Western Maine
30
General John Winslow The father of Winslow, Maine
by Charles Francis
O
ne of the saddest tales in the history of North America. has its origins in the year 1755. It is the tale made famous by Longfellow in his epic poem Evangeline. It is the removal of the Acadians from Grand Pre, an event which John Winslow, the officer in command of the forces whose responsibility it was, regretted having to carry out. Everyone who has read Evangeline is familiar with the little church at Grand Pre where the men of the village were told to gather for an address by an army officer. In the poem, as in the actual event, the Acadian men gather in the church as ordered. When they are all there, they are addressed by the officer, who is John Winslow. Then they are sealed inside, under guard, until it JOHNNY
is time for them to be loaded on ships which will transport them from their homes forever. It is a sad story. One which presents the officer in charge, John Winslow, as something of a fiend. Few know that Winslow regretted having to carry out his orders. Fewer still realize that it was this same John Winslow who had command of the Kennebec when Fort Western and Fort Halifax were built, or that the town of Winslow is named in his honor. John Winslow was born in 1703 in Marshfield, Massachusetts, which he made his home for most of his life. He was a great-grandson of Edward Winslow, one of the Pilgrims who made the crossing on the Mayflower, and a governor of the Plymouth Colo-
ny. Winslow’s occupation was that of a professional soldier. The first action he saw was in the 1740 to 1748 War of Austrian Succession. During that conflict, Winslow was captain of a Massachusetts militia company sent to Cuba as part of a major British action against the Spanish. Following this indoctrination into the military, Winslow’s family managed to get him a commission as a regular British army officer — a rare occurrence for a “colonial.” Winslow’s first duty as a British officer saw him stationed at Annapolis Royal in Nova Scotia from 1748 to 1751, where the Britsh were maintaining a holding action against superior French forces. In 1751 he went off active duty and returned to Massachusetts to serve as a military advisor to Gover-
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