Replies

THE PRICE OF INDECISION: THE PENOBSCOT EXPEDITION
by ALEX GROFF Eagle Scout Troop 412 Glen Burnie, Maryland

The Penobscot Expedition was the worst United States naval defeat until Pearl Harbor. Beginning as a forty-six1ship flotilla, the American forces entered Penobscot Bay strong and sure, but left either scuttled, burning or seized by British forces -- forces that began as three ships and a single manned fort. Two questions immediately arise from this debacle: how did it happen and how can we make sure it never happens again.

If nothing else, the presence of the sloop Providence gave a feeling of confidence to the expedition. Once under the command of John Paul Jones, Providence had won a number of victories for the United States -- then the united colonies -- and now it stood alongside the flagship, Warren, leading the task force to the Bagaduce Peninsula. When the American fleet started north in July of 1779, the British 74th Regiment Afoot under Brigadier Francis MacLean had been settled in Fort George for a little over a month. This was ample time to construct a battery at the southern tip of the peninsula, but not enough for anything more.

The first American advance came at five in the morning on July 28th, when the transport ships dropped off the first part of the six hundred soldier attack force at Dyce's Head, on the west side of the peninsula. The American forces quickly overcame British soldiers stationed outside the fort and found themselves at the clearing before the fort. Seeing the forces grouping together at the edge of the woods, MacLean reached for the white flag while calling feeble defense orders. Speaking later on the mission, MacLean said, "I was in no situation to defend myself; I only meant to give them one or two guns... and then have struck my colors...." Victory seemed in the hands of the Americans.

However, as American General Lovell arrived at the encampment and hour behind the attack, siege was the last thing on his mind. His plan was to "dig in" and organize, hoping to capture Fort George "soon."

"Soon", though, was not soon enough. As the Americans lost their momentum "digging in," the British worked hard to further fortify their position, strengthen walls and call in naval reinforcements. General Lovell and Commodore Saltonstall began to argue about a naval barrage versus a military siege, both taking on the infamous 'you first' attitude. On August 10th the two commanders finally agreed to a combined attack... but nothing happened. Lovell was prepared for a full assault, but Saltonstall wouldn't provide necessary reinforcements.

Destruction of the American Fleet at Penobscot Bay, 14 August 1779

Twenty days after the initial attack, Friday the 13th, Lovell finally led the second attack and succeeded on land, but it was too late. Already a new fleet of British ships were on their way and again Saltonstall called off the naval attack. A few ships, including the Providence, stood and fought, but most were destroyed by their crews to escape capture. Thirty-seven of the forty-six American ships were lost; 474 men were killed or captured. The entire American force in Penobscot was routed.

The true shame of the expedition, though, was not the loss of the fort -- which remained in British possession until after the war -- but the lesson that went unheeded: the need for more cooperation between military branches and less indecision disguised as patience. For as the Anzio campaign of World War II showed once again, indecision is surely paid for with lives.

A case for real poetic justice

I don't know whether or not it's because most Americans are woefully ignorant of history or if it's because most of us sat through history classes in which our country's founders were painted as glowing heroes with no warts or character flaws, but we have this tendency to expect our leaders to be superhuman.

Then we get very upset when we find out that they are as vulnerable as the rest of us.

Sir George Collier

One of my favorite characters in history is Paul Revere. Most of us know him for his midnight ride on the 18th of April in '75.

How much else do we know about him? He was a silversmith of great reputation in Boston. I have a locket that is a reproduction of one of his designs.

But how many of us realize that the same Paul Revere that school children are taught was the super patriot who warned the good people of Lexington and Concord that the British were coming was also court martialed.

Paul Revere

His problems began in what is now Castine, Maine. The British had begun to build a fort there. The patriots responded by sending an impressive array of naval ships and a scraped together army, which included Lt. Col. Paul Revere, who was in charge of the artillery.

The patriots got into a dispute and never attacked. The army believed that the fort could not be taken without the help of the navy, and the navy commanders refused to bring their ships in close enough to do any good. Sound familiar? By the time the order to attack came from Massachusetts, the British had had time to get in reinforcements.

The navy grounded itself, destroyed its ships and ran. The militia was left to get home the best way it could.

Paul Revere lost track of his men and refused to skuttle the ship assigned to him. Instead he tried to look for his men.

Gen. Peleg Wadsworth, the patriot's second in command, demanded that Revere divert the ship to another purpose.

Revere refused, saying that as the expedition had failed, he was no longer required to obey orders.

He was the obvious scapegoat when an investigation was launched and was censured for misconduct, although he was neither condemned nor acquitted. Hoping to restore his reputation, he demanded a full court martial. Three years later, a court martial was convened, and Revere was acquitted. It did him little good. He was not looked upon kindly by his fellows.

How did he become a hero? In 1861, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the poem, portraying Paul Revere as the idea patriot answering the nation's call. His purpose was to stimulate enlistment in the Union Army.

It was fitting that he should do so. Gen. Peleg Wadsworth, who had caused Revere all that trouble, was Longfellow's grandfather.

If that ain't "poetic" justice, please tell me what is.

Linda Brown (exerpted from "A Case For Real Poetic Justice")

Additional Sources:

www.americanrevolution.org
www.mainepbs.org
www.sar.org
www.kingstreenews.com
members.tripod.com/ penobscot1779
www.nmm.ac.uk
www.history.navy.mil
www.ruf.rice.edu
www.scuttlebuttsmallchow.com
www.nmm.ac.uk

On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on July 22:
1478 Philip I (the Handsome) 1st Habsburg king of Spain (1506)
1822 Gregor Mendel monk/geneticist, discoverer of the laws of heredity
1844 Rev William Archibald Spooner London, invented "spoonerisms"
1849 Emma Lazarus poet ("The New Colossus"-base of Statue of Liberty)
1784 Friedrich W Bessel, German astronomer (star parallax, Bessel Function)
1822 Hamilton Prioleau Bee, Brig General (Confederate Army) died in 1897
1822 John George Walker, Major General (Confederate Army), died in 1893
1834 Daniel McCook Jr, Brig General (Union volunteers), died in 1864
1887 Gustav Hertz German quantum physicist (Nobel 1925)
1888 Raymond Chandler Chic, mystery writer (The Long Goodbye)
1890 Rose Kennedy mom of JFK, RFK & Ted
1892 Arthur Seyss-Inquart Austrian chancellor (1930s)
1898 Alexander Calder sculptor (mobiles, stabiles)
1898 Stephen Vincent Benét US, writer (The Devil & Daniel Webster)
1908 Amy Vanderbilt authority on etiquette (Complete Book of Etiquette)
1921 William Roth (Sen-R-Del)
1923 Robert Dole (Sen-R-Ks Presidental candidate)
1924 Margaret Whiting Detroit, singer (Kreisler Bandstand, Strauss Family)
1928 Orson Bean actor/comedian (I've Got a Secret, To Tell the Truth)
1930 Yuri P Artyukhin cosmonaut (Soyuz 14)
1932 Oscar de la Renta Dom Rep, designer (Coty Hall of Fame-1973)
1939 Terence Stamp England, actor (The Collector, Alien Nations)
(Question, who was born on this day in 1940?)
Answer, Alex Trebek Sudbury Ontario, TV game host
1941 George Clinton rocker (Testify, Funkadelics)
1944 Estelle Bennett NYC, vocalist (Ronettes-Be My Baby)
1945 Bobby Sherman actor/singer (Seattle)
1947 Danny Glover, SF CA, actor (Lethal Weapon, Operation Dumbo Drop)
1947 Albert Brooks LA Calif, comedian (Broadcast News, Lost in America)
1947 Don Henley drummer (Eagles-Desparado)
1955 Willem Dafoe actor (Platoon, Roadhouse 66, Mississippi Burning)
1958 Sandra Elizabeth Greenberg Spokane Wash, playmate (June, 1987)
1965 Patrick Laborteaux LA Calif, actor (Albert-Little House on Prairie)
1978 Heather Noelle Jones, Miss Oregon Teen USA (1996)

Deaths which occurred on July 22:
1035 - Robert I, Duke of Normandy, dies
1461 Charles VII king of France (1422-61), dies at 58
1676 Clement X, [Emilio Altieri], Italian Pope (1670-76), dies at 86
1826 Giuseppe Piazzi, monk/mathematician (found 1st asteroid), dies at 80
1861 Barnard Elliot Bee, US Confederate brig-general, dies at 37
1864 James Birdseye Mcpherson, US Union gen-major, dies in battle at 35
1864 William Henry Talbot Walker, Confederate gen-mjr, dies in battle at 47
1934 John Dillinger shot dead at Biograph Theater in Chicago
1967 Carl Sandburg poet (Abraham Lincoln: The Prarie Years), dies at 89
1974 Wayne L Morse, (Sen-D-Oregon), dies at 73
1979 Tony "Two-Ton" Galento, boxer/actor (On the Waterfront), dies at 69
1992 Wayne McLaren, model (Marlboro Man), dies of lung cancer at 51

Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1966 WELLS ROBERT J.---PHILADELPHIA PA.
1972 PAIGE GORDON C.---LOS ALTOS CA.
[03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 98]

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
0260 St Dionysius begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1298 English defeat Scots at Battle of Falkirk
1306 King Phillip the Fair, orders expulsion of Jews out of France
1456 - Battle at Nandorfehervar (Belgrade): Hungarian army under Janos Hunyadi beats sultan Murad II
1515 Louis of Hungary (9) marries Maria of Bohemia and succession to Hungarian throne
1515 Congress of Vienna settles issues between Poland and Holy Roman Empire
1587 2nd English colony established on Roanoke Island off NC
1648 10,000 Jews of Polannoe murdered in Chmielnick massacre
1686 City of Albany, NY chartered

1775 George Washington takes command of the troops

1796 Cleveland, Ohio, founded by Gen Moses Cleaveland
1812 Duke of Wellington defeats French at Battle of Salamanca, Spain
1864 Battle of Atlanta-Hood attacks Sherman & suffers terrible losses
1893 Katharine Lee Bates writes "America the Beautiful," in Colorado
1898 Belgica crew see 1st sunrise in 1600 hrs-1st to endure Antarct winter
1908 W Lorenz discovers asteroid #665 Sabine
1916 A bomb went off during a Preparedness Day parade in SF killing 10
1917 Alexander Kerensky becomes Russian PM
1917 M Wolf discovers asteroids #879 Ricarda, #880 Herba & #881 Athene
1918 Lightning kills 504 sheep in Utah's Wasatch National Park
1923 Walter Johnson becomes the 1st to strikeout 3,000
1926 105ø F (41ø C), Waterbury, Connecticut (state record)
1926 108ø F (42ø C), Troy, New York (state record)
1930 G Neujmin discovers asteroid #1306 Scythia
1933 Caterina Jarboro sings "Aida," NYC-1st negro prima donna in US
1933 Wiley Post completes 1st round-the-world solo flight
1937 Irish premier Eamon de Valera wins elections
1937 Senate rejects FDR proposal to enlarge Supreme Court
1939 1st black woman judge (Jane Matilda Bolin-NYC)
1942 Gasoline rationing begins in US during WW II
1943 Allied forces captured Palermo, Sicily
1944 Soviets set up Polish Committee of National Liberation
1946 Menachen Begin's opposition group (Stern gang) surprise attack on King David hotel
1947 -8ø F (-13ø C), Charlotte Pass, NSW (Australian record)
1950 King Leopold, after 6 years in exile, returns to Belgium
1952 Polish constitution adopted (National Day)
1955 1st VP to preside over cabinet meeting-R Nixon
1955 Phillies longest win streak since 1892 hits 11
1960 Cuba nationalizes all US owned sugar factories
1962 1st US Venus probe, Mariner 1, fails at lift-off
1962 Chic White Sox Floyd Robinson goes 6 for 6 (all singles)
1963 Sonny Liston KOs Floyd Patterson to retain heavywieght championship
1963 The Beatles release "Introducing the Beatles"
1967 Jimi Hendrix quits as opening act of the Monkees' tour
1969 Aretha Franklin arrested for disturbing the peace in Detroit
1972 27.53 cm (10.84") of rainfall, Fort Ripley, Mn (state 24-hr record)
1972 Venera 8 makes soft landing on Venus
1975 House of Reps votes to restore citizenship to Gen Robert E Lee
1981 Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca sentenced in a Rome to life
1982 Biggest mass wedding, Rev Sun Myung Moon weds 2,200 couples in NYC
1983 -128ø F (-89ø C) recorded, Vostok, Antarctica (world record)
1983 Dick Smith makes 1st solo helicopter flight around the world
1983 Poland's PM Januzelski lifts martial law
1986 House of Reps impeaches Judge Harry E Claiborne on tax evasion
1987 US began escorting re-flagged Kuwaiti tankers in Persian Gulf
1988 500 US scientists pledge to boycott Pentagon germ-warfare research
1990 Greg Lemond of US wins bicycling's 3rd tour de France
1991 Jeffrey Dahmer confesses to killing 17 males in 1978
1994 A federal judge ordered The Citadel, to open its doors to women.
1999 China outlawed the Falun Gong, or Buddhist Law, and began detaining thousands of its members.

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Pakistan : Bank Holiday
Poland : Liberation Day (1944)
Swaziland : King's Birthday
Virgin Islands : Hurricane Supplication Day (Monday)
Summer Leisure Day
Ice Cream Month

Religious Observances
RC, Ang, Luth : Memorial of St Mary Magdalen, penitent

Religious History
1620 A small congregation of English Separatists, led by John Robinson, began their emigration to the New World. Today, this historic group of religious refugees has come tobe known as the 'Pilgrims.'
1836 Birth of Emily E. S. Elliott, Anglican missions supporter and hymnwriter. Nieceof Charlotte Elliott (who wrote the hymn 'Just As I Am'), Emily penned the words to the hymn'Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne.'
1847 The first large company of Mormon immigrants entered the Salt Lake Valley, in whatwas still Mexican territory. Soon after, Mormon leader Brigham Young founded Salt Lake City,Utah.
1865 Birth of Peter P. Bilhorn, sacred composer. He produced over 1,400 hymns in hislife, including 'I Will Sing the Wondrous Story' and 'Sweet Peace, The Gift of God's Love.'
1981 Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca, 23, was sentenced to life imprisonment for hisattempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in May of this year.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up."

Things To Do If You Ever Became An Evil Overlord...
When you create a multimedia presentation of your plan designed so that your five-year-old advisor can easily understand the details, DO NOT label the disk "Project Overlord" and leave it lying on top of your desk.

PUNishment of the the day...
Herb gardeners who work extra get thyme and a half.

Dumb Laws...
Boston Massachusetts:
Duels to the death permitted on the common on Sundays provided that the Governor is present.

How To Annoy Osama bin Laden If You're Invited To A Dinner Party At His Secret Afghan Lair...
Leave business cards for the Israeli Mossad in his Rolodex.