Existing comment:
Bladensburg Dueling Grounds:
A small, grassy field off Maryland Route 450, not far from College Park, has a violent past. Known as the Bladensburg dueling grounds, it played host to duels between many notable nineteeth-century Washingtonians. Francis Scott Key's son Daniel Key, Maine congressman Jonathan Cilley, and American naval hero Stephen Decatur were among the more than 50 men killed at this location. Bladensburg served as a popular location for duels because Maryland statutes against dueling were more lax than those in Washington, DC. Cilley's death in 1838 caused such a public outrage that Congress soon passed a law making the challenge, acceptance, or actual act of a duel illegal in the District of Columbia. Duelers continued to meet in Bladensburg, however, in the middle of the night, to settle their differences. Today urban development covers much of the land, but on foggy mornings visitors to the remaining grassy area have seen at least one ghostly figure, a man, dressed in black, with his head bowed. Could this be one of the fatally wounded duelists? |