Radio Script #981

Little Talks on Common Things
September 30, 1973

As we approach the 200th anniversary of Arnold’s famous expedition to Quebec in 1775, it is well for us to be reminded of what patient researchers have learned about that eventful march through the wilderness of Maine.

The reason for the expedition was a plan made by George Washington and the Continental Congress to capture the leading Canadian cities of Montreal and Quebec. General Schuyler was moving into Canada by way of Lake Champlain, with Montreal as his immediate goal. Arnold’s army was sent via the Kennebec and Chaudiere waters, either to capture Quebec or to assist Schuyler by diverting the forces of the British General Carleton on the St. Lawrence.

As early as 1682 a crude map showed a large lake between the tributaries of the Kennebec flowing to the Atlantic and the Chaudiere, flowing north into the St. Lawrence. Although the map had many inaccuracies, it showed near a hundred years before Arnold’s expedition that connections between the two river systems was possible with short carries.

In 1755 an explorer named Jeffries made a somewhat better map showing the headwaters of the two systems not far apart. For many years, both English and French explorers and trappers had known that the Indians, many already Christianized by Jesuit missionaries, made regular journeys between Quebec and the Kennebec, and Indian guides who knew the route were available in some number by 1775. In 1761 a British explorer, Montressor, made the journey from the Chaudiere to Fort Halifax on the Kennebec, and he carefully mapped his trip.

Both the Jeffries map of 1755 and Montressor’s of 1761 were available to Arnold. Also, there was a verbal description made by the geographer Pownall, who soon afterward published his “Topographical Description of North America”. Pownall reported: “In 1755 the route was said to leave the Kennebec about ten miles above Norridgewock and go six miles to a pond which issues into the Chaudiere. Instead of six miles, I found in 1758 that the route was fifty miles overland, impracticable for an army with artillery and baggage. It was practicable, however, for a band of men lightly armed. The Kennebec main tributary rises on the Height of Land in Latitude 25-20. Its source is a little pond, and it runs through a succession of ponds, through swamps, and with many falls. After running thirty miles southeast, it makes a great bow, then going northeast ten miles, it tumbles over steep falls to join the north branch. The north branch is said to rise at a little pond sixteen miles north of this junction. After the two branches join, they run southeast three miles, where it joins a small river, then goes twelve miles into the Kennebec. That river keeps a south course to Norridgewock, where it has the appearance of a lake full of islands. Just above are Norridgewock Falls, and six miles below are even greater falls, while fourteen miles farther down the river are Ticonic Falls, just below which the Sebasticook joins the Kennebec. Here Governor Shirley has built Fort Halifax.”

Pownall went on to describe the Kennebec as a route to Quebec. He wrote: “A sloop of 90 tons can go up the Kennebec to Cushnoc Falls. From there to Fort Halifax, 17 miles, is a wagon road built by Gov. Shirley. On the river there is a certain degree of navigation for bateaux, but there are several falls around which bateaux and baggage must be carried. Above Norridgewock Falls is the Great Carrying Place from the Kennebec to the Dead River. There an Indian path goes west four miles from the Kennebec over land to a pond, then one mile to another pond, and another mile to a third pond. From there the path runs northwest four miles and strikes the southern most bend of the Dead River. Up that stream there maybe was perfect navigation for Indians and hunters, but it is bad for travelers and would be especially hard for an army. Higher, toward the source of the river, is a chain of ponds which make navigation easier, but it is interrupted frequently by falls. From the head of Dead River to a little stream flowing into Lake Megantic is a carrying place of four miles. This lake is the headwaters of the Chaudiere.”

All this makes it clear that Arnold had available a lot of general information about the region, but the trouble was the information was not specific enough to keep his various divisions on the track. Too frequently they were delayed by taking the wrong stream into one or more of the many ponds. They would push the heavy bateaux up such streams only to come to a dead end, have to go back and find the right stream. It was that kind of delay that caused the worst hardships to Arnold’s army, causing some of the divisions to use up all their provisions and come close to starvation.

When, on September 21, 1775, Washington notified the Continental Congress that he had sent Arnold with 1000 men to march via the Kennebec, Dead River and Chaudiere to Quebec, he wrote: “From the mouth of the Kennebec to Quebec is 210 miles. The river is navigable for sloops for 38 miles, and for flat bottomed boats for 22 more. Then one meets Ticonic Falls. From there to the Carrying Place is 60 miles, then carries between these ponds to Dead River, and 30 miles up that river to the Heights of Land, then a six mile carry to Lake Megantic and into the Chaudiere River, which runs into the St. Lawrence four miles above Quebec”.

The source of our information about what happened on Arnold’s march are a journal kept by Arnold himself, the diaries of eight different officers on the expedition, and some thirty letters written by Arnold and two captains, Dearborn and Ward. Those sources were used by Kenneth Roberts for his novel Arundel.

The best full account of the expedition is a book published in 1903 by Justin Smith under the title “Arnold’ s Expedition”. It is amazingly detailed, and all students of the march during this century consider it meticulously accurate.

Col. Colburn, who had a shipyard at Pittston, on the east bank of the Kennebec below Gardiner,was contracted to build 200 bateaux, each capable of carrying six men and provisions and each to have two oars and two setting poles. The contract paid Colburn 40 shillings for each boat. Sailing from Newburyport, Arnold’s ship reached the Colburn place on September 22, 1775. Arnold found the bateaux made of green pine and not well constructed. But Col. Colburn was not to blame. He had been ordered to build the boats in too short a time.

In advance of Arnold’s arrival Colburn had orders to send scouts up the river to see if there were any French fortifications, what was the disposition of the Indians, and what other obstacles the army might encounter. Colburn engaged Dennis Getchell and Samuel Berry of Vassalboro for this job. Getchell took with them his brother, Nehemiah, who 17 years later would, with his son-in-law Asa Redington, build the first dam at Ticonic Falls.

Arnold reached Fort Western on September 23. There the army was divided into four sections, to leave Fort Western one day apart from September 25 to 28. The first division was under Maj. Morgan, the second under Col. Greene, the third under Maj. Meigs, and the fourth under Col. Enos. After the four divisions had started out, Arnold himself on the 29th left Fort Western in a birch canoe intending to travel fast, overtake all four divisions, and head the march. He stayed at Fort Halifax the night of September 30 and the next day passed Skowhegan Falls. He stopped nearly a week at Norridgewock, assembling supplies and mending battered boats as one by one the divisions came up. He arrived at the Great Carrying Place near Solon on October 11 and by the 16th had passed through the three ponds and had, reached the Dead River.

The army encountered their first test at Ticonic Falls. Every bateaux had to be unloaded, the contents carried around the falls, then the big boats themselves, each weighing 400 pounds had to be carried by human strength. The total provisions loaded at Fort Western weighed 35 tons. We should bear in mind that there were 200 of those 400-pound bateaux. Altogether around those Waterville falls the men had to carry a total of 100 tons.

The first division reached the Great Carrying Place ahead of Arnold on October 7, and by the 20th they and the other three divisions were on their way up the Dead River. The weather turned bad and there was so much sickness that Arnold ordered a crude hospital put up between the first and second ponds. Before the 200th anniversary in 1975 the Arnold Expedition Historical Society hopes to locate the exact site of that hospital.

Justin Smith tells us: “Sunday October 22 found the army in desperate plight. Many of the boats were submerged. All landmarks were altered by the rising water. (We now know that what the army had encountered was a tropical hurricane such as struck Maine about twenty years ago). All the brooks had become rivers and all the meadows lakes. Long detours were necessary. It was almost impossible to make out the course. But the army pushed painfully on.”

So bad was the situation by October 23 that their camp near the present village of Eustis was named Camp Disaster. Arnold’s journal tells us: “Here the whole first division camped. The river continues high and rapid. Our provisions are short. We have heard nothing from the scouts we sent on to Canada to get supplies from the French settlements.”

That next morning Enos, with the fourth division, arrived at Camp Disaster. His officers unanimously voted to give up and return to the Kennebec. Enos protested, but finally gave in. As a result Arnold lost the use of that entire division. Enos was later tried at court martial in Boston, but was acquitted.

On October 26 Arnold, with the first division, crossed the Height of Land. The route had been so difficult that Arnold sent Nehemiah Getchell back to serve as pilot for the rest of the army up over the ridge. By October 28 all three of the remaining divisions had reached Lake Megantic. The danger of starvation was now almost over. Arnold knew that, down the Chaudiere, French settlements were not far away.

Justin Smith tells us what some of the temporarily lost companies had suffered in the swamps south of the Height of Land: “They waded waist deep in mud and water. Each had for food only a mouthful of pork. Even as they passed over the ridge toward the lake, they descended into a miserable swamp full of tangled roots and icy water. Their feet were soon reduced to a state of miserability, and every step invited a fall from which one might never arise. The next morning breakfast was made by stirring a gill of flour with some water and baking it a little over coals.”

The first troops came to a settlement on the Chaudiere on November 2. There they found some of their advance scouts ready to return with provisions. Smith tells us: “The danger of starvation was now truly over, because the natives got the idea that a good business could be done by furnishing the troops with eatables.”

Bad as were Arnold’s losses, nearly half the army got through to the St. Lawrence. 1150 men had assembled for the start at Fort Western. Enos’ division that turned back numbered 300. Sent back sick, at various times, from Dead River had been about 200. Seventy to eighty had been lost in the wilderness. Arriving opposite Quebec with Arnold were 510 men.

Where did the men live who made up Arnold’s recruited force of 1150? The largest number, 400, came from Massachusetts, which then, of course, included Maine. There were 250 from Rhode Island, 100 from Connecticut, and 100 from New Hampshire. The rest came from outside New England: 200 from Pennsylvania, 100 from Virginia, and a scattering from New Jersey.

Next week I will tell you what happened to Arnold after he reached the St. Lawrence.

Year: 1973