Penobscot Expedition

25 July – 15 August 1779, Penobscot Bay and River, Maine (then part of Massachusetts)

British victory; the American fleet destroyed

Massachusetts sent the largest American fleet of the war, the Continental frigate Warren with state navy ships, privateers and transports, to throw the British out of a new fort at Majabigwaduce (Castine). The troops landed but never stormed the fort, and Commodore Saltonstall would not attack the three sloops guarding it. After nearly three weeks a British squadron under Sir George Collier arrived from New York. The American ships fled up the Penobscot River, and their crews ran them ashore and burned them; two were captured. It was the worst defeat of an American fleet until Pearl Harbor. Saltonstall was dismissed, and the artillery commander, Paul Revere, was court-martialled and cleared.