The Enemy At the Gates: The British Invasion of Maine Part 3

The Battle of Hampden

Recognizing the need to eliminate the potential threat of a refitted Adams, a part of the fleet, led by Dragon and accompanied by a transport with 500 light infantry and artillery, was dispatched up the river to destroy it and capture merchant vessels anchored at Hampden, one of which had recently arrived from Rochelle, France with a rich cargo of silk, wine and brandy.
Aware of the British advance, Morris ordered the guns removed from Adams and constructed shore batteries to cover the approach up the river. As the militia trickled in during the day on September 2, he supplied any, who were unarmed, with muskets and ammunition from the ship’s stores.
Lewis and Little, meanwhile, were leading their men up the road along the west bank of the river. The latter, observing a detachment of Royal Riflemen landing to be in position to intercept them, turned his men into the woods and never reached the battle.
In the afternoon, Morris went into town to attend a council of war with General Blake, the commander of the militia and several prominent townspeople at the Hampden Academy Building. Blake had established a rough line with the right anchored on a church, extending in front of the Academy to the river. To the south was the burial ground, Sowadabscook Stream and Pitcher’s Brook. Pickets were placed overlooking Bald Hill Cove approximately three miles down the river.
Morris was dismayed to find total confusion. Blake had developed no clear plan for the 500 men, who were arriving, no positions had been prepared, and the townspeople were advocating no resistance relying instead on British magnanimity.
At sunset, Barrie’s troops aboard the transport landed on the shores of Bald Hill Cove. These were light infantry riflemen, with weapons more accurate and of longer range than the standard smoothbore musket. Elite troops, they had served with Wellington.
Blake’s pickets withdrew.
Throughout the long, rainy night the throng of citizen soldiers stood to arms. To untrained farmers and tradesmen, most of whom had never heard a shot fired in anger, the night was long indeed. Rumors would have flown up and down the line. The stress would have rendered many inconveniently ill.
The morning of September 3 came with a thick fog and movement of the British troops.
Through faulty intelligence, they believed they were facing 1400 militia, thus moved cautiously up the road towards Hampden with a local guide pressed into service. A line of skirmishers was thrown across the front followed by a company of the 60th Regiment, a green-coated regiment formed in great part from German and Dutch prisoners of war unhappy at being forced to support Napoleon. The flanks were guarded by detachments of marines from the ships. Behind it in support followed a second company of the 29th Regiment trailed by a battery of light artillery.
Around 8 AM, marching in quickstep, they broke out of the fog almost upon the startled Mainers, who fired a ragged volley at them. Immediately the center of the militia line collapsed, and without orders began a swift retreat. Morris, his men firing downriver at the British ships and landing barges, saw the collapse and ordered his guns to be spiked and the Adams set ablaze.
Within an hour, the British were in possession of Hampden. The battle, which turned out to be the last in the northern theater of the war, was nearly bloodless. One notable casualty was the unfortunate pressed into service by the British as a guide.
The citizens, who had counted on British magnanimity were sorely disappointed as their cattle were killed and houses sacked. Pleading to CPT Barrie for humanity, he responded, “I have none for you. I will spare your lives, though I mean to burn your houses.” Many were taken to the ships to be detained and a bond of $12,000 was levied on the town.
Two thirds of Barrie’s troops pressed upriver to Bangor. There was no stomach for fighting in Bangor where the citizens determined to rely on Barrie’s good will, and under a flag of truce, surrendered the town unconditionally. Some of them must have felt that resistance might have been the better course as public buildings were commandeered, foodstuffs confiscated and the troops set free to loot. After receiving a pledge of a $30,000 bond, Barrie called off his men.
They then bedded down for what must have been an uneasy night in Bangor. When the next day dawned, the occupiers busied themselves with burning a few more vessels anchored in or on the stocks in the river, and withdrew to Hampden.
Barrie’s men then began boarding the transports to return to Castine, stopping along the way in Frankfort to relieve the townspeople there of a large number of oxen, sheep and geese. On September 7 the victorious force dropped anchor in Castine. The Penobscot River campaign had ended.
To be continued