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A History of the Maryland Press, 1777-1790
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He volunteered and joined the expedition led by Arnold for the cap-
ture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point in 1775. There is no record
whether he was present when Ethan Allen demanded the surrender of
the Fort "in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental
Congress," but there is evidence that he remained there during the sum-
mer of 1775. During the same month that Ticonderoga fell, he and a
group of twenty-eight men captured on Lake Champlain two enemy
vessels having brass cannon, stores, ammunition and provisions on
board. Four years later Congress granted the participants in this impor-
tant naval victory four thousand dollars, with the remark that
"in their opinion the memorialists have no claim of justice to the compensation referred to, but
that considering the utility of the enterprise, and the spirit with which it was conducted, a gratuity
ought to be made to them ...."1
In the fall and winter of 1775, he took part in Arnold's famous expedi-
tion through the backwoods of Maine to Quebec. The official record of
the early weeks of the march, which was sent to Washington on October
13 was signed "Eleazer Oswald, Sec'y pro tem."2 Early in the campaign
he was advanced to the rank of Captain3 and from scanty records, it
seems probable that he acted as Arnold's secretary from the beginning.
He took an active part in the futile attack on Quebec on the night of
December 31, 1775, and when his superior officer was forced to retire
because of a wound, he joined Captain John Lamb's company. The bold
advance of Lamb and Oswald was not supported by the rest of the
American forces so that the enemy was able to surround and capture
them. Oswald was not exchanged until more than a year after he was
taken prisoner. His impatience over the unnecessary delay is reflected
in the letter he wrote Lamb shortly before the negotiations with the
enemy were completed.
"I am all anxiety and Impatience to hear of my being again restored to the ever smiling Goddess,
Freedom ..... but alas! I fear an Exchange for me has not taken place, and that my Hopes of serving
Her, in the New-Establishment, are blasted—If so, the Devil blast the Cause of it....."4
OSWALD APPOINTED LIEUTENANT-COLONEL IN THE ARTILLERY
Soon after his exchange had been effected, and at the recommendation
of Phillip J. Schuyler, General Washington appointed him a Lieutenant-
1 Journals of the Continental Congress. Vol. XIII (1779), pp. 294-295.
2 American Archives, Series IV, Vol. III, Col. 1058 ff. A discussion of the importance of this journal may be found in
J. H. Smith, Arnold's March from Cambridge to Quebec, New York, 1903, pp. 27 and 264.
3 Collections of the Maine Historical Society. Revised edition (1865). Vol. I, pp. 493-494.
4 The Lamb Papers. Box I, No. 80. Oswald to Lamb, New Haven, 14 Jan. 1777. The Lamb Papers are at the New
York Historical Society.
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