Maine at Louisburg in 1745

Book 3 9 I

Lieut. General William Pefperrell

MAINE AT LOUISBURG

By HENRT S. BURR AGE, D. D.

State Historian

AUGUSTA

BURLEIGH & FLTNT

igio

WW\1

D. Of D.

JUL 5 I9ia

To

THE GOVERNOR OF MAINE

HON. BERT M. FERNALD

GREATLY INTERESTED IN THE PAST

PRESENT AND FUTURE OF

HIS NATIVE STATE

Preface

In the making of the Nation, Maine has not received the credit to which she is fairly entitled. While the making was in progress she was a part of Massachusetts, and the services of her sons redounded to the glory of the great mother Commonwealth. But the Lexington alarm awoke the minute men here as well as the minute men of Essex and Middlesex ; and with ' enthusiasm and alacrity they assembled and hurried forth to. take their places in the ranks of the uprising colonists. They were at Bunker Hill and Dorchester Heights, indeed in most of the movements of the continental forces that followed on remoter fields. One of the surprises of our Revolutionary history is the recent discovery in the Massachusetts Revolutionary rolls that what is now the State of Maine had in Washington's army at Valley Forge, in the winter of 1777-8, ten hundred and eight officers and men, or about one-tenth of Washington's entire force. In placing in 1907, on the line of Washington's intrenchments at Valley Forge, a granite marker with an inscription in bronze containing a tribute to these Maine: heroes, the Pine Tree";State — the first of all the states next to Pennsylvania to erect a memorial on that scene of privation and suffering — has evinced in a most worthy way her continued patriotic spirit.

But we have been as neglectful of our history of Maine's part in the Colonial periodjas in that of the Revolution. For example, the fathers of the men from Maine who fought for independence in the Revolution were at Louisburg in 1745 in even larger numbers proportionately — that is when compared vi Maine at Louisburg in 1^45

with the quotas from other parts of New England — than on the many battlefields of the Revolution from Bunker Hill to Yorktown. Parkman, in his "Half-Century of Conflict," following doubtless a statement made by Pepperrell,' the commander of the expedition, says : " A full third of the Massachusetts contingent, or more than a thousand men, are reported to have come from the hardy population of Maine, whose entire fighting force, as shown by the muster rolls, was then but 2855."^

Maine's part at Louisburg in 1745, therefore, was a most distinguished one. It is a matter for regret that, in the absence of official rolls, it is not now possible to present a complete list of the men who served in the three Maine regiments in that memorable campaign. Only a few names of those who served in Waldo's regiment have come down to us ; but the names of men who served in Pepperrell's and Moulton's regiments, brought together in this volume from various sources, furnish abundant evidence that the estimate above mentioned is a correct one.

We have been too neglectful of our State history. The Maine Historical Society, with limited financial resources, has done a most valuable service in collecting historical data, and in publishing the same. The Society has received needed financial encouragement from the State. It is worthy of added encouragement. But Maine will not discharge her just obligations to the past until on her part proper attention is paid to the work of collecting the materials of her history in the colonial period, also in the period of her statehood, and to the care and preservation of her archives.

' See note on page 21, ^ Vol. 2, p. 99.

Preface vii

In my attempt in the following pages to call attention to the part Maine had in the Louisburg expedition in 1745, I am especially indebted to the source-books concerning Cape Breton and the capture of Louisburg at that time, which are mentioned in the appendix and are found in the John Carter Brown Library, Brown University ; the Massachusetts Historical Society Library (including its valuable collection of " Pepperrell Papers"); the library of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.; the Boston City Library; the Maine State Library ; and the library of the Maine Historical Society in Portland. Some of these source-books I have been able to addto the State Library from funds placed at my disposal by the Legislature of 1909, and others should be added as opportunity offers.

The portrait of Sir William Pepperrell, of which the frontispiece is a half-tone reproduction, was painted recently by Mr. Joseph B. Cahill for Henry Deering, Esq., of Portland, Maine, who presented it to the Maine Historical Society. It is taken partly from the Pepperrell portrait in the Essex Institute, and partly from engravings of Sir William. I am indebted to Mr. Deering for the excellent photograph used in the preparation of the frontispiece. The portrait of Sir William Pepperrell in the State House in Augusta was placed there near the close of 1862, and was a gift to the State by Mr. S. Brannan of San Francisco, California, a native of Maine. It is a copy of a portrait by John Smibert or Smybert, a Scotch painter, who accompanied Dean Berkeley to America in 1728, and settled in Boston, where he died in 175 1. He painted portraits of many of the prominent men of his time in New England. The copy of his portrait of Sir William Pepperrell in the State House in Augusta was made from the portrait in the Portsmouth viii Maine at Louisburg in 1^45

Atheneum, Portsmouth, N. H. Mr. Brannan, for his valuable gift, received the thanks of the Maine Legislature in a resolve approved by the Governor February i6, 1863.

The illustrations, Louisburg in 1745, and Siege of Louisburg in 1745, are taken from Parkman's "Half-Century of Conflict," published by Little, Brown and Company, Boston, whose permission for their use in this volume is gratefully acknowledged.

It may be stated that the substance of the following account of Maine's part in the Louisburg expedition of 1745 has been presented at a meeting of the Maine Society of Colonial Wars, at a meeting of the Maine Historical Society and at a meeting of the National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of Maine.

H. S. B.

Togus, Maine.