A Neighbourly War by Robert L. Dallison

Author:Robert L. Dallison
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: War of 1812, New Brunswick Military Heritage Series, Canadian Non-Fiction, Canadian Military History, Maine History, New Brunswick History, War
Publisher: Goose Lane Editions and the Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society
Published: 2011-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Mike Bechthold

Meanwhile, the British prepared plans to occupy Moose Island. Lord Bathurst directed that the 102nd Regiment, in garrison at Bermuda, be assigned to the task. Captain Sir Thomas Hardy, in whose arms Admiral Horatio Nelson had died at the Battle of Trafalgar, was selected to command the naval contingent. His squadron, also located at Bermuda, consisted of his flagship H.M.S. Ramillies (seventy-four guns), H.M.S. Martin (eighteen guns), H.M.S. Borer (eighteen guns), bomb ketch H.M.S. Terror (ten guns), and four transports. The naval strength of the squadron was estimated at nine hundred sailors and one-hundred-and-fifty-two Royal Marines. Command of the invasion force was entrusted to Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew Pilkington, a senior member of General Sherbrooke’s staff. Orders for the expedition were clear: “occupy and maintain possession of the islands in the Bay of Passamaquoddy.” In addition to the 102nd Regiment, with a strength of seven hundred and two all ranks, were fifty men of Fourth Company, 1st Battalion Royal Artillery, and a detachment of engineers from the Halifax garrison. Every effort was made to keep the expedition and its objective secret. Shelburne, Nova Scotia, was selected as the rendezvous for the forces converging from Bermuda and Halifax. On July 8, less than a day after it assembled, the combined force sailed from Shelburne.

Complete surprise was achieved. At mid-afternoon on July 11, the British fleet was spotted sailing majestically up the passage between Deer and Campobello islands, led by H.M.S. Martin flying a flag of truce. To ensure that no American vessel escaped, H.M.S. Borer had been detached to sail up the Lubec Channel, closing the southern approach to Eastport. There was no time for the American garrison to escape or to call out the 750-man local militia. When Martin anchored off the town, Lieutenant Oates, Colonel Pilkington’s aide-de-camp, went ashore with a flag of truce. He went immediately to Fort Sullivan and delivered the surrender message. Meanwhile, the British warships formed a battle line, with Ramillies and its seventy-four guns within easy cannonshot of the blockhouse.

Oates returned to Martin without receiving a reply, as Major Putnam, the American commander, chose to delay while he heard from a delegation of citizens and held a council of war. When he saw Ramillies clear for action and British troops begin to disembark, he ordered the American flag struck. Within the hour, the 102nd Regiment was ashore, securing the island from attack and taking seven officers and seventy-three men of the 40th US Regiment prisoners of war. Without loss of life or property damage, New Brunswick’s claim to all of the islands in Passamaquoddy Bay had been reasserted.

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