Spring Camp

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A British longboat approaches Pickett's camp on Garrison Bay.

Spring Camp

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On August 1, 1859, Captain George E. Pickett, Company D, 9th Infantry, established his second camp site on the prairie, above the beach to the left of today’s Pickett’s Lane.

Three days earlier he had landed his 66-man company and three field guns on Griffin Bay near the Hudson’s Bay Company dock. His orders were to protect the 18 American citizens on the island from Northern Indian raids. But he was really there to stop British officials from assuming jurisdiction over the island.

Pickett remained at his first camp — about a mile over the hill next to Old Town Lagoon — until H.M.S. Tribune, 31 guns, dropped anchor in the bay on July 29 and was joined the next day by H.M.S. Satellite, with 21 guns. The Royal Navy had arrived on the orders of British Columbia Governor James Douglas. Douglas hoped the sight of the warships would intimidate Pickett enough to take his troops and leave the island. Both ships turned at anchor so their guns were trained on Pickett’s position.

Not knowing at the time that Tribune’s Captain Geoffrey Phipps Hornby had no intention of forcing the issue, Pickett on July 31 moved his camp across the peninsula, away from the British guns, to the "Spring Camp." (The remains of the spring are hidden by the thick foliage below the prairie.) Hornby was puzzled. Why had Pickett moved to an equally vulnerable position, still in range of British naval guns? But the move actually suited Pickett’s original orders which specified that he find a site large enough to eventually accommodate six companies.

Imagine the prairie filling up with conical Sibley tents, as well as the crude wooden buildings Pickett brought from Fort Bellingham. Imagine the men lugging buckets of water from the spring. Imagine the sounds of barking hammers, sergeants shouting drill commands and a lone sentry whistling softly to himself as he patrols the beach. It was here at Spring Camp that Pickett and Hornby finally parleyed in Pickett’s tent on August 3, after which Pickett renewed his request for help.

George E. Pickett

James W. Forsyth
Pickett's second in command

Infantry crest

A British officer took this photograph of American Camp at the location selected by Casey. Notice the Sibley tents which were patterned after Indian teepees.

That help appeared on August 10 when Lieutenant Colonel Silas Casey and reinforcements arrived from Fort Steilacoom. Casey approached cautiously aboard the sternwheeler S.S. Julia and landed the bulk of his force on South Beach in a thick fog. The U.S.S. Massachusetts soon followed. Her eight 32-pound naval guns were transferred aboard Julia, which was then beached so that the guns could be unloaded over the bow. The guns were next manhandled up the prairie to the top of the ridge where the redoubt would be built. Casey, now in command, remained at Spring Camp until two violent storms moved him to seek sheltered ground — both from the elements and British cannon. The camp was moved on August 21 to the current Parade Ground.

Image Top

A longboat from the HMS Satellite approaches Pickett's first camp on Griffin Bay on July 27, 1859, in this contemporary watercolor by Midshipman W.H. Hall.

--from the Views of the Pacific Northwest Collection,
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.