Expedition through the Wilderness to Quebec.
Arnold was now unemployed, but a project was soon set on foot suited
to his genius and capacity. General Washington had taken command of
the army at Cambridge. The Continental Congress had resolved that
an incursion into Canada should be made by the troops under General
Schuyler. To facilitate this object, a plan was devised about the middle
of August, by the Commander-in-chief and several members of Congress
then on a visit to the army during an adjournment of that body, to send
an expedition to Quebec through the eastern wilderness, by way of the
Kennebec River, which should eventually cooperate with the other party,
or cause a diversion of the enemy, that would be favorable to its
movements. Arnold was selected to be the conductor of this expedition,
and he received from Washington a commission of colonel in the
Continental service. The enterprise was bold and perilous, encompassed
with untried difficulties, and not less hazardous in its execution, than
uncertain as to its results. These features, repelling as they were in
themselves, appeared attractive in the eyes of a man, whose aliment was
glory, and whose spirit was sanguine, restless, and daring. About eleven
hundred effective men were detached and put under his command, being ten
companies of musketmen from New England, and three companies of riflemen
from Virginia and Pennsylvania. The field-officers, in addition to the
chief, were Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Greene, afterwards the hero
of Red Bank, Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Enos, and Majors Bigelow and
Meigs. At the head of the riflemen was Captain Daniel Morgan, renowned
in the subsequent annals of the war.
These troops marched from Cambridge to Newburyport, where they embarked
on board eleven transports, September 18th, and sailed the next day for
the Kennebec River. Three small boats were previously despatched down
the coast, to ascertain if any of the enemy's ships of war or cruisers
were in sight. At the end of two days after leaving Newbury port, all
the transports had entered the Kennebec, and sailed up the river to the
town of Gardiner, without any material accident. Two or three of them
had grounded in shoal water, but they were got off uninjured. A company
of carpenters had been sent from Cambridge, several days before the
detachment left that place, with orders to construct two hundred
batteaux at Pittston, on the bank of the river opposite to Gardiner.
These were now in readiness, and the men and provisions were transferred
to them from the shipping. They all rendezvoused a few miles higher up
the river at Fort Western, opposite to the present town of Augusta.
Here the hard struggles, sufferings, and dangers were to begin. Eleven
hundred men, with arms, ammunition, and all the apparatus of war,
burthened with the provisions for their sustenance and clothing to
protect them from the inclemencies of the weather, were to pass through
a region uninhabited, wild, and desolate, forcing their batteaux against
a swift current, and carrying them and their contents on their own
shoulders around rapids and cataracts, over craggy precipices, and
through morasses, till they should reach the French settlements on the
Canada frontiers, a distance of more than two hundred miles.
The commander was not ignorant of the obstacles with which he had to
contend. Colonel Montresor, an officer in the British army, had passed
over the same route fifteen years before, and written a journal of his
tour, an imperfect copy of which had fallen into the hands of Arnold.
The remarks of Montresor afforded valuable hints. He came from Quebec,
ascending the Rivers ChaudiËre and Des Loups, crossing the highlands
near the head-waters of the Penobscot, pursuing his way through
Moosehead Lake, and entering the Kennebec by its eastern branch. He
returned up the western branch, or Dead River, and through Lake
Megantic into the ChaudiËre. This latter route was to be pursued by
the expedition. Intelligence had likewise been derived from several St.
Francis Indians, who had recently visited Washington's camp, and who
were familiar with these interior regions. Two persons had been secretly
despatched towards Quebec as an exploring party, from whom Arnold
received a communication at Fort Western. They had proceeded no farther
than the headwaters of the Dead River, being deterred by the extravagant
tales of Natanis, called "the last of the Norridgewocks," who had a
cabin in that quarter, and who was then probably in the interest of the
enemy, though he joined the Americans in their march. Colonel Arnold
had moreover been furnished with a manuscript map and a journal by Mr.
Samuel Goodwin of Pownalborough, who had been a resident and surveyor in
the Kennebec country for twenty-five years.
From these sources of information Colonel Arnold was as well prepared,
as the nature of the case would admit, for the arduous task before him.
While the preparations were making at Fort Western for the departure
of the army, a small reconnoitring party of six or seven men was sent
forward in two birch canoes under the command of Lieutenant Steel,
with orders to go as far as Lake Megantic, or ChaudiËre Pond as it was
sometimes called, and procure such intelligence as they could from
the Indians, who were said to be in that neighborhood on a hunting
excursion; and also Lieutenant Church with another party of seven men, a
surveyor, and guide, to take the exact courses and distances of the Dead
River. Next the army began to move in four divisions, each setting off a
day before the other, and thus allowing sufficient space between them to
prevent any interference in passing up the rapids and around the falls.
Morgan went ahead with the riflemen; then came Greene and Bigelow with
three companies of musketeers; these were followed by Meigs with four
others; and last of all was Enos, who brought up the rear with the three
remaining companies.
Having seen all the troops embarked, Arnold followed them in a birch
canoe, and pushing forward he passed the whole line at different points,
overtaking Morgan's advanced party the third day at Norridgewock Falls.
At a short distance below these falls, on the eastern bank of the river,
was a wide and beautiful plain, once the site of an Indian village,
belonging to a tribe from whom the falls took their name, and memorable
in the annals of former days as the theatre of a tragical event, in
which many of the tribe were slain in a sudden attack, and among them
Father Ralle, the venerable and learned missionary, who had dwelt there
twenty-six years. The foundations of a church and of an altar in ruins
were still visible, the only remaining memorials of a people, whose name
was once feared, and of a man who exiled himself from all the enjoyments
of civilization to plant the cross in a savage wilderness, and who lost
his life in its defence. Let history tell the story as it may, and let
it assign such motives as it may for the conduct of the assailants,
the heart of him is little to be envied, who can behold unmoved these
melancholy vestiges of a race extinct, or pass by the grave of Ralle
without a tear of sympathy or a sigh of regret.
But we must not detain the reader upon a theme so foreign from the
purpose of our narrative. Justice claimed the tribute of this brief
record. At the Norridgewock Falls was a portage, where all the batteaux
were to be taken out of the river and transported a mile and a quarter
by land. The task was slow and fatiguing. The banks on each side were
uneven and rocky. It was found that much of the provisions, particularly
the bread, was damaged. The boats had been imperfectly made, and were
leaky: the men were unskilled in navigating them, and divers accidents
had happened in ascending the rapids. The carpenters were set to work in
repairing the most defective boats. This caused a detention, and seven
days were expended in getting the whole line of the army around the
falls. As soon as the last batteau was launched in the waters above,
Arnold betook himself again to his birch canoe with his Indian guide,
quickly shot ahead of the rear division, passed the portage at the
Carratunc Falls, and in two days arrived at the Great Carrying-place,
twelve miles below the junction of the Dead River with the eastern
branch of the Kennebec. Here he found the two first divisions of the
army.
Thus far the expedition had proceeded as successfully as could have been
anticipated. The fatigue was extreme, yet one man only had been lost
by death. There seem to have been desertions and sickness, as the whole
number now amounted to no more than nine hundred and fifty effective
men. They had passed four portages, assisted by oxen and sleds where the
situation of the ground would permit. So rapid was the stream, that on
an average the men waded more than half the way, forcing the batteaux
against the current. Arnold wrote, in a letter to General Washington,
"You would have taken the men for amphibious animals, as they were great
part of the time under water." He had now twenty-five days' provisions
for the whole detachment, and expressed a sanguine hope of reaching the
ChaudiËre River in eight or ten days.
In this hope he was destined to be disappointed. Obstacles increased in
number and magnitude as he advanced, which it required all his resources
and energy to overcome. The Great Carrying-place extended from the
Kennebec to the Dead River, being a space of fifteen miles, with three
small ponds intervening. From this place the batteaux, provisions, and
baggage were to be carried over the portages on the men's shoulders.
With incredible toil they were taken from the waters of the Kennebec,
and transported along an ascending, rugged, and precipitous path for
more than three miles to the first pond. Here the batteaux were
again put afloat; and thus they continued by alternate water and land
carriage, through lakes, creeks, morasses, and craggy ravines, till they
reached the Dead River.
As some relief to their sufferings, the men were regaled by feasting
on delicious salmon-trout, which the ponds afforded in prodigious
quantities. Two oxen were also slaughtered and divided among them. A
block-house was built at the second portage, at which the sick were
left; and another near the bank of the Kennebec, as a depository for
provisions ordered up from the commissary at Norridgewock, and intended
as a supply in case a retreat should be necessary.
While the army was crossing the Great Carrying-place, Arnold despatched
two Indians with letters to gentlemen in Quebec and to General Schuyler.
They were accompanied by a white man, named Jakins, who was to proceed
down the ChaudiËre to the French settlements, ascertain the sentiments
of the inhabitants, procure intelligence, and then return. It appeared
afterwards, that the Indians betrayed their trust. The letters never
reached the persons to whom they were addressed, but were doubtless put
into the hands of the Lieutenant-Governor of Canada. The Indian, who had
them in charge, named Eneas, was afterwards known to be in Quebec.
The Dead River presented for many miles a smooth surface and gentle
current, interrupted here and there by falls of short descent, at which
were carrying-places. As the batteaux were moving along this placid
stream, a bold and lofty mountain appeared in the distance, whose summit
was whitened with snow. When approached, the river was discovered to
pursue a very meandering course near its base; and, although the fatigue
of the men was less severe than it had been, yet their actual progress
was slow. In the vicinity of this mountain Arnold encamped for two or
three days, and, as report says, raised the American flag over his tent.
The event has been commemorated. A hamlet since planted on the spot,
which ere long will swell to the dignity of a town, is at this day
called the Flag Staff. The mountain has been equally honored. Tradition
has told the pioneers of the forest, and repeated the marvel till it is
believed, that Major Bigelow had the courage as well as the leisure to
ascend to its top, with the hope of discovering from this lofty eminence
the hills of Canada and the spires of Quebec. From this supposed
adventure it has received the name of Mount Bigelow. Its towering
peaks, looking down upon the surrounding mountains, are a beacon to
the trappers and hunters, who still follow their vocation in these
solitudes, notwithstanding the once-coveted beaver has fled from their
domain, and the field of their enterprise has been ominously contracted
by the encroaching tide of civilization.
From this encampment a party of ninety men was sent back to the rear
for provisions, which were beginning to grow scarce. Morgan with his
riflemen had gone forward, and Arnold followed with the second division.
For three days it rained incessantly, and every man and all the baggage
were drenched with water. One night, after they had landed at a late
hour and were endeavouring to take a little repose, they were suddenly
roused by the freshet, which came rushing upon them in a torrent, and
hardly allowed them time to escape, before the ground on which they had
lain down was overflowed. In nine hours the river rose perpendicularly
eight feet. Embarrassments thickened at every step. The current was
everywhere rapid; the stream had spread itself over the low grounds
by the increase of its waters, thereby exposing the batteaux to be
perpetually entangled in the drift-wood and bushes; sometimes they
were led away from the main stream into smaller branches and obliged to
retrace their course, and at others delayed by portages, which became
more frequent as they advanced.
At length a disaster happened, which was near putting an end to the
expedition. By the turbulence of the waters seven batteaux were
overset, and all their contents lost. This made such a breach upon the
provisions, and threw such a gloom over the future, that the bravest
among them was almost ready to despond. They were now thirty miles from
the head of the ChaudiËre River. It was ascertained, that the provisions
remaining would serve for twelve or fifteen days. A council of war was
called, at which it was decided that the sick and feeble should be sent
back, and the others press forward.
Arnold wrote to Colonel Greene and Colonel Enos, who were in the rear,
ordering them to select such a number of their strongest men as they
could supply with fifteen days' provisions, and to come on with them,
leaving the others to return to Norridgewock. Enos misconstrued the
order, or chose not to understand it. He retreated with his whole
division, consisting of three companies, and marched back to Cambridge.
*
* Colonel Enos was tried by a court-martial, after his arrival at
head-quarters, and acquitted on the ground of a want of provisions. But
the true state of the case was not understood, as no intelligence on the
subject had been received from Arnold. The trial was hastened, because
Enos's commission in the army, as first organized, would expire at the
end of the year, and it was supposed he could not be tried under his new
commission. He certainly disobeyed the order of his commander, nor was
the plea of a deficiency of provisions admissible. The same quantity of
provisions, that would be consumed by three companies in returning to
the settlements on the Kennebec, would have served part of them for that
purpose, and another part for fifteen days in marching to the ChaudiËre.
He was ordered to divide his men in such a manner as to accomplish
both these objects. Although acquitted by the court-martial, he either
imagined, or had the sagacity to perceive, that his conduct was not
satisfactory to General Washington, and soon left the army.--See
Washington's Writings, Vol. III. p. 164.
After despatching this order, Arnold hastened onward with about sixty
men under Captain Hanchet, intending to proceed as soon as possible to
the inhabitants on the ChaudiËre, and send back provisions to meet the
main forces. The rain changed into snow, which fell two inches deep,
thus adding the sufferings of cold to those of hunger and fatigue. Ice
formed on the surface of the water in which the men were obliged to wade
and drag the boats. Finally the highlands were reached, which separated
the eastern waters from those of the St. Lawrence. A string of small
lakes, choked with logs and other obstructions, had been passed through
near the sources of the Dead River, and seventeen falls had been
encountered in ascending its whole distance, around which were portages.
The carrying-place over the highlands was a little more than four miles.
A small stream then presented itself, which conducted the boats by a
very crooked course into Lake Megantic, the great fountainhead of the
ChaudiËre River.
Here were found Lieutenants Steel and Church, who had been sent forward
a second time from the Great Carrying-place with a party of men to
explore and clear paths at the portages. Here also was Jakins, returned
from the settlements, who made a favorable report in regard to the
sentiments of the people, saying they were friendly and rejoiced at the
approach of the army. Lake Megantic is thirteen miles long and three or
four broad, and surrounded by high mountains. The night after entering
it, the party encamped on its eastern shore, where was a large Indian
wigwam, that contributed to the comfort of their quarters.
Early the next morning Arnold despatched a person to the rear of the
army, with instructions to the advancing troops. He then ordered Captain
Hanchet and fifty-five men to march by land along the margin of the
lake, and himself embarked with Captain Oswald, and Lieutenants Steel
and Church with thirteen men in five batteaux and a birch canoe,
resolved to proceed as soon as possible to the French inhabitants, and
send back provisions to meet the army.
In three hours they reached the northern extremity of the lake, and
entered the ChaudiËre, which carried them along with prodigious rapidity
on its tide of waters boiling and foaming over a rocky bottom. The
baggage was lashed to the boats, and the danger was doubly threatening,
as they had no guides. At length they fell among rapids; three of the
boats were overset, dashed to pieces against the rocks, and all their
contents swallowed up by the waves. Happily no lives were lost, although
six men struggled for some time in the water, and were saved with
difficulty. This misfortune, calamitous as it was, Arnold ascribes in
his Journal to a "kind interposition of Providence"; for no sooner had
the men dried their clothes and reembarked, than one of them who had
gone forward cried out, "A fall ahead," which had not been discovered,
and over which the whole party must have been hurried to inevitable
destruction.
It is needless to say, that after this experience they were more
cautious. Rapids and falls succeeded each other at short intervals.
The birch canoe met the fate of the three batteaux, by running upon
the rocks. Sometimes the boats were retarded in their velocity by ropes
extended from the stem to the bank of the river. Two Penobscot Indians
assisted them over a portage of more than half a mile in length. Through
its whole extent the stream, raised by the late rains, was rough, rapid,
and dangerous; but the party was fortunate in losing no lives and in
advancing quickly. On the third day after leaving Lake Megantic, being
the 30th of October, Arnold arrived at Sertigan, the first French
settlement, four miles below the junction of the River Des Loups with
the ChaudiËre, and seventy miles from the lake by the course of the
stream.
His first care was to relieve his suffering troops, some of whom were
already fainting with hunger, exhausted with fatigue, and overcome with
toils and privations, to which they had never been accustomed. * He
immediately sent back several Canadians and Indians with flour and
cattle, who met the troops marching through the woods near the bank of
the river, all their boats having been destroyed by the violence of the
rapids. The whole army arrived within four or five days, emerging from
the forests in small and detached parties, and greeting once more with
joy unspeakable the habitations of civilized men. They were received
in a friendly manner by the inhabitants, who supplied their wants with
hospitable abundance, and seemed favorably inclined to the objects of
the expedition, not being yet heartily reconciled to the burden of a
foreign yoke, however light in itself, which the adverse fortunes of
war had doomed them to wear since the brilliant victory of Wolfe on the
Heights of Abraham.
* So extreme was the famine for the last three or four days of the
march, that dogs were killed and greedily devoured. This fact was stated
by General Dearborn, who had been a captain in the expedition, in a
letter to President Allen of Bowdoin College. Moose-skin moccasins were
boiled to procure from them such nourishment as they afforded.
Meantime Arnold proceeded down the river to conciliate the attachment
of the people, and make further preparations for the march of his army.
Before leaving Cambridge, he had received ample instructions for the
regulation of his conduct, drawn up with care and forethought by the
Commander-in-chief, and containing express orders to treat the Canadians
on all occasions as friends, to avoid every thing that should give
offence or excite suspicion, to respect their religious ceremonies and
national habits, to pay them liberally and promptly for supplies and
assistance, to punish with severity any improper acts of the soldiery;
in a word, to convince them that their interests were involved in the
results of the expedition, and that its ultimate purpose was to protect
their civil liberties and the rights of conscience.
He was also furnished with printed copies of a manifesto, signed
by General Washington, intended for distribution among the people,
explaining the grounds of the contest between Great Britain and America,
and encouraging them to join their neighbors in a common cause by
rallying around the standard of liberty. These instructions were
strictly observed by the American troops, and had their desired
influence. The impression was lasting. To this day the old men recount
to their children the story of the "descent of the Bostonians," as the
only great public event that has ever occurred to vary the monotonous
incidents of the sequestered and beautiful valley of the ChaudiËre.
Ten days after reaching the upper settlements, Arnold arrived at Point
Levy opposite to Quebec. His troops followed, and were all with him at
that place on the 13th of November. About forty Indians had joined him
at Sertigan and on the march below. He had ascertained that his approach
was known in Quebec, and that all the boats had been withdrawn from
the eastern side of the St. Lawrence to deprive him of the means of
crossing. Eneas, the savage whom he had sent with a letter to General
Schuyler, and another to a friend in Quebec, had found his way to the
enemy, and given up his despatches to some of the King's officers. He
pretended to have been taken prisoner; but treachery and falsehood are
so nearly allied, that Eneas had the credit of both.
Between thirty and forty birch canoes having been collected, Arnold
resolved to make an immediate attempt to cross the river. The first
division left Point Levy at nine o'clock in the evening and landed
safely on the other side, having eluded a frigate and sloop stationed in
the St. Lawrence on purpose to intercept them. The canoes returned,
and by four in the morning five hundred men had passed over at three
separate times, and rendezvoused at Wolfe's Cove. Just as the last party
landed, they were discovered by one of the enemy's guard-boats, into
which they fired and killed three men. It was not safe to return again,
and about one hundred and fifty men were left at Point Levy.
No time was now to be lost. Headed by their leader they clambered up
the precipice at the same place, where Wolfe sixteen years before had
conducted his army to the field of carnage and of victory. When the day
dawned, this resolute band of Americans, few in number compared with the
hosts of the British hero, but not less determined in purpose or strong
in spirit, stood on the Plains of Abraham, with the walls of Quebec full
in their view. They were now on the spot, to which their eager wishes
had tended from the moment they left the camp of Washington; and, after
encountering so many perils and enduring such extremities of toil, cold,
and hunger with unparalleled fortitude, it was a mortifying reflection,
that scarcely a glimmering hope of success remained. Troops had recently
come to Quebec from Sorel and Newfoundland, and such preparations for
defence had been made, that it would have been madness to attempt a
serious assault of the town with so small a force.
The strength of the garrison, including regulars and militia within the
walls, and the mariners and sailors on board the ships, was little short
of eighteen hundred men. But two thirds of these were militia, many of
whom were Canadians supposed to be friendly to the Americans, and ready
to join with them whenever they should enter the town. This expectation,
indeed, had been one of the chief encouragements for undertaking the
enterprise against Quebec. To make an experiment upon the temper of the
inhabitants, Arnold drew up his men within eight hundred yards of the
walls, and gave three cheers, hoping by this display to bring out
the regulars to an open action on the plain. The gates would thus be
unclosed, and, if the people in the town were as favorably disposed as
had been represented, there might thus be an opportunity of forming a
junction and acting in concert, as circumstances should dictate. This
has been considered as a ridiculous and unmeaning parade on the part of
the American commander, but he doubtless had some good grounds for the
manouvre from the intelligence brought to him by persons, whose wishes
corresponded with his own. At any rate, the garrison chose not to accept
the challenge in any other manner, than by discharges of cannon through
the embrasures on the walls.
A specimen of military etiquette, which was next resorted to, may be
looked upon in a more questionable light. By the rules of war it is
customary, when a town is about to be stormed, for the assailing party
to send in a summons demanding a surrender and proffering conditions.
That every thing might be done in due form, Arnold wrote a letter to
Lieutenant-Governor CramahÈ, the British commander in Quebec, calling
on him in the name of the American Congress to give up the city, and
threatening him with disastrous consequences, if the surrender should be
delayed. This idle piece of formality might have been spared; it could
only excite the derision of the enemy, who knew the precise strength of
the assailants.
The Canadians, however, and particularly the people in the surrounding
country, were much alarmed. The phenomenon of an army descending from
a wilderness, which had hitherto been considered impassable, except by
very small parties with light birch canoes, easily transported over the
portages, filled them with wonder and apprehension. Report had magnified
the number of the invaders, and the imagination gave ready credence
to the tales that were told of the prowess and valor of men, who had
performed a feat so daring in its attempt, and extraordinary in its
success. It was even said, that these men were cased in iron, and that
their power of body was equal to their courage and fortitude. *
* This idea gained currency from the curious circumstance of mistaking
the sound of a word. Morgan's riflemen were clothed in linen frocks, the
common uniform of that description of troops. When they first appeared
emerging from the woods, the Canadians said they were vÍtus en toile;
but, as the intelligence spread, the word toile, linen, was changed into
tÙle, sheet-iron.
These fears were of short duration. The reality was soon made manifest,
and Arnold himself was the first to discover his weakness and danger.
Three days after his formidable summons, he had leisure to examine into
the state of the arms and ammunition of his troops, and to his surprise
he found almost all the cartridges spoiled, there being not more than
five rounds to a man, and nearly one hundred muskets unfit for use.
Some of the men were invalids, and many deficient in clothing and other
necessaries. At the same time he received advice from his friends in
town, that a sortie was about to be made with a force considerably
superior to his own. A retreat was the only expedient that remained. The
men left at Point Levy had already crossed the river and joined him,
and with his whole force he marched up the St. Lawrence to
Point-aux-Trembles, eight leagues from Quebec, intending to wait there
the approach of General Montgomery from Montreal.