Old Town Lagoon on Griffin Bay , then and now . It was here that Capt . George E . Pickett and his 64 soldiers landed on July 27 , 1859 prompting the British to respond with three warships . The town full of saloons and bordellos sprang up almost as soon as the soldiers landed .
heroic portrayal of Pickett blustering , “ We ’ ll make a Bunker Hill out of it !” But with 64 British naval guns pointed at his camp , he instead pleaded for reinforcements and lamented that his company was , “ no more than a mouthful ,” for the British . He was unaware that Hornby had no intention of forcing the issue , choosing instead to sit tight and await the return from sea of his superior , Rear Admiral R . Lambert Baynes . He was confident his inaction would be affirmed , and that is exactly what happened when the admiral learned of the incident a few days later .
“ Tut , tut , no , no , the damned fools ,” Baynes was said to have exclaim in his characteristic dry wit .
However , the crisis was far from over . On August 10 , U . S . Army Lt . Col . Silas Casey arrived in the bay aboard the steamer Julia Barclay . This swift little sternwheeler ordinarily was a common and inoffensive sight on Puget Sound and the Northern Straits since her completion at Port Gamble the year before . But she had suddenly been “ requisitioned ” into a troop and munitions carrier to deliver more than 170 soldiers and three field pieces on South Beach just hours before depositing lumber and ammunition ( and Casey ) on the dock in full view of the by-now troubled Hornby .
Four days later , Hornby was aghast to see eight , 32-pounder naval guns landed on the beach under his very nose . These were to be mounted in a redoubt overlooking the bay , and with a range of over a mile , could easily drive his ships from the harbor . He immediately sent a dispatch to Baynes asking if he should land the marines and spike the guns . Baynes ’ reply was swift and firm : No . Hornby was to stand fast and await a diplomatic solution . A hand-carried telegraph and a messenger were already on the way to the East Coast .
When word reached Washington of the contretemps in September , officials from both nations agreed the situation called for a peacemaker on site . The obvious choice was U . S . Army commander Lt . Gen . Winfield Scott , who had calmed northern border crises in Maine and
New York in the late 1830s . But by 1859 Scott was 73 years old , weighed nearly 400 pounds and was so immobilized by gout and dropsy he had to be hauled from shore to deck by crane .
Following a six-week voyage via a rail connection across Panama , Scott stopped first at Vancouver Barracks on the Columbia River . On learning that Pickett happened to be on post , he yanked both Pickett and Harney into his cabin and scolded them for their “ little
conquest .” He next relieved Harney of command and steamed on to the San Juan Islands , where it required only a week for Scott and Douglas to negotiate a stand down . The American force would be reduced to a company , and a British warship would remain on call .
By December , the two governments decided on a formal joint military occupation of the island . The Americans would remain on the southern end of the island , while the Royal Marines mike vouri photo beinecke library , yale university photo kenmoreair . com
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