Produced by Greg Bergquist and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) Transcriber's Note The punctuation and spelling from the original text have been faithfully preserved. Only obvious typographical errors have been corrected. AN INTERESTING JOURNAL OF ABNER STOCKING OF CHATHAM, CONNECTICUT DETAILING THE DISTRESSING EVENTS OF THE EXPEDITION AGAINST QUEBEC, UNDER THE COMMAND OF COL. ARNOLD IN THE YEAR 1775 _Published by the relatives of Abner Stocking, now deceased_ CATSKILL, N.Y. EAGLE OFFICE 1810 TARRYTOWN, N.Y. REPRINTED WILLIAM ABBATT 1921 BEING EXTRA NUMBER 75 OF THE MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WITH NOTES AND QUERIES EDITOR'S PREFACE We have already reprinted three journals of members of Arnold's famous expedition to Quebec, (Dr. Senter's, Captain Topham's and Private Morison's) and now present a fourth, written by Private Abner Stocking, which has not before been printed since its original appearance in 1810. Mr. Codman in his most valuable book on the Expedition, justly says of these and similar journals: "They constitute an invariably interesting body of historical material, which preserves unimpaired the quaint individuality of their widely-diverse authors, and the unmistakable color and atmosphere of a period which must always be of particular importance to the students of American history." INTRODUCTION The reader cannot enter on the succeeding journal to advantage without first being acquainted with the object of the expedition, the circumstances under which it was undertaken, and the route marked out for the army to pursue. In the month of June 1775 Gen. Schuyler was commissioned by Congress to invade Canada through the lakes--to take possession of Ticonderoga and Crown Point; and if practicable to proceed to St. Johns and besiege that fortress. Should he succeed in getting possession of these posts on the lakes, the way would be open to proceed on to Montreal and from thence to Quebec, the capital of Canada. General Washington calculating on the success of General Schuyler, and foreseeing that the whole force of Canada would be concentrated about Montreal, projected an expedition against Quebec, by a detachment from his camp before Boston, which was to march by the way of the Kennebeck river, and passing through the dreary wilderness lying between the settled parts of Maine and the St. Lawrence, and crossing the rugged mountains and deep morasses which abound in that country, to penetrate into Canada about ninety miles below Montreal. The object proposed by this hardy enterprise was to take possession of Quebec, which all his accounts assured him was absolutely unable to hold out against any considerable force, and would probably surrender without firing a gun.