The Aroostook War 1838-1839

The 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolution, had failed to establish the US-Canadian border between Maine and New Brunswick. Maine farmers wanted to cultivate the farmlands of the Aroostook River vally, which Canadian lumbermen considered their land for logging. When a squad of Maine agents was arrested by the Canadians for trying to remove the lumberjacks from the area, Maine officials called out the militia, and New Brunswick did the same. US president Martin Van Buren (1782-1862) sent a small federal force under General Winfield Scott (1786-1866) to the Aroostook area. In March 1839, Scott successfully negotiated an agreement with the British authorities of New Brunswick and a boundary commission was set up to settle the dispute. It was not until the Webster-Ashburton Treaty was signed in 1842 that the boundary through about 12,000 contested square miles was settled after a "battle of maps". The war in the Aroostook was undeclared and bloodless, except for bloody noses and much hard feeling on both sides.

References

Dictionary of Wars, 35.

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