The Fort: A Novel of the Revolutionary War - xaviantvision

Majabigwaduce in George Wheeler's splendid History of Castine, Penobscot and Brookville , published in 1875, and in the Wilson Museum Bulletins,issued by the Castine Scientific Society. The Wilson Museum, on Perkins Street in Castine, is well worth a visit as, of course, is Castine itself. I mustthank Rosemary Begley and the other citizens of Castine who took the time to guide me through their town and its history; Garry Gates of my hometown,Chatham, Massachusetts, for drawing the map of Majabigwaduce; Shannon Eldredge who combed through a daunting number of logbooks, letters, anddiaries to produce an invaluable timeline; Patrick Mercer, MP (and a talented historical novelist himself), for generous advice on late-18th-century drill;and most of all my wife, Judy, who endured my Penobscot obsession with her customary grace.A final note, and this strikes me as the supreme irony of the Penobscot Expedition: Peleg Wadsworth, who promised to have Paul Revere arrested andwho was undoubtedly angered by Revere's behavior at Majabigwaduce, was the maternal grandfather of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the man whosingle-handedly made Revere famous. Wadsworth's daughter Zilpha, who makes a fleeting appearance at the beginning of this book, was the poet'smother. Peleg Wadsworth would have been appalled, but, as he surely knew better than most men, history is a fickle muse and fame her unfair offspring.