Castine in the summer of 1779 was the site of the worst American naval disaster between the Revolutionary War and Pearl Harbor, a fact that has been almost entirely erased from the national memory of the Revolution. The Penobscot Expedition — a Massachusetts force of more than forty vessels and over a thousand troops sent to dislodge a British garrison from the Bagaduce peninsula — ended with the entire American fleet destroyed, most of the ships burned by their own crews to prevent capture, and soldiers fleeing through the wilderness of the Maine interior. The commander whose failure caused it, Commodore Dudley Saltonstall, was later court-martialed. One of the subordinate commanders who emerged from it with his reputation intact was a young artillery officer named Paul Revere, who was also court-martialed and then eventually exonerated — a less familiar chapter of a very famous life.
PEOPLE
Commodore Dudley Saltonstall
Continental Navy Commodore, Penobscot Expedition Naval Commander
Commodore George Collier
Royal Navy Commodore, Penobscot Relief Expedition Commander
Brigadier General Francis McLean
British Army General, Fort George Commander, Bagaduce Garrison Commander
Brigadier General Solomon Lovell
Massachusetts Militia General, Penobscot Land Force Commander
KEY EVENTS
STORIES
HISTORICAL VOICE
Each Man Waiting for the Other
Solomon Lovell could see the fort from his position on the heights. He could see that it was not finished. He could count the British soldiers working on the walls. He could estimate — any competent o...
MODERN VOICE
The Silversmith and the Court-Martial
Most people who know Paul Revere know one story about him: the midnight ride, the lanterns, the warning. It is a real story — it happened, he did it, and it mattered. But there is another Paul Revere ...