Revere was a Lt. Colonel in the American militia. Four years after his famous "midnight ride," he was commander of land artillery in the Penobscot Expedition, the worst naval disaster in American history until Pearl Harbor. The American plan was to eliminate British occupation in the area of
Castine, Maine along the Penobscot River. It should have been an easy job.
The British had a half-built fort and about three guns. Nine hundred Americans sailed to Penobscot Bay on 21 armed, and 24 unarmed, transport vessels. It was July 25, 1779.
The British were desperate - they could see they were out-manned, out-gunned, and in trouble. But - the Americans did not attack. Their commander of the fleet, Dudley Saltonstall, didn't believe his intelligence reports.