USA > Massachusetts > Records of the Massachusetts volunteer militia called out by the Governor of Massachusetts to suppress a threatened invasion during the war of 1812-14 > Part 1
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RECORDS DE THE
MASSACHUSETTS MILITIA
IN THE
WAR OF 1812-'14
c 73.524 38m 23365/
M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00675 1587
RECORDS C
OF THE
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEER MILITIA
Called out by the Governor of Massachusetts to suppress a Threatened Invasion during the War of 1812-14
PUBLISHED BY BRIG. GENL. GARDNER W. PEARSON The Adjutant General of Massachusetts Under a Resolve of the General Court
SE PE
MOVIETEM
PERTATE
BOSTON WRIGHT & POTTER PRINTING CO., STATE PRINTERS 32 DERNE STREET 1913
1233659
NOTE.
This volume has been designated the " Massachusetts Volun- teer Militia in the War of 1812." This was done in error, because by law the active militia of Massachusetts at the pres- ent day is so designated. During the War of 1812-14 the militia was simply called " Massachusetts Militia," and it should have been so termed in this volume.
Sautheus - $7.50
Resolves of 1912, Chapter 81.
RESOLVE TO PROVIDE FOR PUBLICATION OF CERTAIN STATE MILI- TARY RECORDS OF THE WAR OF EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND TWELVE.
Resolved, That the adjutant general is authorized and directed to prepare a compilation of the records of the militia who responded to the call of the governor of the commonwealth to repel a threatened invasion during the war of eighteen hundred and twelve, as the same are found in the archives in the office of the adjutant general. The said work shall be done solely under the direction of the adjutant general and shall be completed within one year after the passage of this resolve. [Approved April 27, 1912.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
THE ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, April 5. 1913.
Brig. Genl. GARDNER W. PEARSON, The Adjutaut General of Massachusetts.
GENERAL: - In accordance with the foregoing resolve I received instructions to plan and compile, in proper form for publication, the records of the Massa- chusetts Volunteer Militia who responded to the call of the Governor of Massa- chusetts to suppress a threatened invasion during the War of 1812-14.
In the early part of May, 1912, I submitted for your approval the plan that was to be adopted in completing the work, and received final instructions to com- mence. The work being especially of a laborious kind, with your consent I called to my assistance Mrs. Ruth M. Bruce, clerk for the Service Schools, M. V. M., and Miss Mabel L. Cook, clerk in the indexing division of the archives of this office. The work during the whole year was done entirely outside of office hours, for the reason that the numerous interruptions that fall to my lot in my duties made it absolutely essential that correctness could only be assured in that way. No attempt has been made to make records or correct them, such as spelling, etc., except in cases where the ink is fading and the names are almost obliterated; then efforts were made to supply the missing letters in accordance with what the names might have been; for example, the name Abbott, Abott, Abbot; the same with Barrett, Barret, Barett; also Clap, Clapp; Prescott, Prescot, etc.
The sources from which the records were obtained are unknown to this office other than that they were furnished during the term of office of Gen. A. Hun Berry, Adjutant General of Massachusetts in 1881, and accepted by him as com- ing from "reliable sources," the party furnishing them being Mr. Z. K. Harmon of Portland, Me.
Annexed will be found extracts pertaining to the actions of the British along the Massachusetts coast, from B. J. Lossing's "Pictorial Field Book of the War of 1812," pages 888 to 904; Williamson's "History of Maine;" Wheeler's "Cas- tine, Past and Present;" Akin's "History of Halifax City," and Murdoch's "His- tory of Nova Scotia."
Respectfully,
JOHN BAKER,
Custodian of Military Archires.
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE.
"New England experienced very little actual war within its borders, yet it felt its pressure heavily in the paralysis of its peculiar industries, the continual drain upon its wealth of men and money, and the wasting excitement caused by constantly impending menaces and a sense of insecurity. From the spring of 1813, until the close of the contest, British squadrons were hovering along our coasts, and threatening the destruction of our maritime cities and villages. The year 1814 was a specially trying one for New England. The British government had determined and prepared at the beginning of that year, to make the campaign a vigorous, sharp and decisive one on land and sea.
"Early in June the enemy commenced depredations on the coasts of Massachusetts. On the 13th a detachment of two hundred men in six barges, were sent from the SUPERB and NIMROD, then lying in Buzzard's Bay, to destroy the shipping at Wareham. The elevated rocky neck at the mouth of the Narrows concealed the approach of the barges, and the inhabitants were taken by surprise. The enemy fired a ship, brig, and several smaller vessels. The ship was partially saved, and so also was a cotton factory, which was set on fire by a congreve rocket. The estimated value of the loss was $40,000. Quite a number of the leading inhabitants were seized and carried away as hostages, so as to prevent the militia from firing on the barges. These were released when the barges arrived at their vessels. Similar destruction was inflicted at Scituate, and at Orleans. Sometimes the militia would meet the marauders and drive them away. At Orleans a sharp skirmish between the barges and the militia took place, wherein the enemy lost one killed and two wounded, besides nine taken prisoners at Yarmouth, where they had drifted on shore in a schooner laden with salt, which they had captured at Orleans.
"On the 16th of June the BULWARK, 74, Captain Milne, carrying about ninety guns, anchored off the mouth of Saco River, in Maine, and her commander sent one hundred and fifty armed men, in five large boats to destroy property on the Neck belonging to Captain Thomas Cutts. That gentleman met them with a white flag, and proposed a money commutation. The matter was referred to Captain Milne, who soon afterward came ashore in his gig. He assured Cutts that he had positive orders to destroy, and could not spare. The torch was then applied, and two vessels (one finished, the other on the stocks), valued at $15,000, were destroyed, and another one taken away, which the owner afterward ransomed for $6,000. They also plundered Mr. Cutts' store of goods to the amount of $2,000.
"At about the same time the NIMROD and LA HOGUE were blockading New Bedford and Fair Haven. Other places were menaced and some were attacked.
"Early on the morning of September Sth, the barges from the LEANDER, Sir George Collier, landed some seventy men at Sandy Bay in Gloucester; a dense fog favoring them, the sentinel on
x
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEER MILITIA IN THE WAR OF 1812.
the small fort was surprised, before an alarm could be given; they took the officer and ten privates of Capt. Haskell's company, prisoners, spiked the guns, set the guard-house on fire, and retreated to their boats. Meantime the alarm bell was rung, and the militia assembled, but not in time or sufficient numbers to obstruct their retreat. One of the barges after hauling off, commenced a fire on the houses, and more particularly at the meeting-house bell which was ringing, in order, as the officer said with an oath, 'to stop that church music'; the recoil of the gun caused the barge to spring a leak, and those who were in her were obliged to swim ashore, and by this means five of the privates who were taken in the fort were re-captured, and thirteen of the enemy were taken prisoners.
"As late as December 27th, 1814, the British brig NIMROD, Capt. - , sixteen guns, came to anchor in Falmouth harbor, and sent a boat on shore with a flag of truce and a message to the officers of the town, demanding the field-pieces belonging to the Artillery Company, and, in case of refusal, threatening to fire upon the town. This was considered a mere ruse, to first get possession of their only means of defence, and then to land and help themselves to such supplies as they might want, and then plunder and destroy as they had done at other places, when once in their power. It is reported that the town officers called in Capt. Weston Jenkins, of the Artillery Company, and referred the message from the NIMROD to him for an answer; who at once told the messenger to inform his captain 'that if he wanted his field-pieces, to come and get them'. This was construed by the officers of the NIMROD as a challenge, who at once sent word that at 10 A.M. next day, they should bombard the town. Of course this caused great consterna- tion among the inhabitants, who at once set about removing themselves and property to a place of safety. In the meantime Col. David Nye issued his orders calling out the militia of the town, and also a portion from Sandwich and Barnstable, who, during the night and early morning entrenched and posted themselves in such a manner as to prevent the enemy from landing, if such was his purpose. Promptly at the hour specified, the NIMROD opened fire upon the little town, and blazed away for two hours, but made no attempt to land; then quietly leaving the harbor, sailed for Halifax, no doubt with a parting blessing from the inhabitants, uttered at least from some of them in anything but a devotional spirit.
"Many of the dwellings and other buildings were badly riddled, and other property destroyed, which was the extent of the damage.
"A more serious invasion of the New England coast now occurred. Early in July, 1814, Sir Thomas M. Hardy sailed secretly from Halifax, with a formidable force for land and sea service. His squadron consisted of the RAMILLIES, seventy-four guns (his flagship), the sloop MARTIN, brig BOXER, the BREAME, the bomb-ship TERROR, and several transports with troops, under Col. Thomas Pilkington. Commodore Hardy came charged with a part of the duty enjoined in the terrible order of Admiral Cochrane, 'TO DESTROY THE COAST TOWNS AND SHIP- PING, AND RAVAGE THE COUNTRY.' This squadron entered Passamaquoddy Bay on the 11th, and anchored off Fort Sullivan, at Eastport, which was then in command of Major Perley Putnam, (of the 40th U. S. Infantry) of Salem, with a garrison of fifty men and six pieces of artil- lery. The Commodore demanded an instant surrender of the post, giving the commander only
--
xi
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE.
five minutes for consideration. Putnam promptly refused compliance, but on account of the vehement importunities of the alarmed inhabitants who were indisposed to resist, he yielded his own judgment and gave up the post, on condition that while the British should take possession of all public property, private property should be respected. When this agreement was signed, a thousand men with women and children, a battalion of artillery, and fifty or sixty pieces of can- non were landed on the main, and formal possession was taken of the fort, the town of Eastport, and all the islands and villages in and around Passamaquoddy Bay. Declaration was made that these were in permanent possession of the British, and the inhabitants were called upon to take an oath of allegiance to the Crown, or leave the territory. The custom house was taken posses- sion of and opened under British officials, who vainly endeavored to compel the collector to sign unfinished treasury notes to the value of $9,000. He refused, saying, 'Hanging would not compel him'. Trade was resumed, the fortifications around Eastport were completed, and sixty pieces of cannon were mounted, and an arsenal established. Several vessels, and goods valued at three hundred thousand dollars, accumulated there to be smuggled into the United States, were made prizes of by the British, who held quiet possession of that region until the close of the war.
"Having established British rule at Eastport, and left eight hundred troops to hold the con- quered region, Hardy sailed westward with his squadron, spreading alarm along the coast. Prep- arations for his reception were made everywhere. Vigilant eyes were watching and strong arms waiting for the appearance of the foe. The forts at Bath, Portland, and Portsmouth were manned. Little Fort Lilly, at Gloucester, was armed, Fort Pickering, near Salem, and Fort Sewall at Marble- head, were strengthened and garrisoned; Fort Warren, on Governor's Island, and Fort Independ- ence, in Boston harbor, were put in readiness for action, and well garrisoned by Massachusetts Militia.
"An attack upon the important City of Boston was confidently expected; it was the capital of New England, and the moral effect of its capture would be great. It was a place for the con- struction of American war vessels, which the enemy feared more than armies. On this account also its capture or destruction was desirable. It was also a wealthy town, and offered a rich har- vest for plunderers. It was well known too that it was almost defenseless. Caleb Strong, then Governor, was, it was well known, intensely opposed to the war; and it was not until after all her territory east of the Penobscot river in the District of Maine, (then a part of Massachusetts,) was in possession of the enemy, that any energetic measures were taken for its defense. Then a public meeting was called to consider the matter, and a committee consisting of Harrison Gray Otis, and others, was appointed to wait on the Governor, and present to him an address on the defenseless state of the city. The Governor listened to this appeal, and at once instituted measures for the defense of the whole line of the coast of the State, and of the District of Maine. A heavy fort was at once commenced on Noddle's Island, (now East Boston,) under the supervision of Major Loammi Baldwin as chief engineer; a call was made for volunteers to work on the fortification, and the response was patriotic; large numbers of the citizens of all classes and trades might be seen day after day toiling like common laborers,
With pickaxe, shovel, spade, crow-bar, hoe, and barrow.
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MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEER MILITIA IN THE WAR OF 1812.
"The towns of Concord and Lincoln sent in two hundred men in one day, and thus the work went bravely on and was completed and formally christened October 26, and named Fort Strong, in honor of the Governor. Water batteries were erected, and also on Forts Warren and Inde- pendence, and supplied with furnaces for heating shot. Fortifications were also erected at South Boston Point, and on Savin Hill. As a matter of precaution, to prevent the enemy's approach to the city in case he succeeded in passing the forts, vessels were purchased and made ready to be sunk in the channel, and providing all other means failed to prevent his approach by land, the bridges leading to the towns, Chelsea, Charlestown, Brighton and Cambridge, were placed under the care of two discreet men, each having fifty or sixty axe-men under them, who were as a last resort to destroy a portion of each bridge.
"On the 6th of September, Governor Strong had issued his orders for the whole of the State Militia of all arms, to be in readiness to march to Boston at a moment's notice, and on the same clay some four thousand troops from the several divisions, consisting of Infantry, Artillery, and Rifle- men were ordered to march at once for Boston. These troops began to gather September Sth, and were properly officered and formed into regiments and placed under the supervision of Major General Joseph Whiton. By the middle of September there were some five thousand State troops of all arms in service at Boston and on the forts and batteries in the harbor and vicinity, and all were retained in service until the middle of November.
"Hardy's easy conquest at Eastport and its vicinity encouraged the British to attempt the seizure of the whole country lying between Passamaquoddy Bay and the Penobscot River. For this purpose a British fleet consisting of the BULWARK, DRAGON, and SPENCER, seventy- four guns each, the frigates BACCHANTE and TENEDOS, sloops-of-war SYLPH and PERU- VIAN, and schooner PICTOU, with ten transports sailed from Halifax on the 26th of August, 1814. The British troops consisted of the first company of Royal Artillery; two rifle companies of the 7th battalion of the Sixtieth Regiment; detachments from the Twenty-ninth, Sixty-second, and Ninety-eighth Regiments - the whole divided into two brigades, under command of General Sir John C. Sherbrooke, Governor of Nova Scotia, assisted by Major-general Gerard Gosselin and Colonel Douglass. The fleet was in command of Rear Admiral Edward Griffith. It was the inten- tion of Sherbrooke and Griffith to stop and take possession of Machias, but learning that the United States corvette, JOHN ADAMS, twenty-four guns, Capt. Charles Morris, had gone up the Penob- scot, they hastened to the mouth of that river to blockade her. Passing up the Green Island channel they arrived in the fine harbor of Castine on the morning of the first of September. Lieu- tenant Lewis, of the United States army, with about forty men, was occupying a half-moon redoubt, armed with four twenty-four pounders and two field-pieces. Lieutenant Colonel Nichols, of the Royal Engineers, sent a summons to Lewis at sunrise to surrender. Lewis saw that resistance would be vain, so he resolved to flee. He gave the enemy a volley from his twenty-four pounders as a parting salute, then spiked them, blew up the redoubt, and with the field-pieces he and the garrison fled over the high peninsula to its neck, and escaped up the Penobscot. Colonel Douglass immediately landed from the fleet with a detachment of Royal Artillery and two companies of
xiii
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE.
riflemen and took quiet possession of Castine, and with that the control of Penobscot Bay. The number of troops landed was about six hundred.
"As soon as a landing had been completed, it was made known to Sherbrooke that the ADAMS had gone up the river, and he and Griffith immediately detached a land and naval force to seize and destroy that vessel, and treat the inhabitants of the towns on the Penobscot as cir- cumstances might seem to require. The expedition consisted of the SYLPH and PERUVIAN, a small schooner as a tender, the transport brig HARMONY, and nine launches, commanded by Capt. Robert Barrie, of the Royal Navy, who acted as Commodore. 'In the midst of the rapine a committee waited on Barrie, and told him that the people expected at his hands the common safeguards of humanity, if nothing more, when the brutal officer replied, "I have none for you. My business is to burn, sink and destroy. Your town is taken by storm, and by the rules of war we ought both to lay your village in ashes and put its inhabitants to the sword. But I will spare your lives, though I don't mean to spare your houses."' - WILLIAMSON'S HISTORY OF MAINE, ii., 646. The land forces, seven hundred strong, were under the command of Lieut. Col. Henry John, assisted by Major Riddle. The expedition sailed in the afternoon of the day of the arrival at Castine (Sept. first),1 and passing Bucksport at twilight, anchored for the night. There was no disposition among the inhabitants along the Penobscot to submit quietly, unless absolutely compelled to. On the day when the expedition sailed up the river, information of the fact was conveyed by express to Capt. Morris, of the ADAMS, at Hampden, and he at once sent word to Brig. Gen. John Blake, at his home in Brewer, asking him to call out the militia. Blake mounted his horse, and late in the afternoon was at Bangor, issuing orders for the assembling of the Brigade of the Tenth Massachusetts division, of which he was commander, and the same even- ing rode down to Hampden. There he found Capt. Morris engaged in preparations for defense. He had dismantled the JOHN ADAMS, dragged her heavy guns to the summit of the high right bank of the Soadabscook, fifty rods from the wharf, and placed them in battery there, so as to command the river approaches from below. On the following morning Blake held a consultation
1 "Immediately after the capture of Castine, the British government there established a Custom-house, or excise house, and appointed a Collector of Customs, who from that time until the twenty-fourth of April 1815, con- tinued to receive entries of vessels and merchandise, conformably to the laws and regulations in the province of Nova Scotia. During this period many merchants residing at Castine imported goods and entered them with the said British Collector paying duties thereon to the British government."- From Wheeler's "Castine," p. 175.
"The funds collected at this port by the British Custom-house authorities were used as an endowment for Dalhousie College, Halifax, N. S."- From "Castine; Past and Present," by George A. Wheeler, A.M., M.D., p. 53. "The British authorities collected the Revenue of Maine while in occupation which amounted to a consider- able sum of money. This fund was placed by the colonial minister in the hands of the Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia who appropriated it in various ways as he thought most for the benefit of the country. It was from this fund that Dalhousie College was afterwards built."- From "History of Halifax City," by T. B. Akins, Vol. 8, Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, p. 164.
"The sum of £9,750 was then remaining in the hands of the Governor from the revenues collected at Cas- tine while the State of Maine was in the hands of the British troops. This sum Lord Dalhousie obtained the permis- sion of the Colonial Secretary to appropriate towards the erection of a college in Halifax on the model of the Scotch Universities."- From "History of Halifax City," p. 179 (year 1817).
"1820, Monday 22d May, the Earl of Dalhousie laid the corner stone of Dalhousie College."- From Mur- doch's "History of Nova Scotia," Vol. 3, pp. 401-2, 455.
xiv
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEER MILITIA AND THE WAR OF 1812.
with Morris, and citizens of Bangor and Hampden, on the best methods of defense, but opinions were so various that no specific determination was arrived at. Morris had not much confidence in the militia, and declined any immediate co-operation with them. He approved of a proposition to meet the foe at his landing-place, wherever that might be, and expressed his determination to destroy the ADAMS, should the militia retreat.
"On the morning of the 2d, Belfast on the western side of Penobscot Bay, was taken pos- session of by Gen. Gosselin, at the head of six hundred troops, without resistance, and, at the same time, the expedition under Barrie and John, after landing a detachment from the Sixtieth and Ninety-eighth Regiments at Frankfort, proceeded up the river. The detachment marched up the western side of the Penobscot unmolested, and the little squadron arrived at Bald Hill cove, near Hampden, at 5 o'clock in the evening. The troops and about eighty marines were landed, and bivouacked there during the night, in the midst of a drenching rain-storm.
"During the 2d, about six hundred raw militia, who had never seen anything more like war than their own annual parade, assembled at Hampden, and Gen. Blake posted them in an admir- able position on the brow of the hill. He had been joined by Lieutenant Lewis and forty regulars who fled from Castine. The artillery company of Blake's brigade, commanded by Capt. Ham- mond was there with two brass three-pounders, and an eighteen pound cannonade from Morris' vessel was placed in battery in charge of Mr. Bent, of the artillery. Many of the militia were without weapons or ammunition, and these were supplied as far as possible by Capt. Morris. Such was Blake's position on the dark and gloomy morning of the 3d.
"Morris, in the meantime had mounted nine short eighteen-pounders from the ADAMS upon his redoubt on the high bank over Crosby's wharf, and placed the battery in charge of Lieu- tenant Wadsworth, first officer of the ADAMS, assisted by Lieutenants Madison and Purser. With the remainder of his guns he took position in person on the wharf with about two hundred seamen and marines, prepared to defend his ship to the last extremity.
"The whole region of the Penobscot was enveloped in a dense fog on the morning of the 3d. The British at Bald Hill Cove had been joined by the detachment which landed at Frankfort, and at five o'clock all were in motion toward Hampden. They moved cautiously in the mist, with a vanguard of riflemen. On the flanks were detaehments of marines and sailors, with a six-pound cannon, and a six and one-half inch howitzer, and a rocket apparatus. The British vessels moved slowly up the river at the same time within supporting distance.
"Blake had dispatched two flank companies to watch and annoy the approaching enemy. Between seven and eight o'clock they reported them crossing the little stream below Hampden and ascending the hill to attack the Americans. The fog was so thick that no enemy could be seen; but Blake pointed his eighteen-pounder in the direction of the foe, and with his field-pieces blazed away with considerable effect, as was afterward ascertained. He had resolved to reserve his mus- ket firing until the enemy should be near enough to be seriously hurt; but the ordeal of waiting without breastworks in front was too severe for the untried militia. The enemy suddenly advanced at a 'double-quick', firing volleys in rapid succession. The militia, panic stricken, broke and fled in every direction, leaving Blake and his officers alone. Lieut. Wadsworth, at Morris' upper bat-
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