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Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Hampden, action at. (search)
Hampden, action at. When the British had taken possession of Castine, Me., a land and naval force was sent up the Penobscot River to capture or destroy the corvette John Adams, which had fled up the river to the town of Hampden. The commander of the John Adams, Capt. C. Morris, was warned of his danger, and he notified Gen. John Blake, commander of the 10th division of Massachusetts militia. The British force consisted of two sloopsof-war, a tender, a large transport, and nine launches, commanded by Commodore Barrie, and 700 soldiers, led by Lieutenant-Colonel St. John. The expedition sailed on Sept. 1, 1814, and the next morning General Gosselin took possession of Belfast, on the western shore of Penobscot Bay, at the head of 600 troops. The expedition landed some troops at Frankfort, which marched up the western side of the river. The flotilla, with the remainder, sailed on, and arrived near Hampden at five o'clock in the evening, when the troops and about eighty mariner
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Hutchings, William 1764- (search)
, were born the same year, and died the same month. They were the last survivors of the soldiers in the Revolutionary War. When William was four years old the family removed to Plantation Number Three, at the William Hutchings. mouth of the Penobscot (now Castine). There, on a farm, which his descendants occupied, he continued to live until his death, May 2, 1866, excepting a short interval of time. He was a witness to the stirring scenes of the Massachusetts expedition to Penobscot in 177Penobscot in 1779, and aided (by compulsion) the British in the Remains of Fort George in 1860. construction of Fort George, on the peninsula. After the destruction of the British fleet, his father, who refused to take the oath of allegiance to the crown, retired to New Castle, where he remained until the close of the war. At the age of fifteen, having acquired a man's stature, William entered the Continental army. He enlisted in a regiment of Massachusetts militia commanded by Col. Samuel McCobb, Capt. Be
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), John Adams, the (search)
the Adams (Capt. Charles .Morris) observed twenty-five merchant vessels, with two ships-of-war, bearing down upon her with a fair wind. Morris abandoned his prize, and gave the Adams wings for flight from danger. In April she entered the harbor of Savannah for supplies, and on May 5 sailed for the Manila Reef to watch for the Jamaica convoy, but the fleet passed her in the night. She gave chase in the morning, but was kept at bay by two vessels of war. She crossed the Atlantic, and on July 3 was off the Irish coast, where she was chased by British vessels, but always escaped. For nearly two months the weather was foggy, cold, and damp, because the ocean was dotted with icebergs. Her crew sickened, and Captain Morris determined to go into port. He entered Penobscot Bay, and was nearly disabled by striking a rock, Aug. 17, 1814, and made his way up the Penobscot River to Hampden. British vessels followed, and to prevent her falling into the hands of his enemy, Morris burned her.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), McLean, Sir Allan 1725-1784 (search)
McLean, Sir Allan 1725-1784 Military officer; born in Scotland, in 1725; was a lieutenant in a Scotch brigade in the service of the Dutch in 1747. He left that service in 1757, came to America, and was at the capture of Fort Duquesne in 1758. He served under Amherst in 1759, and was major-commander of the 114th Highlanders, which regiment he raised. He was made lieutenant-colonel in 1771, and in 1775 he came to America again, to fight the patriotic colonists. With a corps of Royal Highland emigrants, which he raised in Canada, he occupied Quebec late in 1775, and rendered great service during the siege by Montgomery. He commanded the fort at Penobscot in 1779, and was promoted brigadier-general after leaving America. He died in 1784.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Maine, (search)
uded in the charter of the Plymouth Company, and in 1621 the company, having granted the country east of the St. Croix to Sir William Alexander (q. v.), established that river as the eastern boundary of Maine. Monhegan Island was first settled (1622) and next Saco (1623); and in 1629 the Plymouth Company, perceiving its own dissolution to be inevitable, parcelled out the territory in small grants. In the course of three years the whole coast had been thus disposed of as far east as the Penobscot River. East of that river was claimed by the French, and was a subject of dispute for a long time. When the Plymouth Company dissolved (1635) and divided the American territory, Sir Ferdinando Gorges took the whole region between the Piscataqua and Monhegan Island. the Kennebee, and received a formal charter for it from Charles I. in 1639, when the region was called the province of Maine, in compliment to the Queen, who owned the province of Maine in France. In 1636 Gorges sent over
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Morris, Charles 1784- (search)
Morris, Charles 1784- Naval officer; born in Woodstock, Conn., July 26, 1784; entered the navy in July, 1799, and helped in the destruction of the Philadelphia at Tripoli. In the encounter between the Constitution and Guerriere he was severely wounded. In 1814, while he commanded the frigate John Adams, he took her up the Penobscot River for repairs, was blockaded there, and on the approach of the British he destroyed her. In 1825 he commanded the frigate Brandywine, which conveyed Lafayette back to Europe after his visit to this country. He was constantly employed in the public Commodore Morris's monument. Charles Morris. service, afloat or ashore, and at the time of his death in Washington, Jan. 27, 1856, was chief of the bureau of ordnance and hydrography. He had the supervision of the Naval Academy at Annapolis for several years. His remains lie in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, and over them is a neat white marble monument.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Navy of the United States (search)
he army. Esek Hopkins, of Rhode Island, was commissioned the first commodore, and made commander-in-chief of the Continental navy. The navy was almost annihilated at the close of the Revolutionary War. Of the thirteen frigates ordered to be built by Congress in 1775, two had been destroyed on the Hudson River and three on the Delaware, without getting to sea. The remaining eight, together with most of the purchased vessels, had been captured by the British, some at Charleston, some at Penobscot, and others on the high seas. The only American ship-of-the-line ordered by Congress and finished (the Alliance) was presented in 1782 to the King of France, to supply the place of a similar vessel lost in Boston Harbor by an accident. After the war there seemed to be little use for a navy, and it was neglected. This indifference was continued until 1793, when depredations upon American commerce by Algerine corsairs became more alarming than ever. In his message of December, 1793, Wash
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), New England. (search)
r of the Discoverer, accompanied by Robert Galterns as supercargo or general agent of the expedition They entered Penobscot Bay early in June, and went up the Penobscot River some distance: then, sailing along the coast, they entered the mouths of the Saco and other principal streams of Maine; and finally, sailing southward, they lon the Isles of Shoals. Thomas Hunt commanding one of the vessels, and he the other. They first landed on Mohegan Island, 20 miles south of the mouth of the Penobscot River, where they sought whales but found none Leaving most of the crew to pursue ordinary fishing, Smith had seven small boats built, in which he and eight men ranged the coast from Penobscot eastward and westward. They went as far south as Cape Cod, bartering with the natives for beaver and other furs. They went up the several rivers some distance in the interior, and after an absence of seven months the expedition returned to England. From his observations of the coasts, islands, and h
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Penobscot. (search)
Penobscot. The Company of New France, which had purchased Sir W. Alexander's rights to territory in Nova Scotia through Stephen, Lord of La Tour, in 1630, convRossellon, commander of a French fort in Acadia, sent a French manof-war to Penobscot and took possession of the Plymouth trading-house there, with all its goods. abandoned. The Plymouth people never afterwards recovered their interest at Penobscot. The first permanent English occupation of the region of the Penobscot—to sent of the legislature, caused a fort to be built on the western bank of the Penobscot (afterwards Fort Knox), near the village of Prospect, which was named Fort Po(the only ones then hostile to the English), and so ended the contest for the Penobscot region by arms. In 1799 a British force of several hundred men from Nova Stered eastern Maine and established themselves in a fortified place on the Penobscot River. Massachusetts sent a force to dislodge the intruders. The expedition con
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Pownall, Fort, erection of (search)
Pownall, Fort, erection of Governor Pownall, of Massachusetts, took possession of the country around the Penobscot River in 1759, and secured it by the erection of a fort there. It was done by 400 men granted by Massachusetts for the purpose, at a cost of about $15,000, and named Fort Pownall.
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