Solomon Lovell was put in command of 1,200 militia and 100 artillery, while Peleg Wadsworth was second in command, and Paul Revere had charge of the artillery. The general government lent the "Warren" and "Providence", Continental vessels, and Dudley Saltonstall, a Continental officer, commanded the fleet. The expedition, consisting of nineteen armed vessels, of three hundred and twenty-four guns, with twenty transports, and 2,000 men in all, left Boston harbor July 19th. Quarrels between Lovell and Saltonstall prevented prompt action, and before success could be insured the expedition was overcome by a naval force which Clinton had sent from New York when he heard of the undertaking. Our main sources on the American side are The original Journal of General Solomon Lovell, kept during the Penobscot Expedition, 1779, with a sketch of his life by Gilbert Nash, published in 1881 by the Weymouth (Mass.) Hist. Society; the Boston Gazette, March 18, 25, April 1, 8, 1782; journal on board the Continental sloop "Hunter", July 19-Aug. 11, in Hist. Mag., viii. 51. Further on the American side Thacher's Military Journal; Heath's Memoirs; Thomas Philbrook's account in Cowell's Spirit of '76 in Rhode Island; Pemberton's journal in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., ii. 172; letters of Artemas Ward, Peleg Wadsworth, and Charles Chauncey; a letter of James Sullivan, saying that it had involved Massachusetts in a debt of $7,000,000, "which is not so distressing as the disgrace" (Amory's James Sullivan, ii. 376; Sparks MSS., xx.); Wheeler's Pentagoet, p. 36; Kidder's Military Operations in Eastern Maine, p. 265; Williamson's Maine (ii. 471) and Belfast, ch. 12; Willis's Portland, ch. 19; William Goold's Portland in the Past, p. 374; Barry's Mass., ii. ch. 14; J. W. De Peyster in the N. Y. Mail, Aug. 13, 1879.
The Revolutionary Rolls, in the Massachusetts Archives, give the personnel of the expedition; the orders, vessels, etc. (vols. xxxvii., xxxviii., xxxix.)
On the English side we have John Calef's Siege of Penobscot by the Rebels (London, 1781,—Sabin, iii. no. 9,925), which is copied in Wheeler; the journal, July 24-Aug. 12, in the Nova Scotia Gazette, Sept. 14, 1779, which is reprinted in the Maine Hist. Soc. Coll., vii. 121, and that in the Particular Services, etc., edited by Ithiel Town. There is a Tory view in Jones's N. Y. during the Rev., i. 297.
SIEGE OF PENOBSCOT, 1779.
Lovell's troops and the seamen struggled in disorder through the Maine wilderness, and the general himself reached Boston about Sept. 20th. A court of inquiry, under Gen. Artemas Ward, exonerated Lovell, and blamed Saltonstall. Nash prints its report, which is preserved in the Mass. Archives, vol. cxiv. It is examined by Eben Hazard in a letter printed in the Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., iv. 129, in which he intimates that the blame was not all the naval commander's, and that it was a part of the plan to throw the responsibility on a Continental officer, in order to force the cost of the expedition upon Congress.
The annexed sketch is a combination of the two maps on a much larger scale in Calef's Siege of Penobscot (London, 1781). On the approach of the American fleet up the river, the British garrison was encamped on the peninsula of Maja-big-waduce (the modern Castine) at Q, and their main fortification, Fort George (A), was not completed. Capt. Mowatt, the naval commander, placed his three vessels in line (L) to defend the harbor. The Americans were first seen July 24th. On the 25th the American transports passed up the river and anchored, while nine armed ships in three divisions at K attacked the British ships at L; the American land forces, meanwhile, attempting to land at R, were repulsed. On the 26th, towards night, the Americans placed some heavy guns on Nautilus Island, whereupon the British ships moved back to a position at M. On the 27th the American ships engaged the British battery D with little result. On the 28th the Americans succeeded in landing at R, captured the battery D, and established the lines C. The battery on Nautilus Island disturbing the ships at M, they moved farther up to N. On the 29th the Americans opened their batteries along the lines C, and the British moved some guns from the half-moon E to the fort, and the ships sent ashore some cannon to be mounted at E. On the 31st the American seamen and marines attempted a landing between D and E, but were repulsed. On August 4th the Americans opened a battery at G, annoying the ships at N, and endangering their communications with the forts. The American batteries at F and H were not completed, and the one at H was abandoned on August 9th. On August 5th the British naval commander began the battery B to protect his communications with the fort; and while building it, the Americans planted, on the 8th, a field-piece at F to annoy the men working.
On the 13th arrangements were making for a vigorous attack, when the reinforcing British fleet appeared in the offing. During the night the Americans reëmbarked, and all their vessels fled up the river. Only the "Hunter" and "Hampden" attempted to escape down the river, and these were captured. Night coming on, the British anchored; while the Americans landed their men, and then blew up their vessels. The commodore's ship, "Warren", of thirty-two guns, was burned at Oak Point.