Times of War

In 1779, early settlers of Bucksport witnessed a devastating American defeat during the Revolutionary War when a fleet of 44 warships and support vessels from the Continental Navy set out on the Penobscot Expedition to prevent the British Army from strengthening Fort George at what is now Castine. After a series of fateful events and decisions by the expedition's leaders, the attempt to capture the fort failed, and British ships overwhelmed the Americans in an attack that extended up the Penobscot River to present-day Bangor. During the expedition, Bucksport native Captain Ebeneezer Buck led a charge with General Peleg Wadsworth and 400 American soldiers to storm and secure high ground near Fort George. In 1814, during the War of 1812, the British returned to the Penobscot River in pursuit of the U.S.S. Adams, which had been beached for repairs at Hampden, raising fears that towns along the river were vulnerable to further naval attacks. As a result, Fort Knox was built between 1844 and the 1860s across the river, later manned for defense during the Civil War and used briefly in 1898 as a training site for 600 Connecticut troops during the Spanish-American War. Today, Fort Knox is a well-preserved seacoast fortification, a State Historic Site and National Historic Landmark, and a gateway to the Penobscot Narrows Bridge Observatory high above the river.

Bucksport, Maine · United States