At noon, Colonel Arnold, his staff, all the Expedition commanders, and Mr. Colburn arrived at our bivouac next to the humble trading post beside the crumbling ruins of Fort Western. They came in a little flotilla of canoes for what was described by the Expedition Commander as a “Final planning conference before we depart for Quebec.” It was good to see Capt. Febiger again and we stood next to each other during the meeting.

Colonel Arnold began by ordering two scouting parties prepared immediately, one led by Lt. Archibald Steele of Pennsylvania to gather intelligence on the route we will take to Lake Mégantic, and the other led by Lt. Church to confirm the most direct track to The Great Carrying Place.

He directed the two scouting parties to mark Indian trails and places where portage of the batteaux will be necessary and once past Height of Land to plot a safe course down the Chaudière River to the St. Lawrence. The Colonel specified the scouting parties will depart tomorrow and the Advance Guard will follow on ­Monday, September 25th.

A disagreement then arose when Col. Arnold announced Lieutenant Colonel Greene of the Rhode Island Militia to command the Advance Guard of the Expedition. This was contrary to what we all heard back in Cambridge when he named Captain Morgan as commander of the Advance Guard.

The first to object were Captains Hendricks and Smith, commanding the two Pennsylvania Rifle Companies. They were very frank in expressing their unwillingness to take orders from a militia officer and pointed out the Rifle Companies were the first forces raised by an Act of Congress—and the only Commissioned Continental Army officers on the Expedition were Colonel Arnold and Capt. Morgan.

Rather than create a confrontation in front of Arnold’s staff, subordinates, and the contingent of “Civilian Volunteers,” which was unlikely to end well, Capt. Morgan rose and said, “This is a matter which Colonel Arnold and I will discuss and resolve before we depart Fort Western. For now, I suggest we focus on what must be done to get the “Arnold Expedition” moving to Quebec. Winter is barking like a wolf at our door.”

For the balance of the meeting, all hands were engaged in discussing the particular challenges of moving 1,100 men up a river, across a trackless wilderness, down another river, and then capturing a fortified enemy-held city.

Col. Arnold began with the most obvious challenge. Without demeaning Reuben Colburn, Col. Arnold said, “We must deal with the batteaux problem.

“First, they are smaller than we wanted. But these vessels weigh 400 pounds empty. Larger boats would be impossible to carry over the portages on the Kennebec and Chaudière Rivers.

“General Washington and I contracted with Mr. Colburn to build 200 batteaux. With these smaller boats, that’s not enough to transport our entire force. To solve that problem Mr. Colburn has agreed to build twenty more batteaux.