THE PIG WAR!


DATE OF HAPPENING: 1859-1874

Back then in the 1840s, the lands of Oregon, Washington State, Idaho, parts of Montana and Wyoming, as well as the southern half of British Columbia was known as Oregon Country. In 1846, the Oregon Treaty was signed, dividing Oregon Country by the 49th parallel. But in a small archipelago near Vancouver Island, in the San Juan Islands, there was still a minor dispute between the British and the U.S. over whoever owned those islands. This dispute went unresolved until...

In a summer day of June 15, 1859, A British herder named Charles Griffin decided to let his animals roam free. One of his pigs noticed some very delectable tubers (potatoes), and decided to munch on them. The tubers were owned by an American named Lyman Cutlar. Cutlar, who had this problem before of animals eating his crops, decided to not play nice and shot the pig dead. Griffin, upon hearing the news, demanded recompensation. Cutlar offered $10 ($362.5 today). BUT, Griffin said that wasn't enough, and instead wanted $100 ($3624.58 today) for the dead pig. Cutlar didn't want to pay that amount for a pig, and Griffin then got pissed off and (allegedly) told Cutlar that him and the other americans were a nuisance to the island and threatened to have the Americans removed. BUT, Cutlar simply said that he came to settle for the dead pig instead of arguing whether the islands were American or British (Cutlar, an American, thought the islands were American soil).
san juan islands
Now, there were already between the British and the Americans before then, but the pig getting shot was what broke the camel's (or rather, the pig's) back. Nearing the end of July, Captain George Pickett and his unit of 66 U.S. Soldiers arrived to the island to prevent the British from landing. The British themselves sent three warships to check the Americans. Pickett originally settled near a British farm (Belle Vue), but due to a tactical error they relocated to higher ground. They built a redoubt for his cannon. This Camp would be one of two historical sites on the island. The other site was the British camp, defended by the Royal Marines. By August of 1859, it was 461 Americans with 14 cannons opposing 2140 British troops with 70 guns.
belle vue today
Eventually, the news reached London and D.C. The British and American governments took effort to resolve the dispute before the standoff turned into a border conflict. The US were especially keen to resolve this conflict, as tensions between northern and southern states were brewing into what would become the U.S. Civil War. Negotiations happened, and the British and Americans agreed to a joint military occupation of the islands. Just imagine what Griffin and Cutler felt, causing this incident! The British camped in the north, and the US in the south. The Union Jack still is flown there today, for ceremonial purposes. The Americans and British troops fraternized on the island, visiting each other's camps to party and hold sports competitions. Those Americans troops certainly had it better than the troops fighting in the Civil War. This status quo happened for the next 12 years. In 1871, the island dispute started to be resolved via international arbitration, in which German Kaiser Wilhelm I was the arbitrator. An American statesman by the name of George Bancroft was able to sway Wilhelm to the favor of the US after about a year's worth of negotiations, and in October of 1872 the islands were given to the United States. The British withdrew their forces a month later, and the Americans withdrew in 1874.
The total amount of casualties totaled to: 0 people, 1 pig.