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the
latest:
Arnold road trip
One day, about six years ago, I said to my wife, Rachel, "Wouldn't it be
great to use our vacation time this year to go on a two-week Benedict
Arnold road trip? We'd visit places he lived and fought, and even follow the
route of his amazing march to Quebec!" I was half-joking. But she went for
it. I think her exact works were: "Sounds fun." So we did it. Here are some
of the pictures.
Here I am at Arnold's birthplace
in the town of Norwich,
Connecticut. The original house
in long gone, but there's this
plaque. Turns out Norwich isn't
too proud of their most famous
son. There's lots of historic stuff
in Norwich, but barely a
mention of Arnold.
This is the tomb of Hannah Arnold, Benedict's mother. Arnold's father
and older brother, who died in infancy, were buried alongside Hannah.
But after Arnold's treason furious local citizens smashed their
gravestones-because both had the name "Benedict Arnold" on them.
Here's the mouth of the
Kennebec River in
Maine. It was here that
Arnold and his force of
about 1,000 men began
their incredible trek
toward Quebec.
A drawing from my
notebook, showing the
remains of a Civil War
era fort along the
Kennebec.
See, I'm not the only one obsessed with this
story. Members of the Arnold Expedition
Historical Society maintain trails along
Arnold's route, and search for artifacts left
by his army. No one knows more about
the march to Quebec that these folks.
The
Nortorious
Benedict
Arnold wins
the YALSA
Award for
Excellence
in
Nonfiction!