Calendar
|
|
June 6th - Board Meeting and Sign Dedication in Eustis. The Board Meeting is scheduled for 10:00am until noon in the Flagstaff Memorial Chapel and the dedication for the Hometown Heritage sign dedication will follow at Cathedral Pines Campground. Both the Chapel and Campground are on Rt. 27. The first QR code below the calendar listings show the location of the Flagstaff Chapel and the second code is for Cathedral Pines.
|
|
June 14th - Rob Stevens presentation on the Benedict Arnold Expedition & Building a Bateau - 4:00pm-6:00pm Bristol Congregational Church, 1261 Bristol Road, Bristol, Maine
|
|
June 18th - 23rd - Pittston Fairgrounds display, 995 East Pittston Road, Pittston, ME 04345.
|
|
July 25th - Sara Donovan's presentation, Sanford-Springvale Historical Society, in the afternoon. Details available from info@sanfordhistory.org
|
|
September 19 th - Annual General Membership Meeting, Colburn House, 10 a.m.
|
|
October - Trail Clearing, West side of The Great Carrying Place. (date not set)
|
October - One or two Great Carrying Place Guided Hikes.(dates not set)
* October events - dates to be determined watch our Website or Facebook Page.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
There have been some software and technical changes made. As some of you know, it wasn't the smoothest ride. However, we've made progress, and things are now working fairly smoothly. AEHS has automated our membership records, installed a program to send and record our Newsletters and Dispatches, and opened an online store with T-shirts, maps, gift cards and books. Members also receive an automatic 15% discount on all store purchases as an exclusive benefit.
|
In addition to the normal committee reports, this newsletter features three member-written articles that we hope you find interesting. Michael Bell, Local Historian and UMASC Instructor sent us an article based on his class, "Wounded Pride: The Life of Benedict Arnold" that adds clarity to the reasons for Arnold's betrayal, and the capture of Major John Andre. Sara Donovan shared her research efforts searching for an answer to her question, "Did Jemima Warner Die in Quebec?", and she's hoping you can help answer that question. And, as a third entry, George Quintal Jr., Revolutionary War Researcher & Author, has shared another of the sketches he does on expedition members. This one tells the story of Reuben Bishop of McCobb’s company, who was the first member to die on the journey
|
|
|
|
Committee Reports
|
Trail Committee (compiled from committee notes)
|
|
In addition to the annual trail clearing and sign work they normally do the Trail Committee led by Co-Chair Bob Donovan, is moving forward with a major project to rehabilitate the Great Carrying Place Portage Trail in Carrying Place Township. To reverse decades of severe erosion and water pooling caused by past road use, Donovan and Lester Kenway of Trail Services LLC conducted a detailed 2.5-mile walkthrough to design critical trail improvements. The upcoming rehabilitation plan focuses heavily on erosion control and sustainability, featuring 13 drainage ditches, 12 rock waterbars, and the placement of step stones and bog bridges over fragile wetlands. Crucially, the plan introduces five minor trail relocations, ranging from 150 to 1,000 feet, designed to shift the path out of severe wet zones and onto higher, more durable ground.
|
|
The Somerset County Commissioners have officially approved the use of county Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds to back this physical labor phase, following a successful initial planning phase. These secured funds will be used to deploy a six-person Maine Conservation Corps (MCC) Field Team for a two-week period to execute the hand labor. The crew will be housed nearby at an AEHS-managed cabin during construction, ensuring a swift and efficient rollout of these vital historical preservation and trail infrastructure updates.
|
|
Grant Committee
By Benjamin Smith, Society President & Grant Committee Chair
|
|
As this newsletter goes to press, the Grant Committee is preparing for another milestone: the dedication of the Hometown Heritage marker on June 6 at the entrance to Cathedral Pines Campground in Eustis. Members may recall that in November 2025, the Grant Committee worked with project manager Kenny Wing to submit a proposal to the William G. Pomeroy Foundation for a Hometown Heritage marker commemorating the Arnold Expedition’s passage through Eustis on its way to Quebec City. Word arrived in December that the proposal had been approved, and in April, Grant Committee member and AEHS Treasurer Stephen Gehnrich received the marker. The William G. Pomeroy Foundation states that nonprofit organizations such as the AEHS may apply for additional Hometown Heritage markers. Should the Board identify another site along the Arnold Trail worthy of recognition, and should an AEHS member step forward to serve as project manager (hint hint!), the Grant Committee will be ready to charge “once more unto the breach.” (All apologies to Shakespeare.) The Grant Committee has also been researching possible film restoration grants should the Board decide to move forward with digitizing its footage of 1775 Arnold Trail celebrations and reenactments. We look forward to sharing further developments in future newsletters.
|
|
|
|
Member Contributions
|
Wounded Pride
By Michael Bell, Local Historian and UMASC Instructor
|
|
The events that transpired in the autumn of 1780 in the Hudson Highlands of New York, nearly brought the American experience to a complete halt. But for some simple luck and even stupidity, things could have taken a different path.
|
|
Stephen Clark has written an insightful couple of articles in recent AEHS newsletters about General Arnold’s decision to return to the crown. As a distant cousin of the general, I applaud his clearly demonstrating the gifts that Arnold brought to the patriot cause, and the dizzy heights of fame and glory that followed. I do have a few concerns about his conclusions as to why Arnold “turned coat”.
|
|
Certainly money was an important issue, but it was hardly the only one. Arnold had paid many of the costs of supplying his men over the previous years. His business back in Connecticut had nearly collapsed and Congress was hesitant if not negligent in assisting he and others in recouping some of the costs they had incurred. Certainly his courting and marrying the lovely Peggy Shippen did nothing but add to his economic woes. He seemed to have been driven his whole life by a need to restore his family name to its once grand economic, political and social stature.
|
|
Many other factors also contributed to his desire to return to the Crown. The war had grown to a stalemate after Saratoga (1777) and Monmouth(1778). Very few battles were fought in the north and it had become a war of attrition. On top of this was the fact that while French help was lifting spirits, there was some concern about aligning the struggling American nation with another king. And to a Yankee Protestant like Arnold, and others, it seemed to be a slap in the face that the French king was a Catholic.
|
|
Arnold bore grudges and nursed a deeply wounded sense of himself. Being skipped over for proper promotion, back stabbing and charges brought against him from his enemies, only added to his sense of loss and outrage. His first wife had died earlier in the war and his physical stamina, which he was quite known for, had been sapped by serious wounds that left him having to wear a special boot and using a cane. Add to the picture, a beguiling and enchanting young wife whispering in his ear about a friend of hers in New York (Major John Andre) and you can see the perfect storm developing.
|
|
When Major Andre came upriver on the HMS Vulture to meet with the new commander of West Point (September 22, 1780,) the plan was for him (Andre) to return aboard the ship to British HQ in NY. An American shore battery opened fire on the ship and it withdrew towards safety, cutting the hapless major off from his escape. It was decided that he would return by land (in civilian clothing).
|
|
Accompanied part of the way by a local man (Joshua Hett Smith) and his servant, Andre had just about returned to his lines the next morning, when a group of 3 irregulars stepped out from behind some scrub on the outskirts of Tarrytown. Andre, supposedly a “wicked smaht” British spymaster, gave himself away by assuming that one of the three men was a Hessian soldier (he wore a discarded green Hessian jacket) and identified himself as belonging to the lower (British HQ on Manhattan) party. It wasn’t his speech but his leaping to that conclusion that began to unravel the plot. When he began to back pedal his explanation for being there, the 3 men took him behind some trees and strip searched him. They found the papers tucked inside his stocking, not inside a hollowed out heel of his boot!
|
|
In short order, Andre was taken to a few different American outposts, including Ft. Putnam, part of the West Point garrison, while local commanders and higher ups determined what to do with him. He finally gave himself up and confessed to his identity and to the plot. Within a few days, he was put on trial and found guilty of being a spy. He was hung on October 2 in Tappan, N.Y. Arnold escaped and fled to the British lines. He served in the British army, returned to England and spent the rest of his life raising his family and plying the waters between England and Canada, a merchant once more. He died in London in 1801. Peggy died a few years later.
|
|
The story that he requested to be buried in his old continental uniform lacks any real substantial background and is regarded by most historians as untrue. Not to say being totally out of his character. The monument at Saratoga is far more established than a bronze plaque on a rock. It is a fine, understated monument and like others at Saratoga and West Point, contains no name. In London however, he has received better treatment. His burial location is marked with a stained glass window at St. Mary’s Battersea and the house in which he died, has a plaque that honors him as an American patriot.
|
|
|
|
|
Did Jemima Warner Die in Quebec?
|
By Sara Donovan, Living Historian & AEHS Member
|
|
Everybody loves Jemima Warner, the heartbroken but spunky wife on Arnold’s March who reportedly stayed by her husband while he died and then ran to catch up with the group. She has become almost mythical and is mentioned in most accounts of Arnold’s March. A Google search will pull up all kinds of unsubstantiated information about her. The general belief is that she was shot in Quebec on December 11, 1775, per Kenneth Robert’s book “March to Quebec”. But was she?
|
|
Here is all the evidence that she was shot:
|
|
Caleb Haskell wrote in his journal December 11, 1775 “Today we had a man wounded, and a woman killed by a shot from the city”
|
|
Kenneth Roberts’ note on that page asserts: “Another woman, belonging to the Pennsylvania troops, was killed on April 18. If, as Henry says, there were only two women with Arnold’s army – Mrs. Warner and the wife of Sergeant Grier of the Pennsylvania troops, Mrs. Warner was the one who was killed on December 11: Mrs. Grier on April 18.
|
|
Thanks to Jody Bachelder, who questioned Kenneth Roberts’ assumption and pointed out other journal entries that make it debatable, I began to dig a little deeper. Thanks to George Quintal Jr.’s find of Robert Mitchell’s pension statement we now know that there were four women on the March, not two. The four women were Mrs. Mitchell, Mrs. Warner, Mrs. Grier and an un-named fourth woman. Since Jemima isn’t named in Caleb Haskell’s journal it could have been any woman. We know it wasn’t Eve Mitchell because she lived to collect a pension. But it could have been the un-named woman killed in December. And, it appears that Kenneth Roberts did not know that both Mrs. Grier and Mrs. Warner belonged to the Pennsylvania troops so it also could have been either one of them or the un-named woman killed in April. (George Quintal Jr. sent me a list from the Pennsylvania archives that includes James Warner.)
|
|
Here are the confounding journal entries from “March to Quebec” mentioning a woman being shot on or around December 11th:
|
|
Henry Dearborn, December 10 “no person received any hurt except an old Canadian woman who was shot thro: the body with a 24lb shot”
|
|
J. Meigs, December 10 “…but a Canadian woman was shot through the body by a cannon shot from the enemy”
|
|
Dr. Senter, December 9 “…except killing an old Frenchwoman in her brodel [brothel] administering a spirituous potion to one of our lads”
|
|
In Stephen Darley’s book “Voices Waiting to be Heard” there is a slightly different journal entry from Henry Dearborn. It is dated December 11 and states “no other damage than killing an old Canadian woman. And in that same book Jeremiah Greenman’s journal from December 10 “The enemy keep a continual fire all day (which) set a number of houses on fire (and) killed a French woman.”
|
|
December 9 – killing an old French woman
|
|
December 10 - an old Canadian woman who was shot - killed a French woman - a Canadian woman who was shot
|
|
December 11 killing an old Canadian woman a woman killed
|
|
Did three women die or are the dates wrong? Did only one woman die and was it a Canadian woman?
|
|
There is nothing that proves it was Jemima Warner who was shot on December 11.
|
|
But is there anything that proves that she didn’t get shot that day? George Quintal Jr. could not find a pension record for Jemima Warner. I emailed the Dauphin County PA (probable hometown of Jemima) historical society hoping to learn more about her fate and have not heard back.
|
|
Then I came across one of our own AEHS newsletters dated December 26, 1985 with a lengthy story about Jemima with these fascinating details: she was the 16 year old daughter of Mrs. Grier, Jemima’s husband died of pneumonia and after she caught up with the group she had pneumonia too and was left with nuns in Sartigan. After she recovered she finally arrived in Quebec just before Christmas. Mrs. Grier was hit by a stray bullet and became the first woman to die in the American Revolution. Mrs. Warner made her way back to Pennsylvania and lived with two brothers until she married Jacob Knorr on January 9, 1783 in Philadelphia. This information reportedly comes from her great, great, great grandson the Rev. Dr. James Wilson Knorr.
|
|
George Quintal Jr. spent some time researching this some years ago and was not able to substantiate any of this information. It seemed to me that a specific date of a wedding in a specific city to a specific person was a lot of information to just make up so I tried to find a record of the wedding. Philadelphia public records only go back to 1860. There is a book “Names of Persons for Whom Marriage Licenses Were Issued Previous to 1790/Pennsylvania Archives, 2nd Series, Vol 2” by John B. Linn and William H. Egle. The dates in the book go from 1743 to 1790 and they are listed by name. I looked under Knorr, Warner and Grier and Greer just in case she went back to her maiden name and found no record of the marriage.
|
|
There is nothing that proves it was not Jemima Warner that was shot on December 11.
|
|
It is my hope in writing this article that more information will come up that will give us certainty as to her fate.
|
|
|
|
|
Another sketch shared by George Quintal Jr., Revolutionary War Researcher and Author
|
|
Sgt. Reuben Bishop, Copyright © George Quintal Jr., 2025. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
|
Age: 34
Occupation: unknown
Resided: Norwich, Conn.
|
Joined: unk.
Unit: Col. Ruggles Woodbridge/Capt. Noadiah Leonard
Expedition Co.: Thomas Williams
|
|
Reuben Bishop was born 2 November 1740 in Norwich, Conn., the son of Caleb & Keziah (Hibbard) Bishop.
|
|
He responded to the Lexington Alarm as a Private from Amherst (also given as Sunderland), Mass., in the company of Capt. Noadiah Leonard in the regiment of Col. Jonathan Ward. He joined the eight-months service as a Private on 2 May 1775 in the same company. On 24 June 1775 he was listed on a receipt for advanced pay. Soon after he was promoted to Sergeant, possibly indicating recognition for service at Bunker Hill, as he was listed as such on the 1 August 1775 roll of Leonard’s company. At some point in September 1775 he joined the Arnold Expedition as a Sergeant in the company of Capt. Thomas Williams of Stockbridge, Mass.
|
|
After reaching Fort Western, he became lodged with others at the residence of Daniel Savage in the north part (NW junction of Rt. 3 and Rt. 201) of what is now Augusta.
|
|
In the evening of 24 September 1775, he was killed by another soldier of the Expedition, namely Pvt. James McCormick of McCobb’s company. That made Bishop the first soldier to die on the Expedition.
|
|
Many journals (Stocking, Squiers, Melvin and Greenman) give details of this tragedy. Family tradition of his widow gives further insight: ‘[her husband] was visited by one of his soldiers who was intoxicated. When [her husband] ordered him to go to his quarters and shut the door upon him, the soldier turned and fired his musket thru the door, thus fatally shooting [her husband].’ McCormack was taken into custody and returned to Cambridge for trial. There he was court-martialed for murder but the officers in charge granted him leniency and he was not executed.
|
|
SAR records report that Bishop is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Augusta, just north of Savage Park, but no gravestone exists for him there.
|
|
He married Hannah Bishop in Norwich, Conn. 18 February 1761. She was left a widow with five young children: Joshua (13), Caleb (11), Cyrus (9), Earl (7) and Daniel (5).
|
|
Linda Novak, Fort Western Director/Curator
|
|
March to Quebec by Kenneth Roberts, various journals
|
|
SAR Application File #40267
|
|
SAR Revolutionary War Graves Register by Clovis Brakebill
|
|
U.S. Pension of James McCormack
|
|
Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War
|
|
The History of Augusta by James W. North
|
|
International Genealogical Index
|
|
|
|
|
Here are two easy ways to join or renew.
|
|
(1) You can visit our website Membership Page https://arnoldsmarch.org/membership-levels/
|
(2) You can mail your personal check to our Treasurer, Steve Gehnrich, 386 Murphys Corner Rd, Woolwich, Maine 04579.
|
|
Your membership dollars are a major source of funding for our land and easement acquisitions that preserve the trails and our discovery and preservation of artifacts found along the way. Thank you!
|
|
|
Thanks for reading. See you soon!
|
|
Mike Holt, Secretary, AEHS
|
|
|
The Arnold Expedition Historical Society promotes and preserves the Arnold Trail to Quebec through outreach, education, and conservation.
|
|
|
|
|
