Editing Bangor, Maine (section)

===Wars of Independence, 1812, and Civil War===

In 1779, the rebel [[Penobscot Expedition]] fled up the Penobscot River and ten of its ships were scuttled by the British fleet at Bangor. The ships remained there until the late 1950s, when construction of the Joshua Chamberlain Bridge disturbed the site. Six cannons were removed from the riverbed, five of which are on display throughout the region (one was thrown back into the river by area residents angered that the archeological site was destroyed for the bridge's construction).<ref name="cvb-heritage">{{cite web |date=February 8, 2017 |title=History |url=https://www.visitbangormaine.com/about-the-region/history/ |access-date=May 11, 2019 |website=Greater Bangor CVB}}</ref>

During the [[War of 1812]], Bangor was briefly occupied in 1814 by [[British Empire|British]] forces under [[Robert Barrie]] after the [[Battle of Hampden]].<ref>James H. Ellis, "A Ruinous and Unhappy War: New England and the War of 1812" (2009), p. 193</ref>

Maine was part of the [[Commonwealth of Massachusetts]] until 1820 when it voted to secede from Massachusetts and was admitted to the Union as the 23rd state under the [[Missouri Compromise]].

In 1861, a mob ransacked the offices of the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] newspaper the ''Bangor Daily Union'', threw the presses and other materials into the street and burned them. Editor Marcellus Emery, who was sympathetic to the South, escaped unharmed but resumed publishing only after the war.<ref name='Godfrey'>{{Cite web|title=Ancestry® &#124; Family Tree, Genealogy & Family History Records|url=https://www.ancestry.com/|access-date=December 30, 2022|website=ancestry.com}}</ref>

During the [[American Civil War]] the locally mustered [[2nd Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment]] was the first to march out of Maine in 1861, and played a prominent part in the [[First Battle of Bull Run]]. The [[1st Maine Heavy Artillery Regiment]], mustered in Bangor and commanded by a local merchant, lost more men than any other Union regiment in the war (especially in the [[Second Battle of Petersburg]], 1864). The [[20th Maine Infantry Regiment]] held [[Little Round Top]] in the [[Battle of Gettysburg]]. A bridge connecting Bangor with Brewer is named for [[Joshua Chamberlain]], the regiment's leader and one of eight Civil War soldiers from [[Penobscot County]] towns to receive the [[Medal of Honor]].<ref>[http://www.ametro.net/~bouchard/civilwar/MaineMOH.html Medal of Honor Recipients Associated with the State of Maine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512035544/http://www.ametro.net/~bouchard/civilwar/MaineMOH.html |date=May 12, 2008 }}. According to this list, 4 Civil War MOH recipients were born in Bangor, and one each in Brewer (Chamberlain), Old Town, Edinburg, and LaGrange</ref> Bangor's [[Charles A. Boutelle]] accepted the surrender of the Confederate fleet after the [[Battle of Mobile Bay]]. A Bangor residential street is named for him. The [[Confederate States Navy]] captured several Bangor ships during the Civil War.

Bangor was near the lands disputed during the [[Aroostook War]], a boundary dispute with Britain in 1838–1839. The passion of the Aroostook War signaled the increasing role lumbering and logging played in the Maine economy, particularly in the state's central and eastern sections. Bangor arose as a lumbering boom-town in the 1830s, and a potential demographic and political rival to Portland. Bangor became for a time the largest lumber port in the world, and the site of furious land speculation that extended up the Penobscot River valley and beyond.<ref>David C. Smith, ''A History of Lumbering in Maine, 1861–1960'' (University of Maine Press, 1972)</ref>