(gentle piano music) (hammer clanging) - [Jonathan] Arnold's March begins with just yards from where we're standing right now, which is why this is such an important site.

- It all goes back to George Washington.

In Concord, Massachusetts, he was laying siege to Boston.

We needed help and the help came from the French.

The French were enemies of the British at the time, had been longtime enemies, and he was hoping to get the French on our side and get some support.

Washington came up with this plan to liberate Canada from the British, because it was French until the mid-1700s when the British took it by battle on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec city.

So, the idea was to liberate Canada for the French, and it was a two-pronged attack.

He was gonna send General Schuyler from Albany, New York into Lake Champlain and take Montreal, he had to have somebody go up through the woods of Maine to attack Quebec city through the back door.

So, Benedict Arnold volunteered for that job, to lead the expedition through Maine to attack Quebec, take Quebec, liberate the city of Quebec.

Schuyler was gonna liberate the city of Montreal to prove to them that they could join us and succeed, and maybe even make that part of Canada a 14th Colony.

So, the march officially starts in St.

Cambridge, but they marched by foot overland to Newbury Port.

Newbury Port, they boarded ships and from ships, they came up to the Kennebec River.

They landed in Pittston, where Reuben Colburn had made 200 bateaux for this expedition, orders from George Washington - After leaving Massachusetts, his expedition stops at Fort Western, is where they gather supplies.

Arnold divides his group up into three small groups.

After September 26th, they start heading up the Kennebec in these bateaux, larger boats, flat bottom, designed to carry people.

They're not elegant, designed to carry people and supplies.

And the idea is, they're gonna use water as far along the way as they possibly can till they reach Quebec.

As the expedition leaves Fort Western, there's plenty of game around them, there's plenty of fish in the river.

They're in a decently well-settled area, and so everything's going fine.

As the expedition continues, the various groups get more and more strung out, until finally by mid-October, there is a massive storm.

The tail end of the expedition votes to stop, turn around, leave, and they have most of the supplies, which means that Arnold is pressing on with around three or 400 soldiers to try to make it to Quebec city through the absolute wilds of Maine and Southern Quebec.

By the end, they are eating their shoe leather, they eat one of the soldier's dogs.

Men are dying of frostbit and exposure in swamps, wondering what they're even gonna find there.

Arnold, who's been holding all of this together by a force of will, really, managed to meet with some local Quebecois who agree to give him supplies.

And as these guys straggle out of the swamps, where so many of them have died, they find provisions and food and warm fires, and it's like going from absolute hell into sort of paradise.

Then they have to go fight a war and then they have to go and join in on this siege of of Quebec city.

(calm music) - We are standing at Arnold's landing, the beginning of The Great Carry, The Great Carrying Place.

There are some intrepid reenactors with me who have come here to walk in the footsteps of the past, the patriots of the past, Arnold's expedition.

- One of the cool things about living history is the ability to do just that.

So, to have an opportunity to just experience a little bit what they experienced, especially 250 years to the day is pretty unique.

- I'm in awe of the men who actually did this.

You know, the 1100 men came through here with Arnold, Benedict Arnold, and they were carrying 400-pound boats, bateaux, and they were carrying all kinds of barrels of food and gear and lead shot and gunpowder.

- I think it shows you how hardy and committed to the cause they were and the fact that they did it 250 years ago without all of our modern, you know, technologies and amenities is amazing to me.

And I think that speaks a lot to their commitment and their devotion to the cause and also just their personal, individual resilience, which I think is absolutely amazing.

And I think that's the thing that really is something to be admired.

- These were ordinary people, these were just normal, typical people, but they were put into an extraordinary situation, and they had to rise to that occasion.

And they had to be proven.

They, you know, their mettle was proven by how arduous this trip was.

They're shopkeepers and hunters and farmers before the war.

Suddenly, they have to step up and invade.

The fact that Virginians and Pennsylvanians have marched all the way up here to go further into Canada, that's ordinary people in extraordinary times.

(grass rustling) - It's been, you know, just amazing to kind of come here and really see what this kind of was all about.

I've always thought that this was really a herculean feat, and just to be able to kinda see some of that for myself, and so it is just really been amazing to see what they actually saw and do some of the things that they actually did.

- They were definitely extraordinary patriots and motivated for their belief in what was going to become a great country.

- There we go.

250 years seems like a long time.

It's less than 10 generations.

It's not really all that long ago.

A lot of the events still have an impact today.

It makes a difference, what we have for government, how we're organized, what kind of trading we're doing.

It all connects back to those decisions that were made so long ago - Before Benedict Arnold was a trader, he was a hero.

He was a brilliant leader.

People say he was in the class with George Washington.

- [Mike] This march is just a case study in bravery, determination, and it happened right in our own backyard, right here.

(calm music continues) (calm music continues)