On July 21, 1865, a real life showdown resulting in face to face gunplay happened for the first time, the first of the classic duels we have come to know as a Wild West gunfight.
Digging Deeper
Wild Bill Hickock, later one of the West’s most famous characters, was gambling in Springfield, Missouri, but not well. Hickock lost his money playing poker, and owed his friend Davis Tutt, also a Civil War veteran but from the opposite side. (Hickock was a Union veteran, Tutt a Confederate) money to repay loans. As collateral, Tutt seized Hickock’s pocket watch, a prized heirloom. Hickock, humiliated at the loss of his watch, warned Tutt to not wear it in public.
Of course, things being what they are, Tutt flaunted the watch in public, enraging Hickock. Hickock called out Tutt in the classic television and movie Western gunfight, the 2 steely eyed gunmen facing each other on the city street, right at the town square. Each drew their pistol and fired, Tutt’s bullet missing Bill, but Bill’s finding its target, killing Tutt.