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Aaron Burr in Alabama - TPR's In Focus - Sept. 16, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from Troy University's Trojan Cafe,
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  offering handcrafted Starbucks beverages and a wide assortment
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  of meal and snack options, located on Troy University's Montgomery
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  campus across from the Rosa Parks Library and Museum.
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  From Troy Public Radio, this is
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  In Focus, and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson. In 1804,
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  Aaron Burr, 3rd Vice President of the United States,
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  killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel.
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  Retired Alabama National Guard Colonel Brian Morgan
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  shares the story of Aaron Burr in Alabama and
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  the Florida Panhandle today.
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  Colonel Brian
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  Morgan, it is great to welcome you back to Troy Public
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  Radio. Hello, Carolyn. So glad to be with you today.
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  You are a history buff. We need to remind the listeners that you are
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  retired from the Alabama National Guard and currently director
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  of career development at Faulkner University. But you've been
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  a longstanding fan of military history,
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  American history, and Alabama history. What have you
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  found out lately about one of our political figures?
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  I think we all enjoyed the musical Hamilton. My wife and I
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  did. A lot of our law students at Jones Law School enjoyed it.
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  But I never knew that Aaron Burr was captured when he was charged with
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  treason right north of Mobile. So I started
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  studying, and that's what I've prepared for you today.
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  Refresh our memory about Aaron Burr.
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  Well, he was a senator from New York. He fought in the Revolution,
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  and he wound up in that pivotal 1800 election
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  where actually Jefferson and Burr tied,
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  and they defeated John Adams, the incumbent sitting
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  president. It went into the Congress, and Alexander
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  Hamilton had a role in making sure that Jefferson was named by the
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  Congress or the states as as our president, but Burr
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  wound up as vice president. It sounds like the relationship
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  between Burr and Hamilton was a bit strained. Is that correct?
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  That's putting it mildly. Hamilton opposed him when Burr ran
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  for governor of New York, and that probably was one of the big parts of
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  the reason for the duel. Of course, Burr was charged with murder,
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  I think in New York. It happened in New Jersey,
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  but in 1804 he was dropped from the ticket with
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  Jefferson. So he's no longer a member of Jefferson's cabinet.
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  He is no longer the governor of New York, and he's charged
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  with this murder. Where does Alabama come in? Where does Florida
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  come in? Fort Stoddard was the southern post of the U.S.
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  territory, right in North Mobile,
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  southern Washington County, where the Alabama and
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  Tombigbee Rivers meet. It was a critical post because
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  of trade coming back and forth, making sure that the North
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  Florida, the Spanish territory, and the U.S.
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  territory didn't have flare-ups. It was the outpost
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  for the United States there in the southwest part of our state.
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  Fort Stoddard is where he was arrested and imprisoned.
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  After he was arrested and imprisoned, what happened? Well,
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  the arrest followed a proclamation by President
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  Jefferson. That alleged that Burr had assembled
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  men on an island in West Virginia,
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  Blenheasset Island, guns, boats,
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  and that Burr was going to create a new nation,
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  either attack Spain to claim Mexico or create
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  a nation in the new Louisiana Purchase, what happened in 1803.
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  Word got to New Orleans and the commander
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  down there was General Wilkinson, who was over the
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  U.S. territory. But Wilkinson was a sort of a triple
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  agent. He was working as a U.S. officer,
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  he was conspiring with Burr, but he was also being paid by the
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  Spanish. So what was Burr's game plan then?
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  Mostly what I read, he had left his friend General Wilkinson,
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  he was headed across the Mobile Delta, and I believe going
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  to Pensacola and to get on a ship and go to England, which would possibly
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  help him with this idea of creating a new country. So from
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  New Orleans, he heads across the Mobile Delta where
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  he's spotted by some people there in the community, and they report
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  it to Captain Gaines, Captain Edmund Pendleton
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  Gaines. That's who Fort Gaines is named for there
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  in Mobile Bay. Captain Gaines said, it's my duty to
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  the former vice president You're under arrest, and he took him to
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  Fort Stoddard. You mentioned General James Wilkinson a minute
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  ago. Is this the same General Wilkinson that was mixed
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  up in the question over Meriwether Lewis's death
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  on the Natchez Trace? You remember Lewis and Clark's
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  Corps of Discovery? Yes, he was.
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  A lot of them said he never won a battle, but he won all of
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  his court-martials. Let's get back to Hamilton
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  versus Burr. Why did they duel? Well,
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  they were peers. They had cases together there
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  in the newly created Manhattan, but their
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  careers, although they paralleled, they clashed.
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  The run for the governorship of New York, although they
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  were in the same party, Hamilton said, oh, they can't tolerate him. He threw his
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  support to his opponent. But I think the big problem
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  was that 1800 election where
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  Burr wound up as vice president. But he always thought that
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  without Hamilton against him, he would have been president and could have been.
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  And the duel was about, quote, a stain on honor.
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  It was illegal, but it happened. If you showed
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  dishonor to another person, one could challenge
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  you to a duel. And that's the way grievances were settled.
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  So what kind of language triggered the duel.
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  The words scoundrel,
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  untrustworthy liar, not a gentleman— those
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  are the mild terms. Nothing's changed, I mean,
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  in our discourse today. But it was a grudge,
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  and it ended tragically in Hamilton's death. And I was curious,
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  I enjoyed the play so much, what happened to Burr? And then I read he
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  got arrested in southwest Alabama. He was incarcerated for
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  a good bit of time. Played dominoes with, I believe,
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  Captain Gaines' wife. But then word got back,
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  and word came to Gaines to bring him to Washington.
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  So he sent a company of 8 men on horseback, and they
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  went on what was then the Federal Road all the way to Richmond.
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  He tried to escape in South Carolina, but they stopped
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  it, and they treated him as a former sitting vice president
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  should have been treated. You mean like a celebrity? Well, yes.
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  Even when he got to Richmond, Chief Justice John Marshall,
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  who served 34 years as our Chief Justice,
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  he tried the case because justices were sent to
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  try cases. They made sure that he got bond.
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  Burr had a dream team of lawyers. He wasn't
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  incarcerated. He stayed out on bond, but it was the spectacle
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  of the city of Richmond in the brand-new nation that
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  we had. How did the trial turn out? You know,
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  after he was acquitted, I believe he went back to England and
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  then returned to the U.S. He was acquitted because there
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  were no witnesses. You had to have— and it's in the Constitution now—
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  you have to have 2 witnesses testify to an overt
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  act to attack our country. And they couldn't prove
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  that any of that occurred on the Ohio River. Now,
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  he was convicted of a misdemeanor in Kentucky,
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  I believe, of wanting to declare war on Spain,
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  a country we were at peace with. And that was a misdemeanor at
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  the time. The seriousness of the treason charge, which President
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  Jefferson issued, the punishment was hanging. So he was actually
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  in a capital case for his life. No reason he
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  lawyered up. You know, he was in the center of where all the decisions were
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  made during the Louisiana Purchase. Why we wanted North
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  Florida, why we wanted Texas. He actually
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  leased some, I believe, 400,000 acres in Texas.
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  You know, he had actually had illusions of creating his
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  own country. So what finally happened to him at the
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  end of his life? Well, his political career was over. The Federalists,
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  of which Hamilton was the leader, and his own party, the Democratic-Republicans,
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  Jefferson's party, which became the Democratic Party,
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  Neither one wanted him. He had the money and connections,
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  but he never could put the idea together to create a new country.
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  This is a lesson from the past. Yes, very much.
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  Thank you for joining us today. Well, I love talking with you,
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  Carolyn. That was Colonel Brian Morgan,
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  retired from the Alabama National Guard,
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  sharing his research into the life of Aaron Burr
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  and his time in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.
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  Thanks for joining us today for In Focus, which is a podcast
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  wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Carolyn Hutcheson,
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  and this is listener-supported Troy Public
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  Radio.