As one travels about Maine, one sees not only hundreds of modern trai lers\u00a0in which people now make their permanent homes,. but something that long preceded\u00a0the day of trai lers — abandoned rai Iway cars and trolley cars. fvbst of the old\u00a0narrow guage cars were too small to convert into dwellings, but the broad guage\u00a0lines had many of their cars end in just such use.<\/p>\n
One such car, converted into an attractive, comfortable horne may now be\u00a0seen in the t,1aine vi Ilage of Stockton Springs. It is an old Pullman car .\u2022 said\u00a0to have been used long ago by the famous ope ra si nge r Ade Ii na Patt i on one of\u00a0her concert tours of America. In 1899 the Pullman Company sold this car to the\u00a0Bangor and Aroostook Rai Iroad. As assistant to the president of the B & A, Roy\u00a0H. McCready often used this car, so when it had seen its last days on the\u00a0tracks, he and his wife knew just what to do with it. In 1924 it became the\u00a0rlllcCready’s summer home. They knew just where to put it, the beauti ful Penobscot\u00a0Bay vi I I age of Stockton Sp rings.<\/p>\n
For more than 20 years the McCready fami Iy spent summers in Their private\u00a0car. About ten years ago they sold it to a family from ConnecticuT. That f.ami\u00a0Iy made a few changes. The observation platform no longer has a brass rai I. \u00a0There is now an added extension, forming a porch, from which one gets a magnificent\u00a0view of the bay and Camden Mountain.\u00a0As one enters the car from the porch end, he goes into what was once the\u00a0observation room. Now it serves as a bedroom. The present living room is at\u00a0the other end of the car. It was once the dining room, and at one end has a\u00a0hand-carved si deboard, whi Ie in the 0 I d I i vi ng room are two fu II length mi rrors.<\/p>\n
For heat there is a Franklin stove, and though the lights are now electric~\u00a0their shades are the old rai I road lantern type.<\/p>\n
Changed as it is to meet the summer needs of a modern day~ this old Pullman\u00a0gives a tangible glimpse of a by-gone era, when Adelina Patti used to adjust her\u00a0costume in front of those ful I length mirrors.<\/p>\n
Occas ionally on this program I have referred to the experience of some individual\u00a0in the American Revolution. It is now time for us to give some attention\u00a0to organized groups recruited in Maine for that war which won our nation’s\u00a0freedom.<\/p>\n
News of the Battle of Lexington reached the town of York on the evening of\u00a0its occurrence, Apri I 19, 1775.\u00a0mand of Capt. Johnson Moulton.<\/p>\n
I n York was a mi Ii ti a company under the comAt\u00a0once Moulton collected the 60 men of his company\u00a0and marched them off to Boston. Moulton’s was thus the first organized\u00a0company to march from the Province of Maine in the War of the Revolution, but\u00a0it was not the first full regiment.<\/p>\n
Not unti I Ap ri I 21 di d news of the batt Ie reach Fa I mouth Neck, the present\u00a0site of the city of Portland. At once Capt. John Brackett’s company marched\u00a0toward Ebston, followed by the other companies. These were the mi litia companies\u00a0so organized as to be ready for immediate service. They proceeded as far\u00a0as We lis, where they were ordered to return to Port I and, to be sent from there\u00a0to guard the export towns on the Maine coast.<\/p>\n
Arrangements v.e re begun at once, howeve r, to en list a reg i ment in Cumbe rland\u00a0County. Col. Edmund Phinney of Gorham was commissioned to recruit and organize\u00a0such a regiment. Eefore Phinney could start any of these recruited companies\u00a0off for Boston, there occurred the famous incident of Captain Mowatt.<\/p>\n
In a sloop of war out of Canseau, Nova Scotia, that British captain arrived\u00a0in Port I and Harbor. There he forced townspeop Ie to un load Bri ti sh me rchantmen\u00a0whose cargoes had been refused I andi ng by the Commi ttee of Safety. He then\u00a0dismantled Fort Pownell, carried away its guns and am~unition, and destroyed the\u00a0fort’s trade with the Indians.\u00a0In Brunswick was a member of the Provincial Congress named Samuel ThOMpson.<\/p>\n
Learn i ng that Cap-t. ~~owatt had returned to Port I and, Thomp son conce i ved a p I an\u00a0for his capture. Mowatt. was way J aid in ambush as he wa I ked on a Port I and\u00a0street and taken into custody. But Thompson had acted on his own, without Provincial\u00a0orders, and the selectmen of Portland became apprehensive. for the safety\u00a0of the town. The sai ling-master of Mo:watt’s ship at once notified the Portland\u00a0authorities that if Mowatt .. ‘ were not immediately released, the town would be reduced\u00a0to ashes. Mowaa. was then re leased. The new Iy recrui ted mi Ii ti amen we re\u00a0indignant. Joined by Phinney1s companies from Gorham and Windham, and most of\u00a0the mi litia of Scarborough, Cape Elizabeth and Stroudwaier, about 600 men in\u00a0all, these patrio-ts planned to attack the sloop and recapture Mowatt~\u00b7< But before\u00a0they cou I d act, MoMatt sa i I ed away.<\/p>\n
Fear of his return, and fear of other hosti Ie action by the British, kept\u00a0the new mi litia companies anxiously near Portland. In May, 1775 the Massachusetts\u00a0Provincial Congress met in Boston. One of its members was the prominent\u00a0Quaker citi zen of the Kennebec Va Iley, Remi ngton f-bbby of Vassa Iboro. To that\u00a0Congress,General Jediah Preble sent Col. Phinney wiTh an urgent letter, informi\u00a0ng the Congress -that he (Preb Ie) had appo.i nted Ph i nney a co lone I and had authori\u00a0zed’ him to ra i se a regi ment inCumber I and County. Preb Ie was di sturbed\u00a0because Samuel Marsh of Scarborough claimed to hold a simi lar commission directly\u00a0from the Congress itself. General Preble said in his letter: !’It is impossible\u00a0that we can spare two regiments out of this county, but both men have made\u00a0progress in their recruiting. I fear there wi II be some di fficulty in settling\u00a0the matter. I am persuaded the men woul.d prefer Col. Phinney.!T<\/p>\n
The Congress rep I ied that Gen. Preb Ie shou I d order a II en Ii sti ng stopped in\u00a0either regiment unti I it was found whether it would be necessary to take any\u00a0men from Cumber land County at a II. Soon afterward arrangements were made for\u00a0a single regirrant under command of Phinney, with Marsh the second in command.<\/p>\n
It was not until June 22, five days after the Battle of Bunker Hi II, that\u00a0Phinney got orders to move his men. On that day the Congress ordered l!that Col.\u00a0Phinney be directed to bring up to the camp in Cambridge 400 men with effective\u00a0fire-arms, in compliance with this order he be entitled to a colonel’s commissi\u00a0on, but not otherw i se.<\/p>\n
Soon after the first of July,Phinney’s companies, one at a time~ began the\u00a0march to Cambri dge. I t was not an easy march. The roads were rough, there\u00a0were few bridges, and the distance between settlements was long. There was no\u00a0other way to go except overland, because the British controlled a II shipping into\u00a0Boston. On July 6 Captain David Bradish’s company heard a sermon by Portland’s\u00a0famous Parson Deane, and the next day set off toward Boston. They had\u00a0dinner at Stroudwater and spent the night at Dunstan Corner. Starting out at\u00a0four o’clock the next morning, they had a nine o’clock breakfast at Patten’s\u00a0tavern in Arundel (Kennebunkport). At noon they dined at Littlefield’s tavern\u00a0in Wei Is, and reached Berwick at sunset. The next day they breakfasted at Newmarket,\u00a0dined at Gidding’s tavern in Exeter, and stayed the night at Kingston.<\/p>\n
The fo II owi ng day they di ned at Haverh i II and camped at Andover. The next\u00a0night they reached Woburn, and at four o’clock on the fol lowing afternoon they\u00a0arrived at the army camp in Cambridge. They had been on the march seven days\u00a0from Port I and, averagi ng 20 mi les a day. The compan i es in Phi nney’ s regi ment\u00a0went to Cambridge, one at a -time, over a period of two weeks. That was necessary\u00a0if they were to find meals and lodging on the way, because no baggage train\u00a0and no commissary accompanied any of these companies when they assembled at\u00a0Cambridge. It\/hen the Revolution began there “,as no fi>ed number of companies\u00a0to a regiment. Col. Phinney’s regiment contained ten companies, totaling 549\u00a0men. They came from a II ove r Cumber I and County. The largest number, of course,\u00a0were from the i mmedi ate vi ci n i ty of Port land, but a I so we I I represented were\u00a0Gorham, Windham, Brunswick, New Gloucester~ Gray and North Yarmouth. The companies\u00a0recruited a few men from outsioe, Cumberland County — from Pownalborough,\u00a0Buxton, Penobscot, Durham, r’.tlanchester, Hollis, Sheepscot and Kittery.<\/p>\n
AI I readers about the Revolution know that the army which assembled at Cambr\u00a0i dge i n 1775 was an unorgan i zed and und i sc i P I i ned body of men — so much so\u00a0that George \\:Jashington greeted them with considerable disappointment when he\u00a0took command in July of that year. These men had come together in a time of\u00a0a I arm and exc i tement \u2022 They were ready and VI i I ling to fight for independence,\u00a0but they were decidedly Yankee individuals who had little conception of organ\u00a0i zed disci pi i ne. They had no un i forms, no prov i s ions, no regu I ar she Iters.<\/p>\n
Only the regiment from Rhode Island had tents. Each man had supplied his own\u00a0musket. I t was near I y a year before government arms were ava i I ab Ie for issue,\u00a0and then in deplorably insufficient quantity. Even when the government suppf\u00a0i-edc lethes’, -it was. i til av’ari-ety-ofco’lors. Not unti I 1779 was blue adopted\u00a0as the fixed color for the army, and not unti I 1782 were uniforms even reasonab\u00a0Iy supp lied.<\/p>\n
Col. Phinney’s regiment from Maine was designated as 31st Regiment of Foot\u00a0of the Continental Army. It participated in skir.mishes around Boston, but saw\u00a0I iTtle other fighting unti I it was mustered out of service on December 31, 1775.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0a few months in the eventful year of 1775, more than half of its 549 men reen\u00a0listed, and some of them were sti I lin the ranks when Cornwa I lis surrendered\u00a0in 1781. Regiments like Col. Phinney’s, recruited immediately after the first\u00a0shots at Lexington, represented sheer patriotism. They had no bounties and no\u00a0sure pay at al I. For that first long march to Boston, they were promised one\u00a0British penny per mi Ie, the equivalent of $2.80 for the whole seven days of\u00a0march. But they d i dn ‘t get even that p i:ttance. I n fact the Revo I uTi on., after \u00a0seven bitter years of fighting, was won by an impoverished government. The\u00a0miracle is that such a government could win it at al I.<\/p>\n
The state of affairs in the army of which Col. Edmund Phinney was a part\u00a0is revealed in the letter which George Washington wrote to the Continental Congress \u00a0on September 20, 1775. He sa i d: ,! 1 t gives me great distress to so I i cit\u00a0the attention of the Congress to the state of the army; but my situation is inexpressibly\u00a0distressing, to see winter fast approaching upon a naked army. The\u00a0mi litary chest is totally exhausted. The paymaster has not a single dol far at\u00a0hand. The Commissary General has strained his credit to the utmost. The\u00a0troops are ina state not far from mut i ny because they have had no pay. IT<\/p>\n
have a personal in,terest in that 31st Regiment of the Revolution, commanded\u00a0by Col. Edmund Phinney of Gorham. First, when my mother died, she was\u00a0the last surviving fifth generation descendant of Mary G~rn~ Phinney, the first\u00a0white chi Id born in Gorham. Edmund Phinney was Mary Gorham Phinney’s brother.<\/p>\n
So it happens that a distant ancestral relative of mine led Maine’s first regiment\u00a0to enter the Revolution. And with that I must say good night for old\u00a0ti mes f sake.<\/p>\n
Year: 1957<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #354, Broadcast on November 10, 1957<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[761,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7787"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7787\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}