USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Portland > The burning of Falmouth (now Portland, Maine), by Capt. Mowatt in 1775 > Part 2
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men composing one company and part of another were at dusk sent down quietly to guard the sheep, cattle and hay.
The next day, Tuesday, the wind being still ahead and very strong, the vessels warped up the harbor, and anchored in line in front of the town. By a drawing still preserved, we are enabled to fix the position and rig of each vessel. The Canceau of 16 guns, the flag-ship, was anchored opposite the foot of India street. Next above was a schooner of 12 guns. Then the ship Cat of 20 guns, opposite Union wharf, and a bomb sloop above all. The store-schooner took a station below the armed vessels.
Late in the afternoon, Capt. Mowatt sent an officer on shore with a letter. in which he said the town had been guilty of the most unpardonable re- bellion, and from having it in orders to execute a just punishment on the town of Falmonth, he gave two hours for the removal of the " human specie" out of the town, at the period of which a red pennant would be hoisted at the main-top-gallant-mast head, with a gun.
Dr. Deane says : "Near sunset he made known his errand by a flag (of trnce), with a letter full of bad English, and worse spelling."
The Rev. Jacob Bailey of Pownalborough, who had been officiating at St. Paul's church after Mr. Wiswall had left, says in a letter: " The officer landed at the foot of King street amid a prodigions assembly of people and was conveyed with uncommon parade to the town-house, and silence being commanded, a letter was delivered, and read by Mr. Bradbury, a lawyer ; but not without such visible emotion as occasioned a tremor in his voice." After repeating the contents or import of the letter, he says : " It is im- possible to describe the amazement which prevailed on the reading of the alarming declaration. A frightful consternation ran through the assembly ; a profound silence ensued for several moments. Then a committee of three was chosen, one of whom was Dr. Coffin, brother of the wife of Capt. Coulson, to wait on the commodore." This and much more is from the pen of one who received his support from the mother country and was a loyalist. His description of the bombardment, and the fright of the people, makes the scene appear almost ludicrous.
Besides Dr. Coffin, mentioned by Mr. Bailey, Gen. Preble and Robert Pagan were on the committee. It is worthy of remark that this committee were all Episcopalians, and members of St. Paul's parish. The committee immediately went on board the Cancean. In answer to their remonstrance, Capt. Mowatt informed them that his orders from the admiral did not an- thorize him to give any warning to the inhabitants. but they required him to come "opposite the town with all possible expedition [not to go into Portsmouth. ] and there burn, sink and destroy," and that he had taken it upon himself to give warning, at the risk of losing his commission.
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The committee say, "we expostulated with him upon the severity of such orders, and entreating that if possible some method might be fallen upon to save the town ; or at least to give the inhabitants an opportunity of moving some of their effects ; upon which he said, that if the inhabitants would in the morning, by eight o'clock, deliver up four pieces of canon which were then in the town, with their arms in general, and ammunition, he would in that case do no harm to the town until he had despatched an express to the admiral, who he did not doubt would order him to save the town. And as a token that his demand would be complied with, he required that eight small arms should be delivered up by eight o'clock that evening, which should be the condition of the town's being safe until eight o'clock the next morning.
The committee told him that his demands would not in their opinion be complied with, but that they would inform the town of his conditions. The committee communicated the result of their interview with Capt. Mowatt to the people, who were waiting in the town-house. No vote was taken, but it was thought best to send the small-arms that evening, in order to gain time to remove the sick, with the women and children, and what property could be got away that night.
Wednesday morning, the 18th, the citizens met, and "resolved by no means to deliver up the cannon and other arms," and sent the same com- mittee with the answer.
I must digress a little here to supply a little historical matter not found in the books. By examining Mr. Freeman's notes, it will be seen that there were no cannon in Falmouth at the time of Mowatt's visit in May, and that he had sent a letter on shore then, saying that he had heard that eamon were to be brought from the country to destroy his ship, and threatened to fire on the town in case of such an attempt.
We find, at the burning in October, that there were four cannon in town. There is no written account of where these guns came from. I am glad to be able to explain this. In 1743 the Massachusetts colony furnished the castern frontier-towns with small cannon to defend their timber-forts against the Indians, and to give the alarm to other settlements in case of an attack. Windham's share of these gims was a long nine-pounder iron gun, which was mounted in front of the fort, within the stockade, to fire as an alarm gun, and two swivels, one for each watch-box at the diagonal corners of the fort. This nine-pounder and one swivel, it is well known, were carried to Fal- mouth when mother England began to be more feared than the Indians. These guns were finally put on board the privateer Reprieve, Capt. Stone, of Falnonth, in 1776.
Gorham did not fare quite as well as Windham in the distribution of the
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guns : they got only two six-pound swivels, which were in their fort in 1775. One of them was fired when the Indians attacked the settlers in 1746, which brought twelve armed men from Falmouth to their assistance. Of course they were in duty bound to assist their deliverers. These two guns, tradition says, were carried to Falmouth at the commencement of the revolutionary troubles, and an effort was made to have them returned, but without success. It was undoubtedly these four guns which Mowatt tried in vain to secure. Perhaps one reason why the Falmouth people hung to them with such tenacity, was that they were borrowed.
We will now return to the negotiations about these guns on Wednesday morning. We left the committee on their way to the ship, with the answer of the town's people to Mowatt's demand. They were directed to spend as long a time on board as possible, to give time to secure more property. They remained on board until half-past eight o'clock, when they were requested by Mowatt to go on shore. He probably felt sore at the refusal of the citizens to be disarmed. The committee obtained half an hour to get out of the way themselves.
Prompt at the moment of 9 o'clock, the dreaded signal went up " to the main-top-gallant-mast head with a gun" on board the flag-ship, followed immediately by the blood red pennant on all the other vessels : an appro- priate color under which to commit such a dastardly act.
Col. Enoch Freeman, in his letter to his son, says : " the firing began from all the vessels with all possible briskness, discharging on all parts of the town, which lay on a regular descent towards the harbor, an horrible shower of balls from three to nine lbs. weight, bombs, carcasses, live shells, grape- shot, and musketballs. The firing lasted, with very little cessation, until six o'clock, P. M., during which several parties came on shore to set buildings on fire. Parties of our people and others from the neighboring towns ran down to oppose them, and it is thought killed several."
I am writing this in a house the frame of which was partly raised that morning. The men employed heard the guns ten miles off, and knew what they meant, and they hurried away to the assistance of Falmouth.
Of the parties who landed to set fires, one officer was struck down and disarmed near the present custom house, according to Dr. Deane.
I saw, 50 years ago, a tin speaking-trumpet, nearly caten up by rust, which was taken from an officer with a torch in his hand. This, with several can- . non-shot, was kept in a closet under the high pulpit of the old meeting- house of the first parish. The shot had pierced the venerable structure, and set it on fire; but the fire was extinguished. This trumpet and the shot were then kept there as mementos of the burning. One shot is still preserved. I have never seen this trumpet alluded to in any account of the bombardment.
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None of the town's people were killed, and only one was wounded. Widow Alice Grecle, who kept the fashionable tavern of the town, saved her house by remaining in it, and extinguishing the flames when it caught fire. The selectmen, in a published statement, say that abont three quarters of the buildings, including 130 dwelling houses, St. Paul's ( Episcopal) church with the bell, the town house, a new fire-engine, and the public library were consumed. Only one or two wharves escaped the flames. What vessels were not consumed were taken away by the enemy, for such we must now call them.
On Pointer's draught, already mentioned, every house, and store, and publie building is drawn as it stood before the fire; those which were des- troyed are so marked. This draught was sent to Dr. Deane to correct, which he did. In a letter to Mr. Freeman on the subject, he says : " Let barns, &c., be placed where you ean recollect any, and perhaps it would not be amiss to make some where you do not recollect any." It was then the intention to have it engraved immediately, but this was not done until 1849.
The first tears I ever shed for another's misfortunes were, I think, for the suffering women and children of Falmonth. I often heard their story re- peated by an old lady, who lived near my father's, until I was afraid to go home in the evening for fear of meeting Mowatt, or some of his incendiaries, with a fire-brand. This good woman, at the time of the burning, lived in the town, in " Clay Cove." Her husband had enlisted in the continental army, intending to leave his wife and child in their sung home in Falmouth. On the arrival of the ships he was one of those who went to the islands to guard the cattle and sheep, and could not return until the firing had com- menced. His name was Barton, and he was then abont 28 and his wife 20 years old. Mrs. Barton remained in her house waiting for her husband, until the hot shot and shells began to fall near, and several of the neighbor- ing buildings were on fire, and her own dwelling had become untenable. She could wait no longer. She tied up hier only feather bed with some small articles of clothing in a sheet, and slung it over her shoulder. She then took her little boy on her other arm and fled from the burning town. To reach a place of safety she was obliged to walk nearly a mile through the most thickly settled part of the town, with the ships in full view. Several times bombs with their smoking fuses fell near her, and she quick- ened her pace to escape the explosion. With many others she took shelter under the high ledges near the Casco street church, which have since been blasted away. The vicinity was then a grove of oaks, which gave Oak street its name. A 3 1b. shot fell near her, which she seenred. Here her husband found her on his return from the islands, and here they remained
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until nearly night. When the firing had slackened they ventured ont, and, after depositing their bed in a place of safety, walked to her father's in Windham, eleven miles ; one carrying the child, and the other the canon shot, and occasionally changing.
Their dwelling and household goods were burnt, and they were compelled to begin the world anew. Barton and his wife's father built a small log house half a mile from the father's, and here he left his wife and joined Capt. Richard Mayberry's company as corporal. This was the fifth com- pany of the eleventh regiment of the Massachusetts Bay forces, in the army commanded by Gen. Gates at the capture of Burgoyne in 1777. This com- pany was also in the battles of Momnouth and Hubbardston. At the end of his term of three years service, Barton left the army, and was paid off in paper money which was almost worthless. He came home and went to work with a will, but was soon after killed by a falling tree. His widow suffered many hardships in her poverty, but a government pension very much relieved her declining years. She died in 1841, aged 86.
On the day set apart for the commemoration of the soldiers' services and sufferings, I am careful that Barton's grave is not forgotten.
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