Our General

Welcome back to Powder to Parchment on WREV 760AM, where we bring you Revolutionary Talk straight from the heart of 1775. Today we turn our attention to Benedict Arnold, and not the man remembered for betrayal, but the soldier who was still a hero. On October 3, 1775, Arnold and more than a thousand men began their march north through the wilds of Maine, bound for Quebec. They carried bateaux that leaked, maps that lied, and provisions that would soon rot, yet they carried also the hopes of General Washington and the survival of the Revolution. Arnold had already seized Fort Ticonderoga, yet Congress treated him with suspicion and scorn. Washington, however, saw fire and trusted him with a bold gamble. If Quebec could be taken, Canada might join the American cause. This is the story of ambition, boldness, and the making of a Revolutionary hero.