The Penobscot Expedition was an unsuccessful expedition launched by the Massachusetts Provincial Congress during the American Revolutionary War. On June 17, 1779, 700 British Army troops under Brigadier-general Francis McLean landed on the coast of the District of Maine and established a series of fortifications around Fort George on the Majabigwaduce Peninsula in the upper Penobscot Bay with the goals of establishing a military presence on that part of the coast and establishing the colony of New Ireland. In response, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, supported by the Second Continental Congress, raised an expedition to drive McLean's troops out.
On July 19, an American fleet of 19 warships and 25 support vessels under Commodore Dudley Saltonstall set sail from Boston carrying an expeditionary force under the overall command of Brigadier General Solomon Lovell which comprised more than 1,000 colonial marines and militiamen along with 100 artillerists under Lieutenant Colonel Paul Revere. The largest American naval expedition of the war, Lovell's troops landed at their destination on July 25 and laid siege to Fort George in an engagement which was seriously hampered by disagreements between Lovell and Saltonstall, who was later dismissed from the Continental Navy for ineptitude.
For almost three weeks, McLean held off the attackers until a British relief squadron under Captain Sir George Collier arrived from New York City on August 13 and drove the American fleet up the Penobscot River, capturing two ships and forcing the Americans to scuttle the other 42 by burning over the next three days to prevent them from falling into British hands. The expedition's survivors made an overland journey back to more populated parts of Massachusetts with minimal food and arms. The expedition, which resulted in Revere being dismissed from the Massachusetts Militia, proved to be the United States' worst naval defeat until the attack on Pearl Harbor 162 years later in 1941.
Background
British war planners looked for ways to gain control over the New England colonies following the somewhat successful raid on Machias in 1777 and General John Burgoyne's failed Saratoga campaign, but most of their effort was directed at another campaign against the southern colonies. Secretary of State for the Colonies Lord George Germain and his Under-Secretary William Knox were responsible for the war effort, and they wanted to establish a base on the coast of the District of Maine that could be used to protect Nova Scotia's shipping and communities from American privateers and raiders. The British also hoped to keep open the timber supply of the Maine coast for masts and spars for the Royal Navy. The coast down to the Penobscot was also next to the Bay of Fundy, which was easily approached from the large British naval base at Halifax. Loyalist refugees in Castine had also proposed establishing a new colony or province to be called New Ireland as a precursor to New Brunswick. Sir Francis Bernard supported the idea of a new colony, as it would make "a resort for the persecuted loyalists of New England".
John Nutting was a Loyalist who had piloted Sir George Collier's expedition against Machias, and Knox induced him to write to Germain in January 1778 to promote the idea of a British military presence in Maine; he later dispatched him to London to do so in person. Nutting described the Castine peninsula as having a harbor that "could hold the entire British Navy" and was so easily defensible that "1,000 men and two ships" could protect it against any Continental force. He also proposed that the strategic location of such a post would help to carry the war to New England and would offer protection for Nova Scotia. Germain drafted orders for Lieutenant General Henry Clinton on September 2, to establish "a province between the Penobscot and St. Croix rivers. Post to be taken on Penobscot River".
Germain ordered Clinton to "send such a detachment of troops at Nova Scotia, or of the provincials under your immediate command, as you shall judge proper and sufficient to defend themselves against any attempt the rebels in those parts may be able to make during the winter to take post on Penobscot River, taking with them all necessary implements for erecting a fort, together with such ordnance and stores as may be proper for its defense, and a sufficient supply of provisions." However, Nutting's ship was captured by an American privateer and he was forced to dump his dispatches, bringing an end to the idea of a new colony in 1778.
Order of battle
Royal Navy
American fleet
- 1st Squadron, commanded by Solomon Lovell
- USS Warren (32 guns)
- Vengeance (24 guns)
- Charming Sally (22 guns) (privateer)
- Black Prince (18 guns) (privateer)
- Hunter (18 guns)
- Active (16 guns)
- Hazard (16 guns)
- Tyrannicide (14 guns)
- Springbird (12 guns) (privateer)
- Rover (10 guns) (privateer)
British forces arrive
Nutting reached New York in January 1779, but General Clinton had received copies of the orders from other messengers. Clinton had already assigned the expedition to General Francis McLean who was based in Halifax, and he sent Nutting there with Germain's detailed instructions.
McLean's expedition set sail from Halifax on May 30, and arrived in the Penobscot Bay on June 12. The next day, McLean and Captain Andrew Barkley, the commander of the naval convoy, identified a suitable site at which they could establish a post. On June 16, his forces began landing on a peninsula that was called Majabigwaduce (Castine, Maine) between the mouth of the Bagaduce River and a finger of the bay leading to the Penobscot River. Mclean had 700 troops under his command: 450 men of the 74th Regiment of (Highland) Foot, 200 men of the 82nd Regiment of Foot and 50 men of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. They began to build a fortification on the peninsula which jutted into the bay and commanded the principal passage into the inner harbor.
Fort George was established in the center of the small peninsula, with two batteries outside the fort to provide cover for Albany, which was the only ship expected to stay in the area. A third battery was constructed on an island south of the bay near the mouth of the Bagaduce River, in which Albany was harbored. Construction of the works occupied the troops for the next month, until rumors came that an American expedition was being raised in Boston to oppose them, following which efforts were redoubled to prepare works suitable for defense against the Americans. Captain Henry Mowat of the Albany was familiar with Massachusetts politics, and he took the rumors quite seriously and convinced General McLean to leave additional ships that had been part of the initial convoy. Some of the convoy ships had already left, but the orders were countermanded before armed sloops North and Nautilus were able to leave.
American reaction
When news reached the American authorities at Boston, they hurriedly made plans to drive the British from the area. The Penobscot River was the gateway to lands controlled by the Penobscot Nation who generally favored the British, and Congress feared that they would lose any chance of enlisting the Penobscots as allies if a fort were successfully constructed at the mouth of the river. Massachusetts was also motivated by the fear of losing their claim over the territory in any post-war settlement.
To spearhead the expedition, Massachusetts petitioned Congress for the use of three Continental Navy warships: the 12-gun sloop Providence, 14-gun brig Diligent, and 32-gun frigate Warren. The rest of more than 40 vessels were made up of ships of the Massachusetts State Navy and private vessels under the command of Commodore Dudley Saltonstall. The Massachusetts authorities mobilized more than 1,000 militia, acquired six small field cannons, and placed Brigadier General Solomon Lovell in command of the land forces. The expedition departed from Boston harbor on July 19 and arrived off Penobscot on the afternoon of July 25.
Landing
On July 25, nine of the larger vessels in the American flotilla exchanged fire with the Royal Navy ships from 15:30 to 19:00. While this was going on, seven American boats approached the shore for a landing, but turned back when British fire killed a soldier in one of the boats.
On July 26, Lovell sent a force of Continental Marines to capture the British battery on Nautilus Island (also known as Banks Island), while the militia were to land at Bagaduce. The Marines achieved their objective, but the militia turned back when British cannon overturned the leading boat, killing Major Daniel Littlefield and two of his men. Meanwhile, 750 men landed under Lovell's command and began construction of siege works under constant fire. On July 27, the American artillery bombarded the British fleet for three hours, wounding four men aboard HMS Albany.
Assault
On July 28, under heavy covering fire from the Tyrannicide, Hunter, and Sky Rocket, Brigadier General Peleg Wadsworth led an assault force of 400 (200 marines and 200 militia) ashore before dawn at Dyce's Head on the western tip of the peninsula with orders to capture Fort George. They landed on the narrow beach and advanced up the steep bluff leading to the fort. The British pickets, who included Lieutenant John Moore, put up a determined resistance but received no reinforcement from the fort and were forced to retire, leaving the Americans in possession of the heights. Eight British troops were captured. At this point, Lovell ordered the attackers to halt and entrench where they were. Instead of assaulting the fort, Lovell had decided to build a battery within "a hundred rods" of the British lines and bombard them into surrender. The American casualties in the assault had been severe: "one hundred out of four hundred men on the shore and bank", with the Continental Marines suffering more heavily than the militia. Commodore Saltonstall was so appalled by the losses incurred by his marines that he refused to land any more and even threatened to recall those already on shore. In addition his flagship, the Continental frigate Warren, suffered considerable damage during the engagement with hits to the warship's mainmast, forestay and gammoning.
Although possessing significant naval superiority over the British, over the next two weeks the excessively cautious Saltonstall dawdled despite repeated requests by General Lovell that he attack Mowatt's position at the entrance to the harbor. Instead he largely maneuvered the American fleet around the mouth of the Penobscot River beyond the range of the British guns with only occasional ineffective attempts to engage the British. As long as the British warships continued to hold the harbor they were able to pin down the American forces on the ground with concentrated fire and prevent them from taking Fort George.
Realizing that time was running out, on August 11 General Lovell again wrote to Saltonstall pleading for him to attack saying: "I mean not to determine on your mode of attack; but it appears to me so very practicable, that any farther delay must be infamous; and I have it this moment by a deserter from one of their ships, that the moment you enter the harbour they will destroy them." Saltonstall's ineptitude at Penobscot would lead to his being dismissed from the Navy as being "ever after incompetent to hold a government office or state post" the following October by the "Committee for Enquiring into the Failure of the Penobscot Expedition" of the Massachusetts General Court which determined that failure of the expedition was primarily the result of the "want of proper Spirit and Energy on the part of the Commodore", that he "discouraged any Enterprizes or offensive Measures on the part of our Fleet", and that the destruction of the fleet was occasioned "principally by the Commodore's not exerting himself at all at the time of the Retreat in opposing the Enemies' foremost Ships in pursuit".
Siege
On July 29, one American was killed. July 30, both sides cannonaded each other all day, and on July 31 two American sailors belonging to the Active were wounded by a shell. Lovell ordered a night assault on August 1 against the Half-Moon Battery next to Fort George, whose guns posed a danger to American shipping, and the Americans opened fire at 02:00. Colonel Samuel McCobb's center column, comprising his own Lincoln County Regiment, broke and fled as soon as the British returned fire. The left column comprising Captain Thomas Carnes and a detachment of marines, and the right column comprising sailors from the fleet, kept going and stormed the battery. As dawn broke, the Fort's guns opened up on the captured battery and a detachment of redcoats charged out and recaptured the Half-Moon. The Americans withdrew, taking 18 prisoners with them, having themselves lost four men missing (who were killed), and 12 wounded.