Did Lachlan McIntosh fight fair in his duel with Button Gwinnett?

Answer 1

Yes. Lachlan McIntosh was only defending his honor in his duel with Button Gwinnett. By today's standards, we would consider McIntosh's act as murder, but dueling was an acceptable practice in those days-especially under the circumstances.

I don't have time or space to tell the entire story here, but Gwinnett had it coming to him. He was a disgruntled Englishman who was a complete failure at everything he did-first as a businessman and second as a planter. Politics was the only career in which Gwinnett seemed to succeed. When someone else was threatening to steal the spotlight from him, however, Gwinnett used what little authority he had to make things miserable for them; in this case, it just so happened to be McIntosh.

In his frustration, Gwinnett trumped up some charges of treason against McIntosh's brother George. Gwinnett also went so far as to publicly criticize McIntosh and blame him for a failed military expedition into British Florida, which Gwinnett himself had planned. When McIntosh called him on his mistakes, Gwinnett-with no plausible excuse for his actions-made a rash decision and challenged the trained army officer to a duel. McIntosh didn't want to duel, but he had little choice. He had to either fight Gwinnett and defend his family name or decline and be branded a coward.

McIntosh had no intentions of killing Gwinnett. They both fired and were both hit in the leg. McIntosh actually asked if Gwinnett wanted to try it again. Gwinnett's wounds were not life threatening and were really no worse than McIntosh's; however, Gwinnett's doctor didn't treat the wounds properly. As a result, gangrene set in, and Gwinnett died several days later. Mrs. Gwinnett specifically said this when Gwinnett's friends were accusing McIntosh of murder. Mrs. Gwinnett said that McIntosh was of no fault in her husband's death; it was due to malpractice by the doctor.

Dylan Edward Mulligan