The native American., 1838-02-10
DIR. DAVID HosACK TO WILLIAM COLEMAN.
DUEL BETWEEN BU RR AND HAMILTON

DUEL BET TWEEN B RR AND HAMILTON.
.August II, 1904.
DEAR SIR: To comply with your request is a
painful task; but ! will repress my feeling while
endeayor to furnish you with an enumeration
of such particulars relative to the melancholy end
of our beloved friend Hamilton, as dwell most
forcibly on my recollection.
When called to him upon receiving the fatal
wound, | found him half sitting on the ground
supported in the arms of Mr.. Pendleton. His
countenance of death shall never forget He
had at that instant just strength to say this is
mortal wound, DOCTOR" when he sunk away, and
became to all appearances lifeless. Immediate
ly stripped up his Clothes and soon, alas ascer-
tanned that the direction of the ball must have been
through some vital parts His pulses were not to
be felt, his respiration was entirely suspended,
and, upon laying my hand on his heart and per
ceiving no motion there, | considered him as
irrecoverably gone. /, however, observed to
Mr.. Pendeton, that the only chance for his re-
viving was Immediately to get him upon water.
We therefore lifted him up and carried him out OF
the wood to the margin Of the bank, where the
bargemen aided us in conveying him to the boat,
and Immediately put off During all this time
could not discover the least symptom of returning
life. now rubbed his face, lips, and temples
with spirits of hartshorn, applied it to his neck
and breast, and to the wrists and palms of his
hands, and endeavored to pour some into his
mouth. When we had got, as should Judge,
about fifty yards from the shore, some imperfect
efforts to breathe were, for the first time, manifest
in few minutes he sighed and became sensible
to the impression of the hartshorn or the fresh
air of the water. He breathed; his eyes, hardly
open, wandered, without fixing upon any object
to our great joy, he at length spoke. ''My yisior
is indistinct," were his first words. His pulse
became more perceptible, his respiration more re-
gular, his sight returned. then examined the
wound to know if there any dangerous dis
charge of blood; upon slightly pressing his side i
gave him pain, on which desisted. Soon afte,
recovering his sight he happened to casthis eye
upon the case of pistols, and observing the one
that he had in his hand lying on the outside, he
said, " take care Of that pistol it is undischarged
and still cooked, it may go off and do harm. Pen
dleton knows" (attcmpting to turn his head to
wards him) that did not intend to fire at him
| 8 Yes" said Mr.. Pendleton, understanding hi
For the satisfaction of some of General Hamilton
friends. examined his body after DEATH in presence
Dr. Post and two other gentlemen discovered that tn
ball struck the second third false rib and fractured
about in the middle it then passed through the liver an
diaphragm, and as far as we could ascertain without
mute examination, lodged in the first or second lnmbe
verebra. Fhe yerebra in which it was lodged was con
sderably sphntered, that the spiculp were distinct
perceptble to the finger. About pint of cloted bloo
found in the cavity Of the belly which had proba
bly, been eused from the divided vessels of the liver.