Battle of Port Gamble
Battle of Port Gamble | |
---|---|
Part of Washington, United States | |
Result | United States victory |
The Battle of Port Gamble was an isolated engagement between the United States and the
Background
The Haida of
Conflict
In November 1856 a Tlingit party, consisting of approximately 100 warriors and their accompanying families, entered Puget Sound in a fleet of canoes, in what was then the Washington Territory. When the force approached the town of Steilacoom, residents alerted the U.S. Army garrison at Fort Steilacoom who, in turn, sent word to the nearby U.S. Navy gunboat USS Massachusetts. However, before USS Massachusetts could arrive the Haida had already withdrawn north.[4]
On November 20 the Tlingit approached the logging community of
Two days later the surviving Haida surrendered. The Tlingit prisoners were issued a ration of bread and molasses and given 24 hours to bury their dead, after which they were taken aboard USS Massachusetts with the intention of deporting them to British Columbia.[4] When USS Massachusetts arrived in Victoria, however, British Columbia governor James Douglas objected to the landing of the Haida in the colony. In a dispatch sent to colonial secretary Henry Labouchère, Douglas described Swartwout's reaction,[8]
Captain Swartwout appeared disappointed and irritated at my decision, and somewhat inconsiderately held out a threat of landing his prisoners, with or without my sanction, on some of the uninhabited islets on our coast, but on being reminded that such a course, would be a breach of international law, and immediately become the subject of complaint to his Government, he apologized for the warmth into which he had been inadvertently betrayed.
Swartwout and Douglas eventually reached a compromise: the Tlingit were provisioned with food and new canoes, then dropped-off at the edge of
Aftermath
One of the Tlingit killed in the Battle of Port Gamble was a chief and, under Tlingit custom, a chief of the enemy had to be killed in revenge. On August 11, 1857, the Tlingit returned to Washington Territory, landing at Whidbey Island. After inquiring among settlers if there were any chiefs around, they determined that Isaac N. Ebey was the most important person on the island and shot and decapitated him, before departing for home with Ebey's head as a trophy. [A likeness of Ebey was carved on the front of a war helmet by a Kake Tlingit artist with Ebey's head as his model.]{Duane Pasco}[9][10]
With increased policing of the
See also
References
- ^ Wilma, David (2003). "Raiders kill Gustave Englebrecht, first U.S. Navy battle death in the Pacific, at Port Gamble on November 21, 1856". historylink.org. HistoryInk. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
- ^ "Kitsap Cemeteries". visitkitsap.com. Visit Kitsap Peninsula. Archived from the original on 25 May 2014. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
- ISBN 0520206169.
- ^ Macmillan Company. pp. 205–206.
- ^ Richardson, David (2 April 1967). "The old ship's log reveals the story behind the Port Gamble incident". Seattle Times.
- ^ Wilma, David (2003). "Port Gamble -- Thumbnail History". historylink.org. History Ink. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
- ^ Taylor, Joseph (1898). History and Government of Washington. Becktold Print. and Book Mfg. Company. p. 88.
- ^ a b "Despatch to London / Douglas to Labouchere / 2422, CO 305/7, p. 130; received 17 March 1857". bcgenesis.uvic.ca. University of Victoria. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
- ^ "The Ebey Family". Island County Cemetery District #2. Archived from the original on 21 April 2009. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
- ISBN 978-0-87004-356-7.
- ISBN 0295982535.