William Selby Harney (August 22, 1800–May 9, 1889) was a cavalry officer born in Tennessee who served in the US Army. He gained notoriety during the Indian Wars and the Mexican–American War due to his brutality, ruthlessness, and reckless stupidity. At the onset of the American Civil War, he was one of four general officers in the US Army. However, due to his Southern sympathies, he was removed from overseeing the Department of the West early in the war, although, surprisingly, he prevented Missouri from joining the Confederacy. During President Andrew Johnson's administration, Harney served on the Indian Peace Commission, where he negotiated several treaties. In his retirement, he spent time in St. Louis and engaged in reminiscences with Jefferson Davis and Ulysses S. Grant in Mississippi.

General Harney had a reputation. He's the kind of guy who invades Mexico without orders, wasting valuable resources and creating an embarrassing situation for everyone involved. He's the kind of guy who has one of his own men arrested for writing the wrong header on a report. He's the kind of guy who finds a dog digging up his yard and then chases it for a mile and a half just to give it a beating. He hated superiors, hated being told what to do, and had been court-martialed four times for disobeying orders. Contemporaries described him as an imbecile, all matter and no mind, an arrogant humbug, and a laughing stock. Like I said, General Harney had a reputation.

In July 1859, General Harney visited the San Juan Islands to assess the events that had transpired. The controversial events, such as British officials arresting an American on American soil and trying him under British law, provided Harney with an opportunity to confront the British. He contacted Captain George Pickett to inform him of his plans to start a war with the strongest naval power in the world over a shooting of a pig. Historians still dispute exactly what he's trying to do here. It's possible he's trying to expand America's territory. Maybe he's trying to play the hero so he can become president. Some have even suggested that since he's a slave-owning southerner, he might be trying to create a diversion to help the South secede in the upcoming civil war. But if there's one thing that almost everyone can agree on, it's that he's an idiot.