Through a Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec, 1775 [Paperback]

Thomas A. Desjardin (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312339054 | ISBN-13: 978-0312339050 | Publication Date: November 13, 2007 | Edition: 1st

Before Benedict Arnold was branded a traitor, he was one of the colonies' most valuable leaders. In September 1775, eleven hundred soldiers boarded ships in Massachusetts, bound for the Maine wilderness. They had volunteered for a secret mission, under Arnold's command to march and paddle nearly two hundred miles and seize British Quebec. Before they reached the Canadian border, hundreds died, a hurricane destroyed canoes and equipment and many deserted. In the midst of a howling blizzard, the remaining troops attacked Quebec and almost took Canada from the British simultaneously weakening the British hand against Washington. With the enigmatic Benedict Arnold at its center, Tom Desjardin has written one of the great American adventure stories.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In June 1775, Benedict Arnold—having not yet turned traitor, and, indeed, lionized as one of the 13 colonies' great military hopes—proposed an invasion of Quebec. He thought a successful attack might dispose King George to redress the colonists' grievances. With General Washington's approval, Arnold gathered together a group of soldiers and headed north. Desjardin (These Honored Dead: How the Story of Gettysburg Shaped American Memory) describes the grueling expedition. The soldiers quickly ran low on food, and, among other disasters, a canoe was ripped apart by a tree branch, almost costing half the men their lives. Eventually, some of the troops made it to Canada, and after backup arrived, they attacked Quebec Though the attempt was unsuccessful and Arnold was wounded, he was praised for simply having made it from Maine to Canada. Desjardin's account is able, though at times melodramatic ("Thousands of issues must have weighed heavily upon Arnold's mind") and cute (two centuries before Dr. Atkins, Arnold's men "discovered the weight-loss capacities" of low-carb eating). Perhaps the most important section is the epilogue, in which Desjardin suggests that a successful attack on Quebec might actually have hampered the fight for American independence. (Jan. 8)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Rather too late in 1775, American generals Benedict Arnold and Richard Montgomery set off to assault Quebec, the main fortress of British Canada, at the head of an exceedingly modest force of Continental soldiers. They faced grueling portages, swamps, insects, trackless forests, hostile Indians, Quebecois not eager to be liberated by the staunchly Protestant New Englanders, and supply shortages of every conceivable kind. They finally reached Quebec in the dead of winter, to find it desperately defended by the British. After attempting a siege, they assaulted the walled city. The assault failed, with Montgomery killed and Arnold wounded, which Desjardin, state historian of Maine, suggests may have been a fatal blow to the campaign. The survivors retreated even more precariously than they had advanced. Thoroughly researched and well written, this is likely to be the standard history of the campaign for some time to come. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (November 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312339054
• ISBN-13: 978-0312339050
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,216,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Composite Tale From Sometimes Questionable Sources, July 28, 2008

By 

David M. Dougherty (Arkansas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Through a Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec, 1775 (Paperback)

Arnold's march to Quebec is a subject that an historian can research almost completely with little effort. Kenneth Roberts did us all a favor with his 1938 "March To Quebec" while writing Arundel, a fictional account of the campaign, which included almost all of the known and important journals by members of Arnold's expedition. Desjardin could almost have written his book from this single source, and in fact his end notes reference Roberts extensively. The journals contained in Roberts and an additional two dozen references cover 99+ percent of the known information concerning the march and the battle for Quebec with Roberts accounting for probably 80%.

In short, this book is a weaving of those journals into a narrative, complete with the inaccuracies and exaggerations in those journals. Most of the references listed are peripheral to the journals, even the primary sources, and the chapter on "America'a Hannibal" is superfluous in that it deals with Arnold in other campaigns. The reader is cautioned that this light read lacks the depth of analysis and discussion normally expected in a historical work. One could read the journals contained in Roberts's book and perhaps come away with a better appreciation of the travails and experiences of this campaign.

The march itself was probably best handled in an unreferenced work of 1903 by Justin Smith, "Arnold's March From Cambridge To Quebec." John Codman's 1901 work, "Arnold's Expedition to Quebec" also covers the ground well, although it contains information that has been impossible to verify from other sources or critical analysis. The battle is covered relatively poorly in primary sources, with the usual contradictory accounts, especially with respect to Arnold's attack on the lower town. Morgan's actions at the barricades fall more properly into the realm of myth-making, although clearly the riflemen fought as well as they could. The saga of the captured Americans, (of which my Great-great-great-grandfather James Dougherty of Smith's Lancaster Riflemen and who then violated his parole and fought in Washington's army until 1783 was one), is covered at any length only in Henry's journal, a page of two in others including several British sources, and a few letters and other documents such as those by James Dougherty. That Quebec would never have become the 14th colony to rebel and the capture of Quebec would have cost the patriots more than they would gain is also a fairly common opinion among historians.

In short, I recommend other works concerning Arnold's expedition for the casual historian of the Revolutionary period such as Roberts for the journals, Smith for a critical analysis of the march, and Arthur Lefkowitz's "Benedict Arnold's Army" for the overall invasion. But Desjardin's book is what it is, a composite of the stories as recorded by the participants.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Desjardin's best effort, January 26, 2006

By 

Barnes and Noble Junkie (Barnes And Noble, Midlothian, Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Through a Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec, 1775 (Hardcover)

Having thouroughly enjoyed Desjardin's Stand Firm Ye Boys From Maine, I eagerly anticipated reading this book. I was a little disappointed..

The Quebec invasion was actually an expedition and then a battle, and while Desjardin's handling of the battle is well written, his account of the expedition is sometimes dull and tedious and tends to bog down like the quagmire that he is describing.

Having read books about Franklin's, Scott's and Amundsen's expeditions, I was somewhat bored by Desjardin's treatment of the Quebec expedition. Yes they were different types of expeditions, but they all involved courage, suffering and sacrifice. One possible reason for Dejardin's being less exciting is that there are more accounts of Arnold's expedition then of Franklin's (everyone died) and Scott's, which means that Desjardin had less room to speculate or to 'novel-ize' in his book. The book is very well researched, so much so that at some points it seems as if Desjardin wrote the story around the quotes, rather then using the quotes to back up his story.

There are a few parts in the book that left me scratching my head. On page 112 after writing about the quagmire that the men had walked through with mud up to their knees, Desjardin writes 'In ten hours, they had covered just 20 miles'. This is actually an incredible pace. 20 miles is a good day on a backpacking trip, so to cover that much in 10 hours through a quagmire is unbelievable.

Another low point for the book was the end. The book ends at the bottom of a page, and I literally turned the page expecting there to be more.. There wasn't.. It was almost as if Dejardin had nothing left to say, so he just stopped writing.

On the positive side, the description of the battle is good, but what really saves the book is Dejardin's theory that the failure to seize Quebec actually helped to win the war. Desjardin's arguments backing this theory are very compelling.

So while the 'Invasion of Quebec' is an important part of US History, involving great courage and sacrifice, I would hope that there is a better book out there by which to learn about it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The March to Quebec in Detail, November 6, 2006

By 

J. Crivelli "SOLTC" (NY, NY, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Through a Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec, 1775 (Hardcover)

This is a small but fact-filled work which is an easy read and brings its subject to life. Mr. Desjardin's position as Historic Site Specialist for the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands shows through with his very detailed descriptions of the personalities and terrain involved in the expedition.

I would suggest that a reader have some familiarity with the history before picking up this work, since the author concentrates completely on his subject. I read this just after "George Washington and Benedict Arnold" by Palmer and "Benedict Arnold's Navy" by Nelson, and enjoyed the book's detail because I already knew the context.

As with any "trek" story, the march to Canada can be tedious for some readers. Take heart! The writing is easy to read and the story flows.