In 1779 the British adopted a strategy to capture parts of Maine, especially around Penobscot Bay, and transform it into a new colony to be called "New Ireland". The scheme was promoted by exiled Loyalists Dr. John Caleff and John Nutting and Anglo-Irishman William Knox . It was intended to be a permanent colony for Loyalists and a base for military action during the war. On 30 May 1779, eight British ships of war left from Halifax with 640 troops. Under the command of General Francis McLean, the ships entered Castine's harbor, landed troops, and captured the village. They began erecting Fort George on one of the highest points of the peninsula. Alarmed by this incursion, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts sent the Penobscot Expedition led by Massachusetts general Solomon Lovell and Continental Navy captain Dudley Saltonstall. The military expedition consisted of a fleet of 19 warships and 25 support ships, carrying 344 guns in total. Although badly outnumbered, McLean and his British forces withstood the 21-day siege and the Americans were routed by the arrival of British reinforcements under the command of Collier. The Royal Navy blocked an escape by sea so the Patriots burned their ships near present-day Bangor and walked home. New England was unable to dislodge the British despite a reorganized defense and the imposition of martial law in selected areas of Maine. Some of the most easterly towns declared themselves neutral and uninvolved in the war. The battle was one of the greatest British victories of the war. The failed Penobscot Expedition, which cost the revolutionaries eight million dollars and 43 ships, proved to be the greatest American naval defeat until Pearl Harbor in 1941. The 74th Regiment held Majabagaduce until the end of the war. The British established a fort under the command of Campbell. There were about 30 houses in the area. They carried in the American privateers they captured and received trade from Halifax and New York. Loyalists from the surrounding area flocked to the village. The guide who led the loyalists to the fort was eventually captured and murdered by the Americans, under the direction of Wadsworth. A party of 25 Loyalists eventually went to Wadsworth quarters and took him prisoner. Wadsworth eventually escaped on 15 June 1781. New Ireland was ceded to the Americans as part of the peace settlement. Saltonstall and Revere were later court-martialed, charged with cowardice and insubordination; the boards found Saltonsall guilty, but acquitted Revere. At the end of the Revolutionary War, many American Loyalists in the area migrated eastward to the CanadianMaritimes, some towing their houses behind their boats. Subsequently known as United Empire Loyalists, they crossed the newly established international boundary line of the St. Croix River and established St. Andrews, one of the oldest towns in New Brunswick. In addition, many soldiers of the 74th chose to be disbanded in St. Andrews, and took up land grants there along with the Loyalists, rather than return to Britain. After the peace was signed in 1783, the New Ireland proposal was abandoned. In 1784 the decision was made to split New Brunswick off from Nova Scotia and made it into the desired Loyalist colony. It was planned to be named "New Ireland", but these plans fell through and it was instead named New Brunswick. The Treaty of Paris that ended the war was ambiguous in defining the boundary between Maine and the neighbouring British provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec. The New Ireland colony and the Penobscot expedition was fictionalised in the 2010 novel The Fort by British author Bernard Cornwell.
War of 1812
During the War of 1812, from his base in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in August and September 1814, Lt Governor of Nova ScotiaJohn Coape Sherbrooke sent a naval force and 500 British troops under the command of Vice Admiral Colpoys to conquer Maine and re-establish the colony of New Ireland. In 26 days, they succeeded in taking possession of Hampden, Bangor, and Machias, destroying or capturing 17 American ships. They won the Battle of Hampden and occupied the village of Castine for the rest of the war, rebuilding Fort George, occupying a former American fort, and building three new forts there. The Treaty of Ghent returned this territory to the United States. The British left in April 1815, at which time they collected £10,750 obtained from tariff duties at Castine. The brief life of the colony yielded customs revenues, called the "Castine Fund", which were subsequently used to finance a military library in Halifax and found Dalhousie College. Dalhousie University has a street named "Castine Way". Interestingly, the British army captured Belfast, Maine in 1779 and then held it again for five days in September 1814 during the War of 1812.
