In September 1775, Colonel Benedict Arnold led an expedition of
more than 1,000 colonial soldiers up the Kennebec River to
attack the British stronghold of Quebec City. The men came to
the Kennebec from Massachusetts on board eleven ships which
disembarked here at the home of Reuben Colburn, a member of
the Maine Committee of Safety.

Colburn had help spawn the idea of attacking British Quebec by
way of the Maine wilderness and had supplied critical information
to General Washington. On Arnold's arrival, Colburn had 200
wooden boats called bateaux waiting and the expedition used
them to carry its provisions and military stores upstream toward
Canada. This house was Arnold's headquarters and the launching
point for his famous expedition against Quebec.

Colburn had also assembled a crew and built the boats within
two weeks of General Washington's request to do so, but without
enough seasoned lumber for the sizable task, the builders had to
use green wood which was more prone to fail in the water.
Twenty of these craftsmen, including Colburn himself, then
accompanied the expedition to Canada, carrying supplies and
repairing the boats as they traveled.

Learn more about the Colburn House by clicking here.