Even after the joint-occupation agreement was reached, the British naval personnel on the scene continued to act with remarkable restraint. When Governor Douglas told Admiral Baynes that he had received word from the British government that such an occupation should now take place, he demanded that marines be landed on the island immediately. But Baynes resisted, preferring to wait until clear instructions had been received from the Admiralty. Those orders arrived in March of the following year, and shortly afterward, a Royal Marine detachment of 84 men, under the command of Captain George Bazalgette, landed and set up camp on the opposite end of the island from the American troops. A longboat from the HMS Satellite approaches Pickett's first camp on Griffin Bay on July 27, 1859, in this contemporary watercolor by Midshipman W.H. Hall. On April 10, 1860, General Harney--furious that he had not been advised about the joint-occupation agreement and that his man, Pickett, had been replaced as commander on the island--committed a final act of insubordination. In spite of the agreement reached by General Scott and the British, and in violation of Scott's direct orders, Harney sent Company D under Captain Pickett back to San Juan Island to relieve Captain Hunt's Fourth Infantry company. When this news--and the flurry of protests from the British government that it caused--reached Washington, reaction was swift and coordinated. The departments of state and war being of one mind, Secretary of State Cass reported to the president that, on June 8, the adjutant general sent a dispatch to Harney, ordering him to turn over command to the officer next in rank and to ". . . repair without delay to Washington City, and report in person to the Secretaries of State and War."  American camp on San Juan Island. Photograph courtesy San Juan Island Historical Archives Harney avoided court-martial but received a reprimand from Secretary of War Floyd for his actions ". . . which might have been attended by disastrous consequences." Given command of the Department of the West, he traveled to St. Louis, but after reporting difficulties with his officers, he was recalled from that post in May 1861. He held no further command and was retired in 1863. General Harney's departure from the Northwest mollified the British, who withdrew their objection to Captain Pickett commanding on San Juan Island. Pickett, a Virginian, left that post on June 25, 1861, and soon after, he resigned his commission and traveled to Richmond, where he was appointed a colonel in the army being formed by the Confederate States of America.  Soldiers of Battry D, 3rd Artillery pose at American Camp in October 1859 For the next decade, the boundary location for the still jointly occupied San Juan Islands remained in dispute. Finally, the United States and Great Britain submitted the matter to Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany for arbitration. On October 21, 1872, he ruled that the boundary should be drawn through the Haro Strait, which made the San Juan Islands part of the United States. Britain withdrew its garrison of Royal Marines a month later. Peaceful negotiations won out, ending a confrontation that could have escalated into war, a conflict that, as Admiral Baynes remarked, would have involved "two great nations in a war over a squabble about a pig." |
