“He prayed for war as a farmer would pray for rain and a lawyer would pray for lawsuits.” For a midshipman - a “young gentleman” - denied the chance to test his honor before enemy fire, a colleague’s pistol shot would have to do. Toll writes in “Six Frigates,” his superb history of the founding of America’s Navy.
“The junior naval officer, done up in his high standing collar and gold lace, was as testy and vain as a fighting gamecock,” Ian W. About half those deaths occurred before 1815. Between 17, when it was finally banned, 36 officers were killed in 82 duels.
But in the United States Navy, dueling - with pistols or swords, usually over a trivial insult - was still popular among young officers. By the early 19th century, dueling had been shunned and ridiculed by Enlightenment thinkers as a vestige of feudalism.
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