Bladensburg Dueling Grounds Historical Marker

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

This historical marker shares the history of duels that occurred here in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Dueling was a potentially deadly means for gentlemen to settle their disputes with firearms in Europe and early America. Washington gentlemen and politicians took to dueling in the tense and volatile atmosphere of early U.S. politics. More than fifty duels took place at this site along the Anacostia River, colloquially known as "Blood Run" or "The Dark and Bloody Grounds" in the nineteenth century, with high-profile duelists fighting and sometimes dying on the grounds. A site of popular fascination and tourism after the decline of dueling, it is now part of a park, with its dark history commemorated by historical markers.

Images

Dueling Grounds by F. Robby on HMDB.org (reproduced under Fair Use)

Dueling Grounds Historical Marker by F. Robby on HMDB.org (reproduced under Fair Use)

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

Duels took place along the stream here possibly as early as 1732. Although the grounds were only five miles from the Capitol building, the area was outside the jurisdiction of Washington's police force. Several notable duels took place here in the 1800s:

High-ranking Navy Commodores Stephen Decatur and James Barron dueled here on March 22, 1820, ending with Decatur being fatally wounded.
Two naval cadets, Daniel Key and John Sherbourne, dueled over a difference of opinion regarding the speed of steamboats in 1836. Key, the son of American anthem writer Francis Scott Key, was killed in the duel.
Congressman William Graves shot and killed Congressman James Cilley over accusations of corruption in 1838.

After Congressman Cilley's death, Congress passed anti-dueling legislation in 1839, but dueling continued illegally at these dueling grounds until the years just after the Civil War. Tourist guides and magazines in the mid-to-late nineteenth century featured the dueling grounds. Popular writer George Alfred Townsend (1841-1914) called the site a "cross-roads Sodom." The grounds, once within the boundaries of Bladensburg but now within Colmar Manor, are now part of Anacostia River Park, with the waterway reinforced by concrete. The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission maintains a historical marker at the site.

Sources

Robby, F. Dueling Grounds, Historical Marker Database. November 22nd 2019. Accessed July 19th 2020. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=3613.

Robby, F. Duels and the Bladensburg Dueling Ground, Historical Marker Database. June 16th 2016. Accessed July 19th 2020. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=8177

Town of Bladensburg, Maryland. Dueling Grounds, Bladensburg, Maryland. 2019. Accessed July 19th 2020. https://bladensburgmd.gov/about-us/bladensburg-history-and-historical-sites/dueling-grounds/.

WhiskeyBristles. Bladensburg Dueling Grounds, Atlas Obscura. Accessed July 19th 2020. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/bladensburg-dueling-grounds.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

https://www.hmdb.org/PhotoFullSize.asp?PhotoID=15008

https://www.hmdb.org/PhotoFullSize.asp?PhotoID=10386

Additional Information

The Dark and Bloody Ground, University of Maryland Libraries