The Battle of San Juan Island?

The Puzzling Account of Private William Henry Royle

Abstract

This article’s title will undoubtedly surprise those historians familiar with the so-called “Pig War.” Previous scholarship and public commemorations stress the conflict’s peaceful outcome, with a pig standing as the war’s lone casualty. This research note introduces a new source, a letter by Private William Henry Royle, to suggest that armed confrontation might have occurred following the United States’ 1859 occupation of San Juan Island. This possible conflict was not between American and British forces – the Pig War’s familiar antagonists – but instead between the US Army and Indigenous Peoples. Contradictory evidence makes ascertaining the veracity of Royle’s account difficult, and this note argues that historians should neither entirely accept nor entirely dismiss the private’s account. Ultimately, this note contends that the mere potential for such a battle suggests the need for a broader reinterpretation of the Pig War by reminding historians that part of the American army’s mission on San Juan Island was to occupy an Indigenous homeland.