In 1775, Captain Henry Mowat infamously ordered the burning of
Falmouth--now Portland. That act cast him as the arch-villain in the
state's Revolutionary history, but Mowat's impact on Maine went far
beyond a single order. The Scottish Mowat began his North American
career by surveying the Maine coast, capturing and confiscating colonial
merchant ships he suspected of smuggling. Already feared by Mainers when
the war broke out, his legacy was further tarnished when he was blamed
for dismantling Fort Pownall at the mouth of the Penobscot River. In
this volume, local historian Harry Gratwick examines the life of Henry
Mowat and whether he truly was the scoundrel of Revolutionary Maine.