24th December, 1778.
General Lee, attended by Major Edwards and Col. Laurens attended by
Col. Hamilton, met agreeable to appointment on Wednesday afternoon
half past three, in a wood, situate near the four mile stone on the
Point-no-Point Road. Pistols having been the weapons previously fixed
upon, and the combatants being provided with a brace each, it was asked
in what manner they were to proceed. General Lee proposed to advance
upon one another, and each fire at what time and distance he thought
proper. Col. Laurens expressed his preference of this mode, and agreed
to the proposal accordingly.
They approached each other within about five or six paces, and
exchanged a shot almost at the same moment. As Col. Laurens was
preparing for a second discharge, General Lee declared himself wounded.
Col. Laurens, as if apprehending the wound to be more serious than it
proved, advanced towards the General to offer his support. The same was
done by Col. Hamilton and Major Edwards under a similar apprehension.
General Lee then said the wound was inconsiderable; less than he had
imagined at the first stroke of the ball, and proposed to fire a
second time. This was warmly opposed both by Col. Hamilton and Major
Edwards, who declared it to be their opinion, that the affair should
terminate as it then stood. But General Lee repeated his desire,
that there should be a second discharge, and Col. Laurens agreed to
the proposal. Col. Hamilton observed that, unless the General was
influenced by motives of personal enmity, he did not think the affair
ought to be pursued any further; but as Gen. Lee seemed to persist in
desiring it, he was too tender of his friend’s honor to persist in
opposing it. The combat was then going to be renewed; but Major Edwards
again declaring his opinion, that the affair ought to end where it was,
Gen. Lee then expressed his confidence in the honor of the gentlemen
concerned as seconds, and said he should be willing to comply with
whatever they should coolly and deliberately determine. Col. Laurens
consented to the same.
Col. Hamilton and Major Edwards withdrew, and conversing awhile on the
subject, still concurred fully in the opinion, that for the most urgent
reasons, the affair should terminate as it was then circumstanced. This
decision was communicated to the parties and agreed to by them, upon
which they immediately returned to town; General Lee slightly wounded
in the right side.
During the interview a conversation to the following purport passed
between General Lee and Col. Laurens. On Col. Hamilton’s intimating
the idea of personal enmity, as before mentioned--Gen. Lee declared he
had none, and had only met Col. Laurens, to defend his own honor--that
Mr. Laurens best knew whether there was any on his part. Col. Laurens
replied, that General Lee was acquainted with the motives that had
brought him there, which were, that he had been informed from what he
thought good authority, that Gen. Lee had spoken of General Washington
in the grossest and most opprobrious terms of personal abuse, which he,
Col. Laurens, thought himself bound to resent, as well on account of
the relation he bore to General Washington, as from motives of personal
friendship and respect for his character. General Lee acknowledged
that he had given his opinion against General Washington’s military
character to his particular friends, and might perhaps do it again. He
said every man had a right to give his sentiments freely of military
characters, and that he did not think himself personally accountable
to Col. Laurens for what he had done in that respect. But he said he
never had spoken of General Washington in the terms mentioned, which
he could not have done; as well because he had always esteemed General
Washington as a man, as because such abuse would be incompatible with
the character he would ever wish to sustain as a gentleman.
Upon the whole, we think it a piece of justice to the two gentlemen to
declare, that after they met, their conduct was strongly marked with
all the politeness, generosity, coolness and firmness, that ought to
characterize a transaction of this nature.
Alexander Hamilton.
Ev. Edwards.
Philadelphia, December 24th, 1778.