Solomon Lovell Solomon Lovell ( 1732 – 1801 ) was a brigadier general in the militia of the state of Massachusetts during the American Revolutionary War . He is best known for leading the land forces during the 1779 Penobscot Expedition , a disastrous attempt by Massachusetts to dislodge a British force from a settlement on a peninsula in Penobscot Bay , present - day Castine , Maine . Early life . Solomon Lovell was born in Abington , in the Province of Massachusetts Bay , on June 1 , 1732 , to David and Mary ( née Torrey ) Lovell . His father was a Harvard graduate , teacher , and sometime preacher . He died when Solomon was quite young , and the boy was raised first by his grandfather Enoch Lovell , and after his death by his stepfather , Samuel Kingman . Kingman , a military man , may have influenced the young Solomon to develop an interest in the military . Lovell ' s military service during the French and Indian War ( 1754 – 1760 ) is not known in detail ; he is known to have served as a first lieutenant in a militia company at Lake George , New York during the 1756 campaign . In 1758 he married Lydia Holbrook , the daughter of a neighbor . The couple had two children ; the first died in infancy , and Lydia died during the birth of the second in 1761 . The following year Lovell remarried , to Hannah Pittey , a woman who had originally spurned his proposal to her before his first marriage . With Hannah he settled into her house in Weymouth ; they had seven children , three of whom survived to adulthood . He was active in town affairs , and began serving in the provincial assembly in 1771 . He was also active in the local militia , rising to the rank of major in July 1771 and colonel in 1775 . American Revolutionary War . With the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War with the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775 , Lovell ' s military activity increased . He was commissioned a colonel of the 2nd Massachusetts Regiment in February 1776 , and his troops were among those that occupied the heights south of Boston , prompting the British to withdraw the city . He continued to be active in the defense of eastern Massachusetts , and was promoted to brigadier general of the Suffolk County militia on June 24 , 1777 . Lovell led Massachusetts troops in the 1778 Battle of Rhode Island , where Lovell was one of several officers who " distinguished themselves by their coolness and courage . " In 1779 the British sent a force to occupy the Bagaduce peninsula in Penobscot Bay , in order to establish a settlement they called New Ireland . This territory , now part of the state of Maine , was then part of Massachusetts , and the state mobilized a large fleet and its militia to dislodge the British . Lovell was given command of the land forces , and the naval fleet was under the command of Connecticut native Dudley Saltonstall . Both men were ordered to cooperate with one another , but neither was given a clear authority over the other ; this was a major contributing factor to the disastrous Penobscot Expedition that followed . During the entire course of the expedition , Lovell frequently complained ( in his writings , and reportedly in war councils ) of Saltonstall ' s unwillingness to take any sort of risks with the fleet in support of attacks on the British fortifications . The expedition dissolved in confusion with the arrival of a Royal Navy fleet ; the entire Massachusetts fleet was captured or destroyed , and the land forces that escaped were forced to make an arduous journey overland . Lovell did not return to Boston until September 20 , after making arrangements for defenses in the Kennebec River valley . The board of inquiry established by the state completely exonerated Lovell , and severely chastised Commodore Saltonstall for his failures . Saltonstall was court - martialed and cashiered out of the Continental Navy . Later life . Lovell had , during the war , periodically served as a representative to the state legislature . He continued to do so after the war , also occasionally serving as town selectman . When Norfolk County was separated from Suffolk County , Lovell was given the task of petitioning the legislature to keep Weymouth a part of Suffolk County . He was unsuccessful in this effort ; Weymouth is now in Norfolk County . Lovell died in Weymouth on September 9 , 1801 , having outlived his wife by six years . He is buried in the Pittey family tomb in Weymouth .