Joshua Bentley and Thomas Richardson rowed silently past the great 64-gun British ship-of-the-line Somerset, their oars muffled with a flannel petticoat. On board was a man destined for glory—one Paul Revere. As he looked back toward Boston, he could see the glow from the lanterns that his friend, Robert Newman, had placed in the belfry of Old North Church. Revere was anxious to reach Charlestown and set out on his ride to warn the colonists that “the British are coming!” The series of events that followed led to American victories at Lexington and Concord.
More than four years later and nearly 200 miles away, in Penobscot Bay, Maine (at that time a part of Massachusetts), that warning was sounded again. This time, however, there were no victories for the Patriot cause, but instead an utterly humiliating defeat and the destruction of an American fleet.
It all began on 17 June 1779, when British General Francis McLean and Captain Henry Mowatt of the Royal Navy arrived at Majabagaduce (now Castine, Maine), a peninsula in Penobscot Bay. They brought with them some 700 men of the 74th and 82nd regiments and three armed sloops carrying a total of 56 cannon. The mission of the force was to establish a base from which British vessels could harass American shipping. Since the town was located strategically near the mouth of the Penobscot River, the British also could cut off one of the Americans’ best sources of lumber—and redirect it to the Royal Navy.
The British planned to establish a new colony loyal to the crown and already had chosen its name, New Ireland. After landing his forces, General McLean hastily began construction of Fort George on the highest part of the peninsula. In addition, he had some outlying batteries built to protect the main fort. Local Tories helped in the construction, while others who were unwilling to help were forced into labor.
When word reached Boston of the British occupation of Majabagaduce, the Massachusetts General Court was quick to act. It ordered the state Board of War “to engage such armed vehicles as could be procured and to sail against the British.” Plans were made to organize a large expedition to evict them. Commodore Dudley Saltonstall, of the Continental Navy, was to command the fleet. Brigadier General Solomon Lovell was to command 1,200 militiamen, and Paul Revere, the best-known of the expedition leaders, would be in command of the field artillery to be used against the British fortifications. Revere, by this time a lieutenant colonel and commander of Castle Island in Boston Harbor, was ordered to hold himself and 100 of the officers and men in his command in readiness to embark on the Penobscot expedition at one hour’s notice.
Before the flotilla could set out to sea, a large quantity of stores had to be loaded and sailors recruited to man the ships. The crews, most of them privateersmen, were reluctant to take part in an adventure with no hope of monetary gain and thus caused considerable delay. In most cases, only threats and bribes enticed them to serve.
By the middle of July, the squadron was ready. It sailed out of Boston Harbor and headed for Penobscot Bay, 170 miles to the northeast, stopping at Townsend (modern Boothbay) to pick up reinforcements. By the time it arrived there, the British already were aware that the expedition was coming (from prisoners who had escaped from Boston), and help was being sent to Fort George from Halifax and New York City. They had little hope, however, that reinforcements would arrive in time. Meanwhile, the Americans were delayed while local notables entertained General Lovell and his officers in grand fashion. Finally, the squadron headed for its destination. It was three more days, on 25 July, before the largest American naval expedition of the Revolution entered Penobscot Bay. The squadron consisted of 43 ships, 19 of them armed, mounting a total of 344 guns. The remaining 24 were transports carrying more than 1,500 men. Commodore Saltonstall’s flagship, the Warren, was a brand-new 33-gun frigate, one of three warships contributed by the Continental Navy. The partially completed Fort George on the heights of the Majabagaduce Peninsula, and the three British armed sloops anchored offshore soon came into sight.
The American warships quickly opened fire. Cannon fire roared back from the British ships, from Fort George, and from a gun emplacement just to the south of Majabagaduce on Nautilus Island. The exchange continued for about two hours with little damage sustained by either side. Later, with fire support from three of their warships, the Americans took Nautilus Island. Under Paul Revere’s direction the cannon were emplaced so that they could fire on both the fort and the British sloops.
The British positions appeared doomed to fall after the Americans landed on the peninsula, then stormed a hill and got their guns in place just 600 feet from Fort George. At this point, General Lovell urged Commodore Salton- stall to move in and destroy the armed sloops. When Saltonstall refused, a colonel tried to convince him, claiming that in a half-hour the ships could be silenced and the fort captured. The commodore would not give in. Morale among the militiamen deteriorated, and bad feelings between land and sea forces grew. Paul Revere and his men did the best they could without the needed naval support.
For the next two weeks, Saltonstall did nothing, while Lovell continued trying to convince him to attack the British squadron so that a land attack could be launched against the fort. The commodore steadfastly refused to confront Captain Mowatt’s three small vessels.
When a messenger ship arrived with a letter from the Continental Navy Board informing Commodore Saltonstall that a British relief squadron would soon set sail from New York to aid Fort George, the letter had no more effect on Saltonstall than did Lovell’s pleas for naval support.
The Navy Board followed with another message, ordering Saltonstall to attack the British ships off Majabaga- duce. The message also verified that a British squadron was on its way to aid Fort George. The British fleet from New York, under the command of Sir George Collier, was made up of six warships, the largest, the Raisonnable, carried 64 guns—twice as many as the Warren. Two of the other vessels carried 32 guns each.
The long-overdue land and sea attack was to take place on 13 August, three weeks after the Americans had arrived. Finally, Saltonstall’s fleet sailed toward the British ships off the peninsula, while Lovell’s troops prepared for the assault on Fort George. Before the two sides could engage, Collier’s fleet was sighted entering Penobscot Bay. The attack was called off, and by dawn of the following day the American troops and cannon besieging the fort had been evacuated.
When the British warships came into range, they immediately attacked the much larger American fleet. Pandemonium broke loose, and the American ships retreated in complete disorder. Stores were blown up, ships were burned and run aground, and the men ran for the woods in terrible confusion. Some of the armed American ships even sailed past the unarmed transports, leaving them unprotected from the enemy.
The ordnance brig, which carried most of Revere’s men, was the last of the American vessels to run ashore. In the confusion, Revere became separated from his men and searched for them without success until midnight. At dawn, he set out through the woods for the Kennebec River. When he reached Fort Western (modern Augusta), he was reunited with most of his officers and men. He gave them what money he could spare and ordered them to Boston by the shortest route. For Paul Revere—a stocky, 44-year-old, town-dwelling man—it was a long, hard trek.
General Lovell’s army, by this time groups of hungry fugitives, fled south and west through the Maine forest. Two months later, a few hundred survivors staggered wearily into Boston. It was estimated by the Massachusetts Board of War that the expedition had cost nearly 500 Americans killed, wounded, and captured and £1,139,175.
As a result of the debacle, Commodore Saltonstall was court-martialed for cowardice, found guilty, and cashiered out of the service. The humiliation and confusion that followed the terrible defeat gave rise to old hatreds and resulted in charges being brought against Revere by Captain Thomas Jennes Carnes (commander of the Marines on one of the vessels of the fleet) for disobedience, unsoldierlike behavior, and cowardice. Revere was relieved of his command at Castle Island on 6 September, and ordered to his home in Boston until the charges could be investigated.
Paul Revere was determined to clear his name, and six times petitioned for a court-martial over the next two- and-a-half years. Finally, on 19 February 1782, he was given a trial. In the time he had waited, the charges against him had boiled down to two: refusal to deliver a boat upon the order of General Jeremiah Wadsworth (second- in-command of the land forces); and leaving the Penobscot River without orders from his commanding officer. Twelve captains and one general considered the charges, found them to be with little foundation, and directed that both charges be dropped and Paul Revere “be acquitted with equal Honor as the other Officers in the same Expedition.”
