Peleg Wadsworth

Peleg Wadsworth was a Massachusetts officer who served during the American Revolutionary War and took part in the failed Penobscot Expedition of 1779. He helped command the land forces besieging the British at Fort George, then escaped the destruction of the American fleet. Captured by British troops in 1781, Wadsworth escaped from confinement at Fort George and later became a politician and land agent in Maine. He was the grandfather of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Bernard Cornwell’s The Fort makes Wadsworth one of the principal American historical characters in its account of the Penobscot disaster. The novel portrays him as more capable than many fellow commanders but unable to overcome divided authority and naval hesitation. His later escape provides an adventurous counterpoint to a campaign otherwise remembered for confusion and defeat.