Pig War (1859)

Border ambiguity The Oregon Treaty of June 15, 1846, resolved the Oregon boundary dispute by dividing the Oregon Country/Columbia District between the United States and Britain (future Canada) "along the 49th parallel of north latitude to the middle of the channel which separates the continent from off-shore Vancouver Island, and thence southerly through the middle of the said channel, and of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, to the Pacific Ocean." However, two straits could be called the middle of the channel: Haro Strait, along the west side of the off-shore San Juan Islands; and Rosario Strait, along the east side. In 1846, there was still some uncertainty about the region's physical geography. The most commonly available maps were those of Royal Navy Captain George Vancouver, published in 1798, and of the United States Navy's Charles Wilkes, published in 1845. In both cases, the maps are unclear in the vicinity of the southeastern coast of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. As a result, Haro Strait is not fully clear either. In 1856, the U.S. and Britain set up a Boundary Commission to resolve several issues regarding the international boundary, including the water boundary from the Strait of Georgia to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The British appointed James Charles Prevost, as First Commissioner, George Henry Richards as Second Commissioner, and William A. G. Young as Secretary. The U.S. appointed Archibald Campbell First Commissioner, John Parke, Second Commissioner, and William J. Warren Secretary. On June 27, 1857, the American and British commissioners met for the first time on board the British Royal Navy warship HMS Satellite, Prevost held that the channel specified in the treaty must have three essential qualities: • it must separate the continent from Vancouver Island • it must carry the boundary in a southerly direction • it must be navigable Only Rosario fulfilled these requirements, he wrote. Campbell countered that the expression "southerly", in the treaty, was to be understood in a general sense, that Rosario Strait did not separate the continent from Vancouver Island, but the San Juan Islands from Lummi Island, Cypress Island, Fidalgo Island, and others, and that navigability was not germane to the issue, but even if it was, Haro Strait was the wider and more direct passage. Finally, he challenged Prevost to produce any evidence showing that the treaty framers had intended Rosario Strait. Prevost responded to the challenge by referring to American maps showing the boundary running through Rosario Strait, including one by John C. Frémont, produced for and published by the US government, and another by John B. Preston, Surveyor General of Oregon in 1852. To the other points, Prevost repeated his statements about Rosario Strait's navigability—the channels between Lummi, Cypress, and Fidalgo islands not being navigable—and that a line through Rosario would be southerly. At the same time, one through Haro would have to be drawn westerly. The two continued to discuss the issue into December 1857, until it was clear what each side's argument was and that neither would be convinced of the other. Prevost made a final offer at the sixth meeting, on December 3. He suggested a compromise line through San Juan Channel, which would give the US all the main islands except San Juan Island. This offer was rejected and the commission adjourned, agreeing to report back to their respective governments. Thus ambiguity over the water boundary remained. Because of this ambiguity, both the United States and Britain claimed sovereignty over the San Juan Islands. During this period of disputed sovereignty, Britain's Hudson's Bay Company established operations on San Juan and turned the island into a sheep ranch. Meanwhile, by mid-1859, twenty-five to twenty-nine American settlers had arrived. San Juan Island held significance not for its size, but as a military strategic point. While the British held Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island to the west, overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the entry point to Haro Strait, leading to the Strait of Georgia, the nation that held the San Juan Islands would be able to dominate all the straits connecting the Strait of Juan de Fuca with the Strait of Georgia. Political context Future Union Army General-in-Chief, George B. McClellan (who was also George Pickett’s classmate at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York and lifelong friend), claimed that General William S. Harney, and Pickett conspired with a cabal, to start a war with Britain (United Kingdom), creating a common enemy, to head off a north–south confrontation. However, General Granville O. Haller, disputed General McClellan's later theory. He said they had wanted to start a war, but with hope of distracting the North so that the South could secede from the federal Union. The theories are given credence when it is noted that later Major General Silas Casey, then a lieutenant colonel and deputy commander of the 9th Infantry Regiment, was reduced to a support role for lower ranked Captain George Pickett who was given independent jurisdiction over a vast area by General William Harney, then a brevet major. On the other hand, it can be said that Lieutenant Colonel Casey had not been reduced, for he was given command over the U.S.S. Massachusetts and Major Haller to protect and supervise the waters of the Puget Sound. Based on his military experience, he was given discretion to deviate from his orders. ==The pig incident==

On June 15, 1859, exactly 13 years after the adoption of the Oregon Treaty, the ambiguity led to direct conflict. Lyman Cutlar, an American farmer from Kentucky who had moved onto San Juan Island claiming rights to live there under the Donation Land Claim Act, passed nine years earlier by the U.S. Congress in 1850, found a pig rooting in his garden and eating his tubers. This was not the first occurrence and as a result, Cutlar, tired of the intrusion, shot and killed the pig. It turned out that the pig was owned by an Irishman, Charles Griffin, who was employed by the Hudson's Bay Company to run their sheep ranch on the island. He also owned several pigs that he allowed to roam freely. The two had lived in peace until this incident. Cutlar offered $10 () to Griffin to compensate for the pig, but Griffin was unsatisfied with this offer and demanded $100 (). Following this reply, Cutlar believed he should not have to pay for the pig because the pig had been trespassing on his land. One likely apocryphal account has Cutlar saying to Griffin, "It was eating my potatoes"; and Griffin replying, "It is up to you to keep your potatoes out of my pig." When British authorities threatened to arrest Cutlar, nearby American settlers called for military protection in the Washington Territory from the United States Army. ==Military escalation==

US Brigadier General William S. Harney, then commanding the military Department of Oregon, initially dispatched then Captain George Pickett and 66 soldiers of the 9th Infantry Regiment under Pickett's command to San Juan Island with orders to prevent the British from landing; the regiment sailed aboard the wooden-hulled steamer warship USS Massachusetts. Robert's Redoubt of 1859 on the island is considered the best-preserved fortification of its kind now in the United States. (To the east is Jackle's Lagoon, named for George Jackle, a soldier stationed at the American camp.) The situation continued to escalate. By August 10, 1859, the enlarged detachment of 461 Americans with 14 cannons under Colonel Silas Casey were opposed by a flotilla of five British Royal Navy warships mounting 70 guns and carrying 2,140 men. The governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island, James Douglas, had ordered Captain Hornby to dislodge the American troops, avoiding armed conflict if possible. At the time, the additional reinforcements sent by Harney had not yet arrived, and the island was occupied by only Pickett's small detachment of 66 men. Hornby refused to take any action until British Rear Admiral Robert L. Baynes, who was in command of the Royal Navy in the Pacific, arrived. When Baynes came and took stock of the situation, he told Douglas that he would not escalate the conflict into a war between two great nations "over a squabble about a pig". ==Resolution==

When news about the crisis reached the far-away capitals of London and Washington, D.C., officials from both nations were shocked at the potential conflict and took action to calm the potentially explosive international incident. This was in the best interest of the United States, as sectionalist tensions within it were rapidly increasing, soon to culminate in the American Civil War. Wilhelm I referred the issue to a three-man arbitration commission which met in Geneva for nearly a year. Finally on October 21, 1872, the commission decided in favor of the United States' offer. The arbitrators chose the American-preferred marine boundary via the Haro Strait, to the west of the islands, over the British preference for using the Rosario Strait which lay to their east. On November 25, 1872, the British withdrew their Royal Marines from the British camp. The Americans followed by July 1874. The Pig War is commemorated in San Juan Island National Historical Park. ==Key figures==

• Second Lieutenant Henry Martyn Robert, of South Carolina / Ohio, who later published the first edition of his ''Robert's Rules of Order'' in 1876 on democratic parliamentary procedure, and later became a general in the federal Army of the Potomac of the Union Army during the following Civil War was stationed on the island for much of the period. • Captain George Pickett, of Virginia, and later a general in the Confederate States Army of the infamous Pickett's Charge fame at the pivotal July 1863 Battle of Gettysburg at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in the following American Civil War, was in charge of the initial American small landing force on San Juan. • Captain Geoffrey Hornby, commander of the initial British naval force flotilla deployed, was later promoted to Admiral of the Fleet, the highest rank in the Royal Navy, and earned a reputation as a pre-eminent tactician and fleet commander in the 19th century. ==Gallery==