Gwinnett–McIntosh Duel

The Gwinnett–McIntosh duel was a pistol duel between Button Gwinnett, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence and former governor of Georgia, and Lachlan McIntosh, a brigadier general in the Continental Army, that took place on May 16, 1777, in Savannah, Georgia. The duel resulted in both men suffering gunshot wounds, with Gwinnett dying of his wounds several days later.

The cause of the duel stemmed from a rivalry that had developed between the two individuals in the preceding years. During the American Revolution, both Gwinnett and McIntosh were Whigs. However, Gwinnett was a leader of the more radical faction of Whigs in Georgia, while McIntosh was a political conservative. In early 1776, the state's Provincial Congress elected Gwinnett to lead a battalion of Continental Army troops in the state, though Gwinnett ultimately turned down the position, due in large part to the divisiveness between the radical and conservative factions. Instead, McIntosh was elected, while Gwinnett was selected to attend the Second Continental Congress, where he signed the Declaration of Independence. Upon returning to Georgia in late 1776, Gwinnett again served as the radical Whigs' leader, helping to write a new constitution for the state and serving for a brief time as the state's governor. In this role, he was also the commander-in-chief of the state's military, and in this position, he led an invasion of East Florida, a British colony that bordered the state. McIntosh and other conservatives were opposed to the military action, viewing it as a politically motivated endeavor by Gwinnett to increase his political standing. The invasion ended in disaster, and in subsequent hearings before the Georgia General Assembly, McIntosh attacked Gwinnett as a "scoundrel and a lying rascal". Feeling dishonored, Gwinnett then challenged McIntosh to a duel, which McIntosh accepted.

The duel took place on the morning of May 16, 1777, near the city's Colonial Park Cemetery. However, the duel and Gwinnett's death damaged his reputation in Georgia, and he was soon relocated elsewhere. The duel is considered one of the most famous in the state's history, coming during a time when dueling was a much more common occurrence. Partially as a result of his death, which occurred less than a year after his signing the Declaration of Independence, Gwinnett's signature is considered one of the rarest of any of the signers.

Background

Debate over military appointment

In January 1776, amidst the American Revolutionary War, four British warships were stationed near Cockspur Island at the mouth of the Savannah River, downstream of the port city of Savannah, Georgia. Pro-Revolutionary Whigs in the local Council of Safety, led by George Walton, quickly took action, placing Governor James Wright and other royal officials under arrest and directing one-third of the members of the Georgia Militia to prepare for the defense of the city. In addition, Georgia's Provincial Congress made plans to create a battalion of Continental Army troops to assist the militia, as the Second Continental Congress had authorized a force of 728 men to defend Georgia.

However, the Provincial Congress struggled to elect leaders for this new battalion due to conflicts between the political factions of conservative and radical Whigs. The conservative faction was made up primarily of politicians from the Christ Church Parish, which included Savannah. For commanding officer, the conservatives, who largely controlled the Provincial Congress, nominated Samuel Elbert, who had previously been named by the Council of Safety as the colonel of the militia defense force. In contrast, St. John's Parish, which included the community of Sunbury, was much more radical. By early 1776, Button Gwinnett had emerged as a leader of this faction, having inherited the role from Lyman Hall after the latter departed to Philadelphia to attend the Second Continental Congress.

Gwinnett had been a merchant in Savannah and, later, a planter in St. John's Parish. He successfully united residents of the coastal and rural parts of Georgia, primarily in the western and southern parishes, into this radical movement, and they nominated him in opposition to Elbert. While Gwinnett won the election, he declined to serve, acknowledging the divisiveness within the Provincial Congress, and instead Lachlan McIntosh, a conservative Whig and planter from Darien in St. Andrew's Parish, was selected as a compromise candidate, becoming the battalion's colonel. In exchange, many of the officer positions below the rank of major were awarded to radical Whigs, while Gwinnett was selected to attend the Second Continental Congress as a representative of Georgia. Despite the compromise, contention remained between the conservative and radical forces in the state's politics, with Joseph Habersham, who had just been appointed a major under McIntosh, corresponding to a friend in February,

Developments through 1777

Shortly after his appointment, McIntosh began establishing additional defenses for Savannah, and in March, he led Whig forces against the British in the Battle of the Rice Boats, which was the first major battle of the American Revolutionary War fought in Georgia. In early August, he led American troops through southern Georgia and into East Florida, terrorizing loyalists and causing many to flee to St. Augustine. In late August, McIntosh led a campaign that sought to attack St. Augustine, but the venture was soon abandoned due to poor planning. In the meantime, Gwinnett, who was in Philadelphia as a member of the Continental Congress, pressed for a full political separation of the Thirteen Colonies from Great Britain, and to that effect, he voted in favor of independence. In August, he became a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, alongside fellow Georgians Hall and Walton. He returned to Georgia later that month.

By September, the accord that had previously been sustained between the radical and conservative Whig factions had disintegrated, due in part to a contentious Provincial Congress election that month. The radical faction secured a majority in the legislature. His supporters elected him speaker of this body, and he was influential in creating a new Constitution of Georgia, which was approved in February 1777. In mid-February, when the Provincial Congress adjourned, the Council of Safety became the state's governing body. Radical Whigs also gained control of this body, and when Archibald Bulloch, the President of Georgia, died that same month, the Council of Safety voted for Gwinnett to take over this vacancy, which also granted him the position of commander-in-chief of the state's military. By this time, McIntosh had been promoted to the rank of brigadier general, a position which Gwinnett had sought after upon his return to Georgia.

Gwinnett's invasion of Florida

On the same day that Gwinnett was elected commander-in-chief, the Georgia Executive Council passed an act requesting Gwinnett to lead a military expedition south into Florida to claim the British colony for the United States. At the time, a contingent of several hundred British soldiers were threatening the state's southern border, having recently overtaken Fort McIntosh and requiring McIntosh to establish a defense line along the Altamaha River. On March 4, the Council of Safety voted to allow Gwinnett to lead an expedition. with the Executive Council serving as his council of war