"Sir, I send for your perusal a letter signed Ch. D. Cooper. . ." So begins a famous and fatal correspondence. This deceptive courtesy masked a lethal antagonism that changed the lives of the participants forever. In less than a month, one of the correspondents would be dead and the other forced to go into hiding, his political future in doubt. In the summer of 1804, Vice-President Aaron Burr watched with increasing frustration as hope for his political future dwindled. President Jefferson informed him that he was not welcome as a running mate in the upcoming Presidential election. A few months before, Burr had been trounced in the New York gubernatorial race. Burr’s attention turned to his long-term rival and sometime ally Alexander Hamilton, a man who had once dominated the landscape of American politics but was finding that his own political influence had lost its power. The Democratic-Republicans were in control, while the Federalist party had fractured, with one branch talking more and more of secession, a possibility Hamilton dreaded. Never one to hold back when it came to expressing his opinion, Hamilton felt it was his duty to speak out against Burr and his attempts to woo both parties while keeping his true beliefs in the shadows. Out of patience with the repeated efforts to thwart him, Burr demanded that Hamilton either acknowledge his slanders or renounce them. A toxic mix of political rivalry, personal animosity, and the desperate need to regain political relevance drove the two adversaries from the desk to the dueling ground. The documents relating to the duel are presented here—the correspondence of the principals and their seconds, the first-hand accounts of the witnesses, last letters to loved ones, eulogies and aftermath. In the words of those who were there, this is the story of the most famous duel in American history.