Letter from Francis McLean to Henry Clinton, 1779
Item 7472
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Description
British Brig. Gen. Francis McLean wrote to General Sir Henry Clinton regarding the attack of the American forces on the British at Castine. The British had been building Fort George to defend the entrance to the Penobscot River and a loyalist colony there. The fort was unfinished when the Americans attacked. McLean was commander of ground forces at the site. The Americans retreated and the Penobscot Expedition is considered the worst American naval disaster until Pearl Harbor in 1941. The letter is a transcribed copy from the Public Records Office and Royal Institution of Great Britain, made for Joseph Williamson, a lawyer and historian from Belfast, Maine, between 1894 and 1902.