CHAPTER suspected. Tried by a court martial, he was found XXXII. guilty of criminal correspondence with the enemy." In 1775. spite of a very ingenious defense before the bar of the Oct. 3. Massachusetts House of Representatives, of which he was Oct. 27. a member, he was expelled; and presently, by order of Congress, was confined a close prisoner in Connecticut, being debarred the use of pen, ink, and paper. After an imprisonment of several months, his health failing, he was suffered to embark for the West Indies; but the vessel in which he sailed was never afterward heard of. Church was succeeded at the head of the army medical department by Dr. John Morgan, a professor in the medical school of Philadelphia, of which, indeed, he had been one of the founders. A constant alarm was kept up by British cruisers which hovered on the coast of New England, and landed occasionally to obtain supplies. Lieutenant Mowatt, who commanded one of these cruisers, chased a vessel from the West Indies into Gloucester harbor. The boats sent to take her being repulsed by the townspeople, Mowatt Aug. 13. fired upon the town, and attempted to land. But he was again repulsed, with the loss of his boats, and thirtyfive men taken prisoners. Narraganset Bay was much annoyed by a squadron of British cruisers, and Bristol Oct. 7. was bombarded to frighten the inhabitants into furnishing a supply of provisions. Mowatt was presently sent to Falmouth (now Portland), where, a few months before, the loading of a royal mast ship had been obstructed, and Mowatt himself arrested and treated with some rudeness. On the refusal of the inhabitants to give up their arms, after allowing two hours for the removal of Oct. 18. the women and children, a bombardment was commenced, and that rising town of five hundred houses was pres ently in flames. The townspeople, not to be so fright XXXII ened, stood to their arms, and defeated Mowatt's atteinpt CHAPTER to land. Such useless outrages did but exasperate feelings already sufficiently inflamed. 1775. It was not long before the colonists tried their hands also at maritime warfare. Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut equipped each an armed vessel or two. In Massachusetts a law was passed to authorize and en- Nov. 10 courage the fitting out of privateers, and a court was established for the trial and condemnation of prizes. Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina each had their navy boards and armed vessels, and so did Pennsylvania for the defense of the Delaware. Five or six armed vessels, fitted out by Washington, cruised to intercept the supplies received at Boston by sea. Most of the officers of these vessels proved incompetent, and the men mutinous; but Captain Manly, of the schooner Lee, furnished a brilliant exception. In the midst of storms he kept the hazardous station of Massachusetts Bay, and, among other prizes, captured an ordnance brig laden with heavy guns, mortars, and working tools-a most acceptable supply to the Continental army. Under instructions from the Assembly of Rhode Island, the delegates of that colony called the attention of the Continental Congress to the subject of a navy. A Marine Committee was appointed, and four armed vessels were ordered to be fitted out at continental expense. All ships of war employed in harassing the colonies, and all vessels bringing supplies to the British forces, were declared lawful prize. Privateering was authorized, and Nov 25 the colonies were requested to establish courts for the trial of captures, reserving an appeal to Congress. Rules and Regulations for the Navy were adopted; and the Naval Committee were presently empowered to fit out Dec 13 thirteen frigates, of from twenty-four to thirty-two guns. CHAPTER XXXII. The exposed condition of Rhode Island, and the presence of a British squadron in Narraganset Bay, encour 1775. aged the partisans of the mother country, of whom there were many in Newport. A large number of the mer chants in all the chief commercial towns of the colonies were openly hostile, or but coldly inclined to the common cause. In Newport a jealousy was felt of Providence, as aspiring to become the capital. The authori ties of Rhode Island asked troops from the camp before Boston, but Washington was not able to spare any. General Lee, sent to Newport to advise about throwing up fortifications, called the principal persons among the disaffected before him, and obliged them to take a tremen dous oath to support the authority of Congress. The AsNov. 6. sembly met shortly after, and passed an act, subjecting to death, with confiscation of property, all who should hold intelligence with, or assist the British ships. But, to save Newport from destruction, it presently became necessary to permit a certain stated supply to be fur nished from that town. The clergy and the seigneurs of Canada, well satisfied with the late Quebec Act, were inclined to sustain the British authority; but some partisans of the American cause were hoped for among the cultivators and citizens, as well as among the immigrants since the conquest. The body of the Canadian people, notwithstanding a proclamation of martial law, paid very little attention to Governor Carleton's loud calls upon them to arm for the defense of the province. At the head of Waterbury's Connecticut regiment, and of four small New York comAug. 30. panies, Schuyler descended the lake in boats, and enterSept 6. ed the Sorel. Failing in an attack upon St. John's, where was a garrison of five or six hundred men, the principal regular force in Canada, he returned sick and XXXII. anxious to the rear to hasten up men and supplies. CHAPTER Montgomery, left in command, was soon joined by Warner's regiment of Green Mountain Boys, by some New 1775. Hampshire rangers, by additional detachments of the Sept. 10. New York regiments, by numbers of Canadians, under Livingston, of Chambly, and finally by Wooster. Meanwhile, he renewed the siege of St. John's; but such was Sept. 17. the insubordination of his troops, who obliged him to change his plan of attack, that he was strongly tempted to resign in disgust. Ethan Allen, who had been detached with Warner to the banks of the St. Lawrence, was taken prisoner in a wild attempt to surprise Mont- Sept. 24. real. He experienced very hard usage, being carried to England in irons, as rather a leader of banditti than a prisoner of war. A detachment sent against Chambly was more successful. That post, on the Sorel, below St. John's, was surprised and taken the very day of Allen's capture; and a seasonable supply of ammunition was obtained there, which enabled the siege of St. John's to be vigorously pushed. 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 the advanced division of Montgomery's forces. Another party of Canadian militia from the neighborhood of Quebec, marching 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 surrendered as prisoners of war; Nov. 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 fast-sailing boat, and escaped to CHAPTER Quebec. General Prescott and the feeble garrison were XXXII. intercepted at the Sorel, and taken prisoners. 1775. With the woolens found at Montreal the American Nov 12 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 Sent. 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 fif teen 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 Ca nadian peasantry, and his sudden appearance caused the |