Through a Howling Wilderness is an almost unbelievable nonfiction book detailing the expedition of Benedict Arnold (in the days when he was America's most-admired general next to Washington)and more than 1100 soldiers who trekked across the state of Maine to capture British Quebec in 1775. There were no roads, virtually no trails, no settlements and no maps to follow. Only through the help of the shadowy Natanis, a Native American who knew the English language and was actually friends of the settlers, although the budding Americans had orders to shoot to kill him, did they survive at all and finally arrive exhausted, ill, hungry, ill-clothed and often unshod at the St. Lawrence River across from Quebec City.
The more I read about the men and women who founded this great nation of America, the more amazed I am that her founding occurred at all. Many individuals gave up their lives, their limbs, their health, their fortunes to do what had to be done to break the bonds with England and accomplish the never-before-tried feat of breaking with a parent country and setting up a new, independent government. No one who volunteered for this mammoth undertaking had any idea how difficult it would be. None had imagined that Mother Nature could brew up such violent storms and such bitter cold. The colonists could easily have gone round and round in the swamps at the tops of the mountains and never broken out again, without the help of the native Natanis, who never showed himself to this army, but did leave written directions for the exhausted and frozen marchers, leading them along their way to Canada.
Benedict Arnold was a gifted soldier -- many accounts bear that out. In the end, he betrayed the country he worked so hard to help found, for reasons not considered in this book. But he was faithful to the trust placed in him in 1775 to move an army of men across a wilderness, through lands of swamp in water and mud to their knees. Even the animals avoided that area at the tops of the northern Appalachians, causing many to die of starvation. Arnold managed to encourage his men and lead them finally to their goal. That he failed to conquer Quebec was not due to any fault of his own. It is most difficult to fight a walled city in a blizzard with soldiers who had very little artillery, no shoes or coats, who were sick with scurvy and starvation. But he did his best.
I learned that this country of America, so dearly won, must be defended from all who would trample her freedoms by overt or covert means. Untold thousands of families gave nearly all that was precious to them to fight for the even more-precious liberty from oppression and the right to determine their own destiny. They gave their best for us, their descendants and later emigrants who would find safety and independence. We must gain as much understanding about the fundamentals of this nation as we can and then fight through the ballot and public service to retain these freedoms gained by those who could see the values of a free and independent land. America can only remain free if we fight to keep it so.
This book is not an easy, soft read. It is grim and often I had to just steel myself to pick it up and continue reading when I would have preferred to read something fluffy and enjoyable. And, I admit, there were times when I could not summon the discipline to read it and thus set it aside for a little while until I was able to return to the sacrifices and hardships endured by men who had committed themselves to take on the challenge of wresting Canada from British hands. As we now know, they did not succeed, after all that they suffered. But in the end, Canada was not a threat to the American nation and the budding Americans did succeed in freeing herself from the British yoke.
Reading Through a Howling Wilderness is a well-worth investment in time. Like the horrors of the Civil War, WWI and WWII, war is not nice. It is not fun. But sometimes it is necessary for the greater good. Books like this bear that out.