The Riflemen’s Mutiny and the March to Quebec (episode 335)

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Jake:
[0:04] Welcome to Hub History, where we go far beyond the freedom trail to share our favorite stories from the history of Boston, the Hub of the Universe.

Welcome to Hub History

Jake:
[0:14] This is episode 335, The Rifleman’s Mutiny and the March to Quebec. Hi, I’m Jake. This week, I’m talking about two important things that happened in the siege of Boston 250 years ago this month, in September 1775. Together, we’ll learn about the invasion of Quebec that Benedict Arnold launched out of Boston that month in hopes of winning over Canadian hearts and minds. If you’ve ever wondered why Canada isn’t part of the United States, we can probably chalk that up to Arnold’s ill-fated expedition, as well as the 150 years of conflict between Canadians and New Englanders that had gone before. We’ll also learn about the riflemen who made up much of this invasion force. Recruited from the backwoods of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and what’s now West Virginia, these exotic troops were treated as celebrities when they first arrived at the Continental Camp in Cambridge. But the bloom was soon off the rose. As we’ll hear, some of the riflemen staged the first mutiny in the Continental Army 250 years ago this week, until they were personally subdued by George Washington near Union Square in today’s Somerville. But before we talk about the Rifleman’s Mutiny and the March to Quebec, I just want to pause and thank our listener supporters.

Jake:
[1:34] Podcasts are a great way to get a bite-sized lesson in history. The reason part of this episode is a rerun is because I was away on a road trip for most of the time when I would otherwise have worked on researching and writing this episode. Of course, the first thing I do before any road trip is to queue up a playlist of some of my favorite shows, like the American Revolution podcast, One Mike Black History, Charleston Time Machine, City on the Edge, and Archive Atlanta. It helps to pass the time on a long drive. Whether you’re a visitor to Boston or a lifelong Bostonian who wants to hear unknown stories about your city’s history, I hope our show can do the same thing for you, keeping you company in the car or at the gym or even helping you to fall asleep, which a listener recently told me my voice was perfect for.

Jake:
[2:24] The generous listeners who sign up to support the show with $2, $5, or even $20 or more each month on Patreon make it possible for me to keep producing Hub History. So if you’re already supporting the show, thank you. And if you’re not yet supporting the show and you’d like to start, it’s easy. Just go to patreon.com slash hubhistory or visit hubhistory.com and click on the support us link. And thanks again to all our new and returning sponsors. I also want to give a shout out to all the listeners that I had a chance to chat with at History Camp Boston last month. Stephanie, Michelle, John, Liz, Sherry, and probably some others who I’m forgetting to mention. Thanks so much for introducing yourselves, or reintroducing yourselves, and talking about the show with me.

Main Topic Introduction

Jake:
[3:16] And now it’s time for this week’s main topic.

Jake:
[3:19] Because our relationship with them has been so warm and open for so much of our shared history, it can be hard to remember that Canada is its own sovereign country that’s entirely separate from the United States. While President Trump has signaled a willingness to forcibly annex our neighbor to the north, this ignores a history that dates back to the very beginning of European colonization in North America. Because its early history is rooted in France, and because of centuries of distrust between New France and New England, Canada has never seemed very interested in a union with the United States, peaceable or otherwise. There was a brief moment, right at the beginning of our war for independence from Britain, where it seemed like things might go a different direction, however. At the beginning of the American Revolution, before the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, the idea of 13 original colonies wasn’t exactly set in stone. The provinces of East and West Florida seemed almost as restive as East and West Jersey. Bermuda, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland all had loyalist leanings, but then so did much of New York and Pennsylvania. And just north of New England, a rich colony with a large population was living under the same sort of British military occupation that had driven Massachusetts to rebel after our own occupation started in 1768.

Jake:
[4:46] Since the treaty that ended the Seven Years’ War handed Quebec to Great Britain, redcoats had occupied the great cities of Quebec and Montreal. Our residents had a great deal of personal freedom to speak French, practice their Catholic religion, and carry on trade. There was still an undercurrent of resentment at the change of regimes. The Americans of the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, saw a potential opening to expand their alliance and bring a powerful new ally into the war. In a 2024 article for the Journal of the American Revolution, historian Gene Prochnow writes, The decision to invade Canada occurred in June 1775, during the initial formation of the Continental Army and the selection of George Washington as its commander-in-chief. Initially, a cautious Congress appeared to act defensively. Alarmed by the news that a motley amalgamation of unsanctioned rebels took offensive actions to capture Fort Ticonderoga and other British military installations on Lake Champlain, the Second Continental Congress ordered on June 1st, 1775, that no expedition or incursion ought to be undertaken or made by any colony or body of colonists against or into Canada.

Arnold’s Decision to Invade Canada

Jake:
[6:01] However, just 26 days later, the momentous decision-making Congress reversed its position and ordered the just-formed Continental Army to invade peaceful, non-rebelling Canada.

Jake:
[6:13] Congress authorized Major General Philip Schuyler, the newly appointed Continental Army’s northern commander, to invade Quebec if, quote, it would not be disagreeable to the Canadians. Now, one of the major reasons why some delegates to Congress believed that an American invasion of Canada would not be disagreeable to the Canadians was Benedict Arnold. Back in episode 326, I discussed Arnold’s heroic early career in the Continental Army before his famous betrayal in 1780. His reputation was secured with the capture of Fort Ticonderoga in Crown Point in May 1775, just weeks after the battle at Lexington and Concord. As I outlined in that episode, Arnold’s firm belief that Lake Champlain and Lake George would play a key role in defending New England, was grounded in part on his experience as a militia private in the Seven Years’ War, and in part on his commercial contacts in Canada.

Jake:
[7:14] Since the 1760s, Arnold had been trading back and forth between his home in Connecticut and the newly British province of Quebec, and many of the business contacts he had made now became intelligence assets. I actually came face-to-face with one of them in March of this year while I was up in Montreal for a conference. As on any trip I take, I went to all the history museums I could make time for, and I did what I always do, which, of course, is to scour the exhibits for connections to Boston. And I found many, including one at the 1705 Chateau Ramazais, which later served as Benedict Arnold’s headquarters when Montreal was occupied the Americans, and it hosted a conference where Arnold and Ben Franklin tried to convince the Canadians to join our cause. A pair of portraits at the Chateau were identified as Thomas Walker, a merchant from Boston, and his wife Jane Hughes. Walker was among a wave of British Americans who moved to Quebec after the French defeat in 1763, making his home just a block or so from the St. Lawrence River in Montreal.

Jake:
[8:23] Walker was a merchant, trading with France, the West Indies, and New Englanders, much like Benedict Arnold. His commercial interests led him to butt heads with the leaders of the British occupation over what he saw as their unfair restraint of trade in Quebec, and he soon found himself leading a faction of merchants, both French and English-speaking, who resented the military government. As unrest in the New England colonies to the south grew more vocal, Walker and his supporters grew more radical. His entry in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography says, He opposed the passage of the Quebec Act, agitated for its repeal, and became a foe of British Governor General Guy Carlton. Through his activity as a wheat buyer and a speculator, Walker had gained an influence in rural areas that enabled him to circulate, in Montreal and its district and in Quebec, the Continental Congress’s 1774 appeal for support.

Jake:
[9:22] By 1775, Walker was a full-fledged Republican, meaning a little r Republican. In April, he was present at a meeting of American sympathizers at the Montreal Coffee House, and there urged the sending of delegates to the next Congress. He supplied military information to Benedict Arnold, and later to Ethan Allen. In June, he agitated among the inhabitants, promising money, arms, and powder to those who would support the Americans.

Jake:
[9:54] When those Americans finally appeared in Montreal in 1775, Walker was arrested and put on a ship bound for England to stand trial for treason. Luckily for him, Americans captured the ship and set Walker free, allowing him to return to Montreal, which was now under American control. Ben Franklin and two other representatives from the Continental Congress stayed at Walker’s house while they were in town for that meeting. When the Americans eventually retreated, Walker was forced to go with them, settling back in Boston about 13 years after he had departed.

Jake:
[10:32] Contacts like Thomas Walker were a big reason why Benedict Arnold was so confident that the province of Quebec was only lightly defended, and it might be persuaded to back the American cause. In a 2016 article about the Quebec campaign for the Journal of the American Revolution, historian Ray Raphael writes, On June 13, 1775, writing from Crown Point on Lake Champlain, Benedict Arnold reported to the Continental Congress that Britain had only 550 effective men guarding all of Canada. Further, according to his intelligence, great numbers of the Canadians were determined to join us whenever we appear in the country with any force to support them. Why not take advantage of the situation before Britain could send reinforcements? If the Honorable Congress should think proper to take possession of Montreal and Quebec, I am positive 2,000 men might very easily affect it. I beg leave to add that if no person appears who will undertake to carry the plan into execution, if thought advisable, I will undertake, and with the smiles of heaven, answer for the success of it, provided I am supplied with men, etc., to carry it into execution without loss of time.

The Role of Thomas Walker

Jake:
[11:47] The Continental Congress apparently agreed with Arnold, but, much to his annoyance, Philip Schuyler gave command of the expedition to General Richard Montgomery.

Jake:
[11:57] Montgomery’s column would leave from Fort Ticonderoga in August, lay siege to the fort at St. John, take over Montreal, and finally arrive outside Quebec City at the beginning of December 1775. Then Colonel Benedict Arnold returned to Boston and lobbied the new commander-in-chief, General George Washington, to give him personal command of another invasion force and allow him to take his men east through the main wilderness to the St. Lawrence, while Montgomery took the western route up the lakes.

Jake:
[12:31] By the time Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold were planning their competing invasions of Quebec, the Canadians and New Englanders had almost 150 years of shared history, and most of it was not that friendly. Before the Massachusetts Bay Company had even settled its colony on the Chalmette Peninsula, an English captain led the first English attack on the French colony based in Quebec City. This 1629 invasion came at the tail end of a two-year Anglo-French war that was fought mostly at sea. Following the outbreak of hostilities, a company of London merchants, commissioned by King Charles I, sought to displace the French from their holdings in what was then known as Canida, to establish a profitable trade on the St. Lawrence River. An English privateer named David Kirk, along with his brothers, led an expedition that blockaded the St. Lawrence River. They captured a French supply fleet and also later a relief fleet, effectively cutting off the French settlement from resupply. Faced with impending starvation, the leader of the French fortress, by the name of Samuel de Champlain, was forced to comply with the English demands for surrender on July 19, 1629. This victory allowed the English to occupy Quebec for the next three years.

Jake:
[13:55] After that, however, the occupation came to an abrupt halt. Following the end of the war, Champlain successfully argued that the English had seized the territory illegally, since the peace treaty had already been signed. And this forced the English crown to return Quebec and other captured territories to France in 1632. in exchange for Louis XIII paying the dowry for King Charles’ French wife. Politics, man. This diplomatic resolution brought the conflict over Quebec to a close. At least for a few decades.

Jake:
[14:32] Sixty years later, France and England were once again at war, in a conflict that was known in Europe as the Nine Years’ War and in the English colonies as King William’s War, the first of six colonial wars between England and France and their respective indigenous allies. The focal point of this conflict in the colonies would be an invasion and siege of Quebec led by Sir William Phipps. We talked about Governor Phipps extensively in Episodes 123 and 146, as he rose from humble origins on the main frontier to become a knight and one of the richest people in North America, after leading an expedition to recover Spanish silver from the wreck of a treasure galleon. Upon his return to Boston in 1688, Phipps allied himself with the influential Mather family during the Boston Revolt of 1689, and was given command of a campaign against New France in 1690. After successfully sacking Port Royal, he was tasked with leading a much more ambitious expedition to Quebec, the capital at the time of New France.

Jake:
[15:39] This expedition was plagued by many issues from the start, including a lack of heavy cannons and insufficient supplies. The voyage itself was long, taking over two months, which allowed the French governor, Frontenac, to reinforce Quebec’s defenses with a superior number of troops. When Phipps’ fleet arrived in October, he was met with a defiant and since then iconic refusal to surrender from Frontenac, who famously declared, that he had no other answer but from the mouth of his cannons.

Jake:
[16:12] The subsequent military engagement was a disaster for the New Englanders. The landing party was undersupplied, outnumbered, and hampered by disease, while the naval cannons that Phipps brought along were unable to even reach the giant French fortifications on the tops of the cliffs. The attack was quickly abandoned, and the fleet, battered and running low on food, was forced to retreat as winter approached. The journey back to Boston was also catastrophic, with ships sinking, more men dying from disease and exposure, and survivors reserting to a treacherous journey by small boat. Aside from the human casualties, the financial fallout of the failed expedition led to the Massachusetts colony issuing the first paper money in North America to be able to pay its soldiers. But despite these failures, Phipps’ political ties to the Mather family and his enormous wealth led to him becoming the first royal governor of Massachusetts in 1692. An auspicious year marked by the Salem Witch Trials.

Jake:
[17:21] The conflict between France and England over control of North America was far from over. When the War of Spanish Succession reached American shores as Queen Anne’s War, another ultimately unsuccessful expedition to Quebec launched from Boston in 1711. This 1711 expedition was also a mess from the beginning. The admiral and general leading the expedition were chosen for their political connections rather than their military prowess. Extreme secrecy within the invasion fleet kept the rest of the Royal Navy from being able to properly support them. The fleet was undersupplied, causing delays as it had to be provisioned in Boston, but Boston didn’t know they were coming and didn’t have enough provisions on hand. Once the fleet eventually sailed out of Boston, it suffered for lack of experienced pilots and accurate charts for the St. Lawrence River. All these issues came to a head on August 22, 1711, when a combination of fog, strong currents, and high winds drove the fleet onto the north shore of the river. The resulting shipwreck and snafu led to the loss of seven transport ships and one storeship, and the drowning of about 850 soldiers and sailors. After this disaster, the invasion simply could not continue, but the British dream of seizing Quebec again was not yet over.

Jake:
[18:48] The final French and Indian War, known globally as the Seven Years War, would end with France giving up all their colonial claims on mainland North America, a vast territory that stretched from Hudson’s Bay in northern Canada down to Pittsburgh, and from East Texas to Montana.

Historical Context of Quebec Invasions

Jake:
[19:06] Though the war would not officially end until 1763, the Battle of the Plains of Abraham outside the gates of Quebec City sealed the fate of the French colony. A British invasion fleet commanded by General James Wolfe arrived before Quebec in June 1759 and dug in on the south, opposite shore of the St. Lawrence River in a position where they could bombard the city. For months, the British were unable to force a decisive battle against the French commander, the Marquis de Montcalm, who was content to remain behind Quebec’s formidable defenses, waiting for winter to force a British retreat. A frontal assault by the British at Montmorency Falls in July was a costly failure, forcing Wolfe to change his strategy. Facing the prospect of defeat as winter approached, Wolfe devised an audacious plan. On the night of September 12th to September 13th, 1759, his troops secretly navigated a narrow cove and silently scaled the steep cliffs of the city’s promontory, surprising the French defenders.

Jake:
[20:17] By morning on the 13th, approximately 4,500 British soldiers were drawn up in a disciplined line on the Plains of Abraham, an open field just outside the gates of the city. Montcalm, in a crucial strategic miscalculation, decided to lead his troops out of the heavily fortified city gates and engage the British in a pitched battle. The French advanced, but the disciplined British forces held their fire until the French were at close range, and then unleashed devastating volleys that broke the French line. Both Wolfe and Montcalm were mortally wounded in the short but decisive battle. The captured city would provide the British base of operations for the capture of Montreal a year later, which effectively ended the war.

Jake:
[21:07] During the campaign season of 1759, Massachusetts provided about 7,000 colonial militia to support the war against France. Many of these volunteers were used to provide garrisons for British and captured French forts. Some others formed ranger and pioneer companies that were used for reconnaissance, skirmishes, and raiding parties that harassed the French countryside and disrupted supply lines. However, at least several hundred Massachusetts militia took part in the Battle at the Plains of Abraham.

March to Quebec Begins

Jake:
[21:40] Except for the 1629 Kirk Expedition, before Boston was founded, every invasion of Quebec had been staged out of Boston with at least some component of the Massachusetts militia taking part. So you can see why the Quebecois were not exactly predisposed to trust a bunch of heavily armed, English-speaking Massachusetts soldiers who arrived on their doorstep in the fall of 1775, after marching out of Boston. And when I say they marched out of Boston, that’s technically true, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.

Jake:
[22:15] Arnold’s plan called for a strike force to sail up the coast to the mouth of the Kennebec River in Maine. There, they’d transfer the troops and supplies into smaller wooden boats that the men would then drag up the Kennebec River to its source on the Canadian frontier, across to the Chaudier River, and then down its wild whitewater into Quebec. As I’ve probably mentioned in every episode regarding the revolution in Boston, the British Navy had uncontested control over Boston Harbor. With just a few small privateer vessels and no navy, the Continentals couldn’t threaten British control of the harbor. At least not until Henry Knox and his cannons got here. If Boston Harbor was full of heavily armed warships, that wasn’t going to be a good place to load a bunch of Continentals and sail up to Maine. Instead, Arnold’s volunteers would march from the camp in Cambridge up to Newburyport. Newburyport was considered a safe harbor for the Patriots, far enough away from Boston to make it difficult for the British to enter. And Cape Ann was between Newburyport and Boston, too, and Marblehead served as a haven for the most successful American privateers, while Gloucester had successfully fought off an attack by the British ship HMS Falcon in early August.

Jake:
[23:34] Private Caleb Haskell was among the first Americans to begin the march. Colonel Arnold asked for volunteers for his expedition to Quebec and got so many responses that he was able to handpick the 750 soldiers who he then organized into two new battalions.

Jake:
[23:51] Private Haskell volunteered for the expedition on September 10, 1775. Got selected, and ended up transferring into a new company under a Captain Ward. The very next day, he started the walk to Newburyport, overnighting at Lynn and Beverly along the way.

Jake:
[24:09] Haskell was originally from Newburyport, so the days he spent waiting for the entire party to get organized and ready to ship out must have been a nice respite for him. The last troops left Cambridge on September 13th, followed by Arnold himself on the 15th, and they were all finally ready to set sail for Maine on September 19th. A 3rd Battalion of 250 men was placed under the command of Captain Daniel Morgan of Virginia. This regiment was made up of frontier riflemen from the Western Mountains, including Morgan’s Rifles, a company recruited from Morgan’s neighbors in the vicinity of Winchester, Virginia. The other two companies were from Pennsylvania, with Matthew Smith’s company coming from the Lancaster area and William Hendricks’ company coming from Carlisle. In the last episode, I described the remarkable beeline march that some of these riflemen undertook, covering 23 miles a day in their race from the Virginia frontier to be the first to join the lines in Cambridge. Now let’s hear how enthusiasm for their arrival was building in Boston, drummed up by their favorite cheerleader, John Adams.

Arrival of the Riflemen

Jake:
[25:17] This segment originally aired as part of episode 256 in August of 2022.

Jake of the Past:
[25:26] As part of the act creating the New Continental Army, Congress passed a resolution on June 14th ordering that six companies of expert riflemen be immediately raised in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia. That each company consists of a captain, three lieutenants, four sergeants, four corporals, a drummer or trumpeter, and 68 privates. That each company, as soon as completed, march and join the army near Boston. To be there employed as light infantry, under the command of the chief officer in that army. In this letter to Abigail, John Adams also reported on these ten companies of riflemen who would soon be marching to Boston. These would be the first troops from outside New England to join the fight, immediately embodying the other colonies’ willingness to finally help Massachusetts in a real and meaningful way.

Jake of the Past:
[26:22] Along with their symbolic value, they also brought specialized weapons and tactics, and a fearsome reputation. Adams wrote, They have voted ten companies of riflemen to be sent from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia to join the Army before Boston. These are an excellent species of light infantry. They use a particular kind of, and here the manuscript is torn, but the word is probably musket or maybe firelock. called a rifle. It has circular grooves within the barrel and carries a ball with great exactness to great distances. They are the most accurate marksmen in the world. He echoed this enthusiasm for the rifleman’s martial prowess in a letter to Elbridge Gerry the next day, saying, The Congress has likewise resolved that 15,000 men shall be supported at the expense of the continent, 10,000 at Massachusetts, and 5,000 at New York, and that 10 companies of riflemen be sent immediately, 6 from Pennsylvania, 2 from Maryland, and 2 from Virginia, consisting of 68 privates in each company to join our army at Boston. These are said to be all exquisite marksmen, and by means of the excellence of their firelocks, as well as their skill in the use of them, to send sure destruction to great distances.

Jake of the Past:
[27:48] Now, both John Adams’ letter to Abigail and the Congressional Resolution ordering the riflemen to Boston refer to these ten companies as light infantry. This term doesn’t refer to how big the riflemen were or how heavy their equipment was. Instead, it refers to their tactics. In the 18th century, most encounters between armies were planned as set-piece battles. Companies of regular infantry would march in close formation, form into ranks shoulder-to-shoulder facing the enemy, and fire massed musket volleys into the opposing lines before charging in with bayonets to finish the job. Light infantry, on the other hand, focused on maneuver warfare. Rather than closing ranks and slowly advancing on the enemy with overwhelming force, light infantry would disperse into loosely organized lines, use terrain features for cover, and move quickly across the landscape. You can think of them almost as the ranger battalions of their day, perfect for long-range patrols, scouting, and small-unit skirmishing tactics to establish and maintain contact with the enemy. These riflemen were also considered expert marksmen and employed as snipers. The peculiar kind of weapon they carried, as John Adams put it, gave them an advantage over soldiers armed with the more typical smoothbore muskets of the era.

Jake of the Past:
[29:15] Writing for the Journal of the American Revolution, Joshua Shepard explains that the rifle, with its long-grooved barrel, was almost unheard of among the troops who were already surrounding Boston. A rarity in New England, the rifle was far more prevalent in the backcountry of the southern colonies, largely due to the gunsmiths of Pennsylvania and Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. While most continental regiments, as well as militia units, were armed with smoothbore muskets, the frontier newcomers came equipped with state-of-the-art 18th century arms technology. The muskets carried by both provincial militia and British regulars during the Siege of Boston tended to be a fairly heavy caliber. They were quick enough to load that a trained soldier could fire two or three aimed shots in a minute, and they were easy to attach a bayonet to for hand-to-hand combat. The trade-off was accuracy. With their smooth barrel and loosely fitted ammunition, musket shots left the muzzle inaccurately, and even the best marksmen would have a hard time hitting the same spot twice.

Jake of the Past:
[30:24] Rifles, on the other hand, tended to fire smaller caliber rounds. They were very slow to load, quick to require cleaning, and required special training to handle. At this point in the war, rifles mostly couldn’t be fitted with a bayonet, though a new type of bayonet would be specially developed for them later. The grooves cut into the rifle’s barrel made it worth all these trade-offs, however. her. These grooves were cut or forged on the inside walls of the barrel in a sort of helical pattern. When it was rammed home, the musket ball fit tightly into these grooves, and when the gun was fired, the ball left the muzzle spinning in a tight spiral. The difference was night and day. Imagine what it looks like when a toddler throws a football, and then compare that to Tom Brady. There was about that much difference in accuracy, also. A well-trained soldier might be able to hit a man-sized target with a musket at 100 yards, at least most of the time. The rifle was a game-changer in this regard.

Jake of the Past:
[31:35] George Hanger was a hunter and a gun enthusiast, call him a gun nut, who wrote a book about hunting. He was also a British colonel who served mostly in the southern theater of the American War, and he had personal experience with facing American riflemen armed with these impressive new weapons. He wrote, I have often asked American riflemen what was the most they thought they could do with their rifle. They have replied that they thought they were generally sure of splitting a man’s head at 200 yards, for so they termed their hitting the head. I have also asked several whether they could hit a man at 400 yards. They have replied certainly, or at least shoot very near him, by only aiming at the top of his head. I never in my life saw better rifles, or men who shot better, than those made in America. They’re chiefly made in Lancaster, and two or three neighboring towns in that vicinity in Pennsylvania. The barrels weigh about 6 pounds, 2 or 3 ounces, and carry a ball no larger than 36 to a pound. At least I never saw one of a larger caliber, and I have seen many hundreds and hundreds. I’m not going to relate anything respecting the American war, but to mention one instance is a proof of the most excellent skill of an American rifleman. If any man show me an instance of better shooting, I will stand corrected.

Jake of the Past:
[33:01] “‘Colonel, now General Tarleton, and myself were standing a few yards out of a wood, “‘observing the situation of a part of the enemy which we intended to attack.’.

Jake of the Past:
[33:12] There was a rivulet in the enemy’s front, and a mill on it, to which we stood directly with our horse’s heads fronting, observing their motions. It was an absolute plain field between us and the mill, not so much as a single bush on it. Our orderly bugle stood behind us about three yards, but with his horse’s side to our horse’s tails. A rifleman passed over the mill dam, evidently observing two officers, and laid himself down on his belly, for in such positions they always lie to take a good shot at a long distance. He took a deliberate and cool shot at my friend, at me, and the buglehorn man. A rifle ball passed between him and me. Looking directly to the mill, I evidently observed the flash of the powder. I directly said to my friend, I think we’d better move, or we shall have two or three of these gentlemen shortly amusing themselves at our expense. The words were hardly out of my mouth when the bugle horn man behind us, and directly central, jumped off his horse and said, Sir, my horse is shot. The horse staggered, fell down, and died. He was shot directly behind the foreleg, near to the heart.

Jake of the Past:
[34:31] Just the knowledge that not only were reinforcements coming from the other colonies, but they were sending these elite marksmen with their advanced weapons, was an immediate morale boost among the Massachusetts and New England soldiers in the camps in Cambridge and Roxbury. In an article for the Mass Historical Society’s Beehive blog, Thomas A. Ryder said, In the early stages of the Revolutionary War, no soldiers recruited in the American colonies generated a greater anticipation than the frontier riflemen. Armed with the Pennsylvania Rifle, a weapon that in the hands of a skilled marksman was far more accurate than the smoothbore muskets most 18th century soldiers carried, and skilled in the Native American way of war, the riflemen seemed to promise a valuable augmentation to George Washington’s nascent army besieging Boston. It is not an exaggeration to suggest that even before the Continental Congress authorized the creation of rifle companies from the Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia back countries, that these soldiers took on a mythological status.

Jake of the Past:
[35:34] As Ryder points out, part of the rifleman’s mystique came from their reputation as frontiersmen from the fringes of European society. So it’s important to point out that the frontier was a lot closer to home in 1775 than we usually imagine it. When most of us think of the frontier, we envision the rapid westward expansion of the mid to late 19th century. We might have a mental image of the frontier as the rocky mountains, the high plains, or perhaps a red rock desert.

Jake of the Past:
[36:04] Twenty years before the Revolution, at the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War, or French and Indian War, the frontier started at Cumberland, Maryland, which is only about a two-hour drive from Washington, D.C. today. In Pennsylvania, what we now know as Pittsburgh was part of New France. And down in Virginia, the western border was hotly contested between the colonial government at Williamsburg and the French, Shawnee, and Iroquois nations. The end of the Seven Years’ War saw the French cede all territorial claims in North America, and the frontier moved west.

Jake of the Past:
[36:44] However, a royal proclamation in 1763 forbade English colonists from settling to the west of a line that was drawn roughly down the Allegheny Front. Everything to the west of Pittsburgh became part of the new British colony of Quebec. And between Pittsburgh and the proclamation line that was now a three-hour drive from D.C., an Indian reserve was set aside for the Iroquois, the Wyandotte, and the other indigenous nations that had been allied with Britain against France in the late war. The backwoodsmen, or frontiersmen, who volunteered for the rifle companies were mostly from families that had settled in the newly opened lands between the former frontier and the new proclamation line. No doubt some were line jumpers who had illegally settled on indigenous lands west of the line. And some, of course, were from the original territories of the three colonies they enlisted from.

Jake of the Past:
[37:41] As the first units began to make the grueling march from the Mid-Atlantic to New England in the full heat of summer, John Adams gushed to James Warren on a July 6th letter, Ten companies of expert riflemen have been ordered already from the three colonies of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. Some of them have marched under excellent officers. We are told by gentlemen here that these riflemen are men of property and family, some of them of independent fortunes, who go from the purest motives of patriotism and benevolence into this service. I hope they will have justice done them and respect shown them by our people of every rank and order. I hope also that our people will learn from them the use of that excellent weapon, a rifle-barreled gun.

Jake of the Past:
[38:30] While everyone who knew that the Riflemen were coming was excited for the prospect, few people did as much as John Adams to bolster their reputation and set high expectations for them. He was their most enthusiastic supporter, and he corresponded with so many people back home in the Boston area that his enthusiasm soon became contagious.

Jake of the Past:
[38:50] In his article for the Journal of the American Revolution, Joshua Shepard noted, When the Riflemen began arriving around Boston by the end of July, they achieved something of a celebrity status. They were the first troops from outside New England to reinforce the Continental Army, and their appearance constituted a much-needed show of tangible support from the southern colonies.

Jake of the Past:
[39:13] James Thatcher, a medical doctor from Barnstable who served throughout the war as a surgeon in the Massachusetts 16th Regiment, kept a journal of his military service. In his entry for August 1775, he recalls the arrival of the riflemen a few weeks earlier. Several companies of riflemen, amounting, it is said, to more than 1,400 men, have arrived here from Pennsylvania and Maryland, a distance of from 500 to 700 miles. They are remarkably stout and hardy men, many of them exceeding six feet in height. They are dressed in white frocks or rifle shirts and round hats. These men are remarkable for the accuracy of their aim, striking a mark with great certainty at 200 yards distance. At a review, a company of them, while on a quick advance, fire their balls into objects of 7 inches diameter at the distance of 250 yards. They are now stationed on our lines, and their shot have frequently proved fatal to British officers and soldiers who expose themselves to view, even at more than double the distance of common musket shot.

Mixed Performance of the Riflemen

Jake of the Past:
[40:26] Despite the high expectations set by John Adams and others, the initial performance of the riflemen was mixed at best. As the first summer of war dragged on, there were a series of small engagements along the siege lines. At the end of July, just a few days after the first rifle companies arrived, a company from York County was ordered into action. Ironically, from the record I’m looking at, I can’t be sure whether these were Pennsylvania or Virginia troops. because there were York counties in both colonies. On the evening of July 28th, the riflemen were ordered to sneak into British-held Charlestown, surround the enemy’s advanced guard, and take some prisoners who could be interrogated about recent changes to the British fortifications on Boston Neck. According to a letter from an officer at the American camp in Cambridge, the rifle company divided and executed their plan in the following manner. Captain Dottle, with 39 men, filed off to the right of Bunker’s Hill, and creeping on their hands and knees, got into the rear of the enemy’s sentries without being discovered. The other division, of 40 men under Lieutenant Miller, were equally successful in getting behind the sentries on the left, and were within a few yards of joining the division on the right, when a party of regulars came down the hill to relieve their guard, and crossed our riflemen under Captain Dottle, as they were lying on the ground in Indian file.

Jake of the Past:
[41:54] The regulars were within 20 yards of our riflemen before they saw them, and immediately fired. The riflemen returned the salute, killed several, and brought off two prisoners in their muskets, with the loss of Corporal Krause, who was supposed to be killed, as he has not been heard of since the affair.

Jake of the Past:
[42:14] So the riflemen almost managed to sneak up on the redcoats and get the drop on them without being detected. But not quite.

Jake of the Past:
[42:25] About a month later, a detachment of a thousand Continentals were ordered to press the lines forward and take a small piece of high ground called Plowed Hill on August 26th. A few hundred riflemen were sent into action as a flanking party, but they were again largely ineffective, though this doesn’t seem to have dampened their fearsome reputation among the New England units. Perhaps because they were not expected to act as regular line troops in combat, the riflemen quickly got it into their heads that they also didn’t need to undertake regular non-combat duties. They managed to get themselves excused from most of the day-to-day chores that keep an army occupied, especially fatigue duty, meaning the exhausting work of cutting firewood, digging trenches, and standing guard overnight. In a letter to a friend dated September 13th, Jesse Lukens, a gentleman volunteer in a Pennsylvania rifle company who J.L. Bell notes was the son of the Pennsylvania Surveyor General, described the effect this special treatment had on the attitudes of soldiers serving with him under Colonel William Thompson. Our camp is separate from all others, about a hundred yards. All our courts, marshal, and duty was separate. We were excused from all working parties, camp guards, and camp duty. This indulgence, together with the remissness of discipline and care in our young officers, had rendered the men rather insolent for good soldiers.

Jake of the Past:
[43:55] The reality of dealing with these insolent riflemen quickly eroded the high regard that they had built up thanks to John Adams’ enthusiasm. In a letter to Adams about the state of the siege, James Warren complained, All seems to be in a tranquil state for a war. The greatest difficulty seems to be to govern our own soldiery. I may say the riflemen only, for I hear of no other. They are the most disorderly part of the army, if not alone so.

Jake of the Past:
[44:26] In his book, The War Before Independence, 1775-1776, Derek W. Beck pulls no punches when discussing the insubordination that was bred by the special treatment these units received.

Jake of the Past:
[44:41] The accuracy of the rifle also gave its wielder an air of cockiness. The riflemen’s egos were further intensified by their exclusion from fatigue or work details, such as entrenching, a policy thought necessary to curry the favor and loyalty of these otherwise independent-minded backwoodsmen. True, on the occasional skirmishes along the Boston lines, riflemen came in handy, accurately picking off handfuls of British troops from afar. But their privileged place in the army quickly made them insolent troublemakers, wholly unsuited for the disciplined army that Washington was forging. As a battalion of troublemakers, these riflemen also quickly became intolerant of discipline. If it wasn’t bad enough that they were caught disobeying orders, drinking, and being absent from camp without permission, they also began interfering with attempts by their officers to punish the men who committed these infractions.

The Rifleman’s Mutiny

Jake of the Past:
[45:40] Rifleman Lukens goes on to describe the pattern of escalating insubordination that his unit indulged in during the first week of September 1775. They, meaning his company, had twice before broke open our guardhouse and released their companions who were confined there for small crimes. And once, when an offender was brought to the post to be whipped, it was with the utmost difficulty they were kept from rescuing him in the presence of all their officers. They openly damned them, meaning the officers, and behaved with great insolence. However, the colonel was pleased to pardon the man, and all remained quiet.

Jake of the Past:
[46:22] That quiet wouldn’t last for long. After a popular sergeant was confined to the company guardhouse, rumors spread that the men of the company were again planning a jailbreak. General Nathaniel Green shared his concerns and preparations with George Washington in a note on September 10th. The riflers seem very sulky, and I am informed threaten to rescue their mates tonight, But little is to be feared from them as the regiment are already at a moment’s warning to turn out. And the guards, very strong.

Jake of the Past:
[46:57] Rifleman Jesse Lukin’s September 13th letter goes on to describe the long stretches of boredom, punctuated by sudden action, that soldiers throughout history have experienced. He started with an account of the brief battle for Plowed Hill on August 26th, but noted that not much had happened since then, except, A few false alarms which took us out of our beds into the trenches at midnight, and some other matters of no great moment, until last Sunday, and I feel myself blush with shame and indignation for what I am forced to relate. Last Sunday, for Lukens, was September 10th, the same day that General Green warned Washington about another potential jailbreak by the riflemen. Lukens continues, On Sunday last, the adjutant having confined a sergeant for neglect of duty and murmuring, the men began again and threatened to take him out. The adjutant, being a man of spirit, seized the principal mutineer and put him in also, and coming to report the matter to the colonel, where we were all sitting after dinner, were alarmed with the huzzahing. Upon going out, found that they had broke open the guardhouse and taken the man out. In an article about this incident, J.L. Bell notes that the adjutant was Lieutenant David Ziegler, born in Heidelberg, one of a number of German immigrants or sons of immigrants in the battalion’s officer corps.

Jake of the Past:
[48:27] The colonel and lieutenant colonel, with several of the officers and friends, seized the fellow from amongst them and ordered a guard to take him to Cambridge at the main guard, which was done without any violent opposition. But in about 20 minutes, 32 of Captain Ross’s company with their loaded rifles swore by God they would go to the main guard and release the man or lose their lives, and set off as hard as they could run. It was in vain to attempt stopping them. We stayed in camp and kept the others quiet, sent word to General Washington.

Jake of the Past:
[49:04] Pausing for a moment to interpret, after the privates broke their popular sergeant out of the Huskow, the senior officers of the Pennsylvania Battalion took custody of him again. In an attempt to keep the men from making another rescue, they sent the prisoner to the main guardhouse at the Continental Camp near Harvard Square, rather than trying to keep him locked up in their regimental camp on Prospect Hill. It didn’t take long, however, before the soldiers armed themselves and went in pursuit of the sergeant. This was the event that General Green had warned about, and Lucan’s letter described how Green, along with the rest of the senior generals of the Continental Army, personally responded to the mutiny. Generals Washington, Lee, and Green came immediately. Our 32 mutineers, who had gone about a half a mile towards Cambridge and taken possession of a hill and woods, beginning to be frighted at their proceedings, were not so hardened but upon the generals, meaning Washingtons, ordering them to ground their arms, they did it immediately.

Jake of the Past:
[50:08] In The War Before Independence, Derek W. Beck describes how the mutineers were quickly placed in custody. This was the army’s first mutiny, and Washington, not to be bullied, was determined to teach these men the consequences of such insubordination. His Excellency ordered the main guards surrounded by some 500 troops, bayonets fixed, guns loaded. He also issued orders to Colonel Daniel Hitchcock’s regiment and several other companies of Brigadier General Nathaniel Green’s brigade, all near Prospect Hill, to cut off the mutineers and subdue them with force if necessary. Washington and General Lee, joining Green, then rode out toward Prospect Hill to intercept the mutineers personally. As if to restore some honor to the Wayward Rifle Battalion, Captain George Nagel’s company of the same Pennsylvania Rifle Battalion then surrounded the mutineers. They arrested the six principal actors, binding the two ringleaders, and then marched all six off to the main guard to join their companion. The rest were sent back to their camp for discipline there.

Jake of the Past:
[51:20] Lukens, the gentleman volunteer, was dismayed by the stain this event placed on his unit’s honor. and embarrassed that as the first troops to arrive from the southern colonies, they let their fellow southerner, General Washington, down. I was glad to find our men were all true and ready to do their duty, except these 32 rascals. 26 were conveyed to the quarter guard on Prospect Hill and six of the principals to the main guard. You cannot conceive what disgrace we are all in and how much the general is chagrined that only one regiment should come from the southward, and that sets so infamous an example. In his article about the mutiny for the Journal of the American Revolution, Joshua Shepard writes, News of the mutiny spread fast. Benjamin Crafts, a lieutenant in Mansfield’s Massachusetts regiment, recorded in his diary on the evening of September 11th that a number of riflemen have been confined from mutiny. And some of them sent to the main guard in irons.

Jake of the Past:
[52:26] Not surprisingly, one of the Pennsylvania riflemen had a different perspective on the day’s events. Aaron Wright cast blame for the trouble on Ziegler, writing that there had been “…a great commotion on Prospect Hill among the riflemen, caused by the unreasonable confinement of a sergeant by the adjutant of Thompson’s regiment.”.

Jake of the Past:
[52:50] George Washington had to move fast to quell the discontent and stay ahead of the rumors and complaints that were already spreading like wildfire. His general orders for the Continental Army for September 11th, the morning after the mutiny, immediately put an end to the special treatment his fellow Southerners had gotten used to, and it set the stage for a court-martial for the mutineers. Colonel Thompson’s battalion of riflemen posted upon Prospect Hill to take their share of all duty, of guard and fatigue, with the brigade they encamp with. A general court-martialed to sit as soon as possible to try the men of that regiment who are now prisoners in the main guard and at Prospect Hill, and accused of mutiny. The riflemen posted at Roxbury and toward Lechmere’s Point are to do duty with the brigade they are posted with.

Jake of the Past:
[53:43] James Warren, who’d heard so much advanced praise from John Adams in the weeks leading up to the rifleman’s arrival in Boston, now wrote back to Adams on September 11th and burst the congressman’s bubble. I have not been at headquarters since Saturday, but I’m told that for some crime, one of the riflemen was ordered under guard. An attempt was made by a number to rescue him, upon which they were also ordered to be put under guard. Upon which a whole company undertook to rescue them, and the general was obliged to call sought a large detachment from the Rhode Island troops to apprehend them, who, though prepared for resistance, thought proper to submit, and the ringleaders are now in custody. I believe you will choose to make examples of them. I should, were I in his place.

Jake of the Past:
[54:33] Ironically, General Washington was still dealing with the backlog of courts-martial left over from the Battle of Bunker Hill way back in June. So many accusations and counter-accusations of cowardice and dereliction of duty emerged from the confusion and chaos of that bloody battle that Washington had plenty of chances to make examples of both soldiers and officers. The General’s orders from September 13th record that he took a different approach than the court-martial that was held for the riflemen the preceding day.

Jake of the Past:
[55:04] The 33 riflemen of Colonel Thompson’s battalion, tried yesterday by a general court-martial, whereof Colonel Nixon was president, for disobedient and mutinous behavior, are each of them sentenced to pay the sum of 20 shillings, except John Lehman, who, over and above his fine, is to suffer six days’ imprisonment. The paymaster of the regiment to stop the fine from each man out of their next month’s pay, which must be paid to Dr. Church for use of the general hospital. Dr. Church was Bostonian Benjamin Church, who was acting as the first Surgeon General of the Continental Army. Ironically, this was just weeks before Church’s secret correspondence with a British officer came to light, marking Church as the first known turncoat of the war. Perhaps if Washington had known then, he would have used the rifleman’s fines for something else.

Jake of the Past:
[55:58] Was the sentence of 20 shillings to repay church for hospital costs an effective deterrent to future indiscretions? In the war before independence, Derek W. Beck called it a slap on the wrist, but Rifleman Lucan seemed optimistic that the shame of being publicly branded mutineers, along with the increased discipline imposed by taking a full share of fatigue duty, would inspire his comrades-in-arms to behave better. In order that idleness shall not be a further bane to us, the general orders on Monday were that Colonel Thompson’s regiment shall be upon all parties of fatigue and do all other camp duty equal with any other regiment. The men have since been tried by a general court-martial and convicted of mutiny and were only fined 20 shillings each for the use of the hospital. Too small a punishment for so base a crime, and mitigated no doubt on account of their having come so far to serve the cause, and its being their first crime.

Jake of the Past:
[57:00] The men are returned to their camp, seem exceedingly sorrowful for their misbehavior and promise amendment. This will, I hope, awaken the attention of our officers to their duty, for to their remissness I charge our whole disgrace. And the men being employed will yet no doubt do honor to their province, for this much I can say of them, that upon every alarm it was impossible for men to behave with more readiness or attend better to their duty. It is in the camp only that we cut a poor figure. Tomorrow morning, or sometime in the day, may perhaps restore our honor if we behave in the day of battle as well as I hope we shall.

Consequences of the Mutiny

Jake of the Past:
[57:42] A few days before the mutiny, General Washington, on September 5th, had ordered one company of riflemen from Virginia and two from Pennsylvania to prepare to join Benedict Arnold’s overland expedition to Quebec.

Jake of the Past:
[57:56] According to Derek Beck, the disgrace resulting from the rifleman’s mutiny may have cost their company the opportunity of participating in this campaign. Days before this incident, Washington assigned two of Colonel Thompson’s rifle companies to Benedict Arnold’s expedition into Canada. It’s unknown whether Captain Ross’s mutinous company was intended to be among them, but if so, it was stripped of that honor. Instead, the two companies of Captains William Hendricks and Matthew Smith were given the responsibility of restoring glory to the battalion, and so assigned to Arnold’s great expedition.

Jake of the Past:
[58:34] Doubtless, some in the camp were eager to see fewer riflemen around after this incident. Of course, if the riflemen had known that Arnold’s campaign would result in extreme starvation casualties, they might just have been glad to be excluded from the opportunity. Nonetheless, their reputation was more or nonetheless permanently tarnished. In a sign that the bloom was off the rose, George Washington griped about the performance of the rifleman in a letter to his brother Samuel on September 30th, saying, The riflemen have had very little opportunity of showing their skill, or their ignorance, for some of them, especially from Pennsylvania, know no more of a rifle than my horse, being new imported Irish, many of whom have deserted to the enemy. That’s a far cry from their reputation as the most accurate marksman in the world, the greater than when they first arrived in the camp at Cambridge, just two months before.

Jake of the Past:
[59:33] As the Rifleman’s first and most enthusiastic booster, John Adams certainly got an earful in the weeks following the mutiny. On October 24th, John Thomas wrote to him, complaining, There is in this camp from the southward a number called Rifleman, who are as indifferent men as I ever served with. They’re privates, mutinous and often deserting to the enemy, unwilling for duty of any kind, exceedingly vicious. And I think the army here would be as well without as with them.

Jake of the Past:
[1:00:08] General William Heath, who first organized the siege of Boston before Artemis Ward took over, sent his own complaint to Adams on October 23rd, largely blaming the Irish and German emigrants and the rifle companies for their trouble. The riflemen, so much boasted of by many before their arrival, have been guilty of as many disorders as any corps in camp, and there has been more desertions to the enemy from them than from the whole army besides. Perhaps double. But these were foreigners, and there is in that corps as faithful and brave officers and soldiers as any other. It would be ungenerous to characterize the troops of any colony from the conduct of a few scoundrels. For his part, General Artemis Ward was even less generous than Heath in his own letter to Adams on October 30th.

Jake of the Past:
[1:00:59] They do not boast so much of the riflemen as heretofore. General Washington has said that he wished they had never come. General Lee has damned them and wished them all in Boston. General Gates has said, If any capital movement was about to be made, the riflemen must be moved from this camp. Billy Tudor, the father of Ice King Frederick Tudor, legal protege of John Adams, and subject of our episode 131, was by this time the judge-advocate of the Continental Army. He was not impressed with the riflemen’s performance in battle. In a letter to his mentor Adams, written in December 1775, just after one of many skirmishes around Leechmere’s Point in Cambridge, Tudor says that the riflemen just aren’t worth the trouble. The pompous display of riflemen’s courage, which fill half the papers of the southward, is ridiculous. The affair at Leechmere’s Point hardly deserved mentioning, and when read by Hal’s officers, will make them laugh, at least. I will not by letter make any other observation on the subject.

Jake of the Past:
[1:02:11] The Pennsylvania Riflemen would have a chance to redeem themselves. Later organized as the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment of the Continental Line, they fought with honor through the New York and New Jersey campaign, and later in the Philadelphia campaign. Their mutiny at Prospect Hill was the first the Continental Army faced, but not the last. Later in the war, when morale among the troops ran as low as their stocks of food and ammunition, there were three major mutinies. First, the Connecticut line staged a short-lived rebellion in May 1780 when they were forced to go hungry. Then the Pennsylvania line staged a much larger rebellion starting on New Year’s Day 1781. In that uprising, nearly the entire military of the state marched out of camp without orders, intending to go to Philadelphia to demand the food, supplies, and pay that they’d been promised, eventually forcing their officers to negotiate a peaceful settlement. The mutiny of the Pennsylvania line inspired a similar mutiny among the New Jersey line less than a month later, with several hundred troops starting on a march to Trenton to demand supplies. This time, two of the ringleaders were summarily executed by firing squad, bringing an end to the short-lived mutiny. Washington’s officers had come a long way from the slap on the wrist they gave for the Prospect Hill mutiny.

Jake:
[1:03:37] So you can perhaps see why Washington was happy to get rid of at least some of these troublesome riflemen. Three companies of riflemen, Daniel Morgan’s company from Virginia, Pennsylvania companies under Matthew Smith and William Hendricks were ordered to join the invasion of Quebec under Benedict Arnold. When the volunteers for Quebec started leaving the continental camp the day after the riflemen’s mutiny, the rebellious companies were not among them. As Derek Beck pointed out, some of the mutineers might have been intended for the expedition to Quebec, but they were punished by not being allowed to leave the camp at Cambridge. When details of the expedition got back to them, they were probably relieved to have received this punishment. The Quebec volunteers marched from Cambridge to Newburyport, then sailed from there up the coast to Maine, and then up the Kennebec River as far as Fort Western, which was a frontier fort at the site of today’s Augusta that had been built during the Seven Years’ War. From there, the plan was for Arnold’s 1,100 troops to row or tow flat-bottomed boats up the river to its headwaters, portage them over the mountains, and then ride them down the whitewater rapids on the Canadian side to the St. Lawrence Valley. Based on the maps and intelligence they had, they expected to cover 180 miles in 20 days.

The Journey to Quebec

Jake:
[1:05:00] The expedition moved north on September 25th, six days after setting sail from the main coast.

Jake:
[1:05:07] Again, things went wrong almost from the beginning. They had trouble obtaining enough food and supplies to outfit them for a challenging journey. Their new boats, which had been shoddily built of green wood, started leaking. Just a week into the trip, October settled over the expedition like a cold blanket. The troops were constantly wet and shivering from rustling heavy boats up a river, and the leaky boats soaked their spare clothing and ruined much of their limited stock of food.

Jake:
[1:05:38] By the end of October, the party was weeks behind schedule, and the letters they had sent back to Boston asking for help had been intercepted by the British, so Quebec knew they were coming. After several more boats capsized and ruined the rest of their food, some men turned back to Boston, and some were left for dead in the main forest. By the time the 600 or so survivors reached the headwaters of the Kennebec, they had realized that their maps were wrong, and the 180-mile journey that they had expected would be more like 350 miles. Caleb Haskell, the volunteer militiaman from Newburyport, kept his diary up to date daily during these tribulations. Just to give you a sense of the suffering among the expedition, I’ll read two entries from this point in the journey.

Jake:
[1:06:28] October 31st, Tuesday At Shawdeir River, a great number of our men, being much beat out with hunger and fatigue, were not able to keep up with the main body. It was thought best to leave them behind to the mercy of the woods, and to get along as best they could. At sunrise, we set out, leaving five of our company behind. We had rough walking, over rough mountains and through almost impregnable swamps. Traveled fifteen miles, and then we encamped. There is scarcely anyone who has any more than one day’s provision, and that small. And a great number, none at all.

Jake:
[1:07:09] November 1st. Wednesday. Set out, weak and faint, having nothing at all to eat, and the ground covered with snow, traveled 15 miles and encamped, ate part of the hindquarter of a dog for supper. We are in a pitiful condition. They still had to navigate down the whitewater rivers north of the mountains, but at least the Quebecois they began encountering seemed fairly neutral, and they didn’t harass the invaders. By the time Arnold and about 550 Continentals reached the gates of Quebec on November 14, 1775, which was 50 days into the journey they expected to take 20 days, they were starving, they had no artillery, and they were down to about five rounds of ammunition per person. Nevertheless, Arnold sent a messenger with a white flag to demand the surrender of the city, which was only defended by about 150 regular troops.

Jake:
[1:08:11] This small garrison of British soldiers were behind the impregnable walls of the most heavily fortified city in North America. They were backed up by Royal Marines from two warships in the harbor, and the city’s francophonic population rallied to its defense. The British had conquered the French city less than two decades before, and the American invasion was the catalyst that the locals needed to get over their suspicion of the occupying Englishmen and work alongside them, augmenting the British regulars with about 500 local militia. French militia and British regulars alike could see that the skeletal Americans were almost too weak to hold their muskets, much less to scale the walls and subdue a hostile population. They declined to surrender, and Arnold’s party was forced to retreat out of sight of Quebec and to wait for General Montgomery’s superior force to arrive from Montreal. When Montgomery got there, the combined forces laid siege to Quebec and staged an all-out assault on the city on New Year’s Eve 1775, just hours before most of the men’s enlistments were set to expire. General Montgomery and about 85 other Americans were killed, Daniel Morgan and about 400 Americans, mostly riflemen, were taken prisoner,

The Siege of Quebec

Jake:
[1:09:30] and Benedict Arnold and many others were wounded. The city of Quebec remained undefeated.

Jake:
[1:09:39] To learn more about Benedict Arnold’s disastrous expedition to Quebec and the Rifleman’s Mutiny at Prospect Hill, check out this week’s show notes at hubhistory.com slash 335. I’ll have links to the diaries of Caleb Haskell and James Melvin, who survived the assault on Quebec City, as well as the Journal of the American Revolution articles I quoted from Gene Prochnow and Ray Raphael. Raphael. I’ll also include photos that I took of Thomas Walker’s portrait of the Chateau Ramsey and of the barricade in Quebec where the Quebecois drove back Arnold’s New Year’s Eve assault.

Conclusion and Resources

Jake:
[1:10:15] I’ll also include all the resources from our past episode on the Rifleman’s Mutiny, including letters to and from John Adams, the hunting advice of British Colonel George Hanger, and a letter from Rifleman Jesse Lukens, along with a few acts of Congress and general orders from George Washington. I’ll also link to yet another article in the Journal of the American Revolution, this one by Joshua Shepard, that really helped me frame that part of the story.

Jake:
[1:10:45] If you’d like to get in touch with us, you can email podcast at hubhistory.com. I maintain profiles for Hub History on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and you can find me over on Mastodon as at hubhistory at better.boston. But the only social media site where I spend meaningful time these days is Blue Sky, where you can find me as hubhistory.com. If you’ve kicked the social media habit, just go to hubhistory.com and click on the Contact Us link. If you’ve managed to kick the social media habit, just go to hubhistory.com and click on the Contact Us link. While you’re on the site, hit the subscribe link, and be sure that you never miss an episode. If you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, please consider writing us a brief review. If you do, drop me a line, and I’ll send you a Hub History sticker as a token of appreciation. That’s all for now. Stay safe out there, listeners.