Yeah, that line also struck me as somewhat silly. Even in the days of outright dueling, this was known to happen. If you study the life of Andrew Jackson (who f

Yeah, that line also struck me as somewhat silly. Even in the days of outright dueling, this was known to happen. If you study the life of Andrew Jackson (who frankly comes across to any modern American as an absolute psycho), he had several duels throughout his life, and while many of them ended in Jackson killing his opponent, he also befriended many of his surviving dueling opponents. It was fairly common for a duel to end with both parties intentionally missing the other with their pistols, and it was probably safer for everyone involved for the fistfight to replace the duel as a ritual test of bravery and honor, though even that is on the decline.