Bladensburg Dueling Grounds

Bladensburg Dueling Grounds
Map
TypeCounty park and state historic site
LocationDueling Creek Natural Area, Colmar Manor Community Park, Colmar Manor, Maryland, United States (formerly, the Bladensburg Dueling Grounds, in Bladensburg, Maryland)
Coordinates38°55′30.6″N 76°56′25.4″W / 38.925167°N 76.940389°W / 38.925167; -76.940389
CreatedOctober 15, 1966
Owned byPrince George's County Department of Parks and Recreation
The most publicized duel of the 19th century was that of Commodore Stephen Decatur, the U.S. naval hero, who was mortally wounded in 1820 at the Bladensburg Dueling Grounds and later died at his home in Washington D.C.
Portrait of Francis Scott Key. Key's son, Daniel, was killed, at the dueling grounds, in 1836 by a fellow midshipman from the navy over a disagreement about steamboat speed.
The last recorded duel at the Bladensburg Dueling Grounds was between General A. Galletin Lawrence and Baron Kusserow in 1868.
Notable Bladensburg duelists
Duration1808-1868
ParticipantsBarent Gardenier vs. George W. Campbell (1808)

John Mason McCarty vs. Armistead Thomson Mason (1819)

Stephen Decatur vs. James Barron (1820)

Daniel Key vs. John Sherbourne (1836)

Jonathan Cilley vs. William J. Graves (1838)

A. Galletin Lawrence vs. Baron Kusserow (1868)
Casualties
Barent Gardenier, wounded

Armistead Thomson Mason, killed

Stephen Decatur, mortally wounded

Daniel Key, killed

Jonathan Cilley, mortally wounded

Bladensburg Dueling Grounds is a small spit of land, a fraction of its original size, along Dueling Creek, formerly in the town of Bladensburg, Maryland, and now within the town of Colmar Manor, just to the northeast of Washington, D.C., United States. Dueling Creek, formerly known as '"Blood Run" and "The Dark and Bloody Grounds", is a tributary of the Anacostia River, which was formerly, called the East Branch Potomac River.

From 1808 the grove witnessed approximately fifty duels by gentlemen, military officers, and politicians, settling "affairs of honor". A formalized set of rules and etiquette, the code duello was usually enforced by the duelers and their seconds. The exact number of duels and the names of all the participants who fought at Bladensburg may never be known because surviving records are obscure, the events are not well documented - and dueling was illegal.

Following the Civil War, dueling fell out of favor as a means of settling personal grievances and declined rapidly; the last known duel was fought here in 1868.