USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Waldoboro > History of old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Volume 1 > Part 52
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This small group of men from Waldoborough along with the few thousand others represent the real flowering of the Amer- ican spirit in this struggle, for the terrible sufferings of these months and the constant and patient drilling under the Prussian veteran, von Steuben, knit these soldiers so thoroughly together in one compact army that when they took the field in the spring these men of the "Continental Line" were as good as any in the world. They were virtually able by their victories at Stony Point and Monmouth to end the war in the north so far as any major engagements were concerned.
The year 1778 was militarily a quiet one in the annals of the town. The local militia did little more than stand by. As was the case the year before, the patriot faction retained a firm grip on town affairs. At the meeting of March 26th, Zebedee Simmons, Captain John Ulmer, and Abijah Waterman, all trusted patriots, were elected as selectmen; and by vote of the town, they also served as its Committee of Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety. The minor offices were filled in the main by Germans, both patriot and Tory. At this meeting the thrifty "Dutch" showed their traditional dislike of assuming collective responsibility for the poor by voting "not to grant assistance to John Mackintosh's wife and family of the town of Bristol," he having gone "into the Continental Service for this town for three years," and, it might be added, at a time when none of the local boys were disposed to get in so deep.
This year, owing to the depreciation and scarcity of cur- rency, certain taxes levied by the General Court were payable in specific articles of clothing and food: a shirt was rated at $6.00, a pair of stockings at $6.00 and a pair of shoes at $7.00. The town accepted the task of collecting and appointed Levi Soule and Captain Soule to "git clothing for their soldiers in the Continental service." The form of a new constitution for Massachusetts,
26Edward Channing, Students History of the United States (New York: Mac- Millan Co., 1900), pp. 210-211.
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drafted by a committee of the General Court in January and sub- mitted to the towns at their March meetings, failed to receive the consideration of Waldoborough until a year later, after it had failed of ratification on the part of the towns the preceding March.
In September of this year, a law was passed by the General Court under whose terms the estates of three hundred and ten Tories, "late inhabitants of the state," were all confiscated. Of this number only seventeen were dwellers in Maine and of these two were closely associated with Waldoborough history. These were Francis Waldo, son of General Samuel, and the latter's son- in-law, Thomas Flucker. Since both had long since retired to the enemy, they were termed "absentees." Under the law in question the Judges of Probate were authorized to appoint agents to ad- minister their estates, just as if the late possessors were already dead.
Flucker did not live many years thereafter, for in 1784 he is styled as "an absentee lately deceased." Francis Waldo died in June of the same year, leaving as the only male of the line, Gen- eral Samuel's grandson, Samuel, son of Colonel Samuel, deceased 1770. With the property of Thomas Flucker, the proprietor of Old Broad Bay, declared as confiscate, the practice of squatting on the unsettled lands of the town became general. In fact, there was something of a scramble and seizure of such lands by the local folk. Many of the most respectable inhabitants of the town did not squat, they seized, had surveys made, and then had these surveys recorded as their respective claims. At the close of the war this procedure led many of them straight into conflict with General Henry Knox, whose wife, Lucy, had become the residuary legatee of the old Waldo estate.
Before the year had passed, the only three counties in the Province, York, Cumberland and Lincoln, were created by the Congress into a maritime district called "the District of Maine," thereby extending this name for the first time over the Waldo- borough area.
As the struggle deepened, the depreciation in the value of the paper currency, which was almost the only circulating medium in the District, became alarming. Thirty dollars in bills, which were constantly decreasing in value, were now the equivalent of only one dollar in specie. There was little that could be done to check this inflation, since both nation and states were without any basis for establishing a sound fiscal system. The people of the town were reduced to the economic status of barter, and the men in the armed forces to the status of serving without pay.
The records of the town for the year 1779 reveal little in the way of business relating to the war. At a February meeting it
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was voted to pay the thrifty clerk, as expressed in his own words, "£1 fer pabber fer the year 1778." At its March 16th meeting, it was voted that "the town will pay for clothing sent to continental soldiers, amount £67 8s. Od." At the May meeting it registered its disapproval of having "a New Constitution or form of Govern- ment made," and decided to send a representative to the General Court with the town of Warren, "if Warren will send with us." Warren sent its own delegate this year in the person of Moses Copeland, and apparently rejected the moneysaving suggestion of the thrifty "Dutch," for at their July meeting the latter "voted not to send a representative." On September 6th it was voted to send Jacob Ludwig as a delegate to a convention in Concord con- vening the first Wednesday in October "to take into consideration the prices of merchandise and Country produce." In order to kill two birds with one stone, Mr. Ludwig was also instructed to drop in on the General Court to offer a petition "concerning our heavy taxes to get them eased."27 Due to the ravages of war in eastern Maine, the court had abated all taxes of the towns in that area; and Waldoborough was not averse to being treated in the same way. This is a meager record, indeed, for the most stirring year of the war in this area, but many of the "Dutch" seem to have been more interested in roads and bridges, and "in preventing rams running at large during unseasonable periods of the year.
For the people of Lincoln County 1779 was the most ex- citing year of the Revolution. In it the war came to their very doors and the county became the scene of considerable military and naval operations. It all came about in this way: The privateers operated by the patriots in Penobscot waters had for some time been harassing British shipping on the route to Halifax. Owing to their intimate knowledge of this coastal area, these attacks on the enemy commerce were made with ease, speed, and safety. Hence it was that the British in Halifax conceived the advantage of establishing a post on the Penobscot at some point which would command these harbors, the coast, and a wide region of territory, and incidentally could be used as a ready source of ship timber for the royal navy-yard at Halifax. Pursuant to this plan, a force of nine hundred men under General McLane embarked at Halifax and, convoyed by seven or eight naval vessels, landed at Castine without opposition, on June 12th. The work of clearing out trees and underbrush was started immediately for the erection of a fort and defensive works in the center of the peninsula. In a few days the fleet left the harbor, leaving three sloops of war assigned to the station, under the command of the detested Captain Mowett, the scourge of Falmouth.
#Records of the Town Clerk, Waldoborough.
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A tremor of alarm ran through the District of Maine. General Cushing of Pownalborough addressed a letter to the General Court on June 24th advising an immediate expedition to dislodge the enemy before the work of becoming entrenched had been com- pleted. Directions were forthwith given to the Board of War to charter or impress all armed vessels available in Massachusetts ports and to equip them for sailing in six days. Six hundred men were detached from the militia in Cumberland and Lincoln counties, three hundred men were detached from the York militia, and between three and four hundred more soldiers and marines were commandeered from other sources, bringing the force to more than twelve hundred men under the command of General Solomon Lovell, with General Peleg Wadsworth second in command. The fleet consisted of nineteen armed vessels and twenty-four trans- ports. This flotilla of three hundred and forty-four guns was commanded by Richard Saltonstall of New Haven, a man of some naval experience but of a strongly willful temperament. The expedition had been assembled with so much speed that it put in its appearance on the Penobscot on July 25th.
Waldoborough may claim the distinction of being the main source of supply and distribution for this expedition. The facto- tum clearly was Squire Thomas; for we learn that on September 24, 1779, a Committee of the House reports that Colonel Water- man Thomas "has advanced large sums of money to procure provisions for the troops at the Eastward," and of his need of money "to procure provisions for the soldiers now doing duty at Cambden."28 The scope of this supply problem furnishes us with a good index to the magnitude of the business done by the Squire at his commercial center at the foot of Thomas' Hill. From June 26th to July 26th, 1779, Squire Thomas had furnished sup- plies totalling £16,547. This total can be broken down into the following items: Captain Charles Samson transporting supplies by water, £50; Isaac Farnsworth driving beef overland on the hoof, £33; Squire Thomas furnishing 35371/2 pounds of bread, 10,3611/2 pounds of beef, 9 bushels of peas, 1941/2 pounds of coffee, 119 gallons of molasses, 33 gallons of rum, 311/2 pounds of soap, 31/2 pounds of candles, and 80 gallons of milk.29 The Squire in his capacity of colonel also led a company of volunteers to the scene and has furnished us with a full on-the-spot account of the naval disaster.30 Moreover, as this enterprise soon led to sustained defensive operations, Colonel Thomas became the "Quartermaster and Commissary for the whole Eastern Department," and so much of this supply work was effected through his loans and
28Colls. Me. Hist. Soc., Doc. Ser., XVII, 193.
2ªIbid., p. 345.
"Ibid., p. 307.
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credit, that on May 5, 1780, the Province was owing Colonel Thomas the very considerable sum of £32,459.31
General McLane had knowledge of this expedition four days before its arrival. In consequence he bent every effort toward making his position defensible, but even then much vital work remained unfinished, and he was poorly prepared to receive his enemy. Accordingly, as soon as the flotilla made its appearance, he dispatched a messenger to Halifax asking for reinforcements. In this expedition facing the British at Castine, one of the Lincoln County regiments was commanded by Colonel Samuel McCobb and was recruited in the area between Waldoborough and the Penobscot. One company in this regiment was commanded by Captain Philip Ulmer, and it included among others the following men from Waldoborough: Jacob Achorn, John Achorn, Michael Achorn, John Benner, Jacob Genthner, Martin Hoch, George Hoffses, John Hunt, Charles Kaler, Paul Mink, Valentine Mink, Christopher Newbert, Henry Oberloch, Peter Orff, Isaac Sargas, Joseph Simmons, John Ulmer, Jr., Christopher Walch, John Welt, John Werner, and Peter Winchenbach.32 These men were en- rolled for a campaign of two months and had all seen considerable service in the militia. Some of them were boys in their teens, but they knew guns, were excellent marksmen and unsurpassed soldiers in the bush fighting which the terrain rendered necessary.
For two days after the arrival of the force, nothing was at- tempted owing to the surf occasioned by a brisk wind from the south. The morning of the third day was calm and foggy, and in consequence the American fleet was able to draw up in a line just beyond the musket range of the enemy, while two hundred of the militia and two hundred of the marines from the ships made their landing in small boats. The enemy had deployed its naval force in the harbor in such a manner as to bring the entrance under the control of its fire. Hence no landing could be effected save on the western side which was a cliff two hundred feet high, steep and difficult to scale. At the top was posted an enemy force which opened a brisk fire on the Americans as they landed. At the landing place the summit was found inaccessible, and in con- sequence the force was divided into three parties, one deploying to the right and another to the left in search of places suitable for ascending, while the center maintained a brisk fire to distract the attention of the enemy.33
In local histories, wherever there are situations involving distinction and glory, it is customary to have the local boys first on the scene. Apart from such justifiable though perhaps mistaken
31Colls. Me. Hist. Soc., Doc. Ser., XVIII, 257.
32 Mass. Archives, Muster Roll, Secretary's Office, Boston, Mass.
$3 Account based on William D. Williamson's History of Maine (1839), II, 468-478.
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pride, there is excellent evidence for placing the Waldoborough men in the van of the attack. Cyrus Eaton, who was able in his lifetime to talk with some of those engaging in this assault, records that "Capt. Ulmer's company was among the first to ascend, in the face of an opposing body of troops, the bank where they landed," which was so steep that it could only be surmounted in broken ranks by the men clinging as they could to the bushes, and forming their lines anew as they reached the top and were joined by the rest of the men. During this ascent the bullets were said by some of those engaged to be pattering around them like raindrops. Ulmer instructed his men to fire twice during the ascent, then to reload and make the top.34
This maneuver having been successfully effected, the enemy was speedily driven into the fort, leaving thirty men killed, wounded, and prisoners. Considering the obstacles faced, this as- sault was one of the most distinguished feats in American military history, calling for rare skill, determination, and individual hero- ism. From the standpoint of sheer "guts," it outranks the better known feat of Wolfe's men scaling the cliffs at Quebec, which were no higher, where the men followed a well-beaten path which they were not forced to climb under heavy rifle fire. Certainly no one in the world other than backwoodsmen could have ac- complished such a miracle. It leads Williamson to observe that "there was not a more brilliant exploit of itself during the war than this."
This conflict had been sharp but short, lasting only twenty minutes, during which time a force of four hundred men had scaled the most difficult part of the enemy's defense, forced an army twice as numerous to retreat to its defensive works, and thrown up breastworks within seven hundred yards of his main positions. Had the men storming the heights been reinforced im- mediately by the balance of the American forces, the British positions along with their whole base could in all probability have been taken and this campaign ended the day it started,35 but military etiquette intervened as well as the failure of the military and naval commanders to agree. While they differed, argued, and delayed relative to their next step, a greatly superior British fleet put in its appearance from Halifax carrying two hundred guns and fifteen hundred men, and the campaign was over. The Amer- ican flotilla with its supplies and equipment was penned up and destroyed; and the troops were compelled to retreat up the Penob- scot, to cross the river as best they could in small boats and make their way overland through the wilderness to their homes. It may
34Cyrus Eaton, History of Thomaston, Rockland, etc. (Hallowell, 1865).
35 Williamson states: "It was afterwards fully ascertained that Gen. McLane was prepared to capitulate, if a surrender had been demanded."
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with entire confidence be said that the high and stubborn regard of Saltonstall for his own opinions was the major cause of this catastrophe. He was later tried by a Court of Inquiry, found in- competent, and thereafter forever disqualified from holding a commission in the service of the state.
There is further good reason for believing that Waldobor- ough men had speerheaded one of the most heroic episodes of the American Revolution. Christopher Newbert, a boy in his teens, lost an arm in this action, and the certificate on file in his pension papers in Washington, dated at Waldoborough, July 24, 1780, and signed by Major Philip M. Ulmer, certifies that the said Newbert was a soldier in his company and that he lost his arm in battle at "Majabagaduce" on July 28, 1779, the very day the initial assault was made. This evidence bears out the position taken by Eaton, and as the action recounted was the only one taking place on July 28th, it clinches the evidence for the part played by Waldoborough men in this campaign.
In this battle of Castine, the Americans lost one quarter of the four hundred men staging the initial assault. Christopher New- bert was one of these casualties, his right arm having been shat- tered by a cannon ball deflected from its trajectory by a tree. His father, John Newbert, paid £13 in bills of the new money for surgical bills and other expenses. Later Christopher lost his right eye and had his right leg so badly fractured that it barely escaped amputation. Despite these infirmities "it is almost incredible with what skill he could drive his own ox-team, load stones and do other work with his left arm."36 By a resolve of the Court dated Febru- ary 20, 1781, Newbert was allowed half pay from August 28, 1779, the date of his discharge. Later he was pensioned by the Fed- eral Government. When he died in September 1826, he had received $2790.27 in pension money. In later years he moved from Waldo- borough to Liberty, where he lies buried on the shore of Sennebec Pond.
The outcome of the Castine campaign was complete disaster. Massachusetts had financed the expedition at a cost of £50,000 added to her debt. Prodigious wreckage of property, loss of face, and universal chagrin were its fruits. In Maine the consequences were even more fateful. The currency was now forty to one. The price in Falmouth in June of a bushel of corn was $35.00; of wheat meal, $75.00; of molasses, $16.00 per gallon. In August $19.00 bought a pound of tea.37 Debts were heavy, coastal trade was blocked by the enemy, an embargo on the shipping of many essential articles was in effect, business was paralyzed, food was
36Sibley, History of the Town of Union, p. 334.
37 Extracts from the Journals of the Rev. Thomas Smith, 1720-1778 (Portland, Me. : Thomas Todd & Co., 1821), pp. 111-112.
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scarce due to severe droughts, the enemy was established close at hand, Tories were moving in from other parts of New England to enjoy the protection of the British forces, and in conjunction with the local Tories were starting small-scale raids for vengeance and plunder against the patriots in the county, a condition which continued unabated until the end of the war. Against these depre- dations the local militia remained mustered, and furnished such protection as it was able. Captain Starrett's company, containing sixteen Waldoborough men, was stationed to the eastward at Glen Cove, while Captain Jacob Ludwig's company was detailed to duty at Waldoborough from September 21st to November 1st. On this duty were the following Waldoborough men: Lieutenant Jacob Winchenbach, Sergeant Gottfried Bornheimer, and privates George Hoffses, Charles Oberloch, Christopher Walch, Conrad Heyer, Henry Miller, Charles Kaler, Peter Walch, Philip Mink, Matthias Heavener, Martin Heisler, Christian Hoffses, John Wer- ner, Solim Mink, Henry Walch, Christian Schmidt, Jonathan Stover (or Storer), Joseph Ludwig, and Paul Mink.38
This year of distress in Lincoln County ended with unusual severity. A heavy fall of snow, two feet deep or more, fell at Christmas; there was another at New Year with still deeper snow. The wind was strong to the northwest and in consequence every- thing disappeared; "fences did not emerge for the balance of the winter." Travelling could be carried on only on snowshoes. There were no thermometers to register the temperature of these times, but the intensity of the cold may be inferred from the fact that for forty-eight days the sun did not have the force to soften the snow even on roofs. The whole coast was frozen for miles out to sea. Lieutenant Benjamin Burton, stationed at Camden with a body of militia under Captain George Ulmer, went under a flag of truce to obtain the release of a prisoner at Castine. On this errand he proceeded directly across Penobscot Bay to Castine and returned on the ice.
The new state constitution, long under discussion and draft, was completed in January of this year (1780). It was then printed and distributed among all the towns and plantations for their ratification by a required majority of two thirds of the voters present in each town. This approval was obtained and the consti- tution went into effect on the last Wednesday of October and remained unaltered until after the separation of Maine from Massa- chusetts. Under this new dispensation, the first Governor of the District of Maine was John Hancock. As usual in all questions involving any change in the status quo, Waldoborough was dila- tory and anti. On this question it had repeatedly voted against
38Gould, British and Tory Marauders on the Penobscot.
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adoption and at its meeting of September 18th of this year it voted "to drop the matter of electing a Governor, persons for Counsellors and Senators."
The town from its very beginnings as a corporate entity was slow, indifferent, and conservative in action. Not until a year after the General Court had decreed that towns would have to pay their own soldiers did Waldoborough act. At its March meeting of 1780 it ambiguously voted "that all soldiers that shall be cawled for this present year shall be raised by way of a town warrant." This can only mean that the town would provide its quota and appropriate money for the soldiers' equipment and pay. Then again at its meeting of May 22nd it tardily voted "to raise £2100 to pay the soldiers that listed last spring for eight months," just one year behind in the matter of action. Unqualified admiration is at least due from posterity to those men of the town who served the cause eight months without pay. Or did these soldiers receive pay in kind? If so, such compensation was even more dilatory, for in the meeting of September 18th it was voted "that the corne that has been paid by the towne to the soldiers last spring be valued at $40.00 per bushel." The Legislature continued its policy of levying commodity instead of money taxes, and this year Waldoborough seems to have met this demand with reason- able promptness, for on October 28th it voted to raise the money "to purchase for the army 3360 lbs of beef agreeable to a resolve of the State of September 25, Esqr. Thomas to furnish three quarters of the quota and Mr. George Demuth the other quarter at 30 cents per pound, the assessors to assess the inhabitants £3040 for to pay for the sd. beef."39
Beyond these facts the town records give little insight into the happenings of the year 1780. It was, however, an active and exciting year for the people in the local area. Throughout the win- ter both the British and the Tories had continued their harrying tactics, and many an individual had been plundered, threatened, and abused by them. General McLane was himself a man of noble spirit, but not his subordinates who when abroad were beyond his control. The Tories especially, many of them deprived of their property and foot-loose, relying on the nearness of the British forces for a refuge if needed, became constant prowlers and raiders both by land and water. They knew every detail of the coast, and, from the inside waters, raided the coasters which were compelled to lay in close to shore to escape the British cruisers farther out. These operations were carried on in large open boats known as "shaving mills," driven by both oars and sails, which enabled them to take up positions that took fullest
3ª Records of the Town Clerk, Waldoborough.
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advantage of the prevailing winds. Their superior mobility often placed the coasters at their mercy, and they were able to seize and loot or to drive them deep into the inlets where they would be abandoned by their crews. This kind of warfare was not a matter of the "destruction that wasteth at noonday," but rather of the "terror that flieth by night." There were mysterious doings and fleeting shadows; this was an eerie time. On a moonlight night in 1780 a rowboat landed in the Farnsworth Cove, and eight or ten men stepped ashore. Lugging among them a heavy chest, they crossed the Farnsworth meadows, disappeared in the woods and were never seen again.40 Such activity was in no sense the exception. People everywhere in Waldoborough hid their valuables in the woods and swamps, and those having gold or silver articles, a few spoons or suchlike, buried them.
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