Clement Vallandigham (1820 – 1871) was a contrarian – and not of the good kind. An Ohio politician, he served two terms in the US House of Representatives. During the Civil War, he led the treasonous faction of anti-war Democrats known as Copperheads. His wartime years were turbulent, to say the least. After the war, he earned his keep as a lawyer, and it was in a courtroom that his life came to a bizarre end.
A Copperhead’s Bizarre End
In 1863, as the Civil War raged, a court-martial convicted Clement Vallandigham him of sympathizing with those in armed rebellion against the US, and exiled him to the Confederacy. He headed to Canada, and ran for governor of Ohio from exile, but lost the election. He returned a year later. The authorities monitored and kept tabs on his activities, but otherwise let him be.
After the Civil War came to an end, Vallandigham was salty that his side had lost. He publicly decried the war’s outcome, advocated against suffrage and equality for blacks, and made a living as a lawyer while at it. It was in that capacity as an attorney that death caught up with Vallandigham in an Ohio courtroom, when he accidentally shot himself in the stomach during a trial.
In 1871, Vallandigham was representing a defendant, Thomas McGehean, who was accused of shooting a Tom Myers to death during a barroom brawl. Vallandingham aimed to demonstrate to the jury that the deceased had accidentally shot himself as he tried to draw his pistol, only for it to snag on his clothing and accidentally discharge. So he picked a pistol, which he thought was unloaded, placed it in his pocket, then acted out the scenario in the courtroom.
Unfortunately for Vallindigham, the pistol he used was actually loaded. When he mimicked the deceased’s drawing motion, the hammer fell on a live round, which discharged into his stomach. The demonstration convinced the jury, however, and McGehean was acquitted. Death claimed Vallandigham the following day, when the bullet wound grew infected.
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Some Sources & Further Reading
BBC – Victorian Strangeness: The Lawyer Who Shot Himself Proving His Case
History Colored – How Clement Vallandigham Died Defending a Client in Court
History Halls – Deaths You’ll Go to Hell for Laughing at: Franz Reichelt
