Why the U.S. and Britain Nearly Went to War Over a Pig

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1859, a pig wandered onto the wrong farm and sparked an international standoff. The U.S. and Great Britain nearly went to war over a single hog on San Juan Island, in what is now Washington State. History teacher Anne Clare shares the story of the strange chain of events that followed, where pride, politics, and a dead pig led to armed troops, tense negotiations, and the possibility of a hot war. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we returned to our American stories, and up next
a story from a regular contributor and Claire about a
fight over a pig that almost led to a war.
Take it away, And.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
In spite of its name, the Pig War didn't have
much to do with farm animals. Rather, the unfortunate demise
of a pig who ventured into the wrong garden in
eighteen fifty nine almost led to an armed conflict. Another
armed conflict between Britain and the United States. In the

(00:57):
early eighteen hundreds, multiple countries had said and explorers to
the Pacific Northwest coast of North America. These explorers laid
claim to territory in the New World. However, as there
weren't markings on property lines, Britain, Spain, Russia, and the
fledgling United States all ended up with overlapping claims. Now

(01:17):
By eighteen nineteen, Spain was out of the running for
Pacific Northwest real estate thanks to the Transcontinental Treaty. President
James Monroe's eighteen twenty three speech outlining the Monroe Doctrine
warned Russia that seeking interests in North America wouldn't be tolerated,
but this still left Britain and the United States of

(01:39):
having to work out their conflicting claims. Both nations had
reasons why they felt their claim was more legitimate. On
the British side, Captain James Cook had conducted important explorations
of the coastal areas of the territory. One of his
crew members, George Vancouver, returned and became the first non

(02:00):
native to explore Puget Sound, giving it its name in
the process. The Hudson Bay Company had been active in
the area for years, establishing trade and putting down roots. However,
the Americans had the Lewis and Clark Corps Discovery exploration
to point to and the subsequent setting up of trading
posts and forts. A decade before Lewis and Clark reached

(02:24):
the Pacific, Thomas Gray, sailing from Boston, had explored and
named the Columbia River. This whole idea, also of manifest
destiny that the United States not only would expand, but
was meant to expand to the Pacific, bolstered the voices
calling for the Oregon Territory to become officially American territory.

(02:48):
Britain and the United States had already agreed to set
their borders from Minnesota to the Rocky Mountains along the
forty ninth Parallel. Why not, moderate American voices asked agree
to just keep the same line all the way to
the Pacific. This would also conveniently give the United States
Puget Sound, which would be America's first good deep water

(03:09):
harbor on the Pacific. But no. The Hudson Bay Company
also recognized the value of Puget Sound, the forty ninth
Parallel was too far to the north for their plans. However,
by eighteen forty three, so many American families had moved
west along the Oregon Trail and begun settling in the
Oregon Territory that they set up a provisional government to

(03:30):
keep the territory in order possessions nine tenths at the
law right. As the debate wore on, some American voices
clamored that a border on the forty ninth Parallel wasn't
not enough land anyway. President James K. Polk won his
eighteen forty five election on the slogan fifty four to
forty or fight. In other words, he called for a

(03:52):
border that went up to fifty four degrees forty minutes,
which would extend the United States border all the way
north to Alaska or their or else. However, once he
was in office and by a slim margin of votes,
President Polk wasn't really feeling the fight part of his
slogan anymore. So the conflict, when it came was not
at the Dictates of Washington, d c. In eighteen forty six,

(04:18):
Britain and the United States signed the Treaty of Oregon
in London. This treaty finally positioned the border between the
two nations on the forty ninth parallel from the Rocky
Mountains west until it hit the water. Then the line
would swing south through the middle of the channel which
separates the continent from Vancouver Island. So they thought the

(04:42):
problem was solved, except that this treaty did not specify
which channel the border should pass through when it swung south.
Harrow Strait near Vancouver Island or Rosario Strait near the mainland,
and the San Juan Islands lay between those to straits,
so naturally, both Britain and the United States claimed them

(05:05):
as their rightful property and began trying to establish their
claims through action. The Hudson Bay Company at Fort Victoria,
which was only seven miles from San Juan Island, had
set up salmon curing stations on the island. When the
United States claimed the island, the HBC upped its game
and established the Bellevue Sheep Farm as well. American settlers,

(05:29):
all eighteen of them, established their own claims, settling in
and building homes right in the middle of the sheep
grazing land. The settlers were confident that the US government
would recognize their claims, while the British were equally sure
that these new residents were just squatters. Finally, on June fifteenth,
eighteen fifty nine, came the incident. An American resident of

(05:54):
San Juan Island, Lyman Cutler, found a British company pig
in his guard. He shot and killed it. This didn't
go over well. The British authorities threatened to evict all
of the Americans from the island, except Cutler, whom they
wanted to arrest. The Americans dug in their heels and

(06:16):
refused to move, but they sent messages to the American
authority in the territory, Brigadier General William S. Harney. He
sent a company of sixty four infantrymen under Captain George E. Pickett,
who would later be a well known name in the
American Civil War. Picket encamped his men just north of
the British sheep Farm. Word of the situation reached Vancouver

(06:39):
Island in the ears of the British Governor James Douglas.
In response, Douglas sent Captain Jeffrey Phipps Horn and his
thirty one gun steam frigate, the HMS Tribune, to San
Juan Island. They were ordered to get rid of Picket
without bloodshed if possible. The Tribune was soon fed, followed

(07:00):
by the HMS Satellite with her twenty one guns and
the HMS Plumper with her ten plus forty six Royal
Marines and fifteen Royal engineers. Faced with almost one ship
gun for each of his men, Pickett still refused to withdraw.
He did, however, request reinforcements in the meantime the British

(07:22):
should not take aggressive action, waiting for the commander of
the British Naval Forces in the Pacific Rear, Admiral R.
Lambert Baines, to arrive.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
Now.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
I don't know anything else about Admiral Baines, but I
think his reaction to the situation speaks well of him.
Baines was appalled and advised Douglas that he would not
involve two great nations in a war over a squabble
about a pig. Now on the island, Pickett received his reinforcements,

(07:54):
one hundred and seventy one men and a replacement commander
in the form of Lieutenant Colonel sil Casey. Casey tried
to parley with Baines, but after bains refused to leave
his ship, or maybe it was after seeing the eighty
four guns on Bain's ship, Casey also sent word asking
for more reinforcements. So by the end of the month,

(08:14):
four hundred and sixty one Americans were encamped in the
woods just north of the sheep Farm, and there they waited,
and the British also waited, drilling and firing their guns
into the island's bluffs. Now, among all the absurdities of
this situation, officers on both sides attended church together on
the satellite and socialized. Now, at last, the story of

(08:38):
this conflict reached Washington, d C. And the then President,
James Buchanan. He hurriedly dispatched General Winfield Scott, a veteran
of the War of eighteen twelve, and also a veteran
of calming down border disputes. In the end, both parties
agreed to withdraw their reinforcements. Britain and the United States

(08:59):
would share sam On Island in a joint occupation until
the matter was finally resolved. The Americans would leave one
company of soldiers on the island and the British would
keep one warship in Griffin Bay. Now this temporary solution worked,
though with one thing and another keeping the decision makers occupied,

(09:19):
including our civil war. The temporary solution dragged on for
twelve years. In eighteen seventy one, Britain and the United
States agreed to let Kaiser Wilhelm, the first of Germany,
arbitrate their dispute. He gave the project to a three
man commission who met on the subject in Geneva for

(09:39):
nearly a year. They ruled in favor of the United States.
This set the final boundary between the US and British
now Canadian territory, and so the Pig War ended, a
war in which the only casualty was a pig, and
in which diplomacy finally triumphed.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
And a terrific job on the production by Monte Montgomery
and a special thanks to Anne Clair for telling us
what is a seemingly humorous but important point to make
about border disputes and how they change, and borders have
been battled over for centuries over big and small things,
even a pig. And by the way, if you have stories, history,

(10:25):
stories yourself, send them to our American stories dot com.
So many of you are actually closet historians or are
actually history teachers, send them in send them to our
American stories dot com. The story of a battle over
a pig that almost led to a war here on
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