09/01/2026
ON THE FIRST OF SEPTEMBER, THE ENGLISH WE’LL REMEMBER
September 1, 1814, The War of 1812 Comes to Belfast, or the Inglorious Surrender of Belfast
Belfast’s population in 1814 was about 1200 people. Up from the 100 or so in 1773, just prior to the abandonment during the Revolutionary War.
Major exports were wood products: shingles, lath, barrel sections, cord-wood, clapboards. Most products going to Boston by ship.
Due to the Embargo of 1807, Belfast shipmasters, ship builders and merchants were hard pressed to come up with work and money. The effect of the Embargo: according to Joseph Williamson, in History of Belfast, Volume I: “They accepted it as an inevitable necessity… if they could not plow the sea, they would plow the land and they went about it manfully.”
In 1814, Belfast did have a small military strength consisting of three companies of militia, infantry, artillery and cavalry. Each company was armed with a modest collection of personal fi****ms, two light field pieces and ammunition. Just before the British arrived by sea, the two field pieces were hidden in the woods toward Belmont and other arms were hidden in houses. However, there were concerns
that Belfast was peculiarly exposed to the sudden Depredations of the Enemy, with no other means of defence than two Companies of Militia, and one Company of Artillery, with two light Field-Pieces, which are inadequate to resist effectually the Approach of armed Vessels of War of the smallest Class.
On September 1, 1814, a British fleet of 8 vessels of war, with 11 transports, conveying 3500 troops arrived in Castine. At this time, a small American force was garrisoned at Castine. On approach of the British, they fired a single round, blew up the fort, spiked the cannons, and retreated up the peninsula, taking the field pieces with them. The explosion could be heard across the bay.
When the fleet later turned towards Belfast, there were the 11 transport vessels and as many as 600 soldiers. When arriving in the outer harbor, the masts were so numerous it seemed to be “looking like a spruce swamp.”
The frigate anchored off Steele’s Ledge and the transports came nearer to the shore. At about 5:00, a barge carrying several officers and a flag of truce, landed on the beach, near the foot of Main Street. A large crowd gathered to watch.
According to history, someone full of rum and patriotism was heard to shout from the back of the crowd muttered curses against the “Damn Redcoats.” The first to the shore were the officers, who presented the flag. They were escorted up Main Street by William Moody to meet with Asa Edmunds, the Chairman of the Board of Selectmen, at Huse’s Tavern. At that meeting, Edmunds was told the troops were ordered to possess the town for a few days and if no force was used by Belfast, inhabitants and their property would be respected.
The General and his aides took supper at the Huse Tavern and returned to their ships to oversee the disembarking of the troops. It was doubtful if enough supplies for the soldiers requested by the British could be furnished in such a short time. Supposedly Mr. Edmunds said “If we had known you were coming…if you had given us notice- we should have been better prepared for you.”
Around dusk, the rest of the 600 or so troops began to disembark from the barges. They were preceded by a band of Negro musicians and all marched up Main Street to the tune of the “British Grenadier.” Major-General Gerard Gosselin was mounted on a chestnut-colored pony. Provisions were sold to the soldiers: bread, butter, eggs, potatoes and garden vegetables. Prices were doubled! 8 cents per pound for beef, 10 cents quart of milk, 50 cents loaf of bread.
The soldiers were wearing their woolen overcoats when they first arrived. By all weather records, the late summer and fall of 1814 was quite chilly with rains, fog, and wind. These men were cold, as they had just been fighting the French in Spain since 1812. The British Regiment kept their word and did not burn or ransack the town. One of the troops who went into a garden uninvited ended up being “severely flogged.”
One picket guard decided to explore the “western shore” and walked to Davistown, now Montville, and remained there for the rest of is life as a respected citizen. Belfast’s militia was already mustered from the alarms of the British landing at Castine. As the British slowly approached Belfast, the militia prepared to fight. The artillery placed a cannon at the head of Beaver Street (then called Range Street). But when the great size of the enemy force was determined, the militia melted away.
After four or five days of occupation, on September 7, at 10 am, the British departed back to Castine “in the same quiet and orderly manner as they arrived.”
After the Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 24, 1814, the General and his orchestra returned in February and held a ball in the Whittier Tavern. At that time the tavern was illuminated and the field-pieces were brought from their hiding places and a salute was fired at Nesmith’s Corner (SE corner of Main and High).
Belfast is now guarded by one of the 1812 cannons originally mounted in the fort in Castine. “Stolen” by Belfast men in July 1857. The cannon is in Grove Cemetery, the Civil War memorial plot.
On the first of September, the English we’ll remember!
Credit for the illustrations, Lewis Mays- artist.
