San Juan Island National Historical Park - Civil War Connections (U.S. National Park Service)

NPS Image

The U.S. Navy battle line endures a torrent of Confederate shot and shell from Fort Morgan as it steams into Mobile Bay on Aug 5, 1864. The San Juan Island connection? The captain of the lead ship, USS Brooklyn, was James Alden, who was in command of the Coast Survey Steamer Active during the Pig War crisis.

Many of the key American players in the Pig War incident, on and off island, went on to serve in the American Civil War in both Confederate and Union ranks. For some, the war brought fame, promotion and long careers. For others, it brought death, destruction, lasting heartache...and legend.

Throughout the war, American Camp remained an active U.S. Army installation, garrisoned entirely by regular Army soldiers who rotated between Northwest Washington and the battlefields of the East. The enlisted soldiers probably counted their blessings to be away from the fray, while the officers chafed for glory and the promotions that were certain to follow. Click on the links above for a few of the more prominent participants:

Gettysburg NMP

Pickett's Division crashes into the Union line at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. In command of the Union cavalry that day was Pickett's friend, Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton, who wrote most of Brig. Gen.William Selby Harney's orders during the Pig War crisis. Another old army acquaitenance was Brig. Gen. Henry Hunt, brother of Capt. Lewis Cass Hunt, whom Pickett replaced, with some ill feeling, as commander of the San Juan garrison in April 1860.