USA > Maine > The history of Maine, from the earliest discovery of the region by the Northmen until the present time; including a narrative of the voyages and explorations of the early adventurers, the manners and customs of the Indian tribes, the hardships of the first settlers, etc > Part 34
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BUSSSEL.RICHARDSON.SO
LAST BLOCK HOUSE OF FORT HALIFAX.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION : FALMOUTH IN ASHES.
The British Fleet -The Doom announced - The Conference - The Bombard- ment - The Expedition to . Quebec -The Repulse -Friendliness of the Indians -New Towns incorporated -The British repulsed at Machias - Anecdote of John Adams - Arrival of the French Fleet - The Foe estab- lished at Biguyduce - Terrible Naval Disaster of the Americans - Barbarism of the English - The Capture of Gen. Wadsworth - His Brave Defence - His Escape.
T THE storm of British vengeance was rapidly gathering, which was to doom unhappy Falmouth to destruction. On the 8th of June the " Senegal," a war vessel of sixteen guns, arrived, and cast anchor in the harbor. Four days after, the Tory Coulson came with his new ship, and anchored by the side of the " Sene- gal." Coulson hoped, under the menace of such a force, to obtain masts for his ship. But as he was a declared enemy of the town, and the Provincial Congress had passed a resolve to prevent Tories from conveying their property out of the country, the people would not allow him to take the masts.
Again both vessels departed, and nothing of special interest occurred until the 16th of October. That morning quite a fleet was seen entering the harbor. Capt. Mowatt led the way in the " Canseau." He was followed by a ship-of-war, the " Cat," two armed schooners, and a bomb-sloop. These five vessels anchored abreast of the town, bringing their broadsides to bear upon it. In consequence of strong head-winds, this was not accomplished until the next day.
Late in the afternoon a flag of truce was sent on shore, with a letter to the town authorities. The officer bearing the letter landed at the foot of what was then called King Street. An
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immense throng of the excited people met him, and followed him, without noise or violence, to the Town House, where he delivered the letter. It was a document ludicrous for its bad grammar, but clear in its terrible announcement. In brief it was as follows : -
" You have long experienced Britain's forbearance in withholding the rod of correction. You have been guilty of the most unpardonable rebel- lion. I am ordered to execute just punishment on the town of Falmouth. I give you two hours in which you can remove the sick and the infirm. I shall then open fire, and lay the town in ashes." 1
Terrible was the consternation which this letter created. For - a moment there was perfect silence. All seemed stupefied. There was scarcely a moment's time for deliberation. Three gentlemen were chosen to visit Mowatt, and see if it were not possible to avert the threatened calamity. But Mowatt was inflexible. He said that his orders were peremptory, and that he had risked the loss of his commission by allowing his humanity so far to influence him as to give them any warn- ing whatever; that he was ordered to anchor "opposite the town with all possible expedition, and then burn, sink, and destroy." 2
It is worthy of remark that the three gentlemen of the com- mittee were all Episcopalians, and members of Rev. Mr. Wis- wall's parish, and thus supposed friends of the English. It was late in the afternoon. A long, cold October night was at hand. Mothers and babes, the sick and the dying, were to be driven out into the bleak fields shelterless ; there, with tears of agony, to see their homes, their furniture, their clothing, their provis- ions, all consumed by the cruel flames. A more barbarous order was never issued by a band of Mohawk savages.3
The committee expostulated with Mowatt upon the cruelty of his order. They were his friends. They had treated him
1 See this letter in full, in Willis's History of Portland, p. 517.
2 Burning of Falmouth, by William Gould, p. 12.
8 "The vessels came here directly from Boston; and no doubt can be enter- tained that the order for the destruction of the town proceeded from Admiral Graves, who then commanded in this station." - History of Portland, by William Willis, p. 518.
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with great hospitality on his previous visit. There were several Tory families in the place who had already suffered much from their adherence to the British Government. Their homes must be consumed with the rest. The flames would make no discrimi- nation. Mowatt was confused and perplexed, and manifested some shame in view of the barbarous order he was called upon to execute.
At length he consented to delay the bombardment until nine o'clock the next morning, if the people would consent to the humiliation of entirely disarming themselves, by delivering to him all the cannon, small arms, and ammunition in the place. If eight small arms were sent before eight o'clock that evening, he would postpone the destruction of the town until he had sent an express to Boston, and received further instructions.
The committee told him frankly that they did not think that . the citizens would accept those terms. They returned to the town, and communicated them to the authorities. An anxious multitude was assembled at the Town House to learn the result of the conference. As with one voice the heroic people rejected the humiliating proposal. They however, in order to gain time for the removal of the women, the children, the sick, and as many of their effects as possible, sent the eight small arms, with a message to Mowatt, that they would summon a town meeting at an early hour in the morning, and give him a definite reply before eight o'clock.
In the morning the meeting was held. The citizens, with heroism worthy of Sparta in her brightest days, resolved that they would not surrender their arms to save their property. This answer was sent back at eight o'clock the next morning by the same committee. The members were allowed half an hour to row ashore and escape beyond the reach of the bombard- ment.
Promptly at nine o'clock, the signal of attack was run up to the mast-head of the flag-ship, and at the same moment the blood-red pennant of British vengeance was unfurled from all the other vessels.1 It was a beautiful autumnal morning, with
1 The Burning of Falmouth, by William Gould, p. 14.
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a cloudless sky, a gentle breeze, and an invigorating atmosphere. The whole lovely expanse of bay and island and continent seemed to repose in the smiles of a loving God. Falmouth was charmingly situated, on the southern slope of a gentle emi- nence facing the bay. It was the largest and richest town in the State. There were about four hundred dwelling-houses, quite compactly built, though each had its garden. Some of these dwellings were quite elegant in their structure. There were also capacious churches, a library, and several public build- ings of importance, together with many barns and store-houses.
Such was the town which was destroyed, and such the day on which this atrocious act of crime and inhumanity was perpe- trated. The bombardment was terrific. From nine o'clock in the morning until six in the evening an incessant storm of can- non-balls, bombs, carcasses, shells, grape-shot, and bullets, fell upon the doomed town. In the mean time one hundred men were landed in boats to apply the torch to the buildings which might be out of the range of shot and shell.1
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No resistance could be of any avail. The inhabitants ran great risks in their endeavors to save their furniture, while this tempest of war was raging around them. The town soon presented a roaring volcanic sheet of flame. Most of the build- ings were of wood, which had been thoroughly dried in the sum- mer sun. Dreadful was the spectacle which the evening of that awful day presented. Two hundred and seventy-eight dwell- ing-houses were in ashes, in addition to other public and private buildings, which brought the whole number destroyed up to four hundred and fourteen. We cannot here enter into the details of individual misery. Many cases were truly heart- rending.
Edmund Burke says that to speak of atrocious crime in mild language is treason to virtue. There can be no language too strong in which to denounce this fiend-like outrage.2 A very
1 History of Portland, by William Willis, p. 519.
2 We are in cordial sympathy with the spirit manifested by the Rev. Samuel Deane, D.D., who was then pastor of the Congregational church in Portland, and who witnessed the bombardment. He wrote, -
" That execrable scoundrel and monster of ingratitude, Capt. H. Mowatt of Scotland, who had been treated with extraordinary kindness a few months before
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careful estimate was made of the amount of the losses experi- enced. They reached the enormous sum, in those days, of fifty- four thousand five hundred and twenty-seven pounds, thirteen shillings. This was lawful money, which was then equivalent to two hundred and twenty-nine thousand six hundred and thirty-nine dollars in silver.1
Soon after this the General Court commenced rearing some fortifications at Falmouth, and sent four hundred soldiers to aid in guarding the coast of Maine. Gen. Washington projected an expedition against Quebec. The force consisted of about eleven hundred men, mainly infantry. Col. Benedict Arnold, whose gallantry was established, and whose patriotism was then unsullied, was placed in command. The troops rendezvoused at Newburyport, Mass., and sailed thence, in ten transports, for Fort Western, which, it will be remembered, was at the head of tide-water on the Kennebec River. They ascended the river still farther in boats, and marched along the pathless banks, encountering the most exhausting difficulties, until they reached a point about thirty miles above Norridgewock. It was then about the 12th of October.
Here a small fort was built, and a small division left in gar- rison. A series of terrible disasters ensued. There were gales of almost wintry wind, floods of rain, swollen torrents, swamps, rugged hills, tangled forests, and failing provisions. There was reason to fear that the whole army would actually perish of hunger in the wilderness. Many barrels of food were lost, with
by the town of Falmouth, obtained an order from Graves, one of King George's admirals lying at Boston, to burn and destroy the said town.
" He came before it on the 17th of October, 1775, and near sunset made known his infernal errand, by a flag, with a letter full of bad English and worse spelling; at the same time proposing to spare the town, and endeavor to get the order re- versed, if the cannon and arms, with some persons as hostages, were delivered into his hands. The inhabitants assembled, and voted by no means to submit to this infamous proposal. Therefore he spent the next day in cannonading, bombarding, and throwing an immense quantity of carcasses and shells into the defenceless town, and kindling some fires with torches, whereby more than three-quarters of the buildings were reduced to ashes, and the remaining ones greatly torn and damaged; by which horrible devastation many hundred persons were reduced to extreme distress.
"If you do not like the words execrable scoundrel, you may substitute infamous incendiary, or what you please." - Diary of Rev. Samuel Deane, p. 241.
1 History of Portland, by William Willis, p. 524.
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silver, clothes, guns, and ammunition. Upon reaching the mouth of Dead River, far away in the savage wilderness, Col. Enos, in command of the rear guard, and having the sick under his care, abandoned the enterprise, and returned. He had with him about one-fourth of the army. For this movement he was at first severely denounced ; but a court-martial decided that he had not acted unwisely in so doing.
Arnold, with his small force, pressed on across the country, a distance of about one hundred miles, toward the Chaudière. He had to force his way through wilds never before trodden but by Indians and the beasts of the forest. On the 30th of Octo- ber he reached, through toils and sufferings which cannot be adequately described, the northern end of Lake Megantic, where the River Chaudière flows from that vast sheet of water. Their distress was then so great, and their remaining provisions so small, that Arnold divided all the supplies among the compa- nies, and directed them to press on, regardless of military order, in search of the Canadian villages.
For a month they toiled along without seeing a house, or any human being save their own disheartened and emaciated com- panions. Every morsel of food was consumed before they had arrived within thirty miles of the first Canadian village. They killed their dogs, and devoured them. They boiled, and then broiled upon the fire and ate, their breeches, moccasins, and bayo- · net-belts, which were made of tanned moose-hide .. On the 4th of November they reached the mouth of De Loup River. In that northern latitude it was cold, dreary, and stormy. Quebec, on the St. Lawrence, was still ninety miles north of them. Many died of fatigue and hunger. Often a man would drop down in such utter misery, that in less than five minutes he would be dead.
The situation of the army was awful. To retreat was im- possible ; for there was nothing but certain starvation before them in the wilderness. To stop where they were, was inevita- ble death. To march forward was almost hopeless. They were in utter destitution. The men tottered along so feebly that they could scarcely shoulder a gun. Washington, with his charac- teristic humanity, had instructed these troops to abstain from every act of violence upon the people of Canada.
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" I charge you," he wrote, " that you consider yourselves as marching, not through an enemy's country, but that of your friends and brethren ; for such the inhabitants of Canada and the Indian nations have approved themselves in this unhappy contest between Great Britain and America."
Col. Arnold had been furnished with money, in specie, to the amount of about four thousand dollars. His troops now began to reach thriving Canadian and Indian villages. With great cheerfulness the inhabitants supplied him with food. With recruited energies the army pressed on, hoping to find Quebec undefended and without a garrison. On the 8th of November they reached Point Levi, on the southern bank of the river opposite Quebec. The appearance of the American troops, emerging from the vast and dreary wilderness, was as unex- pected as if they had descended from the clouds. It is said, that, could they have immediately crossed the river, Quebec might have been taken.
But the men were greatly exhausted. There was a high, piercing wintry wind, roughening the wide surface of the stream. Boats could not readily be procured. Thus the golden oppor- tunity was lost. The British authorities fortified the city. Arnold had about seven hundred men at Point Levi, fifty of whom were friendly Indians. On the first of December, Gen. Montgomery arrived with three armed schooners, six hundred men, and a supply of food, clothing, and ammunition. They made a united attack upon Quebec, on the 31st of December. The assailants were repelled, Montgomery fell, and the Ameri- cans evacuated Canada.
The General Court, that winter, organized Maine into a mili- tary division. A brigadier-general was appointed over the militia in each county. All able-bodied males, between sixteen and sixty, were enrolled to do military duty, with the exception of settled ministers of the gospel, Quakers, colored men, and Indians.
The awful war of the Revolution was raging south of Maine, while a small garrison was stationed at Falmouth with a battery of six cannon. The cruelties perpetrated by the British Gov- ernment were so great that every hour the resentment of the
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Americans, against the unnatural mother country, was increas- ing. On the 4th of July, 1776, the Continental Congress declared these colonies to be free, sovereign, and independent.
The Indians of Maine had, thus far, remained quiet. Trading- houses had been established at Fort Pownal, near where Bangor now stands, and at Machias. The Penobscot and Passama- quoddy Indians were cordially friendly to the Americans. Ten of the chiefs of the tribes still farther east repaired to Massa- chusetts, and entered into a treaty of alliance with the govern- ment, engaging to send six hundred men to join the army of Gen. Washington. The small settlements of Camden and Machias raised two hundred men for the defence of the country. Thirty men, ten of whom were Indians, were stationed at Fort Pownal for the defence of the valley of the Penobscot.
On the 7th of November, 1776, the town of Warren was incorporated. It was named in honor of Gen. Warren who fell at Bunker Hill. This was the thirty-fifth town of the State, and was the first one which had been incorporated on St. George's River, though that valley had been settled for about forty years. There were for many years two settlements in this region, - one at Warren, and one at Thomaston. St. George's Fort was their common resort in times of peril. They were called the " Upper and Lower Towns." In the year 1753, seventy emigrants from Sterling, in Scotland, settled in a cluster in this vicinity. Subsequently their village took the name of the city which they had left.
England found that her colonies developed unexpected ener- gies. Our cruisers were remarkably successful. During the war they captured prizes to the amount of about seven million dollars. Amidst many reverses and many woes, the victory at Trenton filled the country with exultation. Our ally France, in the spring of 1777, sent to the colonies a large amount of arms and military stores. For the defence of the coast of Maine, companies were raised and stationed at Falmouth, Cape Eliza-
1 Warren contains twenty-seven thousand acres. The river is navigable to Andrews Pond, for vessels of one hundred tons. Shad and alewives were for- merly taken in immense quantities in the river. The natives marked a tree, near the first falls, above which they forbade the English to fish. - MS. Narrative of Warren by Cyrus Eaton, as quoted by Williamson, vol. ii. p. 456.
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beth, and Boothbay. At the latter place there was a battery of five cannon, the largest of which was a twelve-pounder. They were supplied with fifty rounds of cartridges.1
Machias became a very important place. It was raised to a continental establishment. There was an important mill privi- lege here which attracted settlers. Three hundred volunteer soldiers were placed there in garrison. Ample stores for trade with the Indians were shipped to that place, that their continued
LOWER FALLS, EAST MACHIAS, ME.
friendship might be secured. The Indians remained friendly, and many of them enlisted in the service of the Americans.
On the 11th of January, 1777, the flourishing plantation of Fryeburg was incorporated. The place had renown as the former seat of a large village belonging to the tribe of Sokokis Indians. It was also the theatre of Lovewell's disastrous fight in the year 1725. The Indians called the place Pegwacket.2
1 Bradford's Mass., vol. ii. p. 133.
2 Williamson, vol. ii. p. 459.
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On the 20th of March, Thomaston was incorporated. This made the thirty-seventh town in the State. Its Indian name was Georgeekeag. Thomaston received its name from a brave officer of Massachusetts, Major-Gen. John Thomas, who had died the preceding May, in the service of his country. The fort in this place gave it celebrity above any other town in the valley of the St. George. In 1750 the fort was so crowded, in consequence of the Indian war, that about twenty families built two rows of block-houses, one hundred rods from the fort, and surrounded them with palisades ten feet high. All the men served alternately as guards and sentinels, ever ready to muster to repel an attack.
The British sent four war-vessels, to batter down Machias. They anchored about a mile below the junction of East and West Machias Rivers. They burned two dwelling-houses, and several other buildings. The barges then, in a dead calm, towed two of the vessels, a brig and a sloop, to the mouth of Middle River, about half a mile below the falls. The garrison, aided by the Indians, opened a deadly fire from each shore upon the barges, and drove the sailors from their boats on board the brig. The current swept her ashore. The men were driven by the bullets, from the deck into the hold. The rising tide soon floated the brig ; but the fire from the north shore was kept up so briskly that the men could not work her, and she soon grounded again.
It was indeed a wonderful scene which was then and there witnessed. There were fifty Passamaquoddy Indians engaged in the attack upon the vessels. It was congenial work for them. They could run along the shore, hide behind the trees, stumps, and logs, and take deliberate aim at their foes, without en- dangering themselves. Every man in the place, capable of bearing arms, rushed to the conflict. The Indians kept up an incessant, shrill war-whoop. The white people re-echoed the shout. These yells, from foes who were scarcely visible, echoing through the forest, led the English to suppose that the shores were lined with thousands of savages.
A breeze arose. Aided by this the two vessels effected a retreat to the other two vessels which were at anchor. The
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officers, surprised at the vigor of the resistance which they had encountered, after the delay of a few days abandoned the enter- prise. The Indians merited and received the gratitude of the Americans for their faithful adherence to their cause. Had they listened to the appeals of the English, they might easily, with their aid, have destroyed all the eastern settlements.1
In the year 1777, Burgoyne's surrender caused nine thousand of our enemies to lay down their arms.2 There was no longer any fear of the invasion of Maine from Canada. During the progress of the war Maine gained much celebrity from the hardy and skilled seamen she furnished our infant navy. In addition to their almost perfect seamanship, they were generally young men of good character and habits. Commodore Samuel Tucker, one of the bravest of the brave, who conveyed in a Continental frigate Hon. John Adams as American envoy to France, was a native of Bristol, Me. Hon. Mr. Sprague, in his eulogy of Adams and Jefferson, relates the following well-authenticated anecdote of an event which occurred on the passage : -
On the 14th of March, a vessel hove in sight. Capt. Tucker soon came up with it, and found it to be an armed British cruiser. After a hotly contested battle it was captured. In the midst of the tumult and the carnage, Capt. Tucker, much to his surprise, saw his illustrious passenger on deck, musket in hand, fighting like a common sailor. The captain, who was a very powerful man, rushed up to Mr. Adams, and in excited accents exclaimed, " You here, sir! You have no business here, sir ! I am commanded to carry you safely to Europe ; and, God help- ing me, I will do it." So saying, he seized Mr. Adams in his arms, and carried him, as though he were a child, down into the cabin.3
In the year 1778, two new towns were incorporated. The first was Coxhall, subsequently Lyman, named probably in honor of Theodore Lyman of Boston. A few settlers had
1 "Great credit is due to the Indians for their rigid adherence to our cause ; although, at times, the commissary's department was destitute of sufficient pro- visions and clothing for them." - Judge Jones.
2 The British force surrendered was 6,280; Burgoyne's other losses amounted to 2,933. Total, 9,213. - Holmes's American Annals, vol. ii. p. 391.
8 Life of John Adams. Lives of The Presidents, p. 74.
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penetrated the wilderness at this place, about ten years before. The other town was Gray, so named from one of its proprietors. Nearly thirty years before, an attempt had been made to establish a settlement here ; but, during the French war, the plantation had been laid waste. In all these new towns the inhabitants. were ardent friends of liberty. The Tories resided in the more opulent towns, where officers, under the British Government, exerted a powerful influence over the aristocratic circles of society. This year a law was passed confiscating the estates of three hundred and ten of the Tories, who had resided in the State, but who had many of them fled, taking refuge on board the British fleet. They generally deemed it impossible that the Americans could resist the power of Great Britain, and doubted not that they would soon be returned in triumph to their homes.
The battle of Monmouth, on the 28th of June, 1778, gave new hopes to the Americans; which hopes received another impulse from the arrival of a French fleet of twelve ships of the line and six frigates, to aid them in their struggle against their gigantic foe. The territory of Massachusetts, which included Maine, was at this time divided into three districts, the North- ern, Middle, and Southern. The counties of York, Cumberland, and Lincoln received the distinctive name of the "District of Maine." Timothy Langdon, Esq., an eminent lawyer of Wis- casset, was appointed judge.
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