Radio Script #354
Little Talks On Common Things
November 10, 1957
As one travels about Maine, one sees not only hundreds of modern trai lers in which people now make their permanent homes,. but something that long preceded the day of trai lers — abandoned rai Iway cars and trolley cars. fvbst of the old narrow guage cars were too small to convert into dwellings, but the broad guage lines had many of their cars end in just such use.
One such car, converted into an attractive, comfortable horne may now be seen in the t,1aine vi Ilage of Stockton Springs. It is an old Pullman car .• said to have been used long ago by the famous ope ra si nge r Ade Ii na Patt i on one of her concert tours of America. In 1899 the Pullman Company sold this car to the Bangor and Aroostook Rai Iroad. As assistant to the president of the B & A, Roy H. McCready often used this car, so when it had seen its last days on the tracks, he and his wife knew just what to do with it. In 1924 it became the rlllcCready’s summer home. They knew just where to put it, the beauti ful Penobscot Bay vi I I age of Stockton Sp rings.
For more than 20 years the McCready fami Iy spent summers in Their private car. About ten years ago they sold it to a family from ConnecticuT. That f.ami Iy made a few changes. The observation platform no longer has a brass rai I. There is now an added extension, forming a porch, from which one gets a magnificent view of the bay and Camden Mountain. As one enters the car from the porch end, he goes into what was once the observation room. Now it serves as a bedroom. The present living room is at the other end of the car. It was once the dining room, and at one end has a hand-carved si deboard, whi Ie in the 0 I d I i vi ng room are two fu II length mi rrors.
For heat there is a Franklin stove, and though the lights are now electric~ their shades are the old rai I road lantern type.
Changed as it is to meet the summer needs of a modern day~ this old Pullman gives a tangible glimpse of a by-gone era, when Adelina Patti used to adjust her costume in front of those ful I length mirrors.
Occas ionally on this program I have referred to the experience of some individual in the American Revolution. It is now time for us to give some attention to organized groups recruited in Maine for that war which won our nation’s freedom.
News of the Battle of Lexington reached the town of York on the evening of its occurrence, Apri I 19, 1775. mand of Capt. Johnson Moulton.
I n York was a mi Ii ti a company under the comAt once Moulton collected the 60 men of his company and marched them off to Boston. Moulton’s was thus the first organized company to march from the Province of Maine in the War of the Revolution, but it was not the first full regiment.
Not unti I Ap ri I 21 di d news of the batt Ie reach Fa I mouth Neck, the present site of the city of Portland. At once Capt. John Brackett’s company marched toward Ebston, followed by the other companies. These were the mi litia companies so organized as to be ready for immediate service. They proceeded as far as We lis, where they were ordered to return to Port I and, to be sent from there to guard the export towns on the Maine coast.
Arrangements v.e re begun at once, howeve r, to en list a reg i ment in Cumbe rland County. Col. Edmund Phinney of Gorham was commissioned to recruit and organize such a regiment. Eefore Phinney could start any of these recruited companies off for Boston, there occurred the famous incident of Captain Mowatt.
In a sloop of war out of Canseau, Nova Scotia, that British captain arrived in Port I and Harbor. There he forced townspeop Ie to un load Bri ti sh me rchantmen whose cargoes had been refused I andi ng by the Commi ttee of Safety. He then dismantled Fort Pownell, carried away its guns and am~unition, and destroyed the fort’s trade with the Indians. In Brunswick was a member of the Provincial Congress named Samuel ThOMpson.
Learn i ng that Cap-t. ~~owatt had returned to Port I and, Thomp son conce i ved a p I an for his capture. Mowatt. was way J aid in ambush as he wa I ked on a Port I and street and taken into custody. But Thompson had acted on his own, without Provincial orders, and the selectmen of Portland became apprehensive. for the safety of the town. The sai ling-master of Mo:watt’s ship at once notified the Portland authorities that if Mowatt .. ‘ were not immediately released, the town would be reduced to ashes. Mowaa. was then re leased. The new Iy recrui ted mi Ii ti amen we re indignant. Joined by Phinney1s companies from Gorham and Windham, and most of the mi litia of Scarborough, Cape Elizabeth and Stroudwaier, about 600 men in all, these patrio-ts planned to attack the sloop and recapture Mowatt~·< But before they cou I d act, MoMatt sa i I ed away.
Fear of his return, and fear of other hosti Ie action by the British, kept the new mi litia companies anxiously near Portland. In May, 1775 the Massachusetts Provincial Congress met in Boston. One of its members was the prominent Quaker citi zen of the Kennebec Va Iley, Remi ngton f-bbby of Vassa Iboro. To that Congress,General Jediah Preble sent Col. Phinney wiTh an urgent letter, informi ng the Congress -that he (Preb Ie) had appo.i nted Ph i nney a co lone I and had authori zed’ him to ra i se a regi ment inCumber I and County. Preb Ie was di sturbed because Samuel Marsh of Scarborough claimed to hold a simi lar commission directly from the Congress itself. General Preble said in his letter: !’It is impossible that we can spare two regiments out of this county, but both men have made progress in their recruiting. I fear there wi II be some di fficulty in settling the matter. I am persuaded the men woul.d prefer Col. Phinney.!T
The Congress rep I ied that Gen. Preb Ie shou I d order a II en Ii sti ng stopped in either regiment unti I it was found whether it would be necessary to take any men from Cumber land County at a II. Soon afterward arrangements were made for a single regirrant under command of Phinney, with Marsh the second in command.
It was not until June 22, five days after the Battle of Bunker Hi II, that Phinney got orders to move his men. On that day the Congress ordered l!that Col. Phinney be directed to bring up to the camp in Cambridge 400 men with effective fire-arms, in compliance with this order he be entitled to a colonel’s commissi on, but not otherw i se.
Soon after the first of July,Phinney’s companies, one at a time~ began the march to Cambri dge. I t was not an easy march. The roads were rough, there were few bridges, and the distance between settlements was long. There was no other way to go except overland, because the British controlled a II shipping into Boston. On July 6 Captain David Bradish’s company heard a sermon by Portland’s famous Parson Deane, and the next day set off toward Boston. They had dinner at Stroudwater and spent the night at Dunstan Corner. Starting out at four o’clock the next morning, they had a nine o’clock breakfast at Patten’s tavern in Arundel (Kennebunkport). At noon they dined at Littlefield’s tavern in Wei Is, and reached Berwick at sunset. The next day they breakfasted at Newmarket, dined at Gidding’s tavern in Exeter, and stayed the night at Kingston.
The fo II owi ng day they di ned at Haverh i II and camped at Andover. The next night they reached Woburn, and at four o’clock on the fol lowing afternoon they arrived at the army camp in Cambridge. They had been on the march seven days from Port I and, averagi ng 20 mi les a day. The compan i es in Phi nney’ s regi ment went to Cambridge, one at a -time, over a period of two weeks. That was necessary if they were to find meals and lodging on the way, because no baggage train and no commissary accompanied any of these companies when they assembled at Cambridge. It/hen the Revolution began there “,as no fi>ed number of companies to a regiment. Col. Phinney’s regiment contained ten companies, totaling 549 men. They came from a II ove r Cumber I and County. The largest number, of course, were from the i mmedi ate vi ci n i ty of Port land, but a I so we I I represented were Gorham, Windham, Brunswick, New Gloucester~ Gray and North Yarmouth. The companies recruited a few men from outsioe, Cumberland County — from Pownalborough, Buxton, Penobscot, Durham, r’.tlanchester, Hollis, Sheepscot and Kittery.
AI I readers about the Revolution know that the army which assembled at Cambr i dge i n 1775 was an unorgan i zed and und i sc i P I i ned body of men — so much so that George \:Jashington greeted them with considerable disappointment when he took command in July of that year. These men had come together in a time of a I arm and exc i tement • They were ready and VI i I ling to fight for independence, but they were decidedly Yankee individuals who had little conception of organ i zed disci pi i ne. They had no un i forms, no prov i s ions, no regu I ar she Iters.
Only the regiment from Rhode Island had tents. Each man had supplied his own musket. I t was near I y a year before government arms were ava i I ab Ie for issue, and then in deplorably insufficient quantity. Even when the government suppf i-edc lethes’, -it was. i til av’ari-ety-ofco’lors. Not unti I 1779 was blue adopted as the fixed color for the army, and not unti I 1782 were uniforms even reasonab Iy supp lied.
Col. Phinney’s regiment from Maine was designated as 31st Regiment of Foot of the Continental Army. It participated in skir.mishes around Boston, but saw I iTtle other fighting unti I it was mustered out of service on December 31, 1775.
A I though that first of ~~a i ne reg i ments i n the Pevo I ut ion exi sted for on I y a few months in the eventful year of 1775, more than half of its 549 men reen listed, and some of them were sti I lin the ranks when Cornwa I lis surrendered in 1781. Regiments like Col. Phinney’s, recruited immediately after the first shots at Lexington, represented sheer patriotism. They had no bounties and no sure pay at al I. For that first long march to Boston, they were promised one British penny per mi Ie, the equivalent of $2.80 for the whole seven days of march. But they d i dn ‘t get even that p i:ttance. I n fact the Revo I uTi on., after seven bitter years of fighting, was won by an impoverished government. The miracle is that such a government could win it at al I.
The state of affairs in the army of which Col. Edmund Phinney was a part is revealed in the letter which George Washington wrote to the Continental Congress on September 20, 1775. He sa i d: ,! 1 t gives me great distress to so I i cit the attention of the Congress to the state of the army; but my situation is inexpressibly distressing, to see winter fast approaching upon a naked army. The mi litary chest is totally exhausted. The paymaster has not a single dol far at hand. The Commissary General has strained his credit to the utmost. The troops are ina state not far from mut i ny because they have had no pay. IT
have a personal in,terest in that 31st Regiment of the Revolution, commanded by Col. Edmund Phinney of Gorham. First, when my mother died, she was the last surviving fifth generation descendant of Mary G~rn~ Phinney, the first white chi Id born in Gorham. Edmund Phinney was Mary Gorham Phinney’s brother.
So it happens that a distant ancestral relative of mine led Maine’s first regiment to enter the Revolution. And with that I must say good night for old ti mes f sake.
Year: 1957