In 1863, the emperor of Japan issued an order to expel any foreigners, which differed from the Shogunate's wishes for peaceful trade and diplomacy. A Daimyo under the Choshu clan began to act on this order and began expelling foreigners forcefully, defying the shogunate in his region near the Shimonoseki Strait. An important shipping route in the area.

On June 25, 1863. The first incident occurred when two battleships owned by the Choshu clan attacked an American merchant ship, the Pembroke. The crew were able to ready the ship and they escaped relatively unharmed.

A day later, a french steamer, Keichang, was anchored near the strait and was also fired upon. She escaped with minor damage and an injured sailor. A couple weeks later, he daimyo's forces engaged a Dutch warship. This battle was more involved and the Dutch warship lost 9 men and more were injured.

This went on for a number of weeks before the USS Wyoming, captained by David Mcdougal, responded to the attacks. She moved to the straits and armed her weapons. The Wyoming opened fire early on July 15th, alerting the Daimyo's forces to the warship.

The USS Wyoming faced 3 armed ships, and 4 coastal batteries. cpnt Mcdougal first moved his forces towards the three warships. Ignoring the batteries. A furious battle ensued as the Wyoming passed between two of the Japanese vessels. At at point during the battle, the wyoming found itself grounded in shallow water and a japanese steamer took the opportunity to attempt to board the Wyoming. She was quickly able to free herself and the wyoming trained her guns on the approaching enemy ship, quickly detonating the boilers. She then moved back towards the two remaining ships. Sinking both.

At this point in the battle, she had won and she began shelling the town in the distance in order to send a message to the Daimyo. "the punishment inflicted and in store for him will, I trust, teach him a lesson that will not soon be forgotten." The damaged Wyoming returned to the port in Yokohama and started repairs.

This battle didn't stop the Diamyo. He had two of the three ships raised and continued firing upon foreign ships in his region. This lead to an international coalitions to move into the Choshu area and take the straits from the daimyo. This being the events of the Shimonoseki war.

In retaliation for its merchant vessels being attacked and with the blessing of the Shogunate, France moved marine and two french warships, The Tancrede and the Dupleix, with 250 marines to the area of the strait. They were able to move into the region and destroyed a small town that contained a coastal artillery battlement.

The coalitions of French, Americans, dutch and British forces tried to open diplomatic channels with the Diamyo but to little avail. Resentment against the foreigners reaches a boiling point as Japanese citizens began to destroy western property and attacking people within the area.

Growing frustrated at this, the british sent fifteen warships, along with four dutch vessels from it's ports in Hong Kong to Yokohama as as show of force. The US was unable to bring this size of fleet to bear due to the US Civil War going on at the time. The French were also engaged in Mexico trying to support the unstable government there.

Despite this, the Japanese forces fired upon another American ship that was moving into the straits to resupply. The British responded by demanding that the straits be opened immediately. Declaring military action if he did not comply.

The daimyo demanded more time to meet the allied demands but in the end procrastinated so they decided to move into the strait and take it by force. On Aug 17, 1864, nine British, four dutch, 3 french warships, and one American ship with a total compliment of 2,000 soldiers moved into the area. A battle began and over the two days of Sep 5th and 6th, the combined forces destroyed the Daimyo's ability to make war. He surrendered on Sep 18th. Casualties were light on both sides, with 72 men and two ships damaged on the collilitions side and 47 on the Japanese.

Curious as to what Abraham Lincoln said about the incident, since it happened during his presidency.