Partly because my great-grandfather Keen (he added the final "e") was an ardent abolitionist and had volunteered for the Sixth Wisconsin Artillery Battery, my grandfather (who was a career officer in the Washington National Guard) had an extensive library of books about the Civil War, and thought highly of Shelby Foote's work.
A little known episode in U.S. history occurred in 1859 in the San Juan Islands, in the northern part of the Salish Sea, at a time when Britain and the U.S. were still squabbling over where the border should run between the Oregon/Washington Territory and what was to become Vancouver, B.C. There were both American settlers and Hudson's Bay Company employees on the main island (named San Juan Island), and though they had always gotten along, as fate would have it, a pig owned by an HBC employee was running loose, and got into the garden of an American settler-who, in true American style-shot it dead.
The American offered the pig's owner $10 compensation, but the HBC employee demanded $100 and ill feelings intensified until the finally British authorities threatened to arrest the American-and the American settlers called for military protection. The military commander of "The Department of Oregon", sent Captain George Pickett (of Pickett's Charge fame) and 66 other soldiers-one of whom was Henry Martyn Roberts, who was to become immortal for writing, "Robert's Rules of Order". It took twelve years to resolve the issue, and during that period, American troops were stationed on one end of the island and Royal Marines on the other. There was no further bloodshed aside from the pig, and apparently the troops from each side got along well.
George McClellan also played a part in the settlement of the Pacific Northwest. In 1853, while in the the semi-civilian role of surveying the route for the proposed transcontinental railroad, he was tasked with finding the best route over the Cascade Mountains. The Cascades can be a miserable place in a wet winter, and was less than assiduous, and reportedly didn't even explore Snoqualmie Pass (which is where I-90 begins its long trip to New York. He chose Yakima Pass without trying to traverse it in the winter (it's still closed in the winter) and refused to turn his notes over to Governor Isaac Stevens (who was killed fighting for the Union). There are several local features named after him, including a butte and a peak. On the other hand, Steven's Pass, the ultimate route of the first railroad across the Cascades, was named after Isaac Stevens.
McClellan went into the railroad business after losing the election. He must have been charismatic to cover up for his incompetence. Glad we avoided war over a shot pig.
Partly because my great-grandfather Keen (he added the final "e") was an ardent abolitionist and had volunteered for the Sixth Wisconsin Artillery Battery, my grandfather (who was a career officer in the Washington National Guard) had an extensive library of books about the Civil War, and thought highly of Shelby Foote's work.
A little known episode in U.S. history occurred in 1859 in the San Juan Islands, in the northern part of the Salish Sea, at a time when Britain and the U.S. were still squabbling over where the border should run between the Oregon/Washington Territory and what was to become Vancouver, B.C. There were both American settlers and Hudson's Bay Company employees on the main island (named San Juan Island), and though they had always gotten along, as fate would have it, a pig owned by an HBC employee was running loose, and got into the garden of an American settler-who, in true American style-shot it dead.
The American offered the pig's owner $10 compensation, but the HBC employee demanded $100 and ill feelings intensified until the finally British authorities threatened to arrest the American-and the American settlers called for military protection. The military commander of "The Department of Oregon", sent Captain George Pickett (of Pickett's Charge fame) and 66 other soldiers-one of whom was Henry Martyn Roberts, who was to become immortal for writing, "Robert's Rules of Order". It took twelve years to resolve the issue, and during that period, American troops were stationed on one end of the island and Royal Marines on the other. There was no further bloodshed aside from the pig, and apparently the troops from each side got along well.
George McClellan also played a part in the settlement of the Pacific Northwest. In 1853, while in the the semi-civilian role of surveying the route for the proposed transcontinental railroad, he was tasked with finding the best route over the Cascade Mountains. The Cascades can be a miserable place in a wet winter, and was less than assiduous, and reportedly didn't even explore Snoqualmie Pass (which is where I-90 begins its long trip to New York. He chose Yakima Pass without trying to traverse it in the winter (it's still closed in the winter) and refused to turn his notes over to Governor Isaac Stevens (who was killed fighting for the Union). There are several local features named after him, including a butte and a peak. On the other hand, Steven's Pass, the ultimate route of the first railroad across the Cascades, was named after Isaac Stevens.
McClellan went into the railroad business after losing the election. He must have been charismatic to cover up for his incompetence. Glad we avoided war over a shot pig.