![]() CASTINE'S REVOLUTIONARY LEGACY The more you
read and research, the more you are
stunned by Castine's prominent place in early American history.
In today's petroleum dominated economy its easy to forget that the
strategic resource of the 17th and 18th centuries was located in the
wilderness of Maine, large timbers for the masts of sailing ships,
particularly naval vessels. The key to its acquisition was
through the few harbors and forts located along the Maine coastline,
such as at Castine. First explored by Samuel de Champlain of
France, a French trading post was established here in 1613. The
following year, the English had taken notice of this area and called
present-day Castine the Majabigwaduce or Bagaduce Penninsula. In
1628 the English made their first foray into the area, seizing the
French trading post and adding it to the Plymouth Colony. In 1635
it was retaken by the French. Following the Treaty of Breda in
1667, the area was ceded to France and a French officer was granted the
area by the King of France. The officer's name was the Baron
Jean Vincent d'Abbadie de St. Castin. Eventually, the land granted to this
French officer would be called, after his name,
Castine.
The Baron married a local Native American woman named
Madockawando (later she took the French name Mathilde), the daughter of
a chief, and they had ten children. The French eventually built a
fort here, known as Fort Pentagoet.The Dutch captured the area
briefly in 1674, took the fort in 1676 and then completely destroyed it
with its own captured artillery.
In 1692 the British took over this area and the access to the plentiful timbers. As a result of a fledgling movement for independence from Britain by American colonists, in 1759, the British reoccupied strategic Castine with a military garrison. During the American Revolution, in 1779, a 700-800 man force of redcoats under the command of Brigadier General Francis McClean, including kilted Scots of the 74th Argyle Highlanders, was dispatched to build a new fort. The remnants of Fort George are preserved today as a park across from the Maine Maritime Academy.
Maine at that time was part of
Massachusetts. Upon hearing of the
arrival of a sizable British force at Castine, the Massachusetts State
Board of War decided to send a force to retake Castine and deny the
Royal Navy easy access to Maine's timbers. The Naval commander
of the American expedition was Captain Dudley Saltonstall, whose naval
credentials were limited to the fact he had three ships in Boston
Harbor with 300 U.S. Marines on board and plenty of gunpowder.
Commanding the 1,000 man infantry force of predominantly Massachusetts
militia, was the politically appointed Brigadier General Solomon
Lovell. The commander of Lovell's artillery was awarded this
position mostly due to his heroic ride in April 1775 - Lieutenant
Colonel Paul Revere - and not because he was an artillerist. On
July 21, 1779, 43 American ships (7 naval gunboats, 12 privateers and
24 transports) left Boston Harbor, comprising the Penobscot Expedition,
and sailed north arriving off the coast of Castine on July 24. Upon its
arrival, the expedition was further reinforced by the local Penobscot
Indians. The British had only three ships, with 56 guns between
them, under the command of Captain Henry Mowat and a shore artillery
emplacement manned by Royal Marines, known as the Half-Moon
Battery. After several days of inconclusive naval and amphibious
skirmishing, the main land assault started shortly after
midnight on July 28 with 227 U.S. Marines in the
lead, followed by 400 Massachusetts militiamen and supported by the
guns of U.S.S.
Tyrannicide and two privateers. Much to the shock of many of the
lesser ranks, the place the American commanders chose to make the
landing was the rugged Bagaduce Bluff, defended by the British 82nd
Regiment of Foot and elements of the 74th Argyle Highlanders.
Unable to use their muskets, as it took both hands to climb the wooded
and brush-covered steep slope, never the less, the Marines managed to
take the bluff and force the British back at the loss of 14 Marines
killed, including their Captain, John Welsh, to the loss of 6
Scots. The assault is commemorated in Charles H. Waterhouse's
painting, Assault on Penobscot, 28 July 1779 (the original painting was
displayed at the Pentagon and destroyed in the attack of September 11,
2001). The Marines now joined by some militia and Indians then
discovered another bluff behind the first. The combined American
force drove the British back from this hilltop as well and had
essentially secured the western portion of the peninsula. Feeling
victory was within their grasp, the Americans awaited their
commander's final order for the assault on Fort George. About
an hour later, Lovell and Revere came ashore, Lovell ordered the men to
dig in and Revere chose to be rowed back to his assigned ship for his
breakfast. Meanwhile the artillerymen came ashore, but without
their guns.
The British still thought so much of Castine that they tried to get the boundary with British-controlled Canada placed there instead of along the St. Croix River. Castine was the last place Britain evacuated as a result of the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the American War of Independence - in 1784! The British returned during the War of 1812, but by 1815, British forces finally evacuated Castine for good. Probably as a result of this battle, a ghost of a drummer boy is said to haunt Fort George. It is told that he can be heard at dusk. We visited Fort George at sundown this past August and confess we heard or saw nothing. Despite this, our two sons claimed to hear what can only be interpreted from their descriptions as a distinct, often loud, quarter beat pounding of a snare drum. Our oldest son even claimed to see the misty image of the drummer boy approaching our Ford Windstar. - Paul and Carolyn Hanczaryk
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