The Passage of the Arnold Expedition Through Skowhegan

In the fall of 1775 an army of eleven hundred Revolutionary soldiers, traveling up the Kennebec valley on foot and by bateau, passed across the tract of land we now know as Skowhegan. It was the Arnold Expedition on its way to surprise and capture Quebec. This expedition represented an attempt on the part of Gen. Washington to carry the war in its first season directly into the enemy's country, and by obtaining possession of the strongest British fortress upon the continent to throw the enemy on the defensive, and give to himself the advantage of position, and perhaps to the war an early close. It was confidently expected, and there was much ground for the hope, that after an American victory the people of the province of Quebec would flock to the colonial cause, with the result that the fourteenth colony would add its strength to the thirteen in their struggle for independence, a result which was regarded by some of the wisest leaders of the Revolution as an indispensable condition of success.