Accounts of the Duel

Following the duel, a Coroner’s Inquest in New York concluded that:

Aaron Burr…not having the fear of God before his eyes, but being moved and seduced by the Instigation of the devil, on the eleventh day of July in the year last aforesaid, which force and Arms…feloniously wilfully and of his Malice aforethought, did make an Assault, and…Mortal[ly] Wound…the said Alexander Hamilton.

Read the following accounts of the Hamilton-Burr duel. Based on these accounts, describe what happened at the duel and whether Hamilton intentionally failed to shoot Burr and whether Burr was guilty of deliberate murder.

• Statement for the Press Prepared Immediately after the Duel by Nathaniel Pendleton and William P. Van Ness. Pendleton was Hamilton’s second; Van Ness was Burr’s second, July 11, 1804
• Protestant Episcopal Bishop Benjamin Moore administered communion to Alexander Hamilton prior to his death.
• Nathaniel Pendleton’s Amended Version of His and William P. Ness’s Statement of July 11, 1804, July 19, 1804
• William P. Van Ness’s Amended Version of His and Nathaniel Pendleton’s Statement of July 11, 1804
• Dr. David Hosack to William Coleman, August 17, 1804