'The shot is not mortal; I have struck two inches to the right.'

Senator's Death in Duel Prefaced Civil War Carnage

Excerpt:

Broderick and Terry, who had resigned from the state court, met early in the morning on Sept. 12, but were arrested and brought before a judge in San Francisco. The judge released the men, ruling that while dueling was illegal, an attempt to duel was not, according to David Williams' 1969 book, ''David C. Broderick: A Political Portrait.'' Williams wrote that several of Broderick's friends were disappointed in the ruling.

The next morning, the two men met around 7, drew lots for the pistols and then threw off their overcoats as dozens of people watched.

''Mr. Broderick seemed a little nervous, and as he received his pistol, gripped it with a convulsive grip,'' reported the San Francisco Bulletin, adding that the senator's nervousness ''was the result not of fear, but of intense resolution, or, perhaps, deadly hate. Judge Terry, meanwhile, stood erect, without a wink or a motion, like a man accustomed to such a position.''

After Broderick misfired, Terry shot back and shouted, ''The shot is not mortal; I have struck two inches to the right.'' Broderick lowered himself, and then keeled over. He was taken by wagon to a friend's home, and died three days later, on Sept. 16.

''The sad intelligence was immediately conveyed to the city, and produced a deep and settled gloom on the community,'' reported the San Francisco Herald. Thousands of people came to his funeral. He was the only senator to have died in a duel.

Terry was tried for murder but quickly acquitted.

''Very few duelers were ever convicted of murder,'' said Charles Fracchia, founder and president emeritus of the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society.

Comment: Boxing, pool, or chess would have been better!