their pieces and entered. At the same moment, others fired into the General's apartment and blew in a part of the window; and a third party forced their way to Miss Fenno's room. Thus possession was taken of the whole house, except the General's room, which was strongly barred. Finding no person with Miss Fenno except Mrs. Wadsworth, who had fled thither to dress herself, a British officer ordered the firing there to cease. Armed with a brace of pistols, a fusee, and a blunderbuss, the General fought the assailants away entirely from his windows and the kitchen door. Twice he ineffectually snapped his blunderbuss at others whom he heard in the entry; when they retreated. He next seized his fusee, and fired upon those who were breaking through one of his windows; and they also withdrew. The attack was then renewed through the entry, and was bravely resisted with his bayonet. But the appearance of his under linen betraying him to the soldiers in the kitchen, they instantly fired at him from the door that opened thither, and one of their bullets went through his left arm. Forced to surrender, they helped him to dress with all expedition, except his coat, which could not be drawn over his fractured arm. His wife and Miss Fenno, in spite of the condition the house was in, doors and windows demolished, one room on fire, and the floors covered with blood, hastily tied a handkerchief on his arm, and threw a blanket over his shoulders; when he was precipitately hurried away. Two wounded British soldiers were placed on the General's horse taken from the barn; and he himself, and a wounded soldier of his, marched on foot, assisted by their captors. "When they had proceeded about a mile they met at a small house a number of people who had collected, and who inquired if they had taken Gen. Wadsworth. They said no, and added that they must leave a wounded man in their care, and if they paid proper attention to him they should be compensated, but if not, they would burn down their house."*

This house was undoubtedly that of Dr. David Fales, who received the apparently dying man, extracted the ball from his thigh, kept and took care of him till his recovery, and, it is said, received adequate compensation. It was then probably early morning; and the persons assembled there were, perhaps, the doctor's sons, one of whom, Willard, was preparing wood for a morning fire. Their uncle Atwood, who was also there, seeing the approach of British soldiers and

* Dwight's Travels, in Thatcher's Journal.

remembering former courtesies, made his escape by the back door and took shelter in the woods.*

Wadsworth, warned that his safety depended on his silence, was then mounted in place of the wounded man left, and the party hurried on to Wessaweskeag and snatched a hasty breakfast ready prepared at Snow's. A question then arose, what should be done with Bachelder, whom they had thus far kept as a prisoner. "Take him with you to Biguyduce," said Mr. Snow, "if you don't want the whole neighborhood at your backs." But Bachelder pleaded for his children, suffering for the meal; and they finally released him on his solemn oath not to utter a word till they were gone out of the river. This oath he was reluctant to take, but the starving condition of his family compelled him. The privateer being found in waiting, the party hurried on board with their prisoners, and returned without molestation to Biguyduce. One of the General's body-guard, Hickey by name, was left at the scene of the foray, badly wounded in the thigh; who, as soon as his condition would admit, was taken to Waldoboro' and put under the care of Dr. Schaeffer, or, as translated, Shepherd. One other was taken off with Wadsworth as before related; the other, John Montgomery, happened to be absent that night at his father's in Warren; and the three militia men, Boggs, P. Sechrist, and Nat. Copeland, after the capture, being left without orders, returned to their homes in that town. The General's children received no injury; the eldest, a son five years old, having slept undisturbed through the whole affair. That so daring an exploit. could have been accomplished, without exciting an alarm among the inhabitants, may seem strange to persons acquainted only with the present condition of the place; but at that time it was but a lonely, thinly settled, and partially reclaimed wilderness. The nearest house to Wadsworth's quarters, we believe, was the old dilapidated one of Abiathar Smith, near the Prison corner, or Watson's on the point across the river. Patrick Porterfield and Jonathan Lampson lived on the hill near Oyster River, joined, about this time or a little before, by N. Woodcock on the lot beyond. John Dillaway, who had married the widow Shibles, occupied the farm of her late husband, further eastward; and Capt. Jonathan Spear was, probably, at this time on the future Jenks farm. Further on, the house of Dr. Fales before mentioned, where D. Thorpe Fales now resides, and those of Nat. Fales and O. Robbins, both zealous patriots,

* Tradition, Mr. J. Tarbox, &c.

were the only other inhabited houses it was necessary to pass in going or returning.

Major Burton, who had been discharged from service but a few days before this capture, was absent when the raid took place; but now, feeling extremely anxious about his late commander, repaired to his former station at Camden; and, whilst waiting there in hope of some information respecting his fate, a flag of truce arrived bringing letters from him to Mrs. Wadsworth and Gov. Hancock, both of which he gladly took charge of and forwarded. Subsequently, a passport having been obtained, Burton, in a vessel which he either owned or procured, conducted Mrs. Wadsworth and Miss Fenno to visit the General in his confinement, and, after their stay there of ten days, brought them back and conveyed them to Falmouth and Boston. On his return from Boston, the vessel was watched for by the enemy, pursued, and captured not far from Monhegan; and Burton was made prisoner, carried to Biguyduce, and confined in the same apartment with Wadsworth. Then followed these two officers' celebrated, well-planned, well-executed, and providentially-aided escape; which, being an oft-told tale, cannot here be given for want of space, though Burton's unpublished narrative of it, left among the papers of the late historian of Maine, now before me, * furnishes some additional particulars of interest. Leaving their prison behind them, they pursued their way up the Penobscot, crossing successively that and the Passagassawamkeag river, and took refreshment in the house of Noah Miller, a stanch whig of Lincolnville, but, through fear of some treacherous tory or soldiers in pursuit, dared not stay over night in the house, but went a mile into the woods and lodged on the ground. Next morning they took their course directly through the woods to Warren, where leaving the General to recruit his strength among the settlers there, and to proceed to Falmouth by land, Burton hurried on to his own house in Cushing. There, though reluctant to leave a young wife and pleasant home, he dared not tarry but for a single night, from fear of tories, who, since the capture of Wadsworth, had become bolder than ever, and some of whom were among his own connections. The next day he set out for Boston. Finding no vacancy which he wished to fill in the army, he took a commission as Captain of Marines on board of a 20-gun ship commanded by Capt. Thos. Dinsmore. After cruising a month off Newfoundland, this ship steered for Cape Clear,

* Kindly furnished by Hon. Joseph Williamson of Belfast.

Ireland, intending to intercept a fleet of merchantmen from the West Indies. In October, espying four ships to the windward which they took for a part of this fleet, they stood for them, but to their no small disappointment found them to be three British frigates and one sloop-of-war; and, being unable to escape in the teeth of the gale that was blowing, they were captured, and confined in the castle of Cape Clear till February. They were thence removed to England, and confined in the old Dunkirk seventy-four ship; from which the overtures of peace in a few months set them at liberty. In an enemy's land, without money and without friends able to assist him, Major Burton succeeded in getting a passage to L'Orient in France, and thence in the frigate Alliance, Capt. Harden, to New London, Ct. From that place, with only eight shillings in money, he accomplished a journey home of 260 miles, before the end of May. When the privations and perils of war were over, he, with many thousands, returned to the plough, to enjoy, in straitened circumstances, yet with a cheerful spirit, liberties and privileges no less the bounty of Heaven because they were purchased with blood.

14*

CHAPTER IX.

CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTION, AND PROGRESS OF THE TOWN To 1790.

HAVING thus followed the fortunes of a distinguished officer and actor in the Revolutionary events of this place, we return to 1781. At the annual meeting in March, the town voted "that the highways be repaired by a Rate the present year," a thing the people had refused or neglected to do for the three preceding years, probably preferring to turn out voluntarily, at the call of the surveyor, or to leave their ways unmended till the close of the war. The amount raised was voted in silver currency, to be paid in work at the rate of 6s. a day for a man, and 3s. for a yoke of oxen; a proof that the paper money was so far depreciated and variable as to be no longer serviceable even as a standard of value.

The three recruits for the army assigned to Thomaston in December preceding, not having been otherwise provided for, the selectmen, April 16th, divided the inhabitants into three separate classes, and gave a list of their names to Col. Wheaton, "being the only commanding Officer known to them." These classes, it seems, neglected to procure the men required; and, Jan. 22, 1782, the sum of £385, 8s. 6d. was assessed upon them as an equivalent, each deficiency being set at £128, 9s. 6d. This, with the other taxes probably not yet liquidated, gave rise to a town meeting in the same month; when J. Simonton, Capt. N. Fales, and Atwood Fales were chosen a committee to petition the General Court for a redress of grievances; money was furnished by individuals; and Col. Wheaton forthwith despatched to Boston with a petition which, seconded by his personal influence, it was hoped might be successful. The expense advanced, £12, was subsequently refunded from the town treasury; and in May the town decided to be again represented in the General Court.

Business continued depressed. Coasting was well nigh annihilated; fishing, except in rivers and harbors, had become too precarious to be much ventured upon; and the only resources left to the inhabitants were agriculture and the manufacture of salt. This last business was carried on to a considerable extent, even as far up George's River as Watson's Point, where, according to the books of Capt. James Watson, 298 bushels were made and sold by him this season. It was