This force embarked in flat-bottomed boats to cross the lake and descend the river Sorel, but when they landed they were attacked by a strong body of Indians, who obliged them to steer their way back and return to the Isle Aux Noix. Here Schuyler fell sick, and the command then devolved on Montgomery, a man full of courage and enterprise, and whom the Americans compare to Wolfe.
On the arrival of this invading force, General Carleton, governor of Canada, had only two regiments of about four hundred men each, at his disposal. These he ordered to Fort St. John, about twelve miles in advance of Montreal, where they were augmented by a few officers sent by General Gage. These officers arrived in July, and about the same time Colonel Johnstone arrived at the same place with seven hundred Indians of the Five Nations, all skilful in the use of the musket as well as the tomahawk. These Indians were ancient enemies to the frontier Americans, and they proposed an immediate attack on Ticonderoga and Crown Point. Carleton, however, thought proper not only to reject their offer, but to refuse their services in any shape. This was a sad oversight. Foregoing their enmity to the Americans, these seven hundred Indian warriors joined Montgomery, and he immediately resolved to lay siege to Fort St. John, the only place that covered Montreal. At the same time, Ethan Allen, who had now returned to the scene of action, conceived that he could take Montreal by a coup de main in an easier direction. He attempted this with a hundred and fifty men in the dead of the night, but the adventurous Presbyterian was not only defeated, but captured, and put in irons as a felon and a traitor. In the mean time Montgomery had detached three hundred men with two six-pounders to reduce Fort Chamblée, situate on the tributary river Sorel, about five miles above Fort St. John. His principal object in advancing against this fort was to obtain sufficient ammunition wherewith to reduce that of St. John, and he succeeded to his utmost wishes. The fort was reduced, and Montgomery found plenty of ball, powder, cartridges, and arms in it, and he then pressed the siege of St. John’s with great vigour. The garrison offered a brave resistance, but it was all in vain: the fort was surrendered, and Montgomery dashed across the river and entered Montreal without opposition. As this town carried on an extensive trade, the American troops obtained a good supply of proper clothing, after which their commander, having secured the goodwill of the inhabitants by his liberal treatment of them, resolved to advance upon Quebec, the capital of the province. He carried out his resolution, although his volunteers, anxious to get back to their fire-sides, quitted his ranks by hundreds, and he had to leave a garrison in Montreal, so that when he put his men in marching order his force did not exceed four hundred men. But Montgomery hoped to meet Arnold under the walls of Quebec, and nothing daunted by the desertion of his soldiers, and the smallness of his force, he began to descend the St. Lawrence.
In the meantime Arnold had been entrusted with the execution of a daring plan of his own forming. At the head of 1200 men, consisting chiefly of New Englanders, he traversed the inhospitable deserts of the northern states into Canada; deserts which had never previously been trodden by the foot of a white man. Owing to the obstacles he encountered in his dreary journey, he did not reach the first Canadian settlements on the river Chaudière, which flows into the St. Lawrence, until the 3rd of November. On arriving there his troops were famished, having been long subjected to hunger, and reduced even to the necessity of eating the leather of their shoes. The first step of Arnold was, therefore, to divide them into separate companies, each of which ran off as fast as it could to obtain food, shelter, and rest in the vicinity of the mouth of the Chaudière. Arnold himself rested for two or three days at a small village, in order to circulate the manifestoes he had brought with him, and to allow his rear and stragglers to arrive. Having rested a few days, on the 9th of November Arnold reached Point Levi, on the right bank of the St. Lawrence, and immediately opposite to the town of Quebec. It has been conjectured that if he could have crossed the river at once, Quebec would have been captured. The wind, however, was so strong at the time of his approach, that he could not venture, and this gave time to Colonel Maclean and his Highlanders, who had been falling back from Fort Chamblée, taken by Montgomery, to get into the menaced city. On the 14th, the wind having, abated, Arnold crossed the St. Lawrence and landed in safety. On reaching Quebec he formed his men on the Heights of Abraham. But they were ill provided for maintaining a siege, having no artillery, and therefore Arnold proposed nothing more than to cut off supplies from the garrison till the arrival of Montgomery. For this purpose he descended from the Heights of Abraham and retired to Point Aux Trembles, twenty miles above Quebec. At this place he was very near taking General Carleton and his staff prisoners, for they had only quitted that place a few hours before his arrival. Carleton, however, escaped, and arrived in safety at Quebec, where he instantly set about making every preparation for its defence. Soon after the two American corps joined, and they marched together to lay immediate seige to Quebec. Montgomery had brought a little artillery with him, and about the 20th of December they opened a six-gun battery within seven hundred yards of the walls. Their artillery, however, was too light to effect a breach, and they were all, moreover, soon dismounted by the town-guns, fired by some seamen under the direction of Colonel Maclean. The American commanders now removed their guns to a safer distance, still continuing their ineffectual fire, with the hope of amusing the garrison, and concealing their design of making an assault in another direction. They now, in fact, were contemplating a desperate enterprise, and one to which it was a long time before they could obtain the consent of the officers and men. It was not, indeed, till the New Englanders were promised the privilege of plundering the town, that they would accede to the wishes of their commanders. But this golden bait was swallowed, and the men promised to do all that was wished. Accordingly, on the last day of this year, between four and five o’clock in the morning, and in the midst of a violent storm of wind and snow, it was determined to storm the place. The force was divided into four small columns for this purpose: two of which, under Majors Livingston and Brown, were to make feigned attacks upon the upper town, while the other two, led by Montgomery and Arnold, were to make real attacks on opposite sides of the lower town, where all the wealth of Quebec was deposited. Montgomery had succeeded in passing the first barrier, that of the block-house, and had reached the Pot-ash battery, which he was on the point of attacking, when he was shot dead, with Captain Macpherson, his aide-de-camp, and several other officers, with a well-charged gun from that battery. The rest of the column which he led instantly fell back, and in the mean time Arnold himself had been severely wounded. He was passing through the narrow street of the Faubourg St. Roque towards the Saut de Matelot, where there was a strong barrier with a battery of two twelve-pounders, one of which on his approach was fired, and shattered his leg in so fearful a manner that he was carried off the field to the rear in anguish. One Morgan now led the column, and he rushed forward and took this battery, and then pushed rapidly to another about forty paces distant. But here he was foiled. Guns loaded with-grape shot met him and his men in the teeth, while a fire of musketry was opened on both their flanks, so that they were compelled to retreat into some stone houses in the suburb of St. Roque. The attempt signally failed. In the end Morgan and his followers, to the number of 340 men, surrendered themselves prisoners of war, and nearly one hundred were slain. The rest still continued to blockade the city, encamping in the best manner they could behind the Heights of Abraham, and being still commanded by Arnold. They maintained their position for four long wintry months, and reduced the city to great distress, but they were finally compelled to give up the enterprise.
DISPOSITION AND REVOLT OF THE VIRGINIANS.
In the great southern state of Virginia Lord Dunmore, the governor, made a bold stand in support of the authority of the mother country. Knowing that it was about to be used against him, he seized all the gunpowder in the magazine at Williamsburgh, and put it on board a schooner then lying in James’s River. This, however, involved him in a quarrel with the corporation of that town, who demanded the powder back again. This was refused, and Patrick Henry, the orator, encouraged by the news of the victory at Lexington, excited some young Virginians to fly to arms, and placing himself at the head of them, set out on his march to recover the powder by force. He was prevented from making the attempt by some of the delegates to the general congress, who advised him to be satisfied with a sum of money offered in lieu of it by the king’s receiver-general. A few days after, however, Lord Dunmore was compelled to deliver up all the arms and powder that had been left on shore, and to take refuge with his family in the Fowey man-of-war then lying at York. At the same time, government-house was fortified and surrounded with artillery. A series of irritating messages and letters then passed between his lordship and the burgesses; the former declaring that his life was not safe among them, and the latter asserting that he had nothing to fear. Lord Dunmore, however, felt that he had cause for fear, and he resolved to defy the provincials. Having divested himself of all authority, he collected a small naval force, and carried on a sort of predatory warfare against the province. Previous to his taking refuge in the Fowey man-of-war he had stung the Virginians to the quick, by declaring that since they were so eager to abolish a fancied slavery, in a dependence on Great Britain, he would one day try how they liked an abolition of real slavery, by giving freedom to all their negroes and indentured servants, who were little better than white slaves. This plan he endeavoured also to put into operation. Having established his head-quarters at Norfolk, he proclaimed freedom to all slaves who would repair to his standard, and fight for the king. Most of the negroes who had the opportunity of escaping from their masters repaired to his standard; and if he could have opened a road to the slaves in the interior of the province, his measures would doubtless have been fatal to the planters. The Virginians, however, were on the alert, and they sent a force against him which compelled him to retire on-board again for safety. The Virginians then took possession of the town of Norfolk, but Lord Dunmore, incensed at their conduct, set fire to the wharfs, and the flames spreading, the whole town was soon reduced to ashes, and property was consumed to the value of £300,000. This was an unfortunate occurrence, for it totally alienated the Virginians from the British government. Lord Dunmore lingered in the river, or on the coast, till the following summer, when, unable any longer to obtain provisions, he joined the English army under Lord Howe. The cause for his lingering thus long in the river appears to have been the hope he entertained of being able to restore the affairs of government in the province. He had some reasons for entertaining such a hope, for there were many Virginians averse to the revolution or to its leaders, and who anxiously desired that the cause of government might prevail. This was clearly manifested at his departure for the main army at Boston-neck, for many prepared to follow him by land, convinced that there was no safety for men who entertained notions of loyalty. The houses, indeed, of all those who wished to preserve their connection with England, on whatever principles their wish might be grounded, were burnt to the ground, while their estates were destroyed and their lives kept in constant danger.
CONDUCT OF CONGRESS TOWARDS NEW YORK, ETC.
Although the province of New York had sent delegates to congress, and had been among the very first to attack the British settlements in Canada, yet great uneasiness was felt with respect to that colony. It was well known that many zealous loyalists lived in the province, and it was also defenceless and open to the king’s troops by sea. Under these circumstances congress appointed a Committee of Safety, consisting of some of the most determined of the revolutionists, who were appointed to take especial charge of this province. General Wooster was also directed to march into New York, with some regiments of Connecticut men, With the double object of keeping down the royalists, and preventing, if possible, the landing of any British troops. The presence of the Connecticut men, who quartered themselves near Haerlem, five miles from New York, did more harm, however, to the cause of the revolution than it did good, for it led to some severe quarrels between them and the New Yorkers, as well as provoked the naval force in the neighbouring waters. Congress, in fact, had much difficulty in preserving their cause in New York. On one occasion they even issued an order that all such arms as were fit for the use of the troops raised in the colony of New York, and which should be found in the hands or custody of any person who had not signed the general association, should be seized for the use of the said troops. At a later period, congress even went a step further than this; for they intimated to the members of the revolutionary government, that they were to arrest and secure every person in their respective colonies, whose going at large might, in their opinion, endanger the safety of the colony or the liberties of America. Warned in time, Tryon, the governor of New York, whom congress before had talked of seizing, retired on board the Halifax packet, still communicating, however, with the royalists on shore. In other colonies there was still less difficulty in sweeping away the king’s governors. In North Carolina, Governor Martin, after seeing his proclamation burnt by the common hangman, sought shelter on board a ship-of-war that was lying off Cape Fear: in South Carolina, Lord William Campbell, after vainly seeking to rally the royalists, was obliged to follow his example; and though in many of the other colonies the governors were not compelled to flee for their lives, yet their authority was eventually superseded, and they were compelled to bow to the storm by retiring from their seats of government. One common spirit pervaded the United Provinces of America, though it was more rampant in some colonies than others. The grand focus of rebellion was still at Massachusets Bay, where, towards the close of the year, in the course of predatory hostility, the town of Falmouth was cannonaded and totally destroyed, in revenge for some offence relative to supplies, and on the refusal of its inhabitants to deliver up its arms. In return for this injury congress passed an act, in November, granting letters of marque and reprisal, and establishing courts of admiralty for the trial and condemnation of British ships. Congress also determined to meet the force of Britain on her own element, and issued orders for building a fleet of thirteen ships. The garrison of Boston was supplied with provisions from England, a proportion of which was intercepted by the American cruizers and the troops suffered greatly, likewise, from the inclemency of the season. The inhabitants, also, shared in their calamities, and their sufferings were greatly increased by several edicts, issued by General Howe. Such was the state of America at the close of this eventful year.