Bayley Hazen Military Road The Bayley – Hazen Military Road was a military road that was originally planned to run from Newbury , Vermont , to St . John ' s , Quebec , not far from Montreal . , running from Newbury to Hazens Notch near the Canadian border , were constructed between 1776 and 1779 during the American Revolutionary War . Portions of the road ' s route are used by modern roads today . The road is named for the principal proponents of its construction . Jacob Bayley and Moses Hazen were among the founders of Newbury and nearby Haverhill , New Hampshire , and Hazen also had property interests at St . John ' s . The idea for the road featured prominently in several proposals ( promoted primarily by Hazen to George Washington and the Second Continental Congress ) for invasions of Quebec by Continental Army forces following the failed 1775 invasion . Background . After hostilities in the French and Indian War ended in 1760 , several veterans of that war founded the communities of Haverhill and Newbury on either side of the Connecticut River in the far north of the British province of New Hampshire . The land on the west side of the river was the subject of disputes between New Hampshire and the province of New York , and was known then as the New Hampshire Grants ; this territory eventually became the state of Vermont . First construction . Work to develop the road occurred first in 1776 . General George Washington , to support the Continental Army ' s 1775 invasion of Quebec , asked Thomas Johnson , a local landowner , to blaze a trail to St . John ' s on the Richelieu River near Montreal that army regiments could use to reach the area . On March 26 , 1776 , Johnson and four men set out through the snow , covering the to St . John ' s in 11 days . Several Continental Army regiments made their way along this trail that year , prompting Washington to order construction of a road . Jacob Bayley and 60 men constructed , apparently at Bayley ' s expense , about ( into present - day Peacham , Vermont ) until rumors arrived that a British army was coming down the trail to stop them . The construction was abandoned amid concerns of invasion in the small communities . ( Only a small company of Canadien s came down the trail as far as Peacham . ) It is unclear whether Bayley was ever repaid for this work . Second construction . Moses Hazen , then colonel in the Continental Army , was directed by Washington in the spring of 1779 to renew construction of the road . His regiment and that of Colonel Timothy Bedel worked on the road throughout the summer of 1779 , extending it through the present - day communities of Cabot , Walden , Hardwick , Greensboro , Craftsbury , Albany , and Lowell . Blockhouse s were also constructed along the route , at Peacham , Cabot , Walden , and Greensboro . Work was abandoned when the road reached the place now known as Hazens Notch in Westfield , again on rumors that the British were sending a force to stop the construction work . Revolutionary War uses . Even after construction was abandoned on the road , the blockhouses on the route were manned , and occasionally subjected to minor skirmishes and scouting actions . The road was apparently identified by the British for use in raiding expeditions in 1780 ; the raid against Royalton and other small Vermont communities may have included Peacham and nearby communities as targets . Strong local militia may have deterred the raiders from making an attack there . Jacob Bayley was also targeted by the British for kidnapping ; at least one attempt was made using the road , which failed as Bayley was alerted to the plan . After the war . The road was the only road in the area , and became a route for migration and development of the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont . Little evidence of the original road exists , as much of its route has been taken over by state and local roads , but there have been reports of archaeologists locating isolated sections of corduroy .