Francis McLean (British Army officer)

Britain defending New Ireland from the Penobscot Expedition during the American Revolution by Dominic Serres

On 16 June 1779, under Clinton's orders, McLean took an expedition of about 650 men and several ships to Fort Majebigwaduce (Castine, Maine) to find a refuge for loyalists and to forestall an anticipated attack on Nova Scotia by troops from New England. From 25 July an American force of between 2,000 and 3,000 soldiers and sailors in some 40 vessels under the command of Solomon Lovell and Dudley Saltonstall besieged him there. McLean faced desperate odds and prepared to surrender his forces after putting up a respectable fight. His fortifications, especially the newly established Fort George, were under construction and weak. The American commanders disagreed on how the siege should proceed and many of their ground troops were too inexperienced to follow up on small tactical victories. McLean resolved to stand his ground when the American forces failed to attack the British fleet or Fort George and he sent for help. A gale drove back one relief force from Halifax, but Sir George Collier sailed from Sandy Hook, New Jersey on 3 August and engaged the Americans on the 14th, routing them completely. This defeat was one of the most embarrassing American defeats of the war; they retreated up the Penobscot and burned most of their fleet to prevent capture.[2] McLean's casualties were light. He returned to Halifax in the late fall.

McLean was viewed by his contemporaries as a brave and resolute soldier.[3] John Moore, later a famous general, served as a subaltern under him at Majebigwaduce.[4]

As an administrator, some found McLean controversial. Superintendent of Indian Affairs Michael Francklin stated that in 1781 McLean refused to release trade goods to him without explicit instructions from Clinton. However, until the fall of 1779 the government had allowed Francklin to draw all provisions from military stores, but in 1780 he was required to obtain the permission of the commander-in-chief. Another contemporary, the Reverend Jacob Bailey, asserted that McLean arbitrarily took rations away from 200 or 300 loyalist refugees, allowing them to only about 20 people. But Clinton checked McLean's expenditures on loyalists closely and at the same time approved heartily some of McLean's administrative arrangements, such as the establishment of regimental hospitals.

McLean grew visibly ill during the winter of 1780–81, and died on 4 May 1781 at Halifax, where he was buried two days later.[5]