XXXII regular force in Canada, leaving the command to Mont- CHAPTER gomery, Schuyler returned to the rear to hasten forward men and supplies. The equipment of the New 1775. York regiments was greatly delayed by the difficulty of finding arms, and Wooster was ordered from Albany to join Montgomery. Meanwhile Ethan Allen, with a small party, princi- Sept. 24. pally Canadians, was taken prisoner in a wild attempt, without orders, to surprise Montreal. Contrary to Carleton's usual conduct, Allen experienced very hard usage, being sent in irons to England, and treated rather as a leader of banditti than as a prisoner of war. Joined by Wooster and by some Canadians, Montgomery renewed the siege of St. John's. By the surprise and capture of Chambly, lower down the Sorel, Nov. 3. against which he sent a detachment, he obtained a seasonable supply of ammunition, which enabled him to press the siege of St. John's with vigor. For the relief of that important post, Governor Carleton exerted himself to raise the Canadian militia; but, in attempting to cross from the island of Montreal to the south bank of the St. Lawrence, he was repulsed by an advanced division of Montgomery's army. Another party of Canadian militia from the neighborhood of Quebec, advancing up the Sorel, was driven down that river to its junction with the St. Lawrence, at which point the Americans established a post and erected batteries. Relief thus cut off, the garrison of St. John's presently surren- Nov. 3. dered as prisoners of war; after which Montgomery pushed forward to Montreal, a town at that time of but two or three thousand inhabitants, open, and without fortifications. Carleton passed down the river in a fastsailing boat, and escaped to Quebec. General Prescott, with the feeble garrison, attempted to escape the same Nov. 12. CHAPTER way, but were intercepted by the batteries at the Sorel, XXXII. and taken prisoners. 1775. With the woolens found at Montreal the American general was enabled to clothe his troops, of which they stood in great need. A regiment of Canadians was organized under Colonel Livingston; but Montgomery encountered great discouragements in the lateness of the season and the insubordination of his soldiers, of whom many, disgusted with the hardships of the service, deserted and returned home. Still he pushed on for Quebec, in expectation of meeting there a co-operating force. When obliged to give up the command of Ticonderoga to Hinman, Arnold had behaved with a good deal of insubordination; had disbanded his men, and returned in disgust to the camp before Boston. There, however, he presently obtained employment in an enterprise suggested some time before by Brewer, colonel of one of the Sept. Massachusetts regiments. Detached with eleven hundred men, including a company of artillery and Morgan's Virginia riflemen, to co-operate with the northern army against Quebec, Arnold ascended in boats to the head of the Kennebec, and, guided in part by the journal of a British officer who had passed over that route some fifteen years before, struck across the wilderness to the head streams of the Chaudière, down which he descended toward the capital of Canada. In crossing these uninhabited wilds the troops suffered severely, and the rear division, discouraged and short of provisions, turned about and gave over the enterprise. With the other divisions Arnold persevered; and, after a six weeks' struggle, a few days before Montgomery entered MonNov. 5. treal, he reached the south bank of the St. Lawrence, opposite Quebec. He was kindly received by the Canadian peasantry, and his sudden appearance caused the XXXII. greatest alarm. Quebec had but two hundred regular CHAPTER troops; there was a good deal of discontent among the inhabitants. Could Arnold have crossed at once, he 1775. might, perhaps, in the absence of Carleton, have got possession of the city. But, on some intimation of his approach, the boats had all been removed or destroyed, and some days elapsed before he could collect birch-bark canoes in which to cross. Meanwhile Carleton made his appearance, having escaped down the river from Montreal. He sent all the non-combatants out of the city; organized the traders and others into military companies; landed the sailors; and, with his force thus increased to near twelve hundred men, put the town into a complete state of defense. Two armed vessels were stationed in the river to intercept Arnold; but he crossed in the night; and, ascending the same rugged precipices which Wolfe had climbed before him, drew up his forces on the Plains of Abraham. His little army, hardly five Nov. 14. hundred and fifty effective men, approached the city; but the garrison did not come out to meet him; and, as he had no means to undertake a siege, he retired some twenty miles up the river to wait for Montgomery, of whose approach he had notice. Leaving Wooster in command at Montreal, Montgomery advanced down the river; but all his Connecticut troops became entitled to their discharge on the tenth of December, and his ranks were so thinned by desertions and the detachments he was obliged to leave behind him, that, when he joined Arnold, their united force did not Dec. 1. exceed a thousand men. They returned, however, to Quebec, and opened batteries against it; but their artillery, only a few field pieces, was too light to take any effect. The works were extensive; some weak point might perhaps be found; an assault was resolved upon XXXII. The en CHAPTER as the last desperate chance. While a snow-storm was waited for to cover the movement, deserters carried into 1775. the town information of what was intended. To distract the enemy's attention, two feints were made against the upper town. It was against two opposite sides of the lower town that the real attacks were directed, the one led by Montgomery, the other by Arnold. Some rockets, thrown up as a signal, being seen by the enemy, they took the alarm and hastened to the ramparts. MontDec. 31. gomery, with the New York troops, approached the first barrier, on the south side of the lower town. emy fled; not, however, without discharging a piece of artillery, by which Montgomery and his two aids were slain. Discouraged by the loss of their leader, this division abandoned the attack. Arnold, on his side, pushed through the northern suburb, and approached a two-gun battery, the advanced post of the enemy in that direction. While cheering on his men, the bone of his leg was shattered by a musket ball. He was borne from the field; but Morgan, at the head of his riflemen, made a rush at the battery, carried it, and took the guard prisoners. Morgan had no guide; the morning was dark; totally ignorant of the situation of the town, he came to a halt. He was joined by some fragments of other companies, and, when the day dawned, found himself at the head of some two hundred men, who eagerly demanded to be led against the second barrier, a few paces in front, but concealed from sight by a turn in the street. Morgan gave the order, and his men advanced and planted their ladders; but those who mounted saw on the other side a double hedge of bayonets ready to receive them, while a fire, at the same time, was opened by parties of the enemy relieved from duty elsewhere by the failure of the other attack, and sent out of the gates to take them in the rear. XXXII. Exposed in a narrow street to an incessant CHAPTER fire, Morgan's ranks were soon thinned. His men threw themselves into the store-houses on each side of the street; 1775. but, overpowered by numbers, benumbed with cold, their muskets rendered unserviceable by the snow, they were obliged to surrender. Not less than four hundred men were lost in this unlucky assault, of whom three hundred became prisoners. Arnold retired with the remnant of his troops three miles up the river, and, covering his camp with ramparts of frozen snow, kept up the blockade of Quebec through the winter. While these operations were carried on in Canada, the term of service of the troops before Boston was rapidly approaching its termination. The time of the Connecticut and Rhode Island regiments expired early in December. None of the troops were engaged for a longer period than the first of April. October 18-22. A committee from Philadelphia had visited the camp, 122 and, in consultation with Washington, and with committees from the New England colonies, had agreed upon a plan, presently sanctioned by Congress, for the reorgan- Nov. 4. ization of the besieging army. It was to consist, according to this plan, of twenty-six regiments, besides riflemen and artillery: Massachusetts to furnish sixteen, Connecticut five, New Hampshire three, and Rhode Island two-in all, about twenty thousand men; the officers to be selected by Washington out of those already in service, willing and qualified to act. But this was a business much easier to plan than to execute. The selection of officers was a most delicate and embarrassing matter, in which not qualifications only, but provincial and personal prejudices had to be consulted, for not a man would enlist till he knew the officers under whom he was to serve. Even then, enlistments, |