As we continue our celebration of Maine’s 200th anniversary, we’d like to share this often overlooked Civil War event. When asked about Maine during the Civil War, most historians will tell you about Joshua Chamberlain’s role in the valiant stand taken by the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment at Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg. Or how the 7th Infantry fought bravely under Major Thomas W. Hyde during the Battle of Antietam. However few historians will tell you about Mayor Jacob McClellan, Jedediah Jewett, and the motley group of soldiers and civilians who defended Maine from the Confederates off the coast of Maine on June 27, 1863 at the Battle of Portland Harbor.
The Battle of Portland Harbor all began in the predawn hours of June 25, 1863. Lt. Charles Read, of the Confederate Navy, and his crew had been raiding the New England coast with their ship, the Tacony. With the U.S. Navy in pursuit, Read captured a Maine fishing schooner called the Archer, transferred their cargo to it, and burned the Tacony to get the U.S. Navy off their track.
After laying low, on June 26 Read and his crew entered Portland Harbor late in the evening, sailing past Portland Head Light undetected. They had set their sights on the Caleb Cushing, a United States Revenue Cutter which was anchored in Portland Harbor. The U.S. Revenue Cutter Service was run by the Treasury Department and was a forerunner to today’s U.S. Coast Guard. The Caleb Cushing was stationed to protect Portland from privateers, and was armed with two cannons and 800 pounds of gunpowder. However, on that night the ship had almost no one on board because her skipper had died from a heart attack the day before. Most of the crew took advantage of the situation and were ashore on leave. Thus making it an easy target for Read and his men, disguised as fishermen, to sneak into town and steal the Caleb Cushing. They easily overpowered the skeleton crew and put them in handcuffs below decks. Then sailed out of the harbor virtually unnoticed with the exception of the crew from the passenger steamer, the Forest City, which was making it’s regular trip from Boston to Portland. Yet although the timing of the Cushing’s voyage seemed odd, witnesses did not suspect anything at the time.
The next morning the residents of Portland, including the crew, awoke to find the Caleb Cushing was missing. Around town rumors flew about Confederate raiders, pirates, and more. Apparently most residents “believed…that the whole story…was a joke,” and that the men on board had taken the ship out for a bit of fun. However, as the day progressed the truth of the situation unfolded.
News spread of the Confederate’s raiding party and the Army garrisoned at Fort Preble in nearby South Portland was alerted. Portland’s Mayor Jacob McClellan and city customs collector Jedediah Jewett, chartered two private steamships the Forest City and the Chesapeake to chase after her. With thirty soldiers from Fort Preble and approximately 100 civilian volunteers they set out in hot pursuit. According to one eyewitness account, the civilians consisted of “fishermen and storekeepers, stevedores and bakers, undertakers and teamsters, doctors and one college professor,” and they were armed with everything from muskets and pistols to “ancient blunderbusses and cutlasses.”
Forest City and the Chesapeake were soon able to catch up to the Caleb Cushing and Archer. However, they were afraid to fire upon Read and his crew because they knew the Cushing was armed with gunpowder and shells. Thankfully though Read and his men could not find the hidden shells aboard the ship, and the captured crew refused to reveal the location. According to some accounts, they improvised by stuffing any hard objects they could find into the cannons, including “piles of metal bits, ballast stones, potatoes and even very hard cheese.” The Cushing began firing it’s unusual ammunition upon the Forest City and the Chesapeake, with the Union ships returning fire. Yet somehow neither side actually hit anything. The skipper of the Chesapeake, Mayor Jacob McClellan, then decided to pull up alongside the stolen ship, ram the boat, and let the soldiers and civilians on board fire at close range.
Read realizing the battle was lost, ordered the prisoners released into small boats and the Caleb Cushing set ablaze. Lt. Charles Read and his twenty-four crewmen, surrendered to Mayor McLellan and were held as prisoners of war at Fort Preble. The Confederate crew of the Archer was also soon captured. However, fearing for the safety of the prisoners due to the angry mob, in July they were spirited out of Portland during the night and transported to Fort Warren in Boston, Massachusetts.
Thus concludes the little known Battle of Portland Harbor. If you’d like to learn more, we recommend downloading, “When the Confederates Terrorized Maine: The Battle of Portland Harbor” (2013) Honors Theses, by Carter Stevens. Another interesting source is Mason Philip Smith’s, Confederates Downeast: Confederate Operations in and around Maine (1985). For more information on Maine during the Civil War, please visit “1850-1870: The Civil War” at MaineMemory.net.
