Again, thanks Wikipedia.
There was the Mexican War and the Near Pig war where men from both north and south acted together and provided training for the war looming on the horizon.
GETTING INTENSE
Sixty-six American soldiers under the command of Captain George Pickett were ordered to the San Juan Island and the British responded with three warships. Tension escalated until by August 10, 1859, there were 461 Americans and 14 cannons. The British had five warships mounting 70 guns and 2,140 men.
The governor of Vancouver Island, James Douglas, ordered British rear Admiral Robert L. Baynes, to land and engage. He refused saying it would be foolish to get "two great nations in a war over a squabble about a pig." A sane man, indeed.
Officers on both sides were given orders to defend themselves, but under no conditions were they to fire the first shot. For several days, soldiers on both sides traded insults trying to provoke the other side to start a war, but it never happened.
AN AGREEMENT
General Winfield Scott was sent to negotiate a treaty with Governor Douglas. It was agreed that both sides would maintain a military presence on the island, but numbers would be cut down to less than 100. The British established a camp on the north end and Americans on the south.
And a good thing for the Americans with the Civil War less than two years away. I wonder what would have happened if the Pig War had become an all-out war? Would there have been a Civil War had we been fighting the British a third time?
For the next 12 years, before being withdrawn, the American and British troops got along very well together, trading visits to each other's camps.
TODAY
The Pig War is commemorated each year by the San Juan Island national Historic Park at the site of each vamp. Even though it is American territory now, the British Union Jack is hoisted each day at the site of the British camp.
Well, At Least No One Died for a Pig. --Blockade-Porker
The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.
