Benedict Arnold's Army: The 1775 American Invasion of Canada During the Revolutionary War

Benedict Arnold's Army: The 1775 American Invasion of Canada During the Revolutionary War

by Arthur S. Lefkowitz
Benedict Arnold's Army: The 1775 American Invasion of Canada During the Revolutionary War

Benedict Arnold's Army: The 1775 American Invasion of Canada During the Revolutionary War

by Arthur S. Lefkowitz

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Overview

This “brilliant” account of Benedict Arnold’s military campaign to bring Canada into the Revolutionary War is “hard to put down”—includes maps (Mag Web).
 
In 1775, Benedict Arnold led more than one thousand men through the Maine wilderness in order to reach Quebec, the capital of British-held Canada. His goal was to reach the fortress city and bring Canada into the Revolutionary War as the fourteenth colony. When George Washington learned of a route to Quebec that followed a chain of rivers and lakes through the Maine wilderness, he picked Col. Benedict Arnold to command the surprise assault. The route to Canada was 270 miles of rapids, waterfalls, and dense forests that took months to traverse. Arnold led his famished corps through early winter snow and waist-high freezing water, up and over the Appalachian Mountains, and finally, to Quebec.
 
In Benedict Arnold’s Army, award-winning author Arthur S. Lefkowitz traces the troops’ grueling journey, examining Arnold’s character at the time and how this campaign influenced him later in the Revolutionary War. After multiple trips to the route Arnold’s army took, Lefkowitz also includes detailed information and maps for readers to follow the expedition’s route from the coast of Main to Quebec City.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781611210033
Publisher: Savas Beatie
Publication date: 02/20/2019
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 384
File size: 3 MB

About the Author

Arthur S. Lefkowitz is an award-winning writer on the American Revolution. He lives in central New Jersey.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Benedict Arnold Was Never a Laggard in the Path of Ambition

The Arnold clan arrived in America from England in 1635 and settled in Rhode Island, where they became wealthy and active in local politics, including the governorship of the colony. Over time, the family's fortune diminished, forcing Benedict Arnold's father (Benedict senior) to be apprenticed to a cooper in order to earn a modest living as a barrel maker. But Benedict senior had bigger ideas. In 1730, after completing his apprenticeship, he went to the boom town of Norwich, Connecticut, where he met a wealthy young widow named Hannah Waterman King, whose husband Absalom had disappeared at sea while returning home from a trading voyage to Ireland. Benedict senior married Hannah on November 8, 1733, following a suitable period of mourning for her lost husband. Once married, he became the owner of Absalom King's substantial estate and was addressed as Captain Arnold. Captain Arnold and Hannah had six children, four of whom died in childhood. Only Benedict — the Revolutionary War general and traitor — and a daughter named Hannah lived to maturity.

Benedict, born on January 14, 1741, had a happy childhood in Norwich, living with his parents and sister in a handsome house. His parents had great plans for their only son, whom they sent to local schools to prepare for a college education and the family business. However, in his 1860 history of the Revolutionary War, author Benson Lossing tells a different story, depicting little Benedict as a "perfect despot." Lossing followed his tales of Arnold's truculent childhood with a little poem: "Born for a curse to virtue and mankind, Earth's broadest realm ne'er knew so black a mind."

The most often repeated story the early historians loved to tell about Benedict Arnold's youth was how his father was transformed from a wealthy and respected merchant to an impoverished drunk. The story is true. The death of four of his children combined with business reverses turned the despondent Captain Arnold to drinking. This happened sometime around 1755, when young Benedict was a teenager. There still was enough money at the time in the family business to send Benedict to school, and his mother — who took over the dwindling family finances from her husband — wanted her son to attend Yale College (present-day Yale University) in nearby New Haven.

Benedict's plans to attend college ended when his parents ran out of money. With her husband sliding deeper into alcoholism, Hannah turned to help for her son from her wealthy cousins, Daniel and Joshua Lathrop, both of whom were Yale graduates and partners in a successful apothecary and general merchandise business. The Lathrops took Benedict into their firm as an apprentice. The teenage Benedict proved to have a talent for business, and sometime around 1759 the Lathrops started to send him on trading voyages, first to the West Indies and then to England.

In August 1759, during Benedict's apprenticeship, his mother contracted some unknown ailment and died. Her passing only intensified Captain Arnold's depression and drinking bouts, and he died two years later. Left on his own at the age of 21, Benedict had to sell the family homestead to pay his father's debts, leaving him with nothing but a young sister to care for and his ancestor's noble name. Fortunately, the Lathrop brothers came to young Arnold's rescue with encouragement and money. Having already established one of their promising apprentices as their junior partner in a store in Hartford, they offered Arnold a similar opportunity in New Haven, and Benedict jumped at it.

New Haven was a thriving seacoast port when young Arnold arrived there in 1760. At first he opened a small shop in a rented space on Chapel Street, where he sold medicines, books, and related merchandise. Arnold's business prospered, allowing him to move to larger quarters, first on Church Street and then on Water Street along New Haven's busy waterfront. He advertised in the local newspaper, offering rum, sugar, and many other articles for cash or short credit.

Arnold maintained his ties to the Lathrop brothers, but in 1764 he formed a partnership with a promising New Haven merchant named Adam Babcock. Arnold and Babcock purchased a small ship, the Fortune, which they used for trading voyages. Their business prospered and they purchased two additional vessels — the Charming Sally and the Three Brothers — the following year. Their little fleet was the means by which these two ambitious businessmen participated in the rich trade with Canada and the West Indies. They shipped horses, rum, molasses, pork, grain, and timber products, with Arnold often acting as the captain of one of their vessels. Men who knew him at the time, according to one biographer, saw a stocky, muscular form, and a bold, proud face, roughened and tanned by stormy weather and the tropic sun.

On February 27, 1767, Arnold married Margaret (Peggy) Mansfield, the daughter of a wealthy New Haven merchant. The couple was happy, at least in the early years of their marriage. Peggy gave birth to three children, all boys: Benedict VI (born February 1768), Richard (August 1769), and Henry (September 1772). From extant records it seems that Arnold also enjoyed a close relationship with his father-in-law, Samuel Mansfield. Benedict and Samuel became partners in profitable trading ventures in the West Indies, sailing to the islands with New England rum, dried fish, lumber, cattle, and horses, and returning with molasses. Arnold frequently commanded his own ships on these voyages, and stories filtered back to New Haven about his whoring, drinking, and dueling during these long absences from home. Much of this gossip was the result of jealousy because, by 1770, Arnold had become the most prosperous merchant in New Haven. Some of the rumors about him were true, however, including the stories of two duels that he fought in the West Indies over insults to his honor. Arnold was quick to defend his reputation, even if it meant settling the affront with dueling swords or a brace of pistols. He was an excellent marksman, and pistols were his preferred dueling weapon.

Back home, Arnold began construction in 1770 of a stately mansion that would show off his wealth and respectability. Completed the following year, the elegant Arnold mansion stood on Water Street in New Haven well into the nineteenth century. Some details of the house are worth noting, for they serve as an insight into Arnold's complicated character. The Arnold mansion was a large structure designed to impress anyone who walked by. It stood two stories tall with majestic pillars that framed its front entrance. Inside, on the first floor, detailed wood panel work and marble fireplaces attested to Arnold's wealth and good taste. Each upstairs bedroom had its own fireplace, and there were roomy closets throughout the house. There was a special alcove built into the master bedroom to hold Arnold's many pairs of shoes, for Arnold loved shoes and clothing, and he dressed in the latest fashion. The house also had a secret stairway that led from a closet on the first floor to an upstairs room. A white picket fence with gravel walks surrounded the tall and stately house and connected it to the stables, coach house, and gardens. The estate stood on three acres of prime land, thick with beautiful fruit trees, graceful elms, and stately maples. Arnold had the house and picket fence painted white to give the property a final touch of beauty and opulence.

In the years preceding the American Revolution, Arnold lived happily in this fine mansion with his wife Peggy, their three sons, his sister Hannah, and numerous household servants. The property and home were important to him because they symbolized his financial success and dedication to his family. Looking at the view from his beautiful home, Arnold could see New Haven's harbor and watch for the arrival of his ships with their valuable cargoes. A short walk into town would take him to his store and wharves.

Like most successful American businessmen at the time, Arnold led a complicated life based partially on his ability to sidestep British commercial laws and taxes. British success in the French and Indian War (1754-1763) had important consequences for colonial businessmen like Arnold. The war eliminated France as a commercial rival and opened Canada for trade. But the British government decided that the colonists should help pay for the costly war via import duties and taxes. The colonists opposed these levies, claiming that they could not be taxed without their consent. "The King has deprived us of our fundamental liberties and ensnared us in the tyrannical chains of political slavery," they argued. "[N]o taxation without representation."

Arnold was among a group of colonial merchants, along with John Hancock of Boston, who took a practical approach to the problem — they evaded the new import duties by smuggling goods into America. Other colonists were more belligerent in their opposition to British tariffs and showed their distaste for the King's "collectors, comptrollers, searchers, tide-waiters with a whole catalog of pimps sent hither" by dumping a cargo of taxed tea into Boston Harbor. The British government responded to this act of defiance by closing the port of Boston until the tea had been paid for. Outraged by this move, the radicals among the colonists organized themselves into militia companies and hired instructors to teach them how to drill and handle weapons. One observer described the scene:

the whole country at this time was in commotion and nothing was talked of but war, liberty, or death; persons of all descriptions were embodying themselves into military companies, and every old drunken fellow they found who had been a soldier, or understood what is called the manual exercise, was employed of evenings to drill them.

Sixty-five firebrands from New Haven, describing themselves as gentlemen of influence and high respectability, met on December 28, 1774, to sign articles that organized them into a militia company in preparation for a possible war with Britain. Arnold joined them and, in the middle of February 1775, received an appointment to a committee charged with procuring guns for the group. Arnold was a logical choice for such a committee since he was a merchant with numerous business contacts, especially in the Dutch- and French-owned islands in the Caribbean whose people were selling war materials to the Americans.

At the same time, the newly organized New Haven militiamen petitioned the Connecticut General Assembly to have their company appointed as the Governor's Second Company of Guards. The title was important because there was a Governor's Company of Guards in Hartford that had been granted certain rights and privileges by the colony's General Assembly, including the freedom to elect their own officers, and the New Haven men wanted the same benefits for themselves. The assembly promptly granted the New Haven men a charter naming them the Second Company of Guards. On March 15, 1775, the newly created militia company elected Arnold as their captain and commanding officer. Although Arnold had no military experience at the time, he was named commander due to his high standing in the community and his skills as a leader and organizer. Membership in the Second Company of Guards was a status symbol among the radical young gentlemen of New Haven, who were required to purchase their own uniforms and weapons and contribute to the payment of a drill master — usually retired British army officers and enlisted men (or deserters) — to teach them the manual of arms. Arnold and his men soon began to drill on New Haven's village green in their smart new red and buff uniforms to the cheers of the town's insurgents, while residents loyal to Britain turned their backs on the upstart, self-important Arnold and his pretentious comrades.

The American Revolution commenced when a column of British troops marched out from Boston in the early hours of April 19, 1775, en route to destroy the military equipment that the Massachusetts militia had stockpiled in Concord, located 16 miles west of Boston. Warned of the British raid, the local militia assembled to defend the countryside. The first clash between the British army and the Massachusetts militia occurred when the British column passed through the village of Lexington. The fighting intensified during the day as additional militia companies arrived on the scene. By nightfall, the battle-scarred British column was back in Boston, surrounded by the incensed militiamen. That day's events, starting with the British march from Boston to the encirclement of Boston by the militia, became known as the Lexington alarm.

A courier arrived in New Haven a few days later with the first reports of the action. The city's conservative leaders quickly convened a town meeting and called for patience and restraint. The radicals disagreed, and the militia assembled under Captain Arnold's command, voting to march to Massachusetts to help their fellow New Englanders fight the hated British troops. Some pro-rebel students from Yale College joined them. As the town's elders watched in dismay, the Footguards mustered on the New Haven Green on April 24 before a large crowd of spectators. There were 50 of them, including Arnold, who oversaw their signing of a document that stated they were "Driven to the last necessity, and obliged to have recourse to arms in defense of our lives and liberties." The Footguards affirmed that they were not mercenaries, "whose views extend no further than pay and plunder," but rather men called to the honorable service of hazarding their lives for "the liberties and unalienable rights of mankind." Following a fiery sermon, Arnold submitted a request to New Haven's officials for additional gunpowder from the town's arsenal. The conservative town elders sent an emissary to reason with Arnold, urging him to wait for instructions from the Connecticut General Assembly, to which he was said to have replied, "None but Almighty God shall prevent my marching!" Fearing violence, the town's burghers gave Arnold the keys to the powder magazine. The militiamen took what they needed, reformed their ranks, and, as fifes and drums struck-up a martial tune, marched off to Boston to the cheers of their liberty-loving neighbors.

Arnold and his militiamen were on the road to Boston when they met Colonel Samuel Holden Parsons, a Connecticut militia officer who was on horseback and riding fast in the opposite direction. Parsons was on his way back to Hartford after a brief visit to the rebel camp outside Boston as a representative from the Connecticut General Assembly, which wanted reliable information on the situation. Parsons stopped briefly to talk to Arnold, explaining that the rebels had surrounded Boston but lacked sufficient artillery to do much beyond observing the Redcoats. In the course of their brief conversation, Arnold told Parsons that there were plenty of cannons at Fort Ticonderoga. Arnold had never visited the place but had been told about it by his merchant friends in Montreal, who said that it was in disrepair and that its small peacetime garrison was more interested in growing cabbages than in preparing for war.

Parsons was impressed with Arnold's second-hand information and, after reaching Hartford, organized a meeting of a handful of Connecticut's leaders and repeated what Arnold had told him. Knowing that time was critical, Parsons and his friends voted to organize a force to seize the British post without waiting for Connecticut's slow-moving, conservative General Assembly to take action. Acting alone, the Connecticut radicals withdrew money from the provincial treasury and appointed Edward Mott, a captain in the militia, to command a military expedition against Ticonderoga. Anxious to recruit men for their mission, the Connecticut radicals convinced Herman Allen, the proprietor of a general store in Salisbury, Connecticut, to visit his older brother Ethan, who was the leader of a group of belligerent settlers in the nearby Hampshire Grants (present-day Vermont). Calling themselves the Green Mountain Boys, Ethan Allen and his followers previously organized themselves into a quasi-military body to defend their land claims against conflicting claims from New Yorkers who called Allen and his supporters "the Bennington mob." Herman Allen's mission was to persuade his brother to mobilize his clique and join forces with Captain Mott.

Connecticut's campaign to take Fort Ticonderoga began on April 29, 1775, when Captain Mott left Hartford with a small party of volunteers and headed northwest toward Lake Champlain. Arnold arrived in Cambridge the same day with his smart-looking Footguards Company. The American Revolution was just 10 days old when these two seemingly unrelated events occurred.

(Continues…)


Excerpted from "Benedict Arnold's Army"
by .
Copyright © 2014 Arthur S. Lefkowitz.
Excerpted by permission of Savas Beatie LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements,
Introduction,
Chapter 1 Benedict Arnold Was Never a Laggard in the Path of Ambition,
Chapter 2 The Distance and the Difficulties of the Way Were much Underestimated,
Chapter 3 King Neptune Raised his Taxes Without the Least Difficulty Where King George Had Failed,
Chapter 4 All About Them Stood the Forest Primeval, Dark, Silent and Mysterious,
Chapter 5 The Sky Looked Down Through the Dense Forest ... Upon a Broad Arrow Struck Through its Very Heart,
Chapter 6 A Direful Howling Wilderness Not Describable,
Chapter 7 All Regard for Order Lost,
Chapter 8 The Heartrending Entreaties of the Sick and Helpless,
Chapter 9 Beyond the River the Beautiful City of Quebec, Hemmed in by her Lofty Precipices,
Chapter 10 The Very Flower of the Colonial Youth,
Appendix Following the Trail of The Arnold Expedition,
Notes,
Bibliography,
Index,

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