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Volume 060-1 - January 2006 (6 pages)
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Page: of 6
Affairs of Honor
Duels (or what passed for them) in
Nevada County’s early history
by Orval Bronson
‘ UELING, THE AGE-OLD REDRESS FOR ACTUAL OR
D perceived slights of honor, originated in Europe and
arrived in America with colonization. In both Europe and
America, duels were fought under the “Code Duelo,” a
ritual-laden set of rules governing such contests. The Code
was drawn up and settled in Ireland in 1777 and was
generally followed throughout Europe. The rules were
loosely followed in America until 1838, when they were
rewritten by South Carolina governor John Lyde Wilson,
presumably to reflect American, rather than European, culture.
There was also the Western code duelo, wherein the aggrieved party warned the person who had offended him that
he should arm and prepare to defend himself. As the frontier continued westward, formal dueling deteriorated to less
formal challenges and eventually to “street fighting.”
Although dueling was a generally accepted practice, it
was never legal. Edicts by heads of state and governmental
bodies were only moderately successful. Dueling in America, common after the Revolution, was most prolific in the
om antebellum south, where “self-christened” upper classes
were extraordinarily sensitive in regard to their personal
honor. These same southerners who traveled west brought
with them their “expectation of deference.”
The 1849 California constitution denied state office to
those who engaged in dueling. The state legislature subsequently passed laws making dueling or challenging to
duel a crime, subject to imprisonment. The anti-dueling
laws and penalties also applied to seconds, who frequently
tried to foil duels by loading weapons with blank cartridges
or using insufficient amounts of powder.
Nonetheless, dueling continued in California. In Nevada
County there were a half-dozen or so fights which were
classified as duels. However, some were farcical, one was
nothing more than an ambush and still another ended as a
result of a pistol-whipping.
(1) Dibble-Lundy—1851
At sunrise on Saturday, November 1, 1851, at Industry Bar
on the Yuba River about 18 miles from Nevada City, the
first Nevada County duel was fought—in Yuba County, it
now appears. The participants were former midshipman
George M. Dibble and Eli B. (Jim) Lundy, a Canadian.
Dibble, a Naval Academy graduate, had come to California as a Pacific Steamship officer but had been discharged
for drunkenness. Lundy, two years previously, had chal‘lenged the president of the Sacramento City Council to a
duel, a duel which was averted. Lundy was also known to
7
Nevada County Historical sity
Bulletin
eee 60 NUMBER . ! JANUARY 2008)
the law enforcement community for having shot a gambler
in a dispute in Sacramento and of thereafter losing an eye in
a fight with that gambler right after the shooting. He was
also arrested for attempting to free a prisoner from a
Marysville courtroom at gunpoint, an attempt which netted
him a lashing, a fine and imprisonment.
The precipitating event that lead to the duel took place a
few evenings earlier when a petty argument broke out between the two; insults were exchanged culminating in a
challenge by Dibble which Lundy tacitly accepted.
Dibble’s choice for a second, General Joseph C. Morehead, was a fugitive from California authorities. While employed at the office of the State Quartermaster General,
Morehead had misappropriated 400 muskets and 90,000
rounds of ammunition, reportedly to be used in an unauthorized plundering raid on Mexico. Charles E. G. Morse
was Lundy’s choice as a second,
The seconds made the “arrangements,” although both reportedly made significant efforts to dissuade their principals from participating in the duel. Prior to the duel, Lundy
had put on a shooting demonstration, putting out candle
flames four out of six times from a distance of 18 paces,
and requested that this prowess be conveyed to Dibble. Just
prior to the duel, Lundy “expressed a willingness to forgive
the insult,” conditioned upon Dibble’s withdrawal of the
challenge. Dibble was unwilling to do so.
Nevada City Justice John Anderson, made aware of an
impending duel, issued warrants for the arrest of the principals and their seconds, but the sheriff arrived too late.
The .36 Navy Colt pistol, popular during the period 18501870, and most likely the handgun of choice for dueling
during that period.