NRHP Nomination
Application for Inclusion of Colburn House on the National Register of Historic Places
Memories of My Childhood
Recollections of Bertha A. Colburn who lived in the Colburn House
Before Benedict Arnold was branded a traitor, he was one of the colonies’ most valuable leaders. In September 1775, eleven hundred soldiers boarded ships in Massachusetts, bound for the Maine wilderness. They had volunteered for a secret mission, under Arnold’s command to march and paddle nearly two hundred miles and seize British Quebec. Before they reached the Canadian border, hundreds died, a hurricane destroyed canoes and equipment and many deserted. In the midst of a howling blizzard, the remaining troops attacked Quebec and almost took Canada from the British simultaneously weakening the British hand against Washington. With the enigmatic Benedict Arnold at its center, Tom Desjardin has written one of the great American adventure stories.
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.
The Lives of the Extraordinary Patriots Who Followed Arnold to Canada at the Start of the American Revolution by Arthur S. Lefkowitz.
This “gripping” history recounts the lives of American patriots who were a part of Arnold’s failed Canadian invasion during the Revolutionary War (Thomas Fleming, author of Liberty! The American Revolution).
Hundreds of men followed Col. Benedict Arnold in an expedition to capture Quebec in 1775. After Arnold was wounded, his troops found themselves outnumbered and trapped inside the city. Award-winning author and Revolutionary-era historian, Arthur S. Lefkowitz takes a close look at some of the brave veterans who fought in Arnold’s failed campaign and explores the extraordinary lives they led afterward.
In Benedict Arnold in the Company of Heroes, Lefkowitz paints vividly detailed portraits of early American patriots who continued their fight for independence after Arnold’s campaign. Some of the men portrayed include Charles Porterfield (who led troops at Brandwine); Daniel Morgan (the hero of Cowpens); Henry Dearborn and Timothy Bigelow (who fought alongside Arnold at Saratoga); Christian Febiger and Return Jonathan Meigs (who were at the forefront of the attack on Stony Point); Simeon Thayer (who refused to surrender at Fort Mifflin); and Col. Aaron Burr (whose wartime record was overshadowed by his later political career and duel with Alexander Hamilton).
Benedict Arnold in the Company of Heroes “will delight readers who are looking for something new about the War of Independence” (John Ferling, author of Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence).
A Memoir of the Life of the Rev. Jacob Bailey, A. M. Missionary at Pownalborough, Maine, Cornwallis and Annapolis, N. S. the book is reproduced in the original format.
Following Their Footsteps: A Travel Guide & History of the 1775 Secret Expedition to Capture Quebec – July 1, 2003 by Stephen Clark.
Would you like to travel, as closely as possible the route Arnold’s Expedition took when they marched to Quebec. Stephen Clark makes is possible. His book is two books in one. One a travel guide; the other a historical narrative.
As you follow along you’ll find the two books are combined as closely as possible. A chapter of the Travel Guide is matched with a historical chapter that describes the events that occurred in the places covered by the guide. This format allows readers some flexibility in deciding how much history they wish to digest as they travel along the route.
There also are five suggested canoe trips along the route, and several hiking trips are described within the Travel Guide chapters.
In late 1775, a few months after the first shots of the Revolution were fired, Benedict Arnold led more than one thousand troops into Quebec to attack the British there.
Departing from Massachusetts, by the time they reached Pittston, Maine, they were in desperate need of supplies and equipment to carry them the rest of the way.
Many patriotic Mainers contributed, including Major Reuben Colburn, who constructed a flotilla of bateaux for the weary troops. Despite his service in the Continental army, many blamed Colburn when several of the vessels did not withstand the harsh journey.
In this narrative, the roles played by Colburn and his fellow Mainers in Arnold’s march are reexamined and revealed.
Permanent settlers began arriving in the village of Flagstaff around the 1820s, drawn by its advantageous location along the Dead River floodplain and the availability of water power at the outlet to Flagstaff Pond.
In 1923, the Maine legislature passed a bill condemning a 25-mile section of the upper Dead River Valley to inundation, causing the eventual permanent flooding of the villages of Flagstaff, Dead River, and Bigelow. The bill authorized the construction of a dam at the river narrows at Long Falls and the subsequent creation of Flagstaff Lake. The properties in these towns were obtained by the process of eminent domain, and residents were forced to relocate. In the spring of 1950, Flagstaff Lake was officially created when the gates in Long Falls Dam were closed. It remains a controversial project today.
