Wanted!

BRAVE,
HEALTHY,
ABLE-BODIED

MUSKETMEN

(Poster seeking recruits for Quebec attack)

Last Update: 4076 Comments, Corrections, Additions or Questions are Welcomed! Contact Marty Dwyer at: Martyk9 @ Webtv.net NOTE: To send me an E-Mail, please delete the two spaces in the above e-address. THANK!

Volunteers wanted to tromp in woods, lose Quebec battle Newport, RI; 1 Mar 1974 prolog by Peter D. Lennon (Journal Bulletin Staff Writer) Lt Col Christopher Greene and Capt. Simeon Thayer, two of Rhode Island's Revolutionary War leaders, want you! They want a total of about 80 Rhode Islanders to ride, march and canoe through the Maine wilderness before shooting and throwing themselves at the high walls of Quebec City, Canada. The occasion is this State's ( RI ) participation in another re-enactment of Colonial History as the nation continues its long countdown to the 1976 Bi-centennial. Two of Aquidneck's Islanders, are representing Lt. Col Greene of Warwick and Capt. Thayer of Providence this time around, although if history is preserved, they too will go down to defeat at the hands of the British defenders of Canada. The two men, Col. Anthony Walker (USMC-Rtd) of Middletown and Col Harold E. St John of the Newport Artillery Co., are trying to recruit 40 to 80 musketmen throughout the state to take part in the march and battle re-enactment, now scheduled for Sept. 2 through Oct. 4, 1975. The Rhode Islanders will join forces with about 450 other colonials to represent the 1,100 continental soldiers under Col. Benedict Arnold who marched from Cambridge, Mass to Quebec in 1775 before Arnold became a traitor to the American cause. Col Walker and Col St John offer training and the chance to push through some 300 miles of Massachusetts, Maine and Canada and camp at night on the banks of the Kennebec, the Dead and the Chaudiere Rivers along the invasion route. Rhode Island, Massachusetts. Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Virginia are to be represented in the 13 companies of men bearing colonial weapons in the 1975 invasion force. Scheduled to arrive Oct 2 in Qubec, the attackers will rendezvous with troops from New York state representing companies which combined with Colonel Arnold's men in 1775 for the assault. The next day the combined forces will attack Quebec, where friendly Canadians who hosted parties for the Americans the night before, will greet the invaders with rounds of (blank) musket fire. "Brave, healthy able-bodied musketmen" still are needed to "assure a 14th Colony to support the original 13 in the struggle against the oppression of the egregious ministers and parliament of George the Third," Col Walker said.

Rehearsing March to Quebec Middletown, RI; 19 May 1975 - By Ken Weber (J-B Staff Writer & Musketman) For about four hours yesterday, the usual screne Norman Bird Sanctuary was stirring with far more noise than the birds ever make. Unfamiliar orders were shouted, Platoons of armed troops marched, and muskets roared. It was the first formal drilling of the Greene Division of the colonial Army, sort of a dress rehersal for the group's re-enactment of a march to Quebec scheduled for this fall. They're repeating one of the Revoluntionary War's most ambitious projects and one of its most arduous ordeals as a prelude to the Bi-centennial. About 50 would-be rebels were on hand, representing the 80 Rhode Islanders among the 1,100 Continental soldiers who volunteered in 1775 to follow Gen. Benedict Arnold (yes, the same Benedict Arnold), on a march through the Maine wilderness in an effort to capture Quebec City from the British. The original project failed - so beset by floods, defective boats, illness and even starvation, that only a few hundred men completed the two-month winter march. But that hasn't dampered the enthusiasm of the 20th Century musketmen, although they know they must "lose" again when they storm the high walls of Quebec on Oct. 4. Their march will take 10 days. "Even though it had a tragic ending, the march was a gallant effort." says Colonel Anthony Walker of Middletown, a retired Marine who is playing the role of Lt Col Christopher Greene of Warwick, commander of the Rhode Island unit. "Those men went through hell and damnation for their country. It was also the first Colonial offensive of any significance and a large proportion of Officers were Rhode Islanders." It took only a few days after Walker issued a call for 50 volunteers last fall for the Rhode Island company to be formed. It will be led again by Capt. Simeon Thayer of Providence, who this time will be portrayed by Colonel Harold E. St John of the Newport Artillery Company. Also in Greene's Division will be two companies of Massachusetts volunteers and one company from Vermont. On Sept. 26 they will muster at Pittston, Maine, and will follow the original route up the Kennebec, the Dead and the Chaudiere Rivers into Canada. They'll rendezvous with other New England troops and with some from New York State, representing the companies that joined Colonel Arnold's forces for the assualt. On Oct. 4, they'll attack the walls. They know they will be repelled. But that just dosen't seem to matter.

A walk in the country side yields another try to capture Quebec Secret Location; 12 Sept 1975 - by Ken Weber (J-B Staff Writer & Musketman) A couple of summers ago, Anthony Walker of Middletown was poking around the Maine countryside, doing some research work on one of his favorite topics, the 1775 attempt by a colonial army to capture Quebec, when he met a man named White Nichols. The result of the meeting, and more than a year of subsequent preparations, will be shown this week when Walker, a retired Marine (Corps) officer, heads one of the divisions making up the re-enactment of Col. Benedict Arnold's epic march to Quebec. Walker will protray Lt. Col. Christopher Greene of Warwick and will command four companies, including one made up of Rhode Islanders. Greene, a relative of Gen. Nathanael Greene of Geroge Washington's staff, served as Arnold's right-hand man on the arduous, and tragic, 300-mile march through the Maine Wilderness in the fall and winter of 1775. Heading the Rhode Island Company, recreating the role of Capt. Simeon Thayer of Providence, is Col Harold E. St John of Newport. Two other Rhode Island men served as company commanders, Capt. John Topham of Newport and Capt. Samuel Ward, Jr. of Westerly, and they will be played by Palmer True of Waylad, Mass., and Col. Paul LaFond of Norwich University in Vermont. Their units also will be under the command of Walker/Green. "We feel the men who made that march should be remembered," Walker said. "Even though it had a tragic ending, the march was a gallant effort. Those men went through hell and damnation for their country." The eventual attack on the walls of Quebec failed but the big story, as far as Walker and other would-be rebels are concerned, is what the soldiers went through just to reach Quebec. They struggled for two months going up the raging rivers, beset by defective boats, floods and starvation, but some of them made it. And they have not been forgotten, thanks, in large part, to White Nicoles. He's head of the Arnold Historical Society of Gardner, Maine, and the man who conceived the idea of re-enacting the march on its 200th anniversary. When he learned of Walker's interest, he asked him to play Lt. Col. Greene, "and he didn't have to ask twice." Nichols and his group have been working for more than two years to set up the march and the State of Maine has backed it to he hilt. When the American Revolution Bi-centennial Administration turned down their request for financial aid ( possibly because of Arnold's infamous defection later in the war ) the state came up with the resources itself. Maine's Bi-centennial Commission gave $6,000 for the trip. Maine's National Guard is providing 21 trucks to transport the troops when they are not marching, plus three trucks to tow bateaux trailers, three ambulances, three wreckers and five jeeps. Civil Defense in Maine, chipped in with three mobile kitchens.

But the Rhode Island volunteers have had their own preparations, too. Since Walker issued his first call for solders more than a year ago, the two platoons (one on each side of the Bay) have been drilling 1775 style, securing uniforms, arms and accoutrements and arranging for their own transportation to Maine and back from Quebec. "We had an excellent response." said Walker. "We cut off the recruiting at 78, but with some dropping out over the last year we expect about 50 Rhode Islanders to make the march. The oriiginal army left with 81 Rhode Islanders but we felt we couldn't take that many because of logistical problems involved." The men, who ranged in age from 16 past middle-age, have also incurred personal expenses of $200 or more, particularly those who purchased reproductions of the 1775 (style) muskets. Uniforms, basically tricornered hats, homespun fringed hunting frocks, leggings and boots, etc... were purchased or homemade, and don't exactly match, but then, neither did the attire of the original solders.

Benedict Arnold's March Revisited Cambridge, Mass; 21 Sept 1975 - By Ken Weber (J-B Staff Writer & musketman) For nearly 200 years, the name of Benedict Arnold has been reviled by most Americans as the epitome of treachery and deceit. Arnold was the man who sold out to the British in the Revoluntionary War, they say: a contemtible traitor. But yesterday, at the Cambridge Commons, and for the next two weeks, Arnold's name is spoken with the respect due an imaginative and resourceful officer who led a colonial army on a valiant march long before he grew bitter and defected to the enemy. Gen'l George Washington himself saluted Colonel Arnold yesterday and sent him and his motley army of volunteers off on the march up through the Maine Wilderness to Quebec. Gen Horatio Gates, Arnold's troops and hundreds of spectators looked on as Washington solemaly told Arnold, "Sir, the army is yours." Arnold eagerly accepted the assignment, then turned to his cheering troops and cautioned them. "The road ahead is difficult. it will require untold courage to forge our way through the uncharted wilderness. This is no exercise for the faint-hearted." "Success of the revoluntionary effort hangs to a great measure on our undertaking. Completion of the expedition is of major consequence if we are to convert Canada into the 14th clony. Again, i ask you to do thorough soul-searching to attempt this valiant venture." It was a re-enactment, of course, but one of the more ambtious of all those being staged around New England as a prelude to the Bi-centennial celebraton. Instead of a one-day mock battle, the group mustered here yesterday will retrace Arnold's entire 300-mile march through Maine. The men involved again represent Rhode Island, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and a few other states, just as the original army did. Col Thornton B. McGlamory of Vienna, Maine, is protraying Arnold. Playing the role of Washington yesterday was Thomas Nolan of Arden, NY, and Gates, who was the Adjutant General in Cambridge 200 years ago this week when Washington authorized the offensive, was portrayed by Dr. John McCully of Reading, Mass.

Rhode Islanders were prominent in the original army and they were here again yesterday with Col Anthony Walker of Middletown taking the part of Lt. Col Christopher Greene, one of the three division commanders.. Head of the Rhode Island Company 200 years ago was Capt. Simeon Thayer of Providence and he now goes by the name of Harold E. St John of Newport. Yesterday's colorful ceremonies here, in which the whirl of TV cameras and the presence of microphones and tape recorders was in sharp contrast to the tricornered hats, fifes and muskets in the parade. The (Thayer) troops headed for Ipswich. There, another ceremony was held, then another parade and finally a mock battle before rebels completed their first day at war. Today, the send-off continues at Newburyport, where the men will fire a salute to the dozen or so sailing boats that will depart for Maine, retracing the route the original ships took in transporting the soldiers to the mouth of the Kennebec River for what became the ill-fated upriver trek to Quebec. The approximately 600 troops - 50 from Rhode Island - are to muster Friday at Pittston, Maine, and the re-enactment will resume than with a march into Augusta. After that, It's up the Kennebec (via vehicles, with marching through villages and other significant places), across the Carry Ponds area, where Arnold's men experienced perhaps their most difficult ordeal in portaging the heavy boats from pond to pond through the dense wilderness, to the Dead River. When they crossed the Height-of-Land, the mountains that mark the Canadian Border, they'll follow the Chaudiere River to the St Lawrence. Across the St. Lawrence is Quebec City, and on Oct 4 the Colonists will again try to take the Citidel with a battle on the Plains of Abraham. And again they must accept defeat. However, the fact that the march ended in tragedy (Arnold was wounded and the Commading Officer, Gen Richard Montgomery, who joined Arnold after taking Montreal, was killed) in no way detracts from the heroism of the attempt, say the modern rebels. The march has been called America's version of Hannibal's crossing of the Alps, an imaginative venture so difficult and so hazardous as to have been dismissed as impossible by he enemy. But Arnold said he could do it, so Washingtn decided to take a chance and gave him 1,100 men. Little went according to plan for Arnold and his troops, though. The boats, cumbersome bateaux built for them in Maine, were defective and leaked badly or broke apart entirely. Floods, freezing temperatures and illness plagued them from the start. Their greatest enemy, however was starvation, brought on by the turning back of a division that was carrying most of the provisions. The remaining soldiers suffered so severly thay they were reduced to eating their leather moccasins and their dogs. Still, approximately 600 men reached Quebec, although by the time they did so two monrths had passed and they were in such wretched condition they could not attempt an attack. So they waited for Montgomery and his New Yorkers. (The Montgomery march also being recreated and the armies will combine forces at Quebec once again). Then, in a snow storm on New Year's Eve, 1775, the colonists attacked. Montgomery fell almost immediately and Arnold took a musket ball in the leg. With little leadership, the offensive foundered and most of the Americans wound up as captives. This time, the attack will come on Oct, 4, with 250 Canadians defending Quebec instead of 1,900 British. The outcome must remain the same, but the men making the march hope they will have restrored Benedict Armold and his ragged volunteers to a more deserving place in history

Our Fast-stepping hero is prodded by Dame Glory Pittston, Me; 26 Sept 1975 By Ken Weber (J-B Staff Writer & Musketman) We're at the river. There will be no turning back now. The Kennebec beckons, and far beyond that, Quebec. But already I am learning what the commader, Col Benedict Arnold, meant when he cautioned us last Week in Cambridge that the bold invasion of Canada "would not be an experience for the faint-hearted." The easy part of the journey is over. Now the test begins. In early afternoon the fleet of sloops and schooners from Massachusetts landed here at Colburn's Boat yard. Heavy rain buffeted the crafts almost continually but they were able to handle the weather despite bucking stiff breeze as well as increasing current for the last several miles. Some of us who came over-land beat the fleet by a few hours and I wound up in the honor guard for Col. Arnold, Major Meigs and the other officers. But because most of my own company, the Captain Simeon Thayer Company of Rhode Islander, had not yet arrived, I was drafted into a unit of Pennsylvania Riflemen, Thompson's Company of Hendrick's Division. I didn't mind, it was better than standing around and watching. I have already done enough of that. That's why I volunteered, for the offensive, for the adventure, the excitement. As far as I can tell, the others have joined for the same reasons. Patriotism is fine, but it's better when flavored with challenging action, and a chance at glory. The sloops and schooners can go no farther. The rest of the way we are to row and pull bateaux that have been built here for us. I'm not alone in my skepticism of their capabilities. When we were waiting for the officers, one of the Pennsylvanians said to me, "I hearby volunteer to walk all the way. I may not make it, but, I have a better chance than those boats." Even Major Meigs, when asked by Reuben Colburn, the boat builder, how the voyage went , answered, "It was just great," then he added grimly, while looking over the line of bateaux "I hope the rest goes half as well." They looked like overgrown canoes, but without any of a canoe's grace and maneuverability. They're 18 to 20 feet long, pointed at both ends, but with a narrow, unstable body built of heavy planks. We are expected to not only pole these boats against the Kennebec's strong current, but, portage them over the dreaded Great Carrying Place. Iv'e never seen the trail, but our guide says it is 12 miles, and seems like 50. Beyond that, we take the Dead River to the Height-of-land, sure to be another monumental obstacle in our path. In Canada, we are to travel down the Chaudiere to Quebec. But first we must conquer this river. It is wide, deep and growing more swift. And the rain keeps coming down.

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