The Penobscot Expedition

On this date in 1779, a panicked American expeditionary force on Penobscot Bay in what was then Massachusetts, and is now Maine, burned its remaining boats, capping a disastrous campaign against the British.   The force originally consisted of 44 vessels, with 1,000 soldiers, and a 100 man artillery detachment commanded by Lt. Colonel Paul Revere.  Revere, the brave patriot of pre-war Boston and othe famed ride to Lexington and Concord, faced a court-martial in the wake of expedition's failure, and though acquitted, it marked the end of his military career.

It was the worst naval defeat in American history until Pearl Harbor.

The expedition was prompted by the landing, in June 1779, by British forces at the site of the present town of Castine, located on the northeast side of Penobscot Bay.   The British quickly constructed an earthworks fortification, named Fort George in honor of the King.  Their goal was to provide a base for protecting their valuable naval base in Nova Scotia.  Once news reached Boston, Massachusetts quickly put together an expedition to retake the area.

Under the command of Dudley Saltonstall, a powerful Massachusetts family from the time of John Winthrop in the 17th century until the mid-20th, the fleet arrived on July 24, but due to Saltonstall's timidity and various other mishaps the American force could not capture Fort George.  In early August a British relief fleet from New York City arrived and eventually the Americans fled up the Penobscot River, abandoning and destroying their fleet, the bedraggled survivors making their way through the woods of Maine as they returned to Massachusetts.

The British continued to occupy Fort George until they recognized American independence in the Treaty of Paris in 1783.