Expeditionary· Pacific Squadron Operations
Marines from USS Ontario raise American flag at Columbia River
A ceremonial act with lasting territorial weight.
Under the terms ending the War of 1812, the United States was entitled to the return of its post at the mouth of the Columbia River, and the sloop USS Ontario under Captain James Biddle was sent to take formal possession. Arriving off the Columbia in August 1818, Biddle landed with a guard of sixteen Marines, raised the American flag, and took possession in the name of the United States of both shores of the river, leaving a record of the act. There was no opposition and no fighting. The gesture asserted the American claim to the Oregon Country during the period of joint occupation with Britain, a claim that would be pressed for decades and finally settled by the Oregon Treaty of 1846 at the 49th parallel. The Ontario's Marines furnished the color guard for one of the earliest American flag-raisings on the Pacific coast.
Record no. 295