“The word of readiness was given. Burr raised his pistol and fired, and Hamilton fell headlong on his face…”
Alexander Hamilton died at 2 p.m. on July 12, 1804.
Shot the morning prior during their infamous duel on the cliffs of Weehawken, New Jersey, a mortally wounded Hamilton was rowed back across the Hudson River to Manhattan. He spent his final 31 hours in agonizing pain, utilizing his remaining strength to urge his grief-stricken wife, Eliza, to remember her faith and stay strong.
The loss tore through the family, leaving Eliza to spend the next 50 years fiercely defending her husband’s legacy. Hamilton’s death accelerated the collapse of the Federalist Party and effectively ended Aaron Burr’s political career, reshaping the nation’s early political landscape.
Photograph of 82 Jane Street in New York City’s Greenwich Village—the site of the William Bayard House where Hamilton was brought after crossing the river and where he ultimately passed away—via the Library of Congress.
