July 21, 1865

[Silver Creek Slim]

Wild Bill Hickok fights first western showdown

In what may be the first true western showdown, Wild Bill Hickok shoots Dave Tutt dead in the market square of Springfield, Missouri.

Hollywood movies and dime novels to the contrary, the classic western showdown--also called a walkdown--happened only rarely in the American West. Rather than coolly confronting each other on a dusty street in a deadly game of quick draw, most men began shooting at each other in drunken brawls or spontaneous arguments. Ambushes and cowardly attacks were far more common than noble showdowns.

Nonetheless, southern emigrants brought to the West a crude form of the "code duello," a highly formalized means of solving disputes between gentlemen with swords or guns that had its origins in European chivalry. By the second half of the 19th century, few Americans still fought duels to solve their problems. Yet, the concept of the duel surely influenced the informal western code of what constituted a legitimate-and legal-gun battle. Above all, the western code required that a man resort to his six-gun only in defense of his honor or life, and only if his opponent was also armed. Likewise, a western jury was unlikely to convict a man in a shooting provided witnesses testified that his opponent had been the aggressor.

The best-known example of a true western duel occurred on this day in 1865. Wild Bill Hickok, a skilled gunman with a formidable reputation, was eking out a living as a professional gambler in Springfield, Missouri. He quarreled with Dave Tutt, a former Union soldier, but it is unclear what caused the dispute. Some people say it was over a card game while others say they fought over a woman. Whatever the cause, the two men agreed to a duel.

The showdown took place the following day with crowd of onlookers watching as Hickok and Tutt confronted each other from opposite sides of the town square. When Tutt was about 75 yards away, Hickok shouted, "Don't come any closer, Dave." Tutt nervously drew his revolver and fired a shot that went wild. Hickok, by contrast, remained cool. He steadied his own revolver in his left hand and shot Tutt dead with a bullet through the chest.

Having adhered to the code of the West, Hickok was acquitted of manslaughter charges. Eleven years later, however, Hickok died in a fashion far more typical of the violence of the day: a young gunslinger shot him in the back of the head while he played cards. Legend says that the hand Hickok was holding at the time of his death was two pair – black aces and black eights. The hand would forever be known as the "dead man's hand."
http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=oldwest

Slim

[Danny Bear Claw]

Another good one.  Thanks Slim!   

[Silver Creek Slim]

Another good one.  Thanks Slim!   

Yer very welcome, agin.

Slim

[Wes Virginian]

Thanks Slim, I always like to read history, even if I've read it before. I tend to forget some thing's in my old age.

Wes

[Gun Creek Phil]

Howdy,

I've read different articles on the web about this famous shootout.Some authors says Hickock had a Navy Colt 36 caliber, others says he had a Colt Dragoon.
What do you think of this, do you have informations about the model he had this day?

[Bob R.]

Well, the existing documented Hickock guns are a pair of colts navys in .36, ivory gripped with a carved eagle and scroll with "liberty" on it. Whether they were the ones he carried that day or not, I do not know.

[GunClick Rick]

It was over a pocket watch.Tutt was holdin it for colladerall and Bill asked him not to fluant it,but Tutt did they stood not very far frome each other and Tutt went for his gun but Bill shot him in the heart,Tutt raised his arm like he was going to shoot again,wobbled and fell to the ground,Bill didn't know if he was dead or not and whipped aroun to Tutts friends that were there holdin thier shooters,Bill hollered aint ya had enough killin boys? They had. Bill knew it was comin and he readied himself the night before.

I always like the saying "It's the Lion that gives the Antelope it's speed"..

[FriscoCounty]

Well, the existing documented Hickock guns are a pair of colts navys in .36, ivory gripped with a carved eagle and scroll with "liberty" on it. Whether they were the ones he carried that day or not, I do not know.

Impossible.  The serial numbers on those date them to being made in 1868.

[Fiddler Green]

Unfortunatly, the credibility of the History Channel has come in to question in a numb4er of areaaas over the past several years. Like most TV, they seem more interested in "reality TV" then reality. Fortunatly, Wikipidia is still a good source for truth. Here is what they had to say about the Hickock-Tutt shootout.......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Bill_Hickok%E2%80%93Davis_Tutt_shootout

[Drayton Calhoun]

There was a bit in Guns of the Old West last summer that had part of the autopsy report, medical exam, of Dave Tutt. Essentially it stated that the bullet 'entered through the fifth rib on the right side, traversed the chest cavity through the lungs and heart then exited through the fifth rib on the left side.'
  Now, we all know the Navy Colt is an accurate pistol, but admittedly, it is no powerhouse. At seventy-five paces, or yards, would it still be packing the oomph to penetrate through living bone of one rib, through muscle and cartilidge of the rib cage, through both lungs and heart then through yet another rib, muscle and cartilidge on the opposite side...without deflecting?
  I doubt it, but it is possible. The Dragoon, on the other hand would have more than enough and it was regulated out to about one-hundred yards. I did read somewhere that he was carrying a Dragoon that day, but, it may have been confusion between that gunfight and the McCandliss fight where he used an 1860 Army.

[Mogorilla]

My personal experience is with the 51 navy and the 60 colt, so .376 and .454 balls.   In my experiments with phone books, due to the lack of the ball deforming, it had more penetration than a 1911 colt and baretta 9mm.  There was far more damage from the 1911 and baretta, but more than 3 times the penetration by the revolvers.   

[Drayton Calhoun]

My personal experience is with the 51 navy and the 60 colt, so .376 and .454 balls.   In my experiments with phone books, due to the lack of the ball deforming, it had more penetration than a 1911 colt and baretta 9mm.  There was far more damage from the 1911 and baretta, but more than 3 times the penetration by the revolvers.   

Excellent point. Folks tend to sell the old caplocks short. There's a lot of folks in old cemetaries that would dispute their lack of faith in the old revolvers.

[The Elderly Kid]

That coroner's report makes it clear that Tutt was standing side-on in the classic "duellist's stance." Regardless of the caliber, a bullet that traverses both lungs and the heart is pretty well going to take the fight out of anybody. Damned fine shooting on Hickock's part, in any case. At 75 yards, even a big man turned sideways to you presents a very small target, and the vital area an even smaller one. No wonder people customarily backed down from him.

[Drayton Calhoun]

Let's face it, you use what you have and if you want to survive, you had better get good with it. Hickok was one of those rare individuals, like Karamojo Bell, he could just shoot, period. Bell, from all accounts, dropped ten running zebra with a Mauser Machine Pistol with mounted shoulder stock at about one-hundred yards. He also hunted elephant with a .270, supposedly. Some folks are just natural shots.

[Doc Cuervo]

He also hunted elephant with a .270, supposedly. Some folks are just natural shots.

Actualy it was a 7mm Mauser.

[Drayton Calhoun]

Actualy it was a 7mm Mauser.

I wasn't sure, been a long time since I read the account. Fact is, going after a critter that big with a 7 MM, you had better know where to hit.