October 17, 2025

October 17, 2025.

On the morning of October 18th, 1775, a small fleet of Royal Navy vessels opened fire on the seaport town that is now known as Portland, Maine.

Under the direction of Captain Henry Mowat, the ships fired incendiary shot into the trading port's wooden buildings, which caught fire.

A landing party followed to complete the destruction of 400 buildings in the town.

By the time the sun went down, almost all of the town was smoldering ruins.

The burning of the town, then known as Falmouth, Massachusetts, not the same town as today's Falmouth, Maine, or Falmouth, Massachusetts on Cape Cod, was retaliation for raids local mariners had made against British ships along the coast of New England.

Since 1765, with the arrival of news of the Stamp Act to raise revenue to pay for the French and Indian War, residents of Falmouth had joined other colonists in protesting British policies.

In spring 1775, the colonies agreed to boycott British goods in order to pressure Parliament into addressing their grievances.

In March, a shipload of sails, rope, and rigging arrived in Falmouth for a loyalist shipbuilder.

Patriots demanded the ship carrying the supplies leave port, but they agreed to let it undergo repairs before heading back across the Atlantic Ocean.

While shipbuilders worked on the vessel, the British man-of-war Canso arrived from Boston under the command of Captain Henry Mowet.

Under the Canso's protection, the Loyalists unloaded the ship's cargo.

While the Canseau lay at anchor, news arrived of the battles of Lexington and Concord, where British regulars had opened fire on the colony's militiamen.

When they heard of the battles, militia from Brunswick, about 25 miles or 40 kilometers north of Falmouth, decided to capture the Canso.

Led by tavern owner Samuel Thompson, they traveled to Falmouth in small boats in May and captured Mowet while he was on shore.

The sailors on the Canso threatened to shell the town if the militia didn't release Moat.

Eventually, the militiamen released him, but refused to turn Thompson over for punishment, and locals forced the Canso to leave the harbor.

In June, when news of the Brunswick militia's escapade reached militiamen in Machias, near the Canadian border, they decided to capture the Margareta, a British armed schooner that was protecting two merchant ships carrying supplies to the troops hunkered down in Boston after the battles of Lexington and Concord.

Heartened by these successes, during the summer of 1775, American privateers raided British ships.

Coming after the battles of Lexington and Concord, their harassment helped to convince the king's cabinet that they must use military and naval force to put down the rebellion in the colonies.

On October 6, 1775, Vice Admiral Samuel Graves, who commanded the British North Atlantic Fleet, decided he would regain control of the coastal townspeople by terrorizing them.

He ordered Captain Mowat to retaliate against the colonists, directing him to take four ships and lay waste, burn, and destroy such seaport towns as are accessible to his Majesty's ships.

My design is to chastise Marblehead, Salem, Newburyport, Cape Ann Harbor, Portsmouth, Ipswich, Saco, Falmouth and Casco Bay, and particularly Machias, where the Margarita was taken, Graves wrote.

You are to go to all or to as many of the above-named places as you can and make the most vigorous efforts to burn the towns and destroy the shipping in the harbors.

Mowat decided against attacking the towns near Boston, recognizing that they were close enough together to mount a spirited defense.

Instead, he headed for Falmouth, dropping anchor there on october 16th.

The next day, Mowat accused the townspeople of the most unpardonable rebellion and informed them that he had orders to execute a just punishment on the town of Falmouth.

He warned them to remove without delay the human species out of the said town and gave them two hours to clear out.

The townspeople were shocked.

An eyewitness recalled that a committee of three men asked Mowat what was going on and he answered that his orders were to set fire on all the seaport towns between Boston and Halifax and that he expected New York was then burnt to ashes.

The committee negotiated to put off the attack for the night, but they would not agree to Moat's promise to spare the town if they would relinquish all their weapons and hand over four gentlemen of the town as hostages.

Throughout the night, the townspeople hurried to save their possessions and move out of danger.

The next morning was clear and calm, and at nine forty the Canseaux and the other ships opened fire.

In a few minutes the whole town was involved in smoke and combustion, an eyewitness recalled.

The crackling of the flames, the falling of the houses, the bursting of the shells, the heavy thunder of the cannon threw the elements into frightful noise and commotion, and occasioned the very foundations of surrounding nature to quake and tremble.

When a lack of wind kept the fires contained, Moet sent sailors ashore to spread them.

Although Admiral Graves was pleased with Moet's assault on Falmouth, the attack backfired spectacularly.

Rather than terrorizing the colonists into submission, the burning of Falmouth steeled their resolve.

From his position at the head of the brand new Continental Army in Cambridge, Massachusetts, George Washington wrote to Revolutionary Leader John Hancock that the burning of Falmouth was an outrage exceeding in barbarity and cruelty every hostile act practiced among civilized nations.

Washington noted that Mullet had warned that he would make similar attacks on port towns all along the coastline, prompting the Continental Congress on November 25th to authorize American ships to capture British armed vessels, transports, and supply ships.

Meanwhile, the people in the coastal towns fortified their defenses and prepared to fire back at any attacking British ships.

Colonists saw the burning of Falmouth as proof that their government had turned against them and began to suggest they must declare independence.

About a month after Falmouth burned, William Whipple, a prominent resident of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, wrote to a friend that the destruction and threat to visit such ruin on other towns caused everyone to risk his all in support of his liberties and privileges.

The unheard of cruelties of the enemy have so effectually unified us that I believe there are not four persons now in Portsmouth who do not oppose the tyranny of Great Britain.

Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson.

It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dedham, Massachusetts.

Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.