Reuben Colburn

Reuben Colburn (1740–1818) was a shipbuilder in Pittston, Maine who made great contributions to the American side in the Revolutionary War. His home, the Major Reuben Colburn House, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1761, Colburn, his seven siblings and parents moved to Gardinerston in Maine, then a province of Massachusetts. He arrived near the beginning of serious tensions between the colonists and the British.

A strong patriot, Colburn, a lumberman and shipbuilder, took up arms in 1775 when the revolution started, obtaining command of his local committee of safety. To bring local Indians in on the American side, he gathered the Abenaki tribes of the St. Francis. Traveling by canoe Colburn led them to Cambridge, Massachusetts for an audience with General George Washington at his temporary headquarters. A surprised Washington welcomed them with open arms and enlisted the chiefs on the spot.

When informed of a plan to capture Quebec City under the command of American Colonel Benedict Arnold, Colburn offered his services to the Continental army, complete with scouts, maps, and boats. Arnold was enthusiastic about the new support and wrote Colburn immediately:

Sir, His Excellency General Washington Desires you will Inform your self how soon, there can be procured, or built, at Kennebec, Two hundred light Bateaux Capable of Carrying Six or Seven Men each, with their Provisions & Baggage, (say 100 wt. to each man) the Boats to be furnished with four Oars two Paddles & two Setting Poles each, the expense of Building them & whether a sufficient quantity of Nails can be procured with you.

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