On October 15, 1856 a reporter for the London Times reported about a train ride he had taken through Georgia in which passengers were repeatedly challenging each other to duels and killing each other. Apparently an obliging engineer and conductor regularly stopped the train so that young men could fight duels for the hearts of two women riding on the train, resulting in several deaths. The Times used the story as a vehicle to ridicule Georgia, the South, and the United States, arguing that such activities were representative of American character. However, many Americans protested that such events could not have occurred. The president of the railroad even wrote to the Times denying such a thing had ever happened. However, the Times decided to believe the correspondent, a John Arrowsmith of Liverpool, England, rather than the railroad president. Finally, after continued criticism, and a letter from the British consul in Georgia, the Times realized it had been the victim of a hoax.

References: "A Prodigious Hoax." New York Times, (November 1, 1856): 4. Also, Crawford, Martin. "The Great Georgia Railway Disaster Hoax Revisited". Georgia Historical Quarterly 1974 58(3): 331-339. Also, Coulter, E. Merton. "The Great Georgia Railway Disaster Hoax On The London Times". Georgia Historical Quarterly 1972 56(1): 25-50.