Just down the Penobscot River from BGR is the scene of the second biggest US Naval defeat and disaster. A military disaster second only to Pearl Harbour in American history.

Colonel Paul Revere was in charge of the artillery on the Penobscot expedition and performed poorly. Peleg Wadsworth was one of the generals for the Colonial forces, he was the grandfather of Henry Wadsorth Longfellow, who wrote the poem "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" a poem that established Paul Revere as an American hero.