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Even those historians who do not admire Hamilton all that much don’t argue that he did not shoot at Burr. However, it is true that he intended to make Burr believe he would shoot. He did not want to give Burr a chance to also throw his shot away, as was fairly common in such events. Burr was determined to kill him as the challenge had shown.

H was a man beaten down and depressed by events personal and political forced to elevate his great enemy over Burr to the presidency; having had his eldest son killed by a Burr flunky and his beloved daughter driven insane by the death. His physicians said he was a very sick man not likely to live much longer in any event. He had had several extremely close brushes with death in the past. So I think he took a chance to die for the Union by removing the greatest threat of secession once and for all.

The hair trigger on Church’s pistol was not set and he was not speaking of any “second” gun. He explicitly referred to the dueling pistol in his conversation with Pendleton.

It's interesting that you believe yourself able to divine the motives and intentions of a dead man who did not live long enough after the duel to shed much clarity on them himself.

Regardless, Hamilton bears primary responsibility in his own death as practically every realistic scenario of it rendered Burr's shot a legitimate one by dueling conventions.

If he intended to delope he did not communicate this to Burr in any way and in fact quite the opposite, meaning Burr had every reason to believe it was a shot at him. If he fired the pistol by accident, then it was his own fault for pulling a trigger he did not intend and Burr again had every reason to believe it was a shot at him. And if he fired and simply missed, then it was indeed a shot at him and Burr had the right to return. Yes, Hamilton was a troubled man at the time of his duel, worn, beaten down, and emotional. And he largely had himself to blame for it.

You are also simply wrong about there not being a second gun. Hamilton told the Doctor Hosack that he had not meant to fire and that his second would verify this intention (presumably by revealing the letter): "Soon after recovering his sight, he happened to cast his eye upon the case of pistols, and observing the one that he had had in his hand lying on the outside, he said, "Take care of that pistol; it is undischarged, and still cocked; it may go off and do harm. Pendleton knows that I did not intend to fire at him."

Pendleton heard this too and recorded it as "Pendleton knows I did not mean to fire at Col. Burr the first time."

That means he was apparently aware that he had indeed fired, either by accident or intentionally and he was now lying about it. Alternatively, he could have simply been delusional from the shock of being shot. Pendleton tried to claim as much, suggesting the comment about the still-loaded gun "shews that he was not sensible of having fired at all" and tries to spin that into a claim that Burr's shot knocked Hamilton unconscious causing him to fire involuntarily. Yet this could not be the case as Pendleton contradicted his recollection from only moments earlier where he reports Hamilton saying he did not mean to fire.

Hosack's account is likely more reliable refers to nearby pistols in the plural.

There is also no conclusive evidence that the hair trigger was not engaged. The guns certainly had it and Hamilton knew of it. Pendleton later claimed Hamilton told him he was not going to use it. But that also came amidst his dubious attempt to argue that Hamilton had fired second as an "involuntary" reaction to being shot after intentionally withholding, in which case the hair trigger being engaged would have been counter-evidence that Hamilton intended to fire after all.

Meanwhile, everything we know about Hamilton's actions right before the duel suggest he was indeed looking to fire. He was seen very carefully sighting his gun and even stopped the lineup to adjust his glasses and re-steady his sight, as one would likely do immediately before firing.

His physicians said he was a very sick man not likely to live much longer in any event.

Interesting, to which I'll add the following: rather than his son's death, do we know for certain that Hamilton was not dying of something else such as...let's say...syphilis? We know for a fact that he was a serial adulterer. And we also know that Hamilton paid a Reynolds thousands of dollars for access to his wife, so he obviously had no problem with prostitution. Combined with his well documented mood swings and mental degeneration leading up to the duel, I don't think we can rule it out!

One final thought re.:

So I think he took a chance to die for the Union by removing the greatest threat of secession once and for all.

Have you ever considered the possibility that it was Hamilton who was actually the greater threat to the future of the United States? Of all the major founders, none was more reviled by his peers than Hamilton. And that includes the next four presidents. Not just Jefferson, but Madison, Monroe, and even John Adams all had one thing in common - none of them could stand Hamilton. All generally concurred that he was hot-headed, had questionable morals, was exceedingly ambitious in his political machinations, and possessed a highly manipulative character.

So perhaps it wasn't Hamilton that saved the union by tarnishing Burr, but Burr that saved it by eliminating Hamilton.