Second Battle of Machias

Fought over the days of August 13 and 14 in 1777, the action at Machias saw British forces launch a seaborne strike against this settlement within the Massachusetts District of Maine during the Revolutionary War. Townspeople serving in the militia, joined by Indian allies, managed to keep the attacking troops from establishing a foothold on shore. Commodore Sir George Collier directed the operation, which was mounted in hopes of forestalling a second strike being planned against Fort Cumberland, a post that had endured a siege back in November 1776. Troops came ashore at a point below the town, captured a vessel, and plundered a storehouse there.

Accounts of what the raid actually accomplished diverged sharply afterward. Collier maintained that his men had succeeded in wiping out military supplies meant for an assault on Fort Cumberland, even though no such supplies had ever actually reached Machias. Those who defended the town told a different story, insisting they had thwarted the enemy's attempt to seize Machias and had pushed the British back.

Background

Since the earliest days of the war, Machias, a town within the Massachusetts District of Maine, had proven a constant irritant to British naval commanders. Its inhabitants had risen up in June 1775 and captured a small naval vessel, and afterward the town had served continuously as a haven for privateers.

By 1777, the Second Continental Congress had given John Allan, a Nova Scotian who had relocated to the colonies, permission to mount an expedition meant to plant a Patriot foothold in the western reaches of Nova Scotia, the region now known as New Brunswick. Congress had granted him leave to enlist up to three thousand men, yet Massachusetts officials offered him considerably less: a colonel's commission and permission to raise a single regiment from the eastern part of the state, with the goal of establishing a foothold along the St. John River. Working out of Machias, Allan managed to put some forty men ashore in the target area by June. Halifax, however, had gotten wind of his plans, and a substantial British force reached the St. John River on June 23. The troops Allan had stationed near the river's mouth clashed briefly with the British before retreating upstream. Allan himself then faced a grueling trek overland to reach Machias again once his small band pulled back up the river. Several Maliseet who sided with the American cause, having been won over by Allan, accompanied him on this difficult return. With Burgoyne's army bearing down in upstate New York, the Massachusetts Provisional Congress chose in early August to disband the troops raised for Allan's mission entirely.

During the fighting along the St. John River, documents outlining Allan

Battle

At dawn on August 13, Collier's fleet reached the river's mouth. He put 123 marines aboard the Hope and sent her and the Blonde upriver. The militia learned of the approach, and thirty-five men gathered to meet them. When the vessels reached the log boom, gunfire broke out between the opposing sides. That day the militia held firm enough to prevent any British landing.

Fog blanketed the area early the following morning, giving cover for the marines to come ashore. They severed the log boom, captured a sloop loaded with lumber, and torched a storehouse, making off with supplies of flour, rice, corn, shoes, and ammunition before heading back to their ships.

From there, the two vessels pressed further upriver toward the town itself. The whole way, shots from muskets and cannon rained down on them from the banks, where the militia and their Indian allies had taken up positions to contest any spot the British might try to land. As night fell, the Indians are said to have raised their voices in chants and shouts, hoping to make their numbers seem greater than they were. It was then that, in the words of one witness, everyone was left in astonishment when, within half an hour of dropping anchor, both the brig and the sloop got underway again without a shot fired, moving downriver against the incoming tide.

The Hope was not so fortunate, running aground in the dim evening light as she retreated downstream. Militia forces dragged a swivel gun to the shore nearby and fired on her through the next morning, until the rising tide finally freed her and let her reach Machias Bay.

Aftermath

Colonel Allan credited the militia's triumph to the anxiety among British forces that they had stumbled into an ambush. In a flourish of exaggeration, he compared the fight to a far more famous engagement, remarking that no other action in the war produced such carnage except for Bunker Hill. On the American side, estimates of enemy losses ranged between forty and a hundred men, whereas the militia itself supposedly suffered only one death and a single wounded soldier. British accounts told a different story, listing three dead and eighteen injured, most of whom fell victim not to combat but to the grounding of the Hope.

Once he had pulled away from Machias, Collier continued along the Maine shoreline, seizing a number of smaller American vessels and launching raids against settlements near the Sheepscot River. During this campaign he seized a frigate carrying mast timbers bound for France. Collier's own account of the operation painted it as a triumph, and he insisted that he had thwarted a fresh attempt to invade Nova Scotia. He further speculated that with a hundred additional soldiers, Machias could have been utterly annihilated. General Massey, whose forces had been readying themselves to join the campaign only to be left behind when Collier departed Halifax so hastily, complained bitterly that Collier had wanted sole credit for wiping out Machias, sneaking away from Halifax to mount an attack that ended in disgraceful retreat.

No further assault came against Machias for the remainder of the conflict, though the town found itself somewhat cut off once British troops seized Castine in 1779 and founded the colony of New Ireland there. Collier later returned to the region, successfully defending New Ireland against the American Penobscot Expedition. Decades afterward, during the War of 1812, British forces would again seize Machias along with other portions of eastern Maine, reestablishing the colony of New Ireland, though these territories reverted to American control once that conflict ended.