The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-10-28

difficulty. Ibis regiment consisted Of
SIG men and officers. The expedition
was hastily got together and of course i'm.
properly equipped for such an undertake
| ino. Before they made their assault on
the British works at Castine, the army
had paraded but once together, and that
was at Boothbay, while on their way to
the Penobscot. Instead of Maine furnish.
ing 1900 men, as ordered, there were less
than 1000, or about the force of the enc
INV who were entrenched. Their troops
were disciplined regulars, while the Anne
ricans were unlearned in the art OF war,
many not even having knowledge OF the
manual of arms.
The land forces were under the COM
mand of Gen.. Solomon Lowell of the
Suffolk county, Mass. militia. with Gen.
Peler Wadsworth, then OF Duxbury,
Mass. but afterwards of Portland, second
in command The feet consisted OF 10
armed vessels and "a transports. With the
fleet were about 100 artillerymen from
Massachusetts,, under command OF Lieut..
Col. Paul Revere, since made famous by
the poet Longfellow. The naval force
WAS under the command OF Commodore
Dudley Saltonstall of Connecticut, who
turned out to BIZ man who was totally
untitled to have the command of fleet.
Soon after the arrival of the fleet in
Penobscot Bay. an assault was made up.
on Fort George, the earthwork of which is
now standing at Castine. The attack
was unsuccessful in capturing the fort
but a landing was made and our forces
reached the top of the cliff after a desper-
nice our Falmouth Neck company dis
| tinQuished itself, and was the first to
reach the top, although with little order
| The assaulting party consisted of about
| 200 militia and about the same number
of marines from the ships. The marines
suffered the most because they went by a
narrow path up the bank. This bank
| is two or three hundred feet high and in
some places almost perpendicular
| The commodore refused to cooperate
with the army. which had hard work to
hold the ground captured, and little pro.
gress was made. Operations were de-
Iayed, although each day had it's fighting
between the armies. until the British OBJ
tanned reinforcement from Halifax, that
arrived in the bay August l4th, which
fact caused great CONSERVATION in the
American fleet. The army seeing theil
chances were then hopeless started on
the retreat. The fleet made little resis.
tance to check the advancing of the Brit.
ish to allow the army to get away, but
the crews ran the vessels ashore and
nearly all were burned or blown up by
their own men.
The retreat through the woods to Fal
mouth Neck now Portland, with few sup
plies, was understandable. The sufferings
of the men was so great that some actu'
ally persisted in the forests while others
filled premature graves in consequence Of
their exposure and hardships endured
before they reached home. The survivors
were SO chagrined at the failure of the
expedition that they recorded little Of
their experiences during their lives. II
was terrible disaster which our histori
ans have hesitated to write about.
Mitchell's regiment returned to Fal
mouth Neck SO demoralized that nearly
five companies were at once discharged.
An investigation was held to find out
the cause of the failure of the expedition
the result of which was that the whole
responsibility was placed on Commodore
Saltonstall The report stated that Gen,
Lowell acted with proper courage ano
spirit. and that Gen. Wadsworth "con.
Quoted with great activity, courage, cool,
ness and prudence" He was the best
officer in the expedition.
The fucts in this paper were substanti
ated by letters, reports and testimony al
the time, and journal, with every day
experience of private soldier in Capt.
Peter Warren's Fal mouth Neck company
was Included in the regiments history.
Copies of the original pay rolls Of The
companies, giving each soldiers name
and dates of enlistment and discharge
with other information, goes to make the
history complete.
This expedition is said to have cost the
State of Massachusetts, l, 739, ia pounds.
| II sh. Id, probably in the deprecated
currency of the time.
| Although a disaster, the history Of such
regiments should BIZ preserved that thoss
who come in succeeding generations may
know the facts of their service.