Gunboat Diplomacy in Port Townsend
Governor Pickering journeys to investigate a near-bombardment of Port Townsend by a federal revenue steamer.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
By request of citizens of Port Townsend, Governor Pickering proceeded to that place on the Eliza Anderson on Monday last to investigate the circumstances connected with the recent threatened bombardment of that town by the steamer Shubrick, in command of Victor Smith, assisted by Lieut. Wilson of the Revenue service. He was accompanied by ex-Gov. McGill, Major Patten, U.S. Army, Capt. George Chase, Elwood Evans, Esq., Frank Clark, Esq., and the U.S. Marshal, Mr. Huntington. The party returned to Olympia on Friday evening, too late for us to give a detailed statement of the facts as elicited by Governor Pickering, in today's paper.
“the circumstances connected with the recent threatened bombardment of that town by the steamer Shubrick.”
This rare event captures a moment of internal civil instability where federal authority almost turned its weapons on a local community. It underscores the tensions during the Civil War era in the Pacific Northwest, far from the primary front lines.
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