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Our Maine Ancestors:
Revolutionary War |
Maine and the American Revolution
By the beginning of the American Revolution, Maine occupied a buffer zone between English Nova Scotia and the rebels in Massachusetts. The English cut off supplies of gunpowder and shot to both Indians and the insurgent Americans, influencing the tribes to side with America in the conflict. In return for aid against the British, the Americans promised the tribes a priest, protection, and hunting and fishing rights. The British occupied much of eastern Maine during, and for a time after, the war.
Machias was a stronghold of American sympathizers and rebels. When the British occupied and closed Boston in 1774, Maine towns could no longer ship their wood and fish to Boston and return with much-needed imports. Ichabod Jones, of Machias, was a Loyalist lumber trader who decided to defy the his neighbors and sail into Boston Harbor. Since British authorities in Boston needed firewood as badly as Mainers needed food and other goods, they ordered the armed sloop HMS Margaretta to accompany Jones’ boats for protection. When Jones’ vessels returned to Machias, some settlers bought his goods, but most sided with rebel leader [Jeremiah O’Brien] who sailed out in pursuit of the Margaretta and seized her and two other British vessels. This was the first naval engagement of the American Revolution. O’Brien was dubbed the Machias Admiral. In retaliation, the British admiral in Boston, Admiral Graves, ordered Captain Henry Mowatt to burn Falmouth (now Portland.) He allowed the inhabitants one night to vacate the town, but rebellious militiamen fired on Mowatt, who fired back. At the end of the day, 400 buildings had been destroyed and the British had captured two American ships and sunk 11 others.
When the British occupied the St. John Valley in 1777, 500 Maliseets went south to Machias, where they joined with other tribal groups to fight the English. Micmacs gathered a force of 200 canoes, with which they attacked British coastal positions. The presence of so many Native Americans in Machias during the war helped that area remain securely within American control.
Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold was an American officer dispatched from Boston to lead an expedition to Quebec. Since 1759, Quebec had been under British control, and the Continental Army commanders wanted to rally French Canadians to the American cause. With 1,000 troops, Arnold sailed to Georgetown, Maine, and up the Kennebec to Gardinerstown. There his men transferred to about 200 bateaux. Arnold’s men passed Augusta, Skowhegan, and Norridgewock, and then began an overland trek towards Quebec, using a difficult trail that was originally an Abenaki route. Nearly a third of Arnold’s men died, and another 100 were killed in the assault on Quebec. Although unsuccessful in capturing Quebec, Arnold’s march convinced the British to maintain a costly presence in Canada. It also illustrated the extreme obstacles Maine’s geography presents to travel—none of its rivers is navigable beyond Maine borders.
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Penobscot Expedition
In June of 1779 the British constructed a fort at Bagaduce (now Castine). The Americans in Massachusetts were alarmed at the thought of an English headquarters so close. To retake Bagaduce, they sent 39 ships under the command of Brigadier General Solomon Lovell and Commodore Dudley Saltonstall. It became the worst American naval defeat until Pearl Harbor in 1941—Saltonstall’s ship fled before reinforcing British vessels, and the Americans burned or scuttled every one of their own ships that was not captured. The British retained control of Bagaduce, a haven for Loyalists during the war, and also gained control of other towns in eastern Maine.
“Searsport’s Sam Houston,” was George Washington's aide, who crossed the Delaware with the General. His trunk and sword have been recovered, due to efforts of a local teacher in Searsport, and are now housed at the museum.
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Henry Knox
Henry Knox is a well-known name in Maine history. Actually from Massachusetts, Knox served with distinction in the Revolution and became the first United States Secretary of War in George Washington’s cabinet. He gained control of the Waldo Patent through marriage. Most of this vast land holding had been confiscated during the war, and when peace came midcoast settlers assumed they would finally get control of their own properties. Knox, however, had visions of empire, and managed to increase the size of his lands for a while, though he eventually had to relinquish some holdings to [William Bingham]. Montpelier, Knox’s mansion in Thomaston, was a huge estate of 12,000 square feet of living space in the main house. Knox and the other Great Proprietors had difficulty collecting rents or fees from Maine’s settlers, who as always pursued their difficult lives with great independence, regardless of the changing fortunes of wealthy landowners. Knox’s employees and surveyors encountered more and more violent resistance, and his estate on Brigadier's Island (now Sears Island) was ransacked. In 1805 Knox’s Federalist seat in the Massachussetts assembly was won by a Democratic Republican. Knox died in 1806, not living to see the defeat of other Federalists in Maine and the triumph of Democratic Republicans, who eventually brought Maine statehood. Montpelier was razed to the ground in the late 19th century, but rebuilt in 1929. It is open as a museum today.
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