The Pig War
Another longstanding dispute between Great Britain and the United States over the Canadian border that was settled by the 1871 Treaty of Washington was the Pig War. The Pig War broke out in 1859 in the disputed San Juan Islands, northwest of Whidbey Island and east of Vancouver Island. Ambiguity of wording in the Oregon Treaty of 1846 described the border between the United States and Canada to be the main channel between Vancouver Island and the continent. The problem was that there were and are two bodies of water which could serve as the main channel, and both the United States and Great Britain claimed the San Juan Islands located between them.
As the US and Britain disputed possession, the Hudson Bay company established a sheep raising site on the islands. At the same time American settlers lived on the islands. Many of the British shepherds kept additional livestock, including pigs, which typically roamed freely. In 1858 an American settler named Lyman Cutlar discovered a pig rooting in his potato plants. It was not the first incident and Cutlar shot the pig. Its owner demanded restitution and when the two couldn’t not agree on a fair amount, the pig’s owner threatened to have Cutlar arrested. Cutlar and the other American settlers demanded protection from the US military authorities.
The United States dispatched about sixty troops to the island, under command of George Pickett, who in few years would lead his division at Gettysburg in a far more serious dispute. The British responded with warships and marines, which landed to confront the Americans. Both sides had commanders level-headed enough to order their men to defend themselves, but not to open fire otherwise. The troops took to taunting each other with insults, but neither side fired upon the other. Still, both sides sent more troops and the possibility of armed conflict remained real. Diplomats in Washington moved to defuse the situation.
As the island calmed down and the diplomats looked for ways to resolve the border issue, the Americans and British agreed to joint occupation of the island with troops of less than 100 on each side. The Americans and British established separate military camps, and as the diplomats wrangled the troops became friendly with each other. Visitation between the camps was frequent. For the Americans stationed on the island the duty was a refuge from the horrors of the American Civil War, which also helped to delay a settlement of the issue. Britain and the United States had other pressing issues to resolve during those years.
The Treaty of Washington established the German Kaiser Wilhelm I as the arbitrator for the issue, which had remained unresolved for twelve years after the shooting of the pig. The Kaiser appointed a three person commission which found in favor of the Americans, and Great Britain removed its remaining troops on the island in 1872. After two years the Americans did likewise. The resolution was opposed by Canadian politicians, who accused Great Britain of being indifferent to Canadian interests and demanded more autonomy over Canadian affairs after the Pig War, a war in which the only casualty was a pig.