was killed by Andrew Jackson, although both shot the other.

He was the son of Henry Dickinson (BIRTH 1742 Wiltshire Manor, Caroline, Maryland; DEATH 23 NOV 1789 Caroline County, Maryland) and Elizabeth Walker (BIRTH 1748 Talbot, MD; DEATH 1786 Caroline, Maryland), the grandson of Charles Dickinson (BIRTH 1695 Dorchester, Maryland; DEATH 1779 Hunting Creek, Caroline, Maryland) and Sophia Richardson (BIRTH 1706 Talbot, Maryland; DEATH 1763-02-23 Preston, Caroline, Maryland), and the great-grandson of John Dickinson and Rebecca Wynne Rebecca Wynne (daughter of Dr. Thomas Wynne).

He studied law under U.S. Chief Justice John Marshall, who wrote formal letters of introduction and recommendation for his student. Dickinson owned a house in Maryland for 3 years before moving to Tennessee, where he became a successful horse breeder and plantation owner. Within two years of his arrival in Tennessee, he courted and married the daughter of Captain Joseph Erwin. Unfortunately for Dickinson, he also ran afoul of fellow plantation owner and horse breeder, Andrew Jackson.

The horse race dispute
"In 1805 a friend of Jackson's deprecated the manner in which Captain Joseph Erwin had handled a bet with Jackson over a horse race. Erwin's son-in-law, Charles Dickinson became enraged and started quarreling with Jackson's friend which led to Jackson becoming involved. Dickinson wrote to Jackson calling him a 'coward and an equivocator.' The affair continued, with more insults and misunderstandings, until Dickinson published a statement in the Nashville Review in May 1806, calling Jackson a 'worthless scoundrel, ... a poltroon and a coward.'"

Although the actual issue that led to the duel was a horse race between Andrew Jackson and Dickinson's father-in-law, Joseph Erwin, Jackson had confronted Dickinson over a report that he had insulted Rachel. Dickinson said if he had, he was drunk at the time and apologized. Jackson accepted his apology, but there were probably still hard feelings between the two. Jackson and Erwin had scheduled their horse race in 1805. The stakes specified a winning pot of $2,000 paid by the loser, with an $800 forfeit if a horse couldn't run. Erwin's horse went lame, and after a minor disagreement about the type of forfeit payment, Erwin paid.

HIS SIBLINGS WERE:
1. Elizabeth Dickinson (1774–1789)
2. Rebecca Dickinson (1775–1812)
3. Philip Dickinson (1780–1789)
4. Henry Dickinson (1789–9/23/1829 Perry Hall, Baltimore, Maryland )

(See also Find-a-Grave Memorial # 76666621)

Killed in a Duel, Then Lost in the Earth
The New York Times
By THEO EMERY
DEC. 17, 2007

NASHVILLE — On Saturday morning, cars jammed the street outside James and Laura Jane Bowen’s home. Friends chatted in the yard, hands around coffee cups.

With history buffs and curious neighbors looking on, an archaeologist directed the excavation of the Bowens’ lawn in search of a 201-year-old grave and, possibly, the resolution of a long-standing historical puzzle.

The dig’s goal was to solve a mystery over the grave of Charles Henry Dickinson, who was killed in an 1806 duel with a future president, Andrew Jackson. The location of Mr. Dickinson’s final resting place has been in contention since the 1960s, when historians in Maryland claimed to have found his coffin.

“The day we moved in, the guys across the street came in and said, ‘Have you heard about the body? Are you going to help excavate it?’ ” said Mr. Bowen, as he watched with his daughter, Lily, in his arms.

The grave is largely a footnote in Jackson’s legacy, but Mr. Dickinson’s place in history presents a dizzying set of what-ifs: had the marksman killed the future president on May 30, 1806, instead of just wounding him, would the United States have won the Battle of New Orleans? Would executive power have evolved without President Jackson? Would the Trail of Tears have taken place?

May 30, 1806

Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in duel
On this day in 1806, future President Andrew Jackson kills a man who accused him of cheating on a horse race bet and then insulted his wife, Rachel.

Contemporaries described Jackson, who had already served in Tennessee’s Senate and was practicing law at the time of the duel, as argumentative, physically violent and fond of dueling to solve conflicts. Estimates of the number of duels in which Jackson participated ranged from five to 100.

Jackson and Dickinson were rival horse breeders and southern plantation owners with a long-standing hatred of each other. Dickinson accused Jackson of reneging on a horse bet, calling Jackson a “coward and an equivocator.” Dickinson also called Rachel Jackson a “bigamist.” (Rachel had married Jackson not knowing her first husband had failed to finalize their divorce.) After the insult to Rachel and a statement published in the National Review in which Dickinson called Jackson “a worthless scoundrel” and, again, a “coward,” Jackson challenged Dickinson to a duel.

On May 30, 1806, Jackson and Dickinson met at Harrison’s Mills on the Red River in Logan, Kentucky. At the first signal from their seconds, Dickinson fired. Jackson received Dickinson’s first bullet in the chest next to his heart. Jackson put his hand over the wound to staunch the flow of blood and stayed standing long enough to fire his gun.

Dickinson’s seconds claimed Jackson’s first shot misfired, which would have meant the duel was over, but, in a breach of etiquette, Jackson re-cocked the gun and shot again, this time killing his opponent. Although Jackson recovered, he suffered chronic pain from the wound for the remainder of his life.

Jackson was not prosecuted for murder, and the duel had very little effect on his successful campaign for the presidency in 1829. Many American men in the early 1800s, particularly in the South, viewed dueling as a time-honored tradition. In 1804, Thomas Jefferson’s vice president Aaron Burr had also avoided murder charges after killing former Treasury secretary and founding father Alexander Hamilton in a duel. In fact, Rachel’s divorce raised more of a scandal in the press and in parlors than the killing of Dickinson.

Charles Dickinson (historical figure)
From Wikipedia
Charles Dickinson (1780-May 30, 1806), was a 19th century American and nationally famous duelist. An expert marksman, Dickinson's dueling career included 26 kills before it was ended at the hands of Andrew Jackson, who would later become President of the United States.

Born at Wiltshire Manor, Dickinson grew up in the Grove community of Caroline County, Maryland. He was a successful planter, renowned duelist, and a popular socialite. Dickinson owned a house in Maryland for 13 years.