On This Day - May 30, 1806, future President and former Revolutionary War Patriot Andrew Jackson fought and won a duel with a man who made slanderous comments about Jackson’s wife. Born in the border region between North and South Carolina in 1767, Jackson was very young when he joined up with the Patriots to fight against the British in the Carolinas. He served as a courier for the Americans but was captured soon after the Battle of Hanging Rock. In a now famous incident, while in captivity, a British officer ordered the young Jackson to clean his boots.
Jackson insolently refused and the officer slashed the boy with his sword, leaving him with a scar and a burning hatred of the British that would last for the rest of his life. Following the war, Jackson headed west to Tennessee where he gained just enough legal knowledge to become a frontier lawyer. In the coming years, Jackson served in many a legal position throughout Tennessee before making the jump to State Representative and then Senator following Tennessee’s statehood. It was about this time that Charles Dickinson published an article in a newspaper in which he talked slanderously about Jackson’s marriage to his wife Rachel. The two had married before Rachel’s divorce with her previous husband was technically finalized, as her husband had simply abandoned her.
The controversy over his marriage became a sore point for Jackson over the years, and when Dickinson talked about it in a newspaper, he crossed a line from which there was no way back with Jackson. Jackson challenged Dickinson to a duel and Dickinson accepted. The two then journeyed to Kentucky where unlike Tennessee, dueling was legal. Jackson resolved to let Dickinson fire first as Dickinson was an expert shot and his aim might be ruined with quickness. With their seconds watching to make sure no one tried to cheat, the two walked a set number of paces from each other, turned, and prepared to fire. Just like Jackson thought, Dickinson fired first, with his bullet striking Jackson in the chest. With his gun now empty, Dickinson was forced by dueling rules to stand perfectly still while Jackson fired. He slowly brought up his pistol, cocked the hammer, and fired with deadly accuracy, killing Dickinson. Jackson himself was severely hurt by Dickinson’s bullet which had passed just inches from his heart, and doctors tried to operate and remove the bullet, but nothing could be done. The bullet stayed with Jackson for the rest of his life, causing him chronic pain.
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