I knew before that a certain Captain George Pickett, a thirty-four-year-old veteran of the Mexican War and graduate of West Point – albeit, last in his class – served on San Juan Island in the Puget Sound just before the American Civil War.  What I did not know, was one of his opposites in the whole Pig War ordeal in 1859 was an Anglo-Irish peer by the name of John De Courcy.  Like Pickett, De Courcy would figure in the next war, as well.  Pickett’s role would be bigger and better known, but De Courcy’s role was big enough for someone involved in command. And not even as a citizen of either side.

CIVIL WAR WAS NOT ONLY FOR AMERICANS

John De Courcy was by far not the only Irishman involved in the Civil War.  There were plenty of Irish fighting – over 50,000 British citizens served in some capacity during the American Civil War – for both the North and South.  There were even a few Irishmen who attained high rank during the war, Patrick Cleburne comes to mind here.  But most of the other Irish were emigrants – newly arrived or already somewhat established in their new country.  The ranks of the US Regular Army were filled with such men trying to find new lives on a new continent. 

John De Courcy was, however, not your normal everyday Irishman, he came from the ranks of the Anglo-Irish, the landed class which found itself in charge of things in Ireland from the 17^th century until 1921.  Brendan Behan – Irish nationalist playwright – described an Anglo-Irishman as “a Protestant with a horse.”  Interestingly, Patrick Cleburne came from the Anglo-Irish class, as well.

DE COURCY BEGINNINGS

Not only did De Courcy come from an Anglo-Irish family, but one that was fairly well off with a barony and peerage title dating all the way back to the English invasion of Ireland in 1177.  The Barons of Kingsale descended from Sir John De Courcy of Normandy.  Like many young well-to-do Anglo-Irishmen who did not look to immediately inherit a peerage seat at the ruling table, John settled on a life of action and travel starting by enlisting with the 47^th Lancashire Regiment of Foot as an ensign in 1838 at the age of 17. 

With his enlistment, he followed in his father’s footsteps.  His father reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.  On one of his father’s postings to the island of Corfu, John became the first and only son – 30 March 1821 – living among four sisters.  His father had been the fourth son to another John DeCourcy who had been the 26^th Lord Baron Kingsale.

GENTLEMAN AMONG THE TURKS

John De Courcy served with the 47^th – the regiment had fought at Bunker Hill – until 1847 according to one report. With the onset of the Crimean War, De Courcy became posted as a major leading a group of Bashi-Bazouks – Turkish irregulars.  These fighters raided behind Russian lines under the command of Allied officers.  Richard Francis Burton was another example of a British officer charged with a Bashi-Bazouk command.

Bashi-Bazouks maintained a well-deserved reputation for undisciplined brutality.  They earned money from stealing it from civilians.  Plunder served as motivation.  In Crimea, they served as guerillas disrupting where they could.  De Courcy came out of the war with the award of Knight, Order of the Medjidie (4^th Class).  Knighthoods are all great, but they did not pay well, and we find John next in Victoria, Vancouver Island Colony in 1858.  His chances at becoming the next baron were not good and he was poor to boot, so possibly, he was attracted by the finding of gold in the nearby Fraser River valley.

OFF TO BRITISH NORTH AMERICA

The Fraser Gold Rush prompted Governor James Douglas to create gold commissioners and stipendiary magistrates to better enforce British colonial law and jurisdiction over both Vancouver Island and the Mainland.  Douglas hoped this would lessen the fear of warfare with the Native peoples and reduce the lawlessness seen in California.

Gold commissioners issued mining licenses and registered gold claims.  They held a lot of other powers within their immediate geographical jurisdictions as well – Indian Agent, land surveyor, sheriff, coroner, collector of government revenues.   Stipendiary magistrates were similar to deputy sheriffs in that they could apprehend but they could also pass sentences as a police court.  In need of a job, presumably, John De Courcy found himself appointed as the stipendiary justice.  His time in Victoria were remembered by the local newspaper as being “a snob and a Bashi-bazouk” in response to supposedly imposing heavy penalties for light offenses.

He must have looked effective to Governor Douglas, however, who appointed John De Courcy as stipendiary justice for San Juan Island in June 1859.  The immediate case was to adjudicate a matter dealing with the killing of a pig on the island and with “trespassing” of American settlers on HBC – British – land.

SAN JUAN ISLAND – AN UNRESOLVED BOUNDARY

San Juan Island was claimed by both the United States and Great Britain.  The Oregon Treaty of 1850 demarcated a border at the 49^th parallel.  That line ran into the middle of the waters separating the mainland and Vancouver Island thereafter running south to include all of Vancouver Island within the British realm.  Problems arose because the San Juan Island group stuck out in the middle of the line running south.  The British thought the Rosario Strait running between the east side of the islands and the Washington mainland was the correct boundary.  American boundary commissioners favored the west side of the islands where the Haro Strait ran. 

Poignant to their case was the extension of the 49^th parallel to encompass a small peninsula of the British Mainland sticking out a mile to the south of the 49^th.  This remained American by treaty extending the water boundary out further to the west away from the Rosario Strait.

unresolved boundary

The original treaty left things up in the air to be settled later.  As the 1850s went on, no decision had been decided upon with the two separate interpretations.  It was not in 1849 when the Crown Colony of Vancouver Island was established.  The Colony of Vancouver Island was all about the Hudson’s Bay Company and its Chief Factor James Douglas, who also happened to be the colonial governor.  He was actually the second governor taking official power when the first governor, Richard Blanshard, found everything on the island belonged to the HBC in one way or another.  Blanshard lasted a year before returning to England in 1851.  The colonial office then recognized the inevitable appointing Douglas as governor.

hUDSON’S BAY AND SETTLERS

HBC was never about settlements beyond the establishment of trading posts.  They worked to try and discourage settlers, a process that led to American sovereignty over Oregon written by the many feet of American settlers who had come west to the fertile soils of the Willamette Valley.  The Crown Colony was actually leased to the HBC.  It was not only the HBC working against encouraging settlement but the Colonial Office in London, too.  Landless laborers were discouraged from coming in favor of those who could afford to bring their own labor force with them.  The free land grants found in the United States as well as the goldfields of California both served to dampen emigration into the colony. 

It was gold discovered in the Thompson River are that changed things overnight.  Victoria became the supply base for thousands of men moving into the interior – known then as New Caledonia.  Douglas had no legal authority on the mainland.  To exert British authority New Caledonia became a new Crown Colony on 2 August 1858.  Douglas became the governor of the new colony – now named British Columbia – while still remaining governor of Vancouver Island on the condition he resigned from the HBC gaining a knighthood in the process.  The two colonies would unite in 1866.

Puget Sound Agricultural Company

The costs of running the vast network of fur trading posts increased with time.  In order to cut out American merchants from supplying foodstuffs to the Russian-American Company – another fur enterprise working out of Alaska – the HBC and RAC signed an agreement in 1839 where the British would supply the Russians with food.  The HBC could not directly grow or raise food by itself since its monopoly license from the government allowed it to only trade in furs. 

To get around that, the Puget Sound Agricultural Company was formed in 1840 to provide agricultural and livestock products for the Russian demand.  The hope on the part of the HBC was the PSAC would promote settlement to British subjects in the disputed area of Oregon, thus countering attempts by American emigrants.  Fort Nisqually became a center for the development of livestock and Cowlitz Farm – not far from the town of Toledo, Washington – would serve as a growing center for grains.

HBC RETREAT TO THE NORTH

With the Oregon Treaty of 1846 signed, the border became the 49^th parallel.  HBC property was to still be recognized by the new American authorities which eventually became problematic over time.  A big problem for the PSAC was to entice families to come to work on their farms.  Invited families came with the promise of a house and 100 acres of cleared land.  They also got animals and a year’s supply of foodstuffs.  However. The families would not gain legal ownership of their farmsteads.  The only source of colonists to the PSAC came in 1841 from the Red River Colony.  Even here, the inability to own land became contentious with most of those families moving south across the Columbia River to American settled lands where they could own land.

With the Oregon Treaty, HBC began to move their operations to the north, centering on their main base at Fort Victoria.  Along with the HBC came the PSAC shifting their operations to Vancouver Island.  But also, onto San Juan Island, which Douglas claimed as British territory.  The Belle Vue Sheep Farm was established near the end of 1853 on the island to assert British sovereignty. 

Alway taxes

Both British and Americans put customs officials on the island though not much came of that until the newly organized Whatcom County in Washington Territory came to resent a tax bill for the operation.  Not getting anywhere, the Whatcom County sheriff came out and started confiscating livestock which took the issues of whose land was whose, to new heights.  Secretary of State William Marcy intervened giving Washington Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens instructions that local officials were not to intervene in lieu of future arbitration over the islands.

CHANGES COME TO SAN JUAN ISLAND

Things quieted down then for a while, but the PSAC was not the only inhabitants on the island as time went on.  American settlers slowly came out with between 18 to 25 living on the island by the summer of 1859.  With the “squatters” came a reduction in acreage available to the Belle Vue farm.   Douglas still regarded the British government weak in the face of American settlers.  He had “lost” a large part of the Oregon Country.  Americans mistrusted and disliked the HBC which they considered to be one and the same – a somewhat valid point here on Vancouver Island.  Tensions continued to build, especially with Americans making up a large percentage of miners coming into the Fraser Canyon resentful of HBC restrictions placed upon them.

THE PIG

Lyman Cutlar had warned the people on Belle Vue farm to keep a pig off his “property”.   Of course, the British did not recognize Cutlar’s claim considering him to simply squatting on the land athwart one of the main livestock paths on the island.  On 15 June 1859, Cutlar shot the pig informing the owners of what he had done and offered to pay for the cost of the animal.  He found the cost pegged at $100 to be unreasonable, however.

Enter Alexander G. Dallas, a Scottish administrator sent out by HBC to investigate the stability of the PSAC and the situation with HBC interests in general with regards to the gold rush activities.  In spite of differences over land between the company and the Crown, Dallas did marry a daughter of Douglas.  But he also happened to be visiting the island on the day of the shooting.  Dallas allegedly threatened Cutlar with trespassing on British soil and would be subject to arrest if he did not pay up.

US customs collector Paul Hubbs recalled Dallas arriving on a British warship and threatening to return with more as well as inviting Northern Native Americans to raid the island and run off the Americans.  Of course, Dallas worked for the HBC and not the British government.  He had no authority over the Royal Navy, nor did he have legal authority to threaten Cutlar with.  The only result of his visit was to convince Douglas to appoint a civil magistrate to sort out the incident.  Enter John De Courcy who Douglas tabbed to head off to San Juan Island.

ENTER WILLIAM HARNEY

On the other side, enter Brigadier General William S. Harney, commander of the Military Department of Oregon and youngest of the four general officers in the US Army – 61 years old, nine years younger than the next in line.  Harney was a loose cannon.  He followed his own flag with few above him, quite frankly, in authority.  Those above him, he was always ready to take with a grain of salt.  Commander of the US Army, Winfield Scott, was not at all a fan of Harney’s especially after a court martial in Mexico of Harney was overridden by President Polk.  Harney had been a close friend of Andrew Jackson, relying on their friendship to attain career gains.  Polk was, of course, Little Andrew, and had Harney’s back at the time.  That would change.

Harney happened to be cruising the Puget Sound at the time of the Pig Affair, checking in on different points of interest within his military bailiwick.  The locals on San Juan Island raised a flag on 4 July 1859 which Harney happened to notice aboard the USS Massachusetts, interestingly placed under the jurisdiction of the US Army for a period of May 1850 to January 1862.  Seeing the flag, he pulled in and learned about Native American attacks upon the island, the incident with the pig and the American fear and dislike of the British – here, read the HBC.  Harney pledged to support the locals and urged them to draft a petition asking for a military force to be placed upon the island.

WILLIAM HARNEY TRIES DIPLOMACY

Then without consulting territorial officials or his superiors in the War Department, Harney ordered Captain George Pickett to bring Company D 9^th Infantry from Fort Bellingham to establish a post on San Juan Island to protect inhabitants from incursions from potential hostile Indians as well as “to resist all attempts at interference by the British authorities residing at Vancouver’s Island by intimidation of force”.  His order of 11 July reached the War Department in Washington DC in September.

A PICKETT FENCE

Now, De Courcy had more than just an American “squatter” to deal with.  He had an American captain with a company of infantrymen backing him up.  De Courcy had instructions to use force only as a last resort, be “most careful to avoid giving any occasion that might lead to acts of violence.”  He ordered Pickett to leave the island, which the captain refused to do.  Pickett had already placed a post on the beach noting the island belonged to the US.  De Courcy realized he would need a lot more resources to attempt to try and arrest Pickett or Cutlar.

BRING IN THE NAVY

Douglas upped the ante having Michael De Courcy – Michael was a third cousin to John – the naval officer in command now for the area with his admiral away, order the 31-gun HMS Tribune to steam over to the island to give more power to the British arguments.  The captain of the Tribune, Captain Geoffrey Hornby, was told by Douglas to use force if necessary but not provoke the Americans into a collision. 

provocation or resolution?

John De Courcy saw that provocation was exactly what would happen if he tried to carry out his arrest order.  If Pickett did not come quietly, De Courcy would have to also arrest anyone helping him resist arrest, which included Pickett’s soldiers and the Royal Navy would have to back him up.  He told Hornby they either needed more guns – and marines, since sailors would be no match for infantrymen – or they could just try and find some peaceful resolution.

Hearing the alternatives, Douglas wanted to send in three more ships which were available.  Douglas was nominally in charge, but Michael De Courcy wanted to avoid bloodshed, a possible war, plus he was reluctant to act precipitously without his admiral present.  He asked specifically “when I was to resort to force”.  Further, he told the governor he had strong reservations about employing British ships against US troops suggesting “milder measures” used instead.  A detachment of marines could go out and held if needed.

A HEAD IS REACHED

Hornby suggested to Pickett that a number equal to his soldiers be allowed to land, something Pickett refused out of hand.  After hearing this answer, Douglas urged action, but Hornby seeing the wisdom of the Anglo-Irish ignored the governor.  The crisis would continue to bounce around before both sides agreed to a joint military occupation starting in March 1860 and lasting until the end of 1872 when Emperor Wilhelm of Germany, as an uninterested arbiter, decided in favor of the Americans with the marine border established on Haro Strait to the west of San Juan Island.

As the controversy continued to swirl about, though now calmer hands guided the affair – Harney became reassigned to St Louis, a mistake considering the ongoing secession crisis in the US; Douglas would calm down once the joint military occupation began.  John De Courcy remained on the island until the Royal Marines landed as the British magistrate.  Then, as John does from time to time in history, we don’t pick him up until he is in Washington, DC with a group of other foreigners seeking commissions directly from Secretary of State William Seward in the Federal Army as the Civil War takes off.

A NEW COLONEL

Seward’s teen-age daughter Fanny – Fanny acted as Sewards’s hostess since his wife stayed back at their home in Auburn, New York because her frail health could not take the tropical climate of Washington – described De Courcy’s face a “rocky beach” from earlier acne scars while also taken aback by his one bad eye.  Her father came through for the Anglo-Irish military man getting him a commission as the colonel of the 16^th Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

The 16^th Ohio organized on 2 October 1861 at Camp Tiffen near Wooster, Ohio.  Previously many men of the regiment belonged with a version of the 16^th which enlisted for the initial 90-day period asked for by President Lincoln.  They mainly guarded the Baltimore & Ohio railroad also pushing some of their men into the early summer campaign in western Virginia.  The initial regiment followed the lead of Mexican War veteran Colonel James Irvine, a local lawyer from Wooster.  He returned later in the war – 1863 – recruiting a company of cavalry for the 9^th Ohio Cavalry Regiment commissioned first as a captain and serving later as a major.

CUMBERLAND GAP PART 1

Now, with an enlistment of three years ahead and a new colonel, the new 16^th marched to join George Thomas’ force at Mill Springs reaching them just after the battle.  The regiment spent the winter in eastern Kentucky making reconnaissance moves towards Cumberland Gap in the early spring of 1862.  Finally, on 10 June, they marched on the Gap as part of a brigade led by originally by Brigadier General George W. Morgan with the 42^nd Ohio and the 22^nd Kentucky making up their brigade partners.  Morgan gained promotion to division commander and De Courcy took his place at the top of the brigade.  The 16^th now with Lieutenant Colonel Philip Kershner at their head, was the first regiment to reach the Gap which already was abandoned.  The brigade spent the next month and a half drilling and strengthening their positions at Cumberland Gap.

The 16^th, as well as the rest of the brigade, went south from the Gap to gather forage in early August.  They ran into a Confederate brigade commanded by Colonel Thomas H. Taylor, the brigade operating as a part of the Confederate forces commanded by Kirby Smith in eastern Tennessee.  Taylor’s force surrounded a couple of companies of the 16^th forced to cut their way out of the trap.  De Courcy managed to save his outnumbered force along with the 200 wagons filled with forage arriving back at Cumberland Gap at 0300 losing one man killed, 15 wounded and 52 taken prisoner.

RETREAT FROM THE GAP

Supplies were hard to gather up to the Gap, plus, the Confederates now brought up forces almost double the size of Morgan’s small division.  By September, with supplies almost exhausted, Morgan ordered a retreat into Kentucky.  After a hard retreat to Greenupsburg, Kentucky – Greenup, today – on the Ohio River.  The division became part of William T. Sherman’s 13^th Corps – soon redesignated as the 15^th Corps – forming the right wing of Ulysses Grant’s first attempt to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi.  De Courcy’s brigade now consisted of the 16^th Ohio, 42^nd Ohio, 54^th Indiana and 22^nd Kentucky.

OFF TO MUCH WORSE THINGS

The brigade steamed from Point Pleasant, Virginia – now West Virginia – down the Ohio and Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee arriving 27 November.  They then moved with Sherman’s command on 20 December to test the Confederate defenses atop the bluffs above Chickasaw Bayou to the north of Vicksburg.  De Courcy’s men went out to test the Confederate line on 26 December.  Moving through swamps they had a hard day of it.  But Sherman knew now of the formidable nature confronting him.  He noted, “We will lose 5,000 men before we take Vicksburg, and may as well lose them here as anywhere else.”

On 29 December, De Courcy’s men advanced in the center of Sherman’s attack.  Swamps and abatis walls were overcome before they managed to capture the Confederate advanced rifle outposts.  They could not make any headway against the main Confederate line, however, and the attack faltered.  Total Union losses amounted to 208 dead, 1,005 wounded and 563 missing.  Of those losses, 311 came from the 16^th Ohio including Kershner who fell wounded and captured.

The brigade next took part in the storming of Fort Hindman on the Arkansas River on 10-11 January.  De Courcy’s brigade stayed in reserve that day taking no losses in the successful capture of 4,791 Confederates amounting to between 25-30% of all Confederate troops in Arkansas.  But as the brigade went into winter quarters at Young’s Point, Louisiana just above Vicksburg, De Courcy gave up his command obtaining a leave of absence in disgust at his pass over for promotion.

leaving the 16th ohio

In his history of the 16^th Ohio, Private Theodore Wolbach remembered,

“The trying circumstances of our rough winter campaign and the discouraging features of our life at Young’s Point, induced many officers to tender their resignations or apply for leave of absence. Of the latter was Colonel De Courcy. There was a feeling of regret among the soldiers of the 16th when they learned that he intended to leave us. We had passed through a severe school of training under his practiced eye, but we were proud of the degree of discipline that we had reached. He had taken us as the crude material from our various vocations in civil life.

We represented perhaps every character that could be brought together in a broad State, from the common loafer to those in the highest intellectual pursuits. He directed our preparation for the field from the “school of the soldier” to the fine maneuvers of the battalion, with unremitting energy and severity, until we moved at the word of command with the precision of clockwork. His conduct toward us at times seemed cruel, but never, I believe, was his dealing with us unmilitary. Gen. Geo. W. Morgan and De Courcy both felt that they had been without just cause mistreated by an officer that outranked them. There was no redress but to remove themselves from the presence that was obnoxious.”

16^th Ohio, Private Theodore Wolbach

BACK IN THE SADDLE

Ambrose Burnside came out west to Cincinnati after his relief of command of the Army of the Potomac in March 1863.  Two divisions of the 9^th Corps came west with him from Virginia and all forces not a part of the 9^th Corps became amalgamated into a new 23^rd Corps.  The 9^th Corps went further west to help in the siege of Vicksburg but returned to the new Army of the Ohio in August.  With its return and the successful repelling of John H. Morgan’s raid into Ohio, Burnside was ready to begin a campaign to capture Knoxville and eastern Tennessee.  One of his brigade commanders was John Fitzroy De Courcy back in the saddle again.

Burnside’s route to Knoxville led through Cumberland Gap but he chose to flank the Confederate position in the Gap as opposed to taking it straight on.  He sent his two divisions 40 miles to the south while De Courcy’s brigade got the role of fixing the Confederate defenders facing them from the north.

CUMBERLAND GAP PART 2

The defenses in the Gap stood manned by 2,300 inexperienced troops led by Brigadier General John W. Frazer.  His commander, Simon Buckner had left ordered south to take part in the Chickamauga campaign leaving only Frazer behind with no orders on what to do.  De Courcy was outnumbered – 1,700 – as he approached the Gap, but he used the time Burnside needed to bring his main force up from the south to his advantage. 

Rearranging regimental numbers on soldier’s hats and marching them in plain view of the Confederates at the Gap, he led Frazer into believing his force was larger than it really was.  He had two regiments of infantry, the 86^th Ohio and the 129^th Ohio.  Splitting the numbers up with the badges of the 86^th he made it look like there was the 8^th, 6^th, 9^th, and the 98^th were all present at the Gap.  He had even more choices with the numbers of the 129^th.  Instead of two regiments, he made it look like sixteen.

As they came into plain view of the Confederates at the Gap, he marched 400 men at a time across a plain and turn them around in a forest.  They would then move through the trees out of sight and march again once more in full view.  He did a similar move with the six guns he had with him giving the impression he had many more guns than reality.  His inexperienced cavalry units attached to his force galloped at full gait in a cloud of dust so their true number could not be made out.

REINFORCEMENTS

On the south side of the Gap, Burnside’s main force had occupied Knoxville 1 September, and he dispatched the brigade of Brigadier General James M. Shackelford back to force the surrender of Frazer’s force.  Shackelford could not exert direct command over De Courcy – even though outranking him – from the opposite side of the mountain.  Frazer could see how many men Shackelford had but he still had no idea of De Courcy’s force which appeared to be ten thousand or more instead of a mere 800.

The Confederate force became discouraged to say the least by this point.  To obtain water was difficult and their grain stores set afire by men from Shackleford’s force.  De Courcy now sent a message to Frazer regretting the useless loss of life that would occur if he had to make an attack.  Along with the message he passed liquor to Frazer’s consulting officers with two gallons of whiskey going up to Frazer himself.

SURRENDER OF CUMBERLAND GAP

Frazer surrendered to De Courcy – 400 of his men were able to escape to the north – as Burnside, himself, came up with more reinforcements from the south.  Frazer’s actions stood roundly denounced by Confederate leaders.  Frazer spent the rest of the war confined at Fort Warren in Boston Harbor without a chance of parole on the Confederacy’s part.  A nomination to brigadier general became also promptly rejected in February 1864 by the Confederate Congress.

As De Courcy marched into the Confederate camp, he found Frazer fast asleep. He then noted, “The whiskey worked.”

De Courcy found himself placed in arrest by Burnside for not allowing Burnside and Shackelford to enter the Gap first and for allowing men to escape.  Removed to Lexington, Kentucky, De Courcy’s war was over.  The matter quietly was dropped and De Courcy never stood before a court martial.  But he had enough with the Union army by that time.  When the original 16^th Ohio mustered out after their three years was up in March 1864, he left the Federal service for good.

BEYOND CUMBERLAND GAP

His whereabouts get a little hazy once more.  Some say he served for a time with the forces of Maximillan in Mexico.   Some say he re-entered into the British colonial service.  He becomes visible again in 1874 when, after the death of a couple of cousins, John F. De Courcy became the 31^st Baron Kingsale though other sources have him as the 26th.

An interesting story appeared in Ohio newspapers recalling a meeting Robert C. Schenck had in England.  Schenck, himself a former Civil War general resigning in December 1863 to take a seat in Congress – defeating Clement Vallandigham running in absentia after he getting deported by Lincoln.  Following ten years as a congressman, Schenck became appointed Minister to the United Kingdom.  While in England, he received a note from the now-Lord Kingsale requesting an appointment.  In his note he wrote of familiarity of Ohio and the ambassador wondered how a lord of British nobility could know so much about his state.  He was floored when he met the new baron who told him he not only knew of Ohio but had commanded an Ohio regiment.

De Courcy lived until December 1890 when he died in Florence, Italy buried in the English Cemetery where his parents lay.

MORE?

For more on the Pig War on San Juan Island, read Mike Vuori’s The Pig War: Standoff at Griffin Bay. A condensed version where he concentrates on the two Anglo-Irish De Courcy cousins you will find here.

For more descriptions of John De Courcy’s involvement with the Federal war effort, here from the ever-productive Dave Powell. The 16th Ohio’s memory roll on at a fairly extensive website here. There are biographies of most of the regiment’s officers, as well as the efforts of the regiment throughout the war.