The Republican journal., 1913-03-20
Arnold's Invasion of Canada
BY FRANK W. GOWEN.

BY FRANK W. GOWEN,
Author of Queen of the Kennebec."
was reading recently in one of our
eastern papers short article on Ar
nold's Invasion of Canada, in which the
writer said: when General Arnold and
his starving army reached Flagstaff,
under the shadows of Mt. Bigelow, he
flung to the breeze the Stars and
Stripes" This statement opens up a
very important question as to the kind
of flag Arnold raised over his tent on
that famous camp ground in the Maine
wilderness, and may say that in all my
research of every important incident
in connection with this Inflated expedi
ton, and they have been extensive, both
at home and abroad, l have failed to
learn the color or device of the Cont
mental flag Arnold flung to the breeze
at this place by the deep, still waters OF
the Dead River. 1t could not have been
flag with stars and stripes, because no
such flag was then in use in the colonies.
1t was not until TIT, or two years after
Arnold's march through the dark, stormy
wilderness of Quebec that flag with
stars and stripes as design was used,
as the following resolution passed June
IA, TIT by the Continental Congress on
the 18th of June of that year shows:
"Resolved. That the flag of the thir-
teen United States be thirteen stripes,
alternate red and white, that the Union
be thirteen stars, white in blue field,
representing a new constellation.
Whereas there were only thirteen stars
in our early flag there are today forty
eight, star having been added for each
new State. While there are no means
: of knowing the kind of flag General
Arnold raised at Flagstaff l have always
thought it might have been the New
England flag, then quite generally IN
use. 1t was the New England flag that
was raised above the entertainment at
Bunker Hill at the opening of the battle
and in my opinion this might have been
the flag Arnold raised at the camp
ground in the far off wilderness OF the
North.
Those who left writings or journals OF
this expedition, like General Henry
Dearborn, Judge Henry of Pennsyl-
vania, who accompanied Arnold, and
Rev. Jacob Bailey, historian and early
missionary of the Kennebec. as we'll as
classmate of John Adams at II lrvard,
are silent on this subject and it will
! probably always remain an unsettled
question as to the kind of flag raised at
Flagstaff. 1t is not authentic, as claim
ed bv some writers, that Arnold army
was in a starving condition when he
reached Flagstaff, although his soldiers
h ad been subject to severe toll and eX-
posure in carrying their boats around
rapids and over rocky highlands along
the upper kennebec. This of course
was doubly hard task for the army, as
tr ees and bushes had to be cut down and
cleared away to effect passage for his
army, and traces of this old military road
over which oxen dragged the boats and
soldiers carried their baggage and stores
are still to be seen on the west side OF
the Kennebec between Norridgewock
and Madison. On his arrival at Flag
staff Arnold made careful eXamlna-
ton of his muster-roll and commissariat
and found that his army had been re-
duced to only fifty active men through
desertion and sickness, and he also re-
ported twenty days provisions in store.
The soldiers, or "rehels against their
King" as Rev Jacob Bailey, the radical
Tory, called them, caught large quantities
of delicious trout while in camp at this
place, and We're in excellent spirits and
enthusiastic as to the capture of Quebec.
The second morning of the encamp-
ment dawned bright and clear, but was
chilly. The ground was covered with
heavy frost and the summit of the noun
tains covered with snow. The autumnal
leaves, which had lost their brilliant
hues, were fast falling from the trees
and the rigors of the Canadian winter
were close at hand. This was the morn
ing that General Arnold gave orders to
Major Timothy Bigelow to ascend the
great mountain to ascertain If he could
get good view of "the spires of Que
bec" This he did, and reported that he
could see, through his field glasses, the
walls of that famous city and from this
adventure Mt. Bigelow derived its name.
Tradition says that Aaron Burr, who ac-
companied Arnold on this Inflated ex-
petition, and was afterwards vice presi-
dent of the United States, when told
that Major Bigelow had sighted the walls
of Quebec from Mt. Bigelow, quickly re-
piled, ''Yes and we will soon scale its
walls and lick the redcoats out of their
boots"
Captain Dearborn, who later in life be-
came a noted general, and resided in
Gardiner, Maine, some years after the
Revolution, says in his journal Of this
expedition that Burr was accompanied
to Quebec by half-breed girl of Swan
Island. known as Jacatauue and famous