Henry. Had he lived to superintend the printing of it
himself, many alterations would, no doubt, have been
made, many passages which may at present appear ob
scure, would have been fully explained, and many differ
ences of style corrected. As the work purports to be
written by Judge Henry, it was thought improper to
make any alterations or additions, trusting that the world,
when acquainted with the circumstances under which it
was published, will be disposed to pardon trivial errors
as to the truth of the principal facts. The following letter
from General Michael Simpson, is ample testimony :
DEAR SIR : I have read your work " of the expedition
through the wilderness in 1775." So far as I was con
cerned in the transactions related in the work, they are
truly stated. That expedition, perhaps the most arduous
during the revolutionary war, is truly represented. The
public may, in the general, be assured that the account
is genuine.
Your humble servant,
MICHAEL SIMPSON. J
For a notice of Michael Simpson see a subsequent page.
CAMPAIGN AGAINST QUEBEC.
BY JOHN JOSEPH HENRY.
MY DEAR CHILDREN :
There is a point in the history of the American
revolution, hitherto little attended to ; as yet imperfectly
related, and now at this late day almost forgotten ; % which
would deserve and require the talents and genius of a
Xenophon, to do it real justice. As your father in early
life had a concern in that adventure, permit him to relate
to you in the words of truth, a compendious detail of the
sufferings of a small band of heroes ; unused, to be sure,
to military tactics and due subordination, but whose souls
were fired by an enthusiastic love of country, and a
spirit such as has often inspired our ancestors, when
determined to be free. In giving you this relation,
knowing him as you do, you will scarcely call in question
his veracity ; particularly when he assures you upon the
honor of a gentleman and an honest man, that every word
here related, to the best of his recollection and belief, is
literally true. He could not be so unjust to your morals,
your veracity, or integrity, as to state any thing to you
which he knew, or even suspected to be untrue. He
has himself been too much the victim of base liars, not
to endeavor to eradicate so vile a principle from your
minds. His own education, though made by his truant-
isms (in avoidance of the bounteous and liberal designs
of his good father), an incorrect one, yet the piety and
real religious fervor of his parents, never would tolerate
a lie. This mental vice, to them, was the greatest of
io Campaign against Quebec ^ 1775.
all abominations, as it is with your father : it is also his
most fervent hope and prayer, that every one of you,
will not only contemn the lie, but hold in sovereign
detestation the liar.
Persons at your age, and at this advanced stage of
the improvement and melioration of our soil, in a climate
so far south as ours, can scarcely form a correct con
ception, but from actual observation, of the sterility, the
dreariness and the destitution of every comfort of life,
which a wilderness in a high northern latitude exhibits.
A confidence however in your good sense, encourages,
and in fact animates him, to put that upon paper, which
has a thousand times, in detached parcels, been the subject
of amusing prattle around the fireside. This is done the
rather at this time, as some very atrocious scoundrels
who never looked an enemy in the eye, now assume the
garlands and honors which ought to adorn the brows of
more worthy men.
In the autumn of 1775, our adorable Washington
thought it prudent to make a descent upon Canada. A
detachment from the American grand army, then in the
vicinity of Boston, Massachusetts, was organized, to
fulfil this intention, by the route of the Kennebec and
Chaudiere rivers. It was intended as a cooperation with
the army of General Montgomery, who had entered the
same province, by the way of Champlain and Montreal.
Colonel Benedict Arnold was appointed the commander
in chief of the whole division. The detachment consisted
of eleven hundred men. Enos 1 was second in command.
Of this I knew nothing, but from report. Riflemen
composed a part of the armament. These companies,
from sixty-five to seventy-five strong, were from the
southward : that is, Captain Daniel Morgan s company
1 The expedition consisted of two battalions ; the first commanded by
Lieut. Col. Christopher Greene ; the second under Lt. Col. Roger Enos.
It was subdivided into three divisions, the rear division being under the
command of Enos, who, 25th October, abandoned the enterprise with his
division, ignominiously taking the provisions, and returned to Cambridge. M.
Campaign against Quebec, 1775. n
from Virginia ; that of Captain William Hendricks from
Cumberland county in Pennsylvania, and Captain Matthew
Smith s company from the county of Lancaster, in the
latter province. 1 The residue, and bulk of this corps
consisted of troops from Massachusetts, Rhode Island
and Connecticut. It has flown from my memory,
whether we had any from New Hampshire ; but there
is an impression on my mind that we had, as General
Dearborn, who was of the latter province, commanded
a company in the expedition. All these men were of as
rude and hardy a race as ourselves, and as unused to the
discipline of a camp, and as fearless as we were. It fell
to me to know many of them afterwards intimately ;
speaking generally, without any allusion to particulars,
they were an excellent body of men, formed by nature
as the stamina of an army, fitted for a tough and tight
defence of the liberties of their country. The principal
distinction between us, was in our dialects, our arms,
and our dress. Each man of the three companies bore
a rifle-barreled gun, a tomahawk, or small axe, and a
long knife, usually called a scalping-knife, which served
for all purposes, in the woods. His under-dress, by no
means in a military style, was covered by a deep ash-
colored hunting-shirt, leggings and moccasins, if the latter
could be procured. It was the silly fashion of those
times, for riflemen to ape the manners of savages. 2
1 No sooner was a call for volunteers issued in 1775, than we find a
company formed in Paxton and Derry in Pa., to march to Quebec j having as
officers and privates Matthew Smith, James Crouch, Richard Dixon,
Robert McClure, Archibald Steele, Michael Simpson, John Joseph Henry,
John Harris, eldest son of John Harris founder of Harrisburgh, and other
honored names, now seldom recalled, but the remembrance of whose valiant
deeds, hardy endurance, and patriotic sacrifices will never be forgotten by a
grateful people. Dixon and Harris never returned from Quebec. One of
them certainly was killed there ; the fate of the latter is quite uncertain.
Centennial Address at Harrisburgb, July 4, 1876, by A. B. HAMILTON. M.
2 The Canadians who first saw these men emerge from the woods, said
they were vctu en toile, clothed in linen. The word toile was changed to
ro/e,iron plate. By a mistake of a single word the fears of the people were
greatly increased, for the news spread that the mysterious army that descend
ed from the wilderness was clad in sheet iron. M.
12 Campaign against Quebec y 1775.
Our commander, Arnold, was of a remarkable cha
racter. He was brave, even to temerity ; was beloved
by the soldiery, perhaps for that quality only. He
possessed great powers of persuasion, was complaisant ;
but, withal, sordidly avaricious. Arnold was a short,
handsome man, of a florid complexion, stoutly made, and
forty years^old at least. 1
On the other hand Morgan was a large, strong bodied
personage, whose appearance gave the idea history has left
us of Belisarius. His manners were of the severer
cast ; but where he became attached he was kind and
truly affectionate. This is said, from experience of the
most sensitive and pleasing nature ; activity, spirit and
courage in a soldier, procured his good will and esteem.
Hendricks was tall, of a mild and beautiful counte
nance. His soul was animated by a genuine spark of
heroism. Smith was a good looking man, had the air
of a soldier, was illiterate and outrageously talkative.
The officers of the eastern troops were many of them
men of sterling worth. Colonel Christopher Greene
seemed too far advanced in life for such hard service,
yet he was inspired by an ardor becoming a youth. He
afterwards did the public good service at Redbank on the
Delaware, in the autumn of 1777. Majors Meigs,
Febiger and Bigelow, were excellent characters. As
we acted in the advance, the latter gentlemen were not
well known to us, until sometime afterwards. Your
father was too young to enjoy any other honor than that
of exposing himself, in the character of a cadet, to every
danger. This little army in high spirits, marched from
Prospect hill near Cambridge in Massachusetts, on the
nth of September, 1775, and on the following day 2
1 Arnold was but thirty-four years of age at this time. Notices of Arnold
are found in the biographical dictionaries and elsewhere, and a pedigree of
his family is given in HOUGH S Am. Siog. Notes, p. 8. M.
2 Portions of the army took different routes to Newburyport. The
companies under Major Return J. Meigs marched from Roxbury, thraugh
Cambridge, Mystick, Maiden, Lynn, Salem, Danvers, Beverly, Wenham,
and Rowley. Mass. Hist. Soc. Col!., 2d series, n, 227, 228.
Campaign against Quebec ^ 1775. 1 3
arrived at Newburyport (which is formed by the waters
of the Merrimac river). This place, at that time, was a
small but commercial town, near the border of Massa
chusetts. Here we remained encamped five days, provid
ing ourselves with such articles of real necessity, as our
small means afforded. On the afternoon of the sixth
day, we embarked aboard of ten transports ; x sailed in
the evening, and at dawn of day descried the mouth of the
Kennebec river. The wind was strong but fair. The
distance of this run was 150 miles. We ascended the
river to Colonel Colborn s ship yard ; 2 here we left our
vessels, and obtained bateaux, with which we proceeded
to Fort Western. At this place, on the day of our arrival,
an arrangement was made by the commander in chief,
which in all probability sealed the destiny of your parent.
It was concluded to dispatch an officer and seven men
in advance, for the purposes of ascertaining and marking
the paths, which were used by the Indians at the numer
ous carrying-places in the wilderness, towards the heads
of the river ; and also, to ascertain the course of the river
Chaudiere, which runs from the height of land, towards
Quebec.
To give some degree of certainty of success to so
hazardous an enterprise, Arnold found it necessary to
1 On the 1 9th the detachment, consisting of ten companies of musketmen,
and three companies of riflemen, amounting to noo men, embarked on
board of ten transports, and sailed for the Kennebec river. Ibid, 228. M.
2 The bateaux were built at Agry s point, about two miles below Gardiner,
the residence of Major Colborn. It is mentioned in Meigs s Journal of the
expedition, that but fourteen days had elapsed since orders had been given
for building two hundred bateaux, collecting provisions for and levying
eleven hundred men, and marching them to this place. Here the army
embarked, on the 22d September, having taken two days to transfer their
baggage and stores. It is mentioned in HANSON S History of Gardner and
Pittston, that Col. Colborn, who built the bateaux, was never paid for them,
and that his heirs unsuccessfully petitioned congress for remuneration. In
Thayer s Journal the construction of the bateaux is most severely condemned
as a fraud upon the government. See p. 6, THAYER S Journal^ R. I.
Co/Sections^ vol. 6. M.
14 Campaign against Quebec^ 1775.
select an officer of activity and courage ; the choice fell
upon Archibald Steele 1 of Smith s company, a man of
an active, courageous, sprightly and hardy disposition,
who was complimented with the privilege of naming his
companions. These consisted of Jesse Wheeler, George
Merchant, and James Clifton, of Morgan s ; and Robert
Cunningham, Thomas Boyd, John Tidd, and John
1 Archibald Steele, a brother of Gen. John Steele, was a man of great
intrepidity and resolute daring. Upon the breaking out of the Revolution
he and a man named Smith raised a company in Lancaster county and
marched to Boston, where they were organized into a regiment and placed
under the command of Benedict Arnold. This was the regiment that made
the celebrated march through the wilderness of Maine to Quebec, in the
winter of 1775, which has ever been remembered as one memorable in the
annals of American history. During this march Archibald Steele had the
command of a party of men who were selected to go before the army and
mark out the roads and crossing places j and on the arrival of the army at
the St. Lawrence he was appointed superintendent of the crqssing of the
river. At the head of his company Steele marched with the army to the
attack upon Quebec, but upon the fall of Gen. Montgomery the Americans
retreated, and Arnold s division were all taken prisoners. He was badly
wounded in the left hand, two of his fingers having been carried away by
a musket shot. The following may be cited as showing the heroic daring
of Capt. Archibald Steele : On one occasion as the Americans were crossing
a river in bark canoes, these were filled to their utmost capacity with men,
and Capt. Steele seeing no room in the canoe leaped into the river, rested
his hands on the stern of the boat whilst one of the men therein sat upon
them, and thus was he dragged through the floating ice to the opposite
shore. When they reached the shore, life was almost extinct ; the soldiers
wrapped him in their blankets, and rolled him over the ground to infuse
new life in him. On his return home from the Quebec expedition he met
the American army in New Jersey, and was informed by Gen. Hand that
two of his brothers, John Steele and Wm. Steele, were then serving with
the army. Capt. Archibald Steele asked Gen. Hand if he thought his
brother John would be competent to assume the command of a company
(being but eighteen years of age.) Hand replied that he would warrant
his qualification, and the commission was produced. Archibald Steele was
afterwards appointed deputy quartermaster general, a position he retained
for some considerable time. He was appointed by Washington colonel of
a western expedition, but sickness prevented the acceptance of this com
mand. He held for some time in Philadelphia his position of military
storekeeper. He died in Philadelphia, Oct. 19, 1832, aged 91 years. He
had three sons in the naval service during the war of 1812 (George,
William and Matthias), who were captured, taken to England, and there
for a time detained as prisoners of war. HARRIS S Biog. Hist. Lancaster
Co., Pa., 561.
Campaign against Quebec,, 1775. I 5
M Konkey, of Smith s company. Though a very youth,
yet in a small degree accustomed to hardships, derived
from long marches in the American woods, Steele s
course of selection next fell upon your father, who was
his messmate and friend. Two birch-bark canoes were
provided ; and two guides, celebrated for the manage
ment of such water craft, and who knew the river as
high up as the great carrying-place were also found.
These were Jeremiah Getchel, a very respectable man,
and John Home, an Irishman who had grown gray in
this cold climate.
This small party, unconscious of danger, and animated
by a hope of applause from their country, set forward
from Fort Western in their light barks, at the rate of
from fifteen to twenty, and in good water, twenty-five
miles per day. These canoes are so light, that a person
of common strength may carry one of the smallest kind,
such as ours were, many hundred yards without halting. 1
Yet they will bear a great burden, and swim nearly
gunwale deep ; an admirable description of them is given
by Hearne, in his Journey to the Coppermine river.
Steele s canoe bore five men with their arms and
baggage, which last was indeed light in quantity and
quality, one barrel of pork, one bag of meal, and 20O
weight of biscuit. The other canoe carried seven men,
their arms and baggage, and a due proportion of provisions.
1 The gentlemen composing this party were unwilling to impose upon
me, any thing above my apparent strength, yet in the heyday of youth, I
would clap a canoe on my back, and run a hundred yards across a carrying-
place. This is done by a particular mode of management. There is a
broad stave, something like a flour barrel-stave, but straight and thicker,
with two perforations in it, an inch or more apart, towards the middle of
the stave. A thong of stout leather is inserted through those holes, and
tightly bound to the central cross-bar of the canoe. The carrier swings
the canoe by a sudden jerk upon his shoulders, and which he can handle
with ease, throwing the hollow side of the canoe on his back, the stave, if
it may be so called, resting principally on the hind part of the head, and
the prominences of the shoulders. Thus he may, if a strong man, pass
over a considerable space of ground of a difficult nature, in a short time
with much speed. Henry.
1 6 Campaign against Quebec , 1775.
On the evening of the 23d of September, our party
arrived at Fort Halifax, 1 situated on the point formed by
a junction of the Sebasticook and Kennebec rivers.
Here our commander, Steele, was accosted by a Captain
Harrison, or Huddlestone, inviting him and the company
to his house. The invitation was gladly accepted, as the
accommodation at the fort, which consisted of old block
houses and a stockade in a ruinous state, did not admit
of much comfort ; besides it was inhabited, as our friend
the captain said, by a rank tory. Here for the first time
the application of the American term tory, was defined
to me by the captain. Its European definition was well
known before. Another interesting conversation upon
the part of the captain, struck my mind as a great
curiosity in natural history, and well deserving com
memoration ; he observed that he had immigrated to the
place he then resided at, about thirty years before, most
probably with his parents, for he did not then appear to
be much beyond forty. That at that period the common
deer which now inhabits our more southern climate, was
the only animal of the deer kind which they knew, un
less it was the elk \ and them but partially. In a short
space of time the moose deer appeared in small numbers,
but increased annually afterwards, and as the one species
became more numerous, the other diminished : so that
the kind of deer first spoken of, at the time of this infor
mation, according to the captain, was totally driven from
that quarter. The moose deer reigned the master of
the forest. This anecdote, if true, might in such minds
1 Fort Halifax was built by Gov. Shirley of Massachusetts in 1754, by
engagement with the Plymouth company, who were to build Fort Western
at Cushnoc now Augusta. It was located at Ticonic, the confluence of the
Sebasticook with the Kennebec, and was built of hewn timber, with a block
house at opposite angles of the fort, and picketed. Plans of both forts are
given in NORTH S History of Augusta. At Ticonic was the first carrying
place, where all the provisions and baggage had to be transported by land a
distance of eighty rods, and the bateaux dragged over by human force aided
by a yoke of oxen. M.
Campaign against Quebec , 1775. 1 7
as those of Buffon, or De Pauw, give occasion to systems
in natural history, totally inconsistent with the laws of
nature ; still there may be something in it ; animals, like
human beings, whether forced fry necessity or from
choice, do migrate. Many instances might be given
of this circumstance of the animal economy, in various
parts of the world. The above relation is the only
instance which has come to my knowledge, where one
species has expelled another of the same genus. If the
fact be true, it is either effected by a species of warfare,
or some peculiarity in the appearance of the one kind,
and of horror or perhaps of disgust in the other ; we know
the rock goat (steinbock of the Germans and boquetin of
the French) formerly inhabited the low hills of southern
France and of the Pyrenees ; they have been driven
thence by some peculiar cause, for they are now con
fined to the tops of the highest mountains in Europe. It
is true, it has been frequently advanced by men of re
spectability and information in Pennsylvania, that the
grey fox which is indigenous in the United States, and
all North America, has been driven from the Atlantic
sea coast into the interior, by the introduction of the red
fox from Europe. But we have no sufficient data to
warrant this assertion. The truth probably is, that as
the grey fox is a dull and slow animal, compared with the
sprightliness, rapidity, and cunning of the red fox, that
the first has been thinned by the huntsmen, and gradually
receded from the seacoast to the forest, where, from his
habits, he is more secure. The cunning and prowess
of the latter, has enabled him to maintain his station
among the farms, in despite of the swiftness and power
ful scent of the dogs. But that which puts this assertion
out of view, is that the red fox is indigenous throughout
North America. He and the grey fox are found in the
highest latitudes, but there, their skins are changed into
more beautiful furs than those of ours, by the effects of
climate. Another notion has been started within these
1 8 Campaign against Quebec , 1775.
twenty years past, of the fox squirrel expelling the large
grey squirrel : but it is fallacious.
Be these things as they may, we spent an agreeable
and most sociable evening with this respectable man, and
his amiable family. On the following day, our party
rose early, and accompanied by our host, waited upon
the tory, who then showed himself to be an honest man,
of independent principles, and who claimed the right of
thinking for himself. He exchanged a barrel of smoke-
dried salmon for a barrel of pork, upon honest terms.
We set out from this place, well pleased with our host,
the old tory, and our bargain. In a very few days,
without other accident than the spraining of Lieut.
Steele s ancle, by his slipping, when carrying a canoe
over the path, at one of the intermediate portages, we
arrived safely at Norridgewock falls. Coming to the
landing place, the water being smooth and very deep, a
rock, as we passed it, drew my attention very particularly,
it was standing in a conical form, five feet in perpen
dicular height, and ten or twelve feet in diameter at the
base. I observed that next the water, the face of the
rock, which was a bluish flint, was, as it were, scalloped
out, down to the very water s edge. Asking Getchel
how this had occurred, his reply was that the Indians, in
former times, had from thence obtained their spear and
arrow points. It seems unreasonable that without a
knowledge of iron, they should have been capable of
executing such a labor. However, upon observation and
reflection, since Getchel s time, an inducement from
experience and reasoning occurs, which influences me to
believe that he might have been correct in his observation.
The rock, no doubt, still remains, and there is leisure
for inquiry and discussion.
We were hurried. The village within one hundred
yards of the pitch of the fall, was evidently a deserted
Campaign against Quebec, 1775. 19
Indian town. 1 We saw no one there. It was without
the vestige of inhabitants. Dressing our victuals here
at mid-day, an occurrence happened, which disgusted me
in an extreme degree. On this day, an estimate of our
food was made, and an allotment in quantity to each man,
though no actual separation of shares took place, as that,
it was agreed, should happen at the twelve-mile carrying
place. By the estimate now made, it seemed that there
was something of a surplus. As we had had hard work,
that and some preceding days, and harder fare, our good
commander was inclined to indulge Us. The surplus
was allotted for this day s fare. It happened that
M Konkey was, by routine, the cook. He boiled the
meat (vegetable food of any kind was not attainable),
and when sauntering towards the fall, he called us to
dinner. We came eagerly. He was seated on the earth,
near the wooden bowl. The company reclined around
in a like posture, intending to partake ; when M Konkey
raising his vile and dirty hands, struck the meat, exclaim