In 1859, an American farmer shot a pig belonging to the British Hudson's Bay Company on a disputed island in the Pacific Northwest, and two major world powers spent the next thirteen years facing each other down over the incident. American troops dug in under George Pickett — that George Pickett. Britain responded with five warships and two thousand soldiers. Both sides were ready to fight. Neither side fired a shot. The only casualty of the entire thirteen-year standoff was the pig. This is the Pig War — one of history's most accidental near-wars and most improbable peaceful resolutions.

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