Northeast Coast campaign (1746)

In 1746, warriors of the Wabanaki Confederacy of Acadia struck out against New England's coastal outposts in what is now Maine, targeting the region south of the Kennebec River that had once marked Acadia's boundary. Amid the fighting of King George's War, this campaign unfolded across the summer months, running from July through September, as English settlements along the coast between Berwick and St. Georges (known today as Thomaston, Maine) came under assault. In just two months' time, nine separate raids left no frontier town untouched, striking at every settlement along that vulnerable edge. Chief among these communities stood Casco, a place also called Falmouth, known today as Portland.

The campaign

The fighting season of 1746 opened on April 19, when ten native warriors descended upon Gorhamtown, a settlement that held only a blockhouse and four families for protection. Splitting into five pairs, the raiders struck all four households simultaneously. One father and four children died in this assault, and the mother of that family was carried off as a captive. Two additional fathers were seized and made prisoners. Men stationed in the blockhouse pursued the attackers, but during this pursuit one of the militiamen himself became a captive.

The Confederacy then turned its attention to the settlement now known as Waldoboro, Maine, setting the village ablaze and leaving some inhabitants dead while dragging others away into captivity. Survivors scattered, some seeking refuge at Pemaquid and others making their way to St. Georges. None of these displaced settlers would return home until the conflict had ended.

Pemaquid itself became a target as well, with Confederacy forces slaughtering cattle there.

Fifteen native fighters set an ambush at Sheepscot, in what is today Newcastle, Maine, catching five people unprepared and killing one. In the exchange, a local villager managed to slay one of the attackers in return.

Near Wiscasset, Maine, raiders destroyed nineteen head of cattle and abducted Captain Jonathan Williamson, who would remain their prisoner for half a year.

A separate clash unfolded close to Fort St. Georges in Thomaston, leaving one native combatant dead and another injured.

Thirty native warriors then moved through Falmouth and North Yarmouth, Maine, killing two people near Long-creek, an area also called Stroudwater. When troops from New Casco Fort advanced toward them, the raiders withdrew and instead assaulted Frost's fortified house at Stroudwater, only to find it too well defended to overcome. In response to these dangers, a new blockhouse went up.

Scarborough, Maine suffered its own losses, with a soldier and several other people killed by the raiders there.

The campaign's final strike came on August 26, in the area surrounding Pemaquid's Fort Frederick. Attackers there wiped out livestock and razed an entire homestead, leaving both the owner of the property and his son wounded in the process.

Aftermath

Over that winter, Shirley responded by dispatching additional soldiers and supplies to the Maine frontier, bracing for the Wabanaki campaign expected in the spring of 1747. St. Georges received a garrison of 30 men as part of this buildup, while 370 troops were stationed across the stretch between Berwick and Damariscotta. Another 150 men were assigned duty as minutemen. Bounties for scalps also rose sharply, reaching 250 pounds for those taken west of Passamquoddy and 100 pounds for any secured elsewhere.