1779] HIS BAPTISM OF FIRE 9

Early in 1777 he joined his regiment in Minorca. The fortress at Port Mahon was under a fine old soldier, General Murray. Whilst in Minorca Moore was offered a Lieutenancy in a battalion which his friend the Duke of Hamilton had received permission to raise for the American war. Lieut.-Col. MacLean was the commanding officer of this, which was then numbered the 82nd. Moore was appointed paymaster. After a short training at home six companies embarked for Halifax, Nova Scotia. MacLean was made a Brigadier-General and given the command in Nova Scotia. In June 1779 Sir Henry Clinton, then Commander-in-chief in America, ordered MacLean to construct a fort in Penobscot Bay. This gave Moore his first experience of fire. The object of the movement was to establish a settlement for loyalist refugees then in New York, to protect Nova Scotia, and to harass the commerce of Boston. Boston promptly replied. On July 25th, when the fort was not nearly finished, six large frigates, thirteen privateers, and twenty-four transports, carrying 3000 troops and siege material, arrived at the mouth of the Penobscot. The Bostonians made on successive days several ineffectual attempts to land; but on July 28th three battleships opened a heavy fire on the woods which concealed the British outposts. The young recruits of the Hamilton Regiment which found the picquets that day had, never faced fire till then. Most of them, as soon as the enemy landed, fired a volley and fled. Moore commanded the left picquet of twenty men. When the others ran, his own men were at first affected by the general panic. " Will the Hamilton men leave me \" he called out; "come back and behave like soldiers."