The Continental Congress had been induced by the influence of the Commander-in-chief to resolve upon the raising of an army of 75,000 men, to be enlisted for the term of three years, or during the war. It was not until January, however, that they could be induced to offer bounties for enlistments; and even then the ranks were not rapidly filled. At the close of February, the whole effective force of the Americans was no more than 14,000 men, exclusive of 6000 of the Massachusetts militia. An assault upon Boston had been meditated in February by General Washington; but the opinion of his principal officers, as expressed in a council of war, being strongly against such a movement, the enterprize was reluctantly abandoned. Wearied by inaction, the next project of the American commander was to take possession of Dorchester Heights—a position commanding the town of Boston, the occupation of which would compel General Howe either to attempt its dispossession by the Americans, or to evacuate the town. The enterprize was so well planned, as to be executed by General Thomas with complete and brilliant success, on the night of the 4th of March. Having diverted the attention of the enemy by a bombardment of his lines in another direction, the movement was unperceived. The weather being mild, the American troops were enabled to labor with energy in throwing up defences, which, on the following morning, struck the General of the British army with astonishment, from their sudden appearance and their magnitude. A heavy atmosphere contributed to magnify the height of the works, and increase the wonder of the foe. Sir William Howe made immediate preparations to drive the Americans from their new, and, to him, dangerous position; for which purpose two thousand choice troops were embarked to cross over the same evening; but a severe tempest frustrated his design. On the following morning General Howe convened a council of war, at which it was resolved to evacuate the town as soon as possible. This determination was carried into execution on the 17th, by the embarkation of the whole British army, and the sailing of the fleet—first to Halifax—but ultimately, as the event proved, for New-York. On the same day General Washington entered Boston in triumph, and was hailed by the universal acclaim of the people as their deliverer. Thus was the town which first raised the standard of rebellion, the first to rejoice at the final retreat of its oppressors. Nor was it the fortune of the invaders ever to set foot there again.
In the North, the operations of the Provincial army had been far less propitious. The conquest of Canada was a favorite project with Congress, and every possible effort within the slender means of the Colonies was made to that end. But the fall of Montgomery had thrown a gloom over the enterprise which was never dissipated. Colonel, now General Arnold, had maintained himself before Quebec during the winter, and until late in the spring, with but a handful of men—numbering, at one time, not more than five hundred effectives. But the reinforcements were slow in arriving; the Canadians, from a variety of causes—the principal of which, beyond doubt, was bad treatment from an undisciplined soldiery—became less friendly to the Americans than at first, notwithstanding the mission of Messrs. Franklin, Chase, and Carroll, accompanied by a Catholic priest, to conciliate them; and on the arrival of General Wooster at his quarters, about the 1st of April, Arnold obtained leave of absence, and took the command at Montreal. General Thomas, who had been assigned to the command of the army in Canada, after the exploit of Gloucester Heights, arrived before Quebec on the 1st of May, where he found an army of nineteen hundred men, less than one thousand of whom were effective, and three hundred of these, being entitled to their discharge, refused to perform duty. They had but one hundred and fifty barrels of powder, and six days' provisions. Well knowing that with the opening of the navigation. Sir Guy Carleton's expected reinforcements would arrive, the circumstances in which he was placed were altogether so unpromising, that General Thomas, with the concurrence of a council of war, determined to raise the siege on the 5th of May, and assume a more eligible position farther up the river. It was the intention of the American commander to remove the sick to Three Rivers; but on the 6th, before the arrangements for retreating were all concerted, a British fleet, with reinforcements, arrived. General Carleton immediately made a sortie at the head of one thousand men; to oppose whom, General Thomas had not more than three hundred available troops. No other course remained, therefore, but a precipitate retreat for all who could get away—leaving the sick and the military stores to the enemy. General Thomas led his little band back to the mouth of the Sorel, where he was seized with the small-pox, and died. Large reinforcements joined the fugitive army at that place, under General Sullivan. Before General Carleton moved from Quebec, an expedition was undertaken from Sorel to the Three Rivers, against General Frasier, under the direction of General Thompson and Colonel St. Clair. It was unsuccessful; from which time disaster followed disaster, until, owing to the combined causes of defeat, sickness, and insubordination, the Americans found themselves, on the 18th of June, driven entirely out of Canada; the British army following so closely upon their heels, as immediately to occupy the different posts as they were successively evacuated.
The Americans, however, still retained the control of Lake Champlain, and occupied the fortifications upon its shores, the command of which had now been assigned by Congress to General Gates, with great and manifest injustice toward General Schuyler, [FN-1] Gates at first established his head-quarters at Crown Point, but soon afterward withdrew his forces from that post, and fell back upon Ticonderoga. This step was taken by the advice and concurrence of a board of general officers, but contrary to the wishes of the field officers. The Commander-in-chief was exceedingly dissatisfied with this movement of Gates, believing that the relinquishment of that post, in its consequences, would be equivalent to an abandonment of Lakes George and Champlain, and all the advantages to be derived therefrom. [FN-2] In reply to the concern that had been expressed by Washington on the occasion. General Gates contended that Crown Point was untenable with the forces then under his command, nor could it be successfully defended even with the aid of the expected reinforcements. These reinforcements, moreover, the General added, could not be allowed to approach nearer to Crown Point than Skenesborough, since "it would be only heaping one hospital upon another." [FN-3] The annals of disastrous war scarce present a more deplorable picture than that exhibited by the Americans escaping from Canada. In addition to the small pox, the army had been afflicted by other diseases, generated by exposure, destitution, and laxity of discipline. Fleets of boats came up the lake, freighted with the sick and dying; and even those reported from day to day fit for duty, presented but the appearance of a haggard skeleton of an army. "Every thing about this army," said General Gates in the letter already cited, "is infected with the pestilence; the clothes, the blankets, the air, and the ground they walk upon. To put this evil from us, a general hospital is established at Fort George, [FN-4] where there are now between two and three thousand sick, and where every infected person is immediately sent. But this care and caution have not effectually destroyed the disease here; it is, notwithstanding, continually breaking out." [FN-5]
[FN-1] The appointment of Gates to the command of this department, was from the first unacceptable to the officers of New-York, nor was his own course very conciliatory toward them. In the course of the present Summer, it was reported to Lieutenant-Colonel Gansevoort, a brave and deservedly popular officer, belonging to the regiment of Colonel Van Schaick, and then in command of Fort George at the head of the lake of that name, that the General had spoken disrespectfully of that regiment, and also of the regiments of Colonels Wynkoop and Fisher. His letters to Col. Gansevoort were unnecessarily harsh and pragmatical, so much so as justly to give offence. Irritated by such treatment, Gansevoort wrote a spirited letter to Gates, referring to several matters in which he had been aggrieved by the letters and conversation of that officer. He requested a Court of Inquiry, and avowed his determination, with the leave of Gen. Schuyler, to relinquish the command of the post.—MS. letters of Gates and Col. Gansevoort in the author's possession.
[FN-2] Letter of Washington to Gen. Gates, July 19, 1776.
[FN-3] Letter of Gen. Gates to Washington in reply, July 28. The small pox, which had been so fatal to the troops in Canada, had now broken out at Crown Point and Ticonderoga—the pestilence having been purposely introduced by a villain calling himself Doctor Barker. This fact is stated in a letter from the Adjutant-General of the Northern Department to Colonel Gansevoort, dated from Ticonderoga, July 24. "The villain," says the letter, "by private inoculations in the army, has caused, in a great degree, the misery to which we are reduced by that infectious disorder." Barker was arrested, and sent to Albany.—MS. letter of Colonel Trumbull to Col. Gansevoort.
[FN-4] At the head of Lake George.
[FN-5] Sparks.
Such was the deplorable condition in which an army, so recently victorious, had been driven back from what was in fact a conquered country, lost entirely through mismanagement, and the want of an army upon the basis of permanent enlistment. Added to which, was another difficulty lying beneath the surface. Many prisoners had fallen into the hands of the enemy at Quebec and during the subsequent retreat. Toward all these, the conduct of Sir Guy Carleton had been most politic. They had been treated with the greatest care and humanity, and so much of the subtle poison of flattery, mingled with kindness, had been poured into their ears, that their return on parole, which was presently allowed by the British commander, was regarded with apprehension. [FN-1] On one occasion, a large number of prisoners arriving at Crown Point from St. John's, in a vessel provided by Sir Guy Carleton, were visited, before landing, by Colonel John Trumbull, the Adjutant-General for the Northern Department. From the feelings they manifested, and the tenor of their conversation, Colonel Trumbull saw at once that it would not be prudent to allow them to land, or hold the least intercourse with the suffering troops of the garrison. He immediately reported the fact to the General, and advised that the said prisoners should be sent directly forward to Skenesborough, and despatched to their respective homes, without allowing them to mingle with the troops at that place. The suggestion was adopted. [FN-2]