The Penobscot Expedition—1779 ⁱ

Dominic Serres

Memorial Day is when our nation honors and mourns those who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.  We honor those who died with a parade, ceremony, and flags by their gravestones.  It is also fitting that we recall their stories.  

Last year we remembered Captain Paul Ellis of Falmouth who commanded a company of volunteer infantry from Cumberland County during the Siege of Boston, the Battle of Saratoga, and winter quarters at Valley Forge, and the Battle of Monmouth.  For most of that time his company was part of the Massachusetts Line in the Continental Army.

This year, we remember Private Wheeler Riggs of Falmouth.  He served for three years in the Cumberland County militia protecting Maine from British attacks.

Wheeler Riggs was born August 1719 in Gloucester, Massachusetts.  His parents were Jeremiah and Rachel Ruth (Haskell) Riggs.  Jeremiah was a tanner and a farmer who moved to Falmouth on Casco Bay in 1725.

Historical reminder: During the period covered in this retrospective, present-day Portland was part of Falmouth with the “Old Port” serving as our town’s center.  Commercial Street didn’t exist; Fore Street was the waterfront.

Click on an image to open a full-sized view.

Willis Map of Grants by the Falmouth Proprietors 1728 ⁱⁱ  

The Riggs family lived on Fiddle Lane (today’s Franklin Arterial) between Middle and Fore Street near property belonging to Samuel Cobb, a carpenter and shipwright who had moved from Barnstable, Massachusetts in 1717.  Samuel’s brother Jonathan, a weaver and farmer, moved to Falmouth the following year and appears to have settled near Maiden Cove in today’s Cape Elizabeth.  

Franklin Arterial) between Middle and Fore Street near property belonging to Samuel Cobb, a carpenter and shipwright who had moved from Barnstable, Massachusetts in 1717.  Samuel’s brother Jonathan, a weaver and farmer, moved to Falmouth the following year and appears to have settled near Maiden Cove in today’s Cape Elizabeth.  

About 1735, Jeremiah Riggs moved to the old John Ingersoll farm at Capisic near Stroudwater.  

In March 1742, Jeremiah’s son, Wheeler, a carpenter and shipwright, purchased a quarter-acre of land from Phineas Jones, a leading merchant of Falmouth.  Wheeler’s lot was located on Jones Lane (later named Plum Street) between Middle and Fore Streets.

Historical accounts of shipbuilding do not mention Wheeler.  He probably worked for one or more of the several shipwrights building vessels on ways along Fore Street.  Samuel Cobb was prominent as a shipbuilder and in town affairs.

Five months later, we find another clue suggesting a close connection between the Riggs and Cobb families when Wheeler married Mary Cobb, daughter of Jonathan and Elizabeth (Vaughan) Cobb and niece of Samuel Cobb.

Wheeler and Mary had much in common.  Both were great-grandchildren of Puritan immigrants to Massachusetts.  Both came from large families (Wheeler had twelve siblings while Mary had six).  Their fathers were skilled tradesmen (carpenter, tanner) and yeomen (proprietors of self-sufficient farms).  Their families boldly moved to Falmouth during a turbulent period following decades of war.  Wheeler and Mary had five children: three sons (who were living in 1801) and three girls.

Timber had become the principal industry in Colonial Falmouth.  The mast trade which was vital to Britain’s maritime commerce and security.  Simmering resentment against taxes and dictates imposed by Britain on its American colonies boiled over in 1775.  Maine was part of Massachusetts with Boston being a hotbed of revolutionary fervor.  A standoff between Crown authorities and colonial militants—with tempers flaring over the British attack at Lexington and Concord—culminated in the destruction of Falmouth in October 1775 by a Royal Navy flotilla commanded by Lt. Henry Mowatt.

During the period leading up to the British attack on Falmouth, records do not show Wheeler responding to calls for volunteers to serve in militia companies for local defense or the siege of Boston.
The devastation left 414 buildings (including the shipyards) in ashes and a thousand residents without homes.  Wheeler was fortunate because his home escaped the blaze.  Falmouth was slow to rebuild the “Old Port” due to the risk of another attack from the sea.

A fortnight after the attack, townspeople were alarmed when the 36-gun Royal Navy frigate Cerebus anchored in Falmouth Harbor for several days.  The town was struggling to house and feed its residents, but the visit by Cerebus demonstrated the need for defenses capable of fending off British warships.

In February 1776, a militia battalion of four companies was formed to defend Falmouth Neck (today’s Portland peninsula).  Wheeler enlisted in Captain Benjamin Hooper’s company where he served as a private for nearly nine months.

The militia companies spent 1776 building fortifications for harbor defense.  That summer at least ten cannons arrived from Boston, and an artillery company was formed under the command of Captain Abner Lowell.

Four batteries were constructed on Falmouth Neck:

• Lower Battery at the former location of Fort Loyal (on a rocky bluff at the foot of Hancock Street).  Here was at least one 18-pound and several 12-pound guns.  This battery served as company head-quarters.
• Upper Battery was on Free Street with at least two guns, one of which was a 32-pounder.  
• Great Fort on the Hill was at today’s Fort Allen Park and mounted a pair of six-pounders.
• Magazine Battery at Monument Square with the magazine located in the jail.  The battery mounted five guns, probably of small caliber.

The four companies of volunteer militia were dismissed at the end of 1776 leaving a garrison consisting only of Captain Lowell’s artillery company.  Its initial strength of 50 officers and men grew to 80 in 1777 but was gradually reduced by levies for the Continental Army.  By January 1779, the garrison defending Falmouth had been whittled to ten.  

On 16 June 1779, the British seized and began fortifying the Bagaduce Peninsula (shortened from the native place name of Majabigwaduce) in Penobscot Bay.  The peninsula had been the site of France’s 17th century Fort Pentagouët and today is the town of Castine.  This peninsula at the mouth of the Penobscot River was strategically advantageous to the British.

The British force under the command of Brigadier General Francis McLean consisted of about 800 soldiers in two regiments of infantry augmented by artillery.  They began building Fort George, a palisaded earthwork on high ground.  Naval support was provided by a flotilla consisting of three sloops-of-war commanded by Captain Mowatt.

Massachusetts responded by hastily cobbling together a force to reclaim the territory captured by the British:

• 19 armed vessels carrying a total of 334 guns and about 300 marines, including three vessels from the Continental Navy, four state vessels, and 12 privateers.  The fleet was under the command of Captain Dudley Saltonstall.
• 24 commercial transport vessels.
• 872 soldiers comprising three regiments of Maine militia.  This force was barely half of the 1,500 deemed necessary for the mission with a quarter judged to be “young boys or old men, unfit for service.”  The militia was commanded by Brigadier General Solomon Lovell with Peleg Wadsworth as second-in-command.

The regiment from Cumberland County, under the command of Colonel Jonathan Mitchell of North Yarmouth, consisted of eight companies with a supposed strength of 519 out of the requested 600, but the actual strength was only 433.

Two companies were from Falmouth: Captain Peter Warren’s company of 57 men, and Captain William Cobb’s company of 70.  Their transport consisted of two brigs and a sloop.  Wheeler, along with several comrades from the artillery company, enlisted in those companies; Wheeler was assigned to Captain Warren’s company.  

 
British Map of Batteries at Fort George ^vii

The Penobscot Expedition June-August 1779  ^viii

In this little-known chapter in the Revolutionary War, a British Force of about 800 soldiers with a half-dozen cannon were about to be attacked by about 1,200 soldiers and marines.  A small Royal Navy flotilla of three sloops carrying 48 six-pounders would face off against 19 armed vessels with 334 guns.

The two British regiments were untested in battle but were better trained than the three regiments of American militia.  Leadership would be key.  General McLean and Captain Mowatt were skilled and decisive commanders.  General Lowell and Captain Saltonstall were not.  Moreover, Lowell and Saltonstall bickered.  This was the American’s battle to lose, and that is what they did.

On 19 July, Wheeler’s company embarked upon the sloop Centurion, Captain William McClellan as master.  They weighed anchor at 8:00 a.m. and sailed for Townsend (today’s Boothbay) where the forces would assemble before advancing to Penobscot Bay.  The American Fleet departed Townsend on 24 July and anchored under Upper Fox Island (today’s North Haven) that night.   The next morning the fleet made sail for Majabigwaduce (today’s Castine).  Over the next several days, the Americans conducted probing attacks and drove the British off Nautilus Island.

 
British Defenses Before the Battle ^ix

On the morning of 28 July, the Americans landed marines and militia on the rocky shore at Dyce’s Head.  The bluff (150-250 feet high in places) was insurmountable.  Marines were sent to the right seeking a way up the cliff while militia were sent to the left (with Captain Warren’s company in the lead).  Landing on a well-defended shore and scaling a steep cliff brings to mind the D-Day assault at Pointe du Hoc.

 Captain Warren’s company spent the coming days digging entrenchments, clearing fields of fire, and cutting roads through the woods.  Cannons were ferried from ships to shore and pulled up the cliff face.  A series of zigzag trenches were built to protect their lines and to inch the guns closer to Fort George.  The marines had captured a battery on Dyce’s Head.  It joined in with the battery on Nautilus Island in nearly continuous bombardment of the British ships in the harbor.

On the afternoon of 7 August, Wheeler was stooping over a gun carriage to make repairs when a British cannonball hit a nearby tree and ricocheted, striking Wheeler on the back of his neck and causing his death a few weeks shy of his sixtieth birthday.  He was buried “very decently” near the place where he fell.  He was the only soldier from Falmouth to be killed during the expedition. 

The battle had devolved into a stalemate with the Americans unable to overcome the British defense and the British holding for reinforce-ments.  On 13 August, a British relief force under the command of Sir George Collier and consisting of one ship of the line, two frigates, and two sloops arrived in Penobscot Bay.  The Americans began their retreat at 1:00 p.m. on the following day.  

Captain Warren’s company went ashore—probably in the vicinity of today’s Stockton Springs—and began their trek south.  They made it to Belfast on 15 August, Northport the next day, and Camden on the day after.  Captain Warren and his company reached New Meadows on 24 August and arrived at home in Falmouth two days later.

The American fleet, blocked from escape into Penobscot Bay, attempted to make their way to the Penobscot River.  Those that weren’t captured or destroyed by the British were run aground and torched.  In what was the largest naval disaster of the Revolution, the entire fleet was destroyed.

References

1. William Willis, The History of Portland from 1662 to 1864, Bailey & Noyes, Portland, 1865
2. William D. Williamson, The History of the State of Maine (Vol. II), Glazier, Masters & Co., Hallowell, 1832
3. Nathan Goold, Falmouth Neck in the Revolution, Thurston Press, Portland. 1897
4. Nathan Goold, History of Colonel Jonathan Mitchell's Cumberland County Regiment of the Bagaduce Expedition, 1779, Thurston Press, Portland. 1886
5. Dale Burbank, Want of Proper Spirit and Energy—The Penobscot Expedition of 1779, US Army, Fort Leavenworth, 2011
6. Secretary of the Commonwealth, Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (Vol 13), Wright & Potter Printing, Boston, 1896

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