From left: Phil Travis, Alex Kennedy and Rachel Bradley laugh as they rehearse the re-enactment this past weekend.

Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times

Participants rehearse the re-enactment of the Lewis-McHenry duel at the corner of Franklin and Main streets in Christiansburg. Thomas Lewis and John McHenry both died as a result of their wounds from the 1808 duel.

CHRISTIANSBURG -- As dawn approached, two men readied to face off in a duel. Afterward, one of the men lay dead and the other was badly wounded. He would die the next day.

Except for the basic facts, not much is known about the duel between Thomas Lewis and John McHenry that took place in Christiansburg on May 9, 1808, said Phil Travis, historian and history instructor at New River Community College.

Pamela Hale, supervisor of the Christiansburg library, learned of the event the way many people in the area probably do -- by reading the historical marker about the event at the intersection of Franklin and Main streets, across from the Montgomery County Courthouse.

Hale noticed the marker soon after she moved to Christiansburg in 2005, and thought it would be an interesting idea for a program. Earlier this year, with the 200th anniversary looming, she enlisted Travis' help for a program and re-enactment of the Lewis-McHenry duel.

On Saturday, there will be a discussion about dueling with a focus on the Lewis-McHenry event at the Christiansburg library led by Travis, followed by a re-enactment near the marker.

"The idea is not to celebrate the duel or deadly force but to arouse an interest in history and understand how this event occupies a significant place in history," Hale said.

The Lewis-McHenry duel was the first known duel to take place with rifles in the state of Virginia, and a major factor in the passing of the 1810 Barbour Bill, which outlawed dueling in Virginia.

"The ramifications of the duel were much broader than just Christiansburg," Travis said.

Rifles were a newer technology at the time and much deadlier than a musket, which was what was commonly used in dueling about 1808, Travis said.

Throughout history, dueling has been a way to uphold or restore honor with a very strict set of guidelines. Dueling in Virginia differed from the Old West vigilante justice dueling that is often portrayed in movies, but there are some similarities, Travis said.

"If I had saw a marker that said the first courthouse had been put up in 1808, I would probably want to do a program on that too, but a building doesn't capture the imagination like a duel does," Hale said. "Duels always show up in fiction and history, and for us today it's hard to think that someone would want to show courage by deadly force."

Other events at the library this month have included the Talking about Books club reading "The Duel" and a presentation of "The Duellists" for the library's Talking about Movies series.

Alan Kim | The Roanoke Times

At the Lewis-HcHenry Duel historical marker in downtown Christiansburg with Pamela Hale, coordinator of library programs at the Christiansburg branch of Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library. The branch is doing a month-long historical celebration of the duel.

Marking history

The state historical marker on the Town Square in Christiansburg commemorates the first duel in Virginia fought with rifles. It occurred at dawn May 9, 1808, near what is now Sunset Cemetery.

The participants were Thomas Lewis, a 22-year-old lawyer, grandson of Gen. Andrew Lewis, and John McHenry, a resident of the western part of the county, a much older man than Lewis.

According to an account of the duel in Lula Porterfield Givens’ “Christiansburg, Montgomery County, Virginia, in the Heart of the Alleghenies,” the men were friends but fought over a political argument. They were urged on by a third man, Thomas Bowyer, who wanted to destroy McHenry, who could prevent Bowyer from obtaining coveted land. Both Lewis and McGenry died because of the duel — Lewis immediately and McHenry the next evening. Lewis is buried in Madison Cemetery in Shawsville and McHenry in Craig Cemetery in Christiansburg.

SOURCE: christiansburg.org