America's Invasion of Canada

American History Hit

History Hit

America, History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

'Canada ought to be the 14th colony' was a view held by many American revolutionaries. In the winter of 1775, Benedict Arnold led an incredible (if doomed) mission to make it happen.

We're delighted to be joined again by Maj. Jonathan D. Bratten, historian for the Maine National Guard.

Edited by Tim Arstall. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	They have come so far through the sodden tangled forests of Maine, pushing leaking boats along flooded rivers, through weeks of starvation and illness when shoe leather became a meal. Now, standing in snow, a blizzard howling around them, they looked to the steep barricades of Quebec,
0:23.0	exhausted eyes staring into the pre-dawn darkness, everyone aware of the knife's edge of history they teeter upon.
0:31.1	All the months of sacrifice, the hardship, the resolve, converging on this one desperate assault.
0:38.9	This is their chance to seize the city and try and make Canada the 14th American colony.
0:46.6	They move quietly, stealthily, undetected in the snow.
0:51.4	Soon enough, muskets and cannon roar. The battle for Quebec is underway.
0:57.0	Greetings one and all. This is American History Hit, and I'm Don Wildman. It's sometimes
1:17.4	tough to ground your feet solidly in the early history of the American Revolution. So let's review a few
1:23.0	events. Everybody knows about Lexington and Concord, Spring of 75, shot herd round the world.
1:29.3	Bunker Hill, that British victory that comes at such a bloody cost, follows in June.
1:34.5	July, George Washington arrives to organize the Continental Army surrounding Boston, the siege of Boston,
1:41.5	and that stalemate lasts until the following March when the British finally
1:45.4	evacuate under threat of American artillery. That siege is the backdrop of a remarkably grueling
1:52.3	event that often escapes notice, certainly when we were youngsters, locking in the basics of
1:57.2	the revolution. In the fall months of 1775, there was a critical and pivotal scene
2:03.2	setter of so much which comes later. It involved none other than the infamous Benedict Arnold,
2:09.1	though this is the early heroic Arnold, the one so full of vim and vigor, hell bent on victory
2:14.5	against the tyrants. It is the American invasion of Quebec, Canada.
2:20.0	Today, our peaceful ally and primary trading partner to the north, which might be the reason
2:24.4	we never hear much about it, happened in the fall and winter of 1775, and today we have just
2:29.6	the man to explain it all. Jonathan Bratton is a major in the main Army National Guard on this series.
2:35.8	He has previously attacked the history of Bunker Hill, demystified George Washington's
	...

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