The United States is celebrating its 250th anniversary, known as the Semiquincentennial, as a year-long event that officially began on Dec. 31, 2025, and will continue through the end of 2026.

At the time of the American Revolution, Maine, not a state until 1820, was part of Massachusetts and Boothbay played a significant role as both a military site and as a hub for Patriot operations.

During the war, Boothbay was home to a stone fort and barracks where local soldiers under officers Colonel Andrew Reed, Colonel Edward Emerson, and John Beath, Captains Timothy Langdon, Andrew Reed Jr., Israel Davis, David Reed, Ichabod Pinkham, John Reed, Andrew McFarland, Joseph Reed, and Samuel Brown guarded the town and its harbor. The fort was strategically important for defending the Cape Newagen peninsula and its deep, protected harbor, which could shelter hundreds of vessels.

By the late 18th century, the site was no longer in active military use. The fort was eventually abandoned, and the area repurposed for other uses. Over time, the stone structures were likely dismantled or left to decay. Today, the location is marked by a historical plaque erected in 1941 by the Pemaquid Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, commemorating the fort's role during the war.

Boothbay’s harbor also served as a naval rendezvous point for the American fleet before the disastrous Penobscot Expedition of 1779. The Penobscot Expedition was a 44-ship American naval task force from the Province of Massachusetts Bay. The flotilla of 19 warships and 25 smaller support vessels sailed from Boston on July 19, for the upper Penobscot Bay in the District of Maine carrying a ground expeditionary force of more than 1,000 colonial Marines and militiamen.

Also included was a 100-man artillery detachment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Paul Revere. The Expedition's goal was to reclaim control of what is now Midcoast Maine from the British who had seized it a month earlier and renamed it New Ireland. It was the largest American naval expedition of the war. The fighting took place both on land and at sea in and around the mouth of the Penobscot and Bagaduce rivers at what is today Castine, Maine over a period of three weeks in July and August of 1779. One of the greatest victories of the war for the British, the Expedition was also the United States' worst naval defeat until Pearl Harbor in 1941.

As the country celebrates, we honor soldiers in Boothbay and Boothbay Harbor, buried in local cemeteries, who fought in the American Revolutionary War.

Henry Abbott – Abbott Family Cemetery 

Private Samuel Adams – Kenniston 

Private Ephram Alley – Black River 

Corporal Joshua Alley – Conkling Estate 

Private John Barter – Lewis Cemetery 

Naval Officer John Beath – Pear Street 

Seaman John Daws – Kenniston 

Lieut. Col Edward Emerson – Kenniston 

Private Hansel Farnham – Farnham 

Capt Jonathan  Farnham – Farnham 

Private Ebenezer Fullerton – Pear Street 

Private James Kennedy – Kenniston 

Private David Kenniston – Kenniston 

Private Daniel Knight – Kenniston 

Private William Lewis – Clam Avenue 

Seaman Samuel McCobb – Kenniston 

Naval Officer William Mcobb – Kenniston 

1st Lieut. Ichabod Pinkham – Kenniston 

Private Nathaniel Pinkham – Kenniston 

Lieut. Col Andrew Reed – Kenniston 

2nd Lieut. Andrew Reed Jr.  - Kenniston 

Private Andrew Reed 2nd -  Kenniston 

Capt David Reed – Pear Street 

1st Lieut. Joseph Reed – Kenniston 

Master brigantine  Paul Reed – Kenniston 

Fifer Robert Reed – Kenniston 

Lieut. William Reed – Kenniston 

Private Samuel Thompson – Kenniston 

Private Giles Tibbetts – Boothbay 

Private Robert Wylie – Kenniston 

Questions comments and suggestions are welcome here or you can email bbcemeteries@proton.me. I will also help find the gravestones of family members. 

Please note: This column being written as a private citizen and has no connection to the Boothbay- Boothbay Harbor Cemetery District. All content, including projects and opinions is the responsibility of the author.