Program

DAR Revolutionary America

Subject

Site

Location

999 Commercial St, Rockland, ME 04856, USA

Lat/Long

44.135072, -69.09304

Grant Recipient

NSDAR - Treasure General

After the American loss at Penobscot Bay in August 1779, many residents of Belfast, Massachusetts (now Maine) refused to take the British oath of allegiance and instead fled southward, gathering in the small settlement of Camden. One of Camden’s three clusters of log houses stood at Clam Cove (now Glen Cove), and it was here that American troops established a new foothold.

A defensive lookout, commanded by General George Ulmer of Lincolnville was erected here by 1780. On Pine Hill—the rise on the north side of Clam Cove—troops constructed a breastwork, a fortification with an 18‑pound cannon. The force numbered about 200 men, and among them was a company of Penobscot people whose ancestral homeland encompassed this region. 20 indigenous men were said to have contributed to the fortification.

The purpose of the Pine Hill fortification was clear: to prevent British ships from entering the cove and pushing farther along the vulnerable coastline of Penobscot Bay. In this tense post‑Penobscot‑Expedition landscape, the lookout at Pine Hill stood as both a refuge for displaced settlers and a strategic barrier against British advance, shaped by the combined efforts of Patriot troops and Penobscot allies.