Arnold Invades Quebec: Revolution's Early Struggle

Ethan Allen's rash attempt to capture Montreal ended in his surrender to British forces at the Battle of Longue-Pointe, while Benedict Arnold simultaneously launched his grueling overland expedition toward Quebec City through the Maine wilderness. The twin operations exposed the Continental Army's overreach in Canada but demonstrated the colonists' willingness to carry the fight far beyond their own borders. Allen acted without authorization from the Continental Congress or his nominal superior, General Philip Schuyler. Leading fewer than 150 men, mostly Canadian volunteers and a handful of his Green Mountain Boys, he attempted to rush Montreal on September 25, 1775, expecting the city's inhabitants to rise in support. They didn't. British regulars and Mohawk allies surrounded his small force, and Allen surrendered after a brief firefight. He spent the next two and a half years as a prisoner of war, much of it in chains aboard British ships. Arnold's expedition, authorized by General Washington, was a far more ambitious undertaking. He led 1,100 men through the Maine wilderness on a 350-mile march that took six weeks, navigating swollen rivers, portaging through trackless forest, and losing a third of his force to desertion, starvation, and disease. The survivors arrived at Quebec City in November, emaciated but determined. Their assault on the city on December 31 failed, with Arnold wounded and General Richard Montgomery killed. The Canadian campaign of 1775 ended as a military disaster, but it forced Britain to divert troops northward and demonstrated that the rebellion was not a localized protest but a continental war.