Radio Script #966

Little Talks on Common Thing
March 25, 1973

Today I want to refer again to the subject of Maine in the American Revolution.

When war broke out in 1775, the few settlers in eastern Maine, at Machias and on Passamaquoddy Bay felt most exposed to attack, because they were nearest to the Canadian naval stations of Halifax and Annapolis Royal in Nova Scotia. On the other hand, those Maine settlements were so small that they had few government officials, even collectors of customs. Hence they were comparatively unaffected by the Stamp Act and similar impositions of Parliament in the turbulent years just before the Revolution. However, coastal trade sailing vessels brought to the Maine hamlets news from oppressed Boston. On June 14, 1774, only a few days before the Boston Tea Party, the bell in First Parish Church in Falmouth (later Portland) was tolled all day to show the town’s sympathy with the Bostonians.

Despite incidents like that, most Maine people, even in such larger settlements as York, Kittery, and Falmouth, could not conceive of open, armed rebellion against the King.

In 1775, before the April events at Lexington and Concord, a hard winter and the closing of the port of Boston, had brought severe hardship to Maine. In March of that year, the people of Machias sent the following appeal to the Massachusetts government: “The inhabitants here exceed 100 families, some with numerous children, and we are out of all resources. Our sawmills and gristmills stand still, our laborers are idle, and now all our forts are to be closed. We have no country behind us to lean upon. Nor can we escape for the wilderness is impassable and our vessels are gone. We have no escape from starvation unless we receive help.”

The seizure of the British ship Margarita at Machias in the summer of 1775 committed the people there to staunch defense of the patriot cause.

During the first three quarters of the 18th century relations between the people of eastern Massachusetts and the people of Nova Scotia had become increasingly friendly. All that was changed by the flight of Tories from Boston to Halifax, after the evacuation of the Port of Boston early in the Revolution. But still there were many people at Eastport, Calais and Lubec,and as far west as Mount Desert, who had relatives in Nova Scotia and and felt friendly ties with that province. So a great deal of illicit trade, denounced by both governments as smuggling, was carried on. All along the Maine coast between Casco and Passamaquoddy Bays smuggling became a way of life.

The devious ways to get badly needed provisions to eastern Maine towns is illustrated by the case of Stephen Parker in 1776. He got authority to get supplies for hungry Machias. He asked to take a cargo from Boston to Yarmouth, N. S., and bring a return cargo to Machias. Instead he sailed from Yarmouth to Boston where he could get better goods for his Canadian load. Finding himself in disrepute, Parker appealed to a leading Boston trader, James Bowdoin, for protection. Bowdoin sent him to Nantucket, where one Thomas Fitch agreed to send supplies to Machias for a return load of lumber. The deal depended upon Fitch getting consent to ship the lumber to the West Indies. When Fitch failed to get permission from Boston, Parker loaded his ship with provisions supplied by Fitch and sailed back to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. There he sold the provisions for a load of fish, which he planned to sell in Jamaica. The Machias Committee of Safety with considerable justification, decided that Parker was not interested in bringing provisions to Machias, and that his promises to do so were worthless. So they impounded his profits when he put in again at the home port – a sum amounting to nearly 200 pounds.

But somehow Parker persuaded the Machias settlers to give him another chance, and he sailed to Philadelphia for promised provisions. When he left Machias, the community had on hand only 200 bushels of corn, 100 of rye, a barrel of rice, less than 100 pounds of pork, a little flour, and no money. In Philadelphia, Parker found the price of lumber so low that sale of his load wouldn’t even pay the expense of operating his ship, and he had to leave that port in ballast. So far as the record shows, Stephen Parker never did land any supplies at Machias.

By the fall of 1776 the balance of coastal trade had become so unfavorable that the Mass. General Court appropriated $1,200 for the relief of inhabitants on the Maine coast between Camden and Machias. By the summer of 1777, Maine seamen were making money out of the business called privateering. From the government in Boston, the owner of a vessel would get a permit to operate as a privateer, that is to seize any British vessel he could take over at sea. There was reason why Maine seamen took to that practice. It seemed a reasonable alternative to starvation. Neither Massachusetts nor the Continental Congress had the wherewithal to supply sufficient aid to Eastern Maine. To the Maine coastal inhabitants, the American Revolution was simply a struggle for survival.

Up to 1777, the Indians had pretty much kept out of the war. Then the Passamaquoddys agreed to join the American cause. In July, 1777, a delegation of them, joined by a few Maliseets from New Brunswick and Micmacs from Nova Scotia, went to Boston and made a treaty of alliance with the government of Massachusetts. The document drawn up, of course by the white men in the English language, recognized the independence of the U. S. The tribes bound themselves to withhold all aid to the British king, and they would send 600 men to join Washington’s army in New York, be formed into companies and serve for three years. Each Indian was to furnish his own gun and be allowed one dollar for its use, get other needed supplies at the Machias trading post, and a patriot vessel would carry the enlisted red men to New York.

By 1777 the Continental Army was in continuous need of new recruits. Enlistments had been short, often for only three months, and all too many men in the ranks failed to re-enlist. The Continental Congress established quotas for the several states, and to raise its quota, Massachusetts resorted to bounties, agreements to furnish uniforms and other inducements. In Maine there was still so much indifference to the war that the General Court made it a crime to discourage enlistments. For the defense of the more Eastern ports, like Machias and Eastport, companies were raised by the state of Massachusetts, and were mustered at Cape Elizabeth and Boothbay.

In June, 1777, an expedition was undertaken for the relief of people along the Bay of Fundy who were friendly to the U.S. A regiment was raised in Maine, a naval force organized, but unexpected difficulties arose and the plan was finally abandoned. Then Machias was made headquarters for muster and for operations. It had a garrison of 300 volunteers under a Colonel, all enlisted from Lincoln County.

In the Revolution it was early acknowledged that none of the thirteen rebelling colonies could produce more able or braver seamen than those from Massachusetts’ district of Maine. For those men the water was their natural element. They were bold, determined and ingenious.

When the British comprehended that many of their sea losses were caused by Maine privateers, they turned attention to the ports from which those Maine ships sailed. The Maine seamen, familiar with the innumerable indentations of the Maine coast, could easily elude a more powerful British vessel and get lost in the bays and inlets. So the British officials decided to set up a larger military post to command a long stretch of Maine coast. The British General McLane, with a fleet of eight sail, and 900 men aboard, came to Castine in June, 1779, and landed without opposition. There he began to erect a fort. American General Cushing at Pownalborough sought help from Boston to dislodge the Castine invaders. Giving the help of several armed ships, Boston ordered Cushing to recruit the militia of Lincoln County, and send two regiments to Castine. The assembled fleet consisted of 19 armed vessels and 24 transports, carrying a total of 344 guns. It was quite an armada for those times.

The Commander was General Richard Saltonstall of New Haven. His officers were chiefly commanders of privateers, not accustomed to having anyone give them orders. Besides the sailors, there were about 400 marines. The fleet reached the mouth of the Penobscot on July 25. Ascertaining that, despite his big flotilla of ships, the Americans were outnumbered, Saltonstall hesitated to attack until he got marine reinforcements from Boston. Meanwhile the British commander got news of the American fleet and hastened to finish the fort.

After a few days Saltonstall tried to make a landing, but was unable to take the point where the fort was being built. The marines had suffered too many losses to risk another attempt to storm the fort, and a whaleboat was speeding to Boston for assistance. Two weeks went by and no help came. The delay gave the British great advantage. Then the Americans received news that a British fleet of seven sail, with reinforcements was approaching from Halifax. Saltonstall decided upon retreat. All the American ships were loaded with the landed survivors and were drawn up in crescent formation to check the British fleet until the transports could have time to land marines farther up the river. The superior British fleet quietly advanced and poured a merciless fire on the American ships. The patriot fleet scattered in confusion. Most of the transports retreated up the Penobscot. Several went immediately ashore, and the men, taking what provisions they could carry, fled into the woods toward Camden. Other transports, against a strong ebb tide, managed to ascend the river. A general chase and destruction ensued. Transport after transport was overtaken and burned. The officers and men, landing at different places, among few inhabitants, at once made a disorderly march westward, through wild and trackless country, a long distance to the settlements on the Kennebec. Many of them found their first true refuge at Fort Halifax in Winslow.

Thus in disaster ended the so-called Penobscot Expedition of the American Revolution. Because there were numerous episodes much like it, there is no wonder it took so long for Americans to win the war. In fact, the marvel is that they were able to win it at all.

And with that not too cheerful note, we must say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1973