USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Waldoboro > History of old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Volume 1 > Part 17
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15 Annals of Warren, 1st ed. (Hallowell, 1851), p. 67.
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Breton; a very large proportion of the Germans enlisted in Waldo's regiment; many took their entire families with them, which was not an unusual practice in eighteenth-century warfare; and al- though the period of enlistment was for four months, there were those who remained at Louisburg until 1748.
The muster roll of Colonel Waldo's regiment is perhaps non- existent, or at least it has never been located. H. S. Burrage, a former State Historian, in his lifetime searched for it in vain. At the solicitation of the Massachusetts Legislature and of our own State Department, British and Canadian archives have been made fully accessible, but with no results. Of the many men enlisting from Broad Bay, Burrage was never to discover but one name. Our own research has revealed in unexpected quarters a few addi- tional names soundly documented. They follow: David Rominger participated in the expedition, serving as a soldier from 1745 to 1748.16 Lorenz Seitz (Sides) was a member of the expedition and took his family with him. It was at Cape Breton that his daughter, Katharina, was married to Philip Christoph Vogler who was en- listed in the war for a period of between three and four years.17 A well-established tradition also links John Ulmer with the Louis- burg expedition.18 Sebastian Zuberbühler also went to the war as an officer in Waldo's regiment, and due to his fluency in the two languages probably commanded a contingent of Broad Bay Ger- mans. He rose in rank in the field and on January 10, 1746, was commissioned a captain. The date of his commission strongly sug- gests that many of the Broad Bayers remained there in service long after the fortress had been reduced.19
The actual extent to which Broad Bay was represented in the Louisburg campaign may be inferred by the enlistments in 1744 in Waldo's regiment, made up entirely of men from the Province of Maine. They embraced the levies from Scarborough eastward to the end of the settled area of the coastline:
Scarborough
160 men
New Marblehead
40 men
Falmouth
500 men
Georges & Broad Bay
270 men
North Yarmouth
150 men
Pemaquid
50 men
Brunswick
50 men
Sheepscot
50 men
W. Narragansett No. 1
20 men
Total
1290 men
Waldo personally recruited 17 companies of fifty men each.20 It is rather significant to note that in number of enlistments Broad Bay and Georges stood next after Falmouth (Portland). Unques-
16 Moravian Archives, Burial Rec. No. 59 (Bethabara, N. C.).
17Vogler Memoir Moravian Archives (Winston-Salem, N. C.); also contains the Seitz data.
18H. A. Rattermann, Der Deutsche Pionier, XIV Jahrgang. (Cincinnati, 1884-85.) 19 New Eng. Hist. and Gen. Register (Oct. 1870), pp. 361-380. 20Ober-Post Amts Zeitung, Frankfort am Main, No. 12, Jan. 20, 1753.
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
tionably these two hundred and seventy men included a large per- centage of the "fencibles" in both settlements, and these partici- pated in the Louisburg campaign. Both settlements were unde- niably "thinned," though not stripped. From those remaining at Broad Bay, William Burns, of the 1736 colony, organized a com- pany of militia for the defense of the scattered settlement. Appar- ently no muster roll of this company has been preserved, and we are completely in the dark as to the identity of the personnel. The fact should be stressed, however, that there was no abandon- ment of the settlement and that those remaining for its defense continued at their normal tasks under the ever-present threat of attack from roving savages.
From this point in the record, Broad Bay history will shift for a time to Cape Breton Island and to the role played by our ancestors in the investment of its great fortress. The three regi- ments engaging in the expedition were known as Pepperell's, Moul- ton's, and Waldo's. William Pepperell had the over-all command of the forces and held the rank of lieutenant general. Roger Wol- cott of Connecticut was second in command with the rank of major general, but inasmuch as he did not accompany the expedi- tion "by reason of age and indisposition," Samuel Waldo, then a representative of Falmouth in the General Court, and Colonel of the Eastern Yorkshire regiment, became second in command with the rank of brigadier general. He was also the colonel of his regi- ment and a captain of one of the companies. The actual command of Waldo's regiment was held by Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Noble of Georgetown (Bath) who, with his brother James, was co-proprietor of a large tract of land in Nobleborough. Colonel Noble was a competent and gallant officer and was killed in an engagement with the French and Indians at Minas, Canada, in February 1747.
On February 13, 1745, Governor Shirley issued an order directing that the levies from eastern parts were to rendezvous at Falmouth, "there to be billeted at twenty shilling per week old tenor, and to be constantly exercised that they may be fit for service ... and that Persons be appointed well skilled in the Military Exercises for instructing them." ... On February 17th, these orders were modified and the levies directed to assemble in Boston.21 Parkman in his Half Century of Conflict, following a statement made by Pepperell, asserts that "a full third of the Massachusetts contingent ... came from the hardy population of Maine.22 In Boston the forces were equipped and trained until March 19, when Pepperell received orders from Shirley for the expedition to em-
21Correspondence of Wm. Shirley, p. 185. 22II, 99.
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bark; and on the afternoon of March 24th it sailed from Boston. Due to unfavorable weather the transport anchored three days, March 26th to 29th, at Sheepscot, before proceeding to Cape Bre- ton, where it arrived in the early days of April. Here it met its initial setback, for the shores and harbors were icebound and the plan of a surprise attack had to be abandoned. For three weeks the expedition was held back by the ice. In the meantime a British squadron of four vessels under Commodore Peter Warren rein- forced the provincial fleet under Tyng and assisted in the siege.
It is difficult to give a detailed and consecutive account of the part played in the siege by the men of Broad Bay; and any effort to do this must be based on inference, induction, and tradition. A fairly full account of this campaign is to be found in Burrage's book, Maine at Louisburg; but here I have chosen to follow a contemporary record23 of these events, and Waldo's own narra- tive in the Huntington Library manuscript, along with its annexes by Shirley and Sir William Pepperell.
The number of the land forces did not exceed thirty-six hundred, all undisciplined colonial troops. The landing was effected on April 30th at Chappeau Longe Bay, about four miles from the fortress. General Waldo landed with the first detachment and was followed by his entire regiment, in the face of an opposing enemy. This of course means that the Broad Bayers were among the first ashore, and had a hand in establishing a beachhead and in clearing the woods of enemy forces. That same afternoon a detail of four hundred men, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Vaughan, proceeded to make a reconnaissance west and northwest of the town. Passing to the westward of the town and skirting the Royal Battery at a safe distance, he, by a stroke of good fortune was able to seize and burn the storehouses containing stores of military and naval supplies as well as wines and liquors. The smoke from the burning buildings so blinded and alarmed the French commander of the Royal Battery that he spiked the guns and abandoned the post, which was occupied the next day by forces from Waldo's regiment.
Another episode of the siege, one with a tragic ending and probably involving Broad Bayers, was an attack on the Island Bat- tery. This stood at the entrance to the harbor and prevented Warren's ships from coming in. One of the attempts to capture it was assigned to Colonel Noble of Waldo's regiment. According to Waldo's order, Noble's detachment was to be drawn from several regiments. The assault was made on the night of May 26th. The boats carrying the attacking party, however, were discovered as they drew near the island, and a destructive fire was opened on
23 American Magazine and Historical Chronicle, Boston, 1745, pp. 308-313.
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
them at once. Some of the boats, nevertheless, reached the island, and their crews were hastily drawn up for a dash upon the works. They got to the point of placing scaling ladders against the walls of the battery, but could get no farther. The survivors surrendered. The loss in this attack was seventy-three killed and drowned, and one hundred and sixteen taken prisoner.
The siege was largely a matter "of sweat, toil and tears." There were no pack animals, and their lack was supplied by human muscles. The heavy guns were dragged four miles from the beachhead over rough country to within range of the fort. Powder, shot, shells, and provisions were lugged by the men on their backs to the advanced works, and likewise the guns from the captured Royal Battery and the forty-two-pound balls neces- sary to service them. Inasmuch as this work was under the direc- tion of General Waldo, and since he paid bounties from his own pocket for this unorthodox service, we surmise it was a chore in which some of his sturdy pack animals from Broad Bay partici- pated; for in their brief sojourn on these shores they had been thor- oughly disciplined by impossible tasks. Inch by inch and at the price of an almost superhuman effort, the stronghold was weak- ened. On June 15th, its Commander, Duchambon, asked for an armistice; and on the 17th the provincials entered Louisburg through the southwest gate. The impossible had been accomplished. Pepperell, on entering the town and viewing the magnitude and strength of the defenses, exclaimed: "The Almighty of a truth has been with us!" Joy on the part of the troops at this ending of their seven weeks of arduous toil and suffering was unrestrained, for not until they were within the walls could they have fully realized the herculean character of their feat. Voltaire ranked among the "great events of this period the capture of such a fortress by the husbandmen of New England,"24 while Parkman held it to be the result of "mere audacity and hardihood, backed by the rarest good luck."
The fall of the fortress was timely; for disease was beginning to take its toll and the crude hospitals improvised near the camp were filling up. Elsewhere all was joy. On both sides of the sea elation and patriotic enthusiasm ran high. In Old England and New England bells rang and cannons thundered. In the colonies sermons were preached and days of thanksgiving decreed, while in London the Tower guns were fired and the city illuminated. Parson Smith under date of July 6th, made the following entry in his Journal:
We had news today that Cape Breton was taken the 27th of last month. There is great rejoicing throughout the country. We fired our
24Le Siècle de Louis XV.
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cannon five times, and spent the afternoon at the fort rejoicing. 7th, Sun- day. All our people of the Neck were again all day rejoicing, and ex- travagantly blew off a vast quantity of gunpowder.
To hold Louisburg after its capture, it was necessary to garri- son it heavily. Realizing that the eastern settlements were living constantly under the threat of extinction, Governor Shirley advised Pepperell to release at once some of those men recruited in "the most exposed Eastern parts."25 This referred to the men from Georges and Broad Bay. Some had been released after the sur- render; those convalescing from illness were sent home when able to travel; and others were released in July on Shirley's order. On Sept. 2, 1745, the Governor wrote to the Governor of New Hampshire stating that "Massachusetts sent 3300 men to Louis- burg of whom 1238 are returned home; 95 are killed, and 57 died natural deaths." This meant that there were in excess of two thousand left in garrison at the fortress from Massachusetts alone, and this, of course, included those from the Province of Maine. The enlistment of the force had been for a period of four months. Thereafter they were held there in a state of involuntary, and we may add, mutinous, service, awaiting the arrival of a regular British force to take over the garrison duty. In the meanwhile disease was taking its toll. From the last of November 1745 to January 28, 1746, there were five hundred and sixty-one burials at Louisburg. Pepperell's force was reduced to less than a thousand men capable of bearing arms.
The provincial garrison was not relieved by the two British regiments from Gibraltar until the end of March 1746, after which most of the provincials returned to their homes in New England. Where the Broad Bayers were all this time and what they were doing is a question that can be answered only in a general way. Some were unquestionably killed in action; some died of disease, and sleep in unmarked graves on Cape Breton; others returned to Broad Bay shortly after the capitulation; and some others remained working at repairing the fortress under the direction of the British until 1748. General Waldo and a substantial part of his regiment were at Louisburg seventeen months in all, and some of his men stayed even longer.26 In fact, the General and his regiment did not land in Boston until June 26, 1746.
The scene now shifts back to Broad Bay. In the interim what had happened there, and by what conditions was Waldo faced on his return? It has been previously pointed out that Waldo, if he did not strip, at least thinned his settlement of men by enlistment in the Louisburg Expedition. This thinning left Broad Bay and
25 Letter to Wm. Pepperell, July 29, 1746, Shirley Correspondence.
26Ober-Post Amts Zeitung, Frankfort am Main, No. 12, Jan. 20, 1753.
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
Georges, the most advanced frontiers, very weakly defended, and invited Indian attack, a condition clearly foreseen by the govern- ment. Accordingly a Committee of Defense and Safety was ap- pointed, and a force of four hundred and fifty men, including the garrison soldiers, was put into service. All were to be on pay until the following November (1745). They were posted at the forts and garrison houses between which they were to scout in ranging parties along the whole frontier from Berwick to the Georges River. The government's object was to defend the in- habitants in their holdings, for it was Shirley's conviction that their departure or retreat would be an event ruinous to them and to the eastern provinces. After the fall of Louisburg, Captain Saunders in the Province Sloop was dispatched to the Penobscot to carry there the news of the fall in the hope it would have a deterring effect on the Indians of that region closest to the eastern frontier. The contrary was the case, for it aroused a strong sympathy for old friends, which led the Penobscots to abandon their neutrality and join their old French allies. The Governor promptly declared war on all eastern Indians and forthwith placed large bounties on their scalps. This break in the peace by the Penobscots, at this time the strongest of the Indian tribes in New England, greatly in- creased the threat to the eastern frontier.
During the summer of 1745 the settlements were constantly harried by small roving bands of savages. Around mid-July they converged in this district and on the 19th made a futile assault on the fort at Georges, after which they burned a garrison house, the sawmill at Mill River, and a few dwelling houses, and killed a great number of cattle and took one man captive. These quick incursions, the slaughter of any person isolating himself from his group for however brief a time, the noiseless tracking of victims through the woods, all added to the slow toll taken by fear, suf- fering, and tragedy; but little detail of these "unhappy trifles" found its way into the record of these times, merely a brief reference here and there, as in the following letter from the Com- mander of the fort at Georges to Governor Shirley:
The man mentioned in my last letter, they killed and scalpt. We brought him in and buried him, and I hear that a Dutch man at Broad Bay was killed and scalpt by the Indians about the same time they were here (July 19). It is now more than ten days since we saw them. Where they are I know not, but suppose they are preparing for more mischief, and expect soon to see them here.27
With the advent of the winter of 1745-1746, four hundred and twelve additional men were organized into two snowshoe companies and ordered to scout throughout the winter along the
"Shirley Correspondence, p. 261.
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frontier east of the Androscoggin in order to hold the Indians off, and to learn, if possible, their purposes, their routes, and their places of rendezvous and rest. There were, during this period, raids on frontier settlements, but Broad Bay remained unmolested. As we have mentioned, the Germans in their contacts with the neighbor- ing savages had been invariably considerate, just, and kind, and since in the winter season the forays were carried on by local Indians, rather than by the fierce savages from St. Francis who seldom crossed the wide wilderness in the winter cold and snows, the humanity of the Germans was remembered and rewarded. It should also be recalled that during the summer and autumn of 1745 the settlement was considerably strengthened by the return of some of the soldiers from Louisburg, which gave an added feel- ing of safety as well as an actually greater security. The Province Sloop under Captain Saunders came into the Medomak from time to time to deliver stores and provisions for the garrison to which many of the Broad Bayers were attached; and on this basis many would draw pay and stores in support of themselves and families. This reduced the pressure of the population regarding food, which could be raised only when those cultivating it worked under guard.
The following spring (1746), the garrison at Georges was strengthened and four hundred and sixty men were detailed to scout the frontier as in the previous year. They had, indeed, a busy time of it, for this was that period in the war when the Indians were most active, and the eastern bands were reinforced by the fiercer and more revengeful strain from St. Francis, formerly of the Androscoggin and Kennebec. On April 19th their attacks began; they swarmed in the forests and for weeks hovered on the outskirts of Wiscasset, Sheepscot, Damariscotta, Pemaquid, Broad Bay, and Georges. They were not bold fighters, but their method of warfare was unique. Their aim was to destroy without damage to themselves. If discovered they would invariably disappear unless the odds were entirely against their enemies. From ambush they were skillful and deadly; and they loved the cover of the bush, of a rail fence or stonewall. When caught in the open, they were never quiet for a moment, but would move swiftly like shadows from the shelter of one tree, stump, or boulder to that of another. Always subtle, at times they were highly creative and would per- petrate one ruse after another with devilish ingenuity and swift- ness. Again they would be dull witted, slow and clumsy in organ- izing themselves in the face of the unexpected. Their planned and concerted attacks were usually made just before dawn, when their victims were drugged with sleep and in no condition to effect a quick individual or collective defense.
The major Indian attack on Broad Bay came around May 18, 1746. Parson Smith noted in his Journal under date of May 21;
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
"News came to us this morning that the Indians had burnt all the houses at Broad Bay." The extent of the destruction after the lapse of over two centuries is difficult to determine, for the known facts are often at variance with the narrative of the historians. The most extreme accounts are offered by the German-American writers. An example of such is the account of Franz Löher who states that the Indians "burned the cabins, killed the occupants or dragged them all away as prisoners to Canada. Some died under torture, while others escaped and were lost in the wilds of Canada."28 Williamson puts the date as May 21st and adds that the "attack was made by a large body of Indians, who reduced the habitations of the people to ashes; killing some and carrying others into cap- tivity."29 Cyrus Eaton recorded the following. "On May 21, they fell upon Broad Bay and destroyed what remained of it, burning the houses, killing some of the inhabitants and carrying others into captivity. It subsequently lay waste till the close of the war."30 This episode as reported has long been accepted uncritically in all its detail as fact; but like all historical judgments, which gain in truth by revisions from time to time, this account requires some modification in the interest of greater accuracy - especially so, since the original source was the story of contemporaries. Trans- mitted over the decades by word of mouth, it became tradition which lost nothing in detail and volume as it was handed on from decade to decade up to the time of its incorporation into written history.
It is an indubitable fact that such an attack did occur, and that the Indians were in some force. The assault was made on May 18th, and Waldo himself tells us that the raiders were made up of "the Norridgewocks, Penobscots and other Tribes of Eastern Indians."31 This latter phrase means of course those of St. John and Cape Sable, while the Norridgewocks is a loose term applied to the Indians of the Upper Kennebec who at this time had co- alesced with the St. Francis on the St. Lawrence. Hence it may be assumed with reasonable certainty that the St. Francis Indians were involved in this attack - perhaps its instigators who overcame the reluctance of the more local groups to molest a people who had been their gentle friends. From Waldo's brief account, it is clear that the loss in property damage was heavy, the loss in life much slighter; for he states that they "killed some and drove off others."32 William Pepperell likewise in his account does not lay stress on the loss of life, but in the main on the property damage. He states
28Geschichte und Zustände der Deutschen in Amerika (Cincinnati and Leipzig, 1847), pp. 71-75. 20 Hist. of Maine, pp. 215-220. [Italics mine.]
30 Annals of Warren, p. 69. [Italics mine.] 31The Case of Samuel Waldo. 32 Ibid,
-
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that the Indians "burned his settlements [Waldo's] eastward of Sagadohoc, in particular the town of Leverett [Broad Bay] which at great expense of his private fortune was in exceeding flourishing circumstances, but are now almost entirely laid waste."33 During the Indian wars it was the practice of the Broad Bayers to till their lands in large groups under the guard of militia; as soon as one field was finished the groups would pass on to the next, the armed guard, of course, proceeding with them. The nights were passed not in their own cabins but in the garrisons with their families. In such a manner they were able to achieve a reasonable security of life if not of property.
Judging from what data exists, it can be inferred that events took place on May 18th as follows: It is highly probable that this attack was a just-before-dawn affair, but in force. The Indians, in groups of two or three, moved through the settlement on both sides of the river, plundering, killing the cattle wherever they could find them, and setting fire to the empty cabins. Larger groups converged on the lower garrisons at Lane's Point and at Mr. Zuberbühler's stockaded cabin on Garrison Hill. These posts were heavily garrisoned due to the fact that at this time the weight of population was on the east side of the river. Here in both cases the initial assault of the Indians was repulsed, whereupon they with- drew a bit, and from behind walls, stumps, boulders, and bushes, kept up a desultory fire, thus keeping the garrisons immobilized in the stockades while the work of destruction went on in other quarters. The fort on the west side on the shore of the old Rodney Creamer farm was the most weakly held; for at this time the west side was but thinly settled; and the garrison was located at the outer fringe of the settlement. Consequently those on this side who were closer to the Mill Garrison would take refuge there at night. It was at this point that the Indians had their real success, for the stockade was captured and burned along with the "Duch Church" which was its central inside unit. Here most of the slaughter took place; and here most of the captives were taken who, as tradition has it, were carried away to Canada and sold to the French. With this destruction there was not another church in the colony until one was built at Meetinghouse Cove at the end of the French and Indian War.
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