Bladensburg dueling grounds
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Bladensburg Dueling Grounds is infamously named for a small spit of land in the town of Bladensburg just east of Washington, DC, an area which hosted over fifty bloody pistol duels.
In 1819, Colonel John McCarty killed his cousin, General Armistand Mason. McCarty was haunted for years by his experience after surviving the twelve pace musket duel.
Stephen Decatur was gunned down here in 1820.
In June, 1836, twenty-two year old Daniel Key, a son of Francis Scott Key, was killed in a senseless duel with a fellow Annapolis Naval Academy student, John Sherbourne, over a question regarding steamboat speed.
Jonathan Ciley, a Representative from Maine, was reluctant participant in another duel here. In February 1838, Ciley was killed by Congressman William Graves of Kentucky. Graves was a stand-in for New York newspaper editor James Webb, whom Ciley had called corrupt. Ciley was inexperienced with guns, and Graves was allowed to use a powerful rifle. A shot to an artery in Ciley's leg caused him to bleed to death in ninety seconds.
Source: "Haunted Places, The National Directory" by Dennis William Hauck
See also pictures on Maryland Ghosts
