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found six tons of powder, &c. with this ammunition they pushed the siege of St. Johns. Governor Carleton mustered a party of Canadians, and Indians, at Montreal, and marched to the relief of St. Johns; but Colonel Warner with about 300 Green Mountain Boys; met the general at their landing, threw them into disorder, and drove them back to Montreal; on the 2d of November St. Johns surrendered to General Montgomery by capitulation, and the garrison marched out with the honours of war.

On the 12th General Montgomery entered Montreal in triumph, and on the 17th eleven sail of vessels, with General Prescot, and several other officers, and about 120 privates, with a large supply of flour, beef, butter, &c. besides cannon, small arms, and military stores, were taken; all which were highly acceptable to the American army, in prosecuting the reduction of Canada. But Governor

Carleton had escaped in a single batteaux with muffled paddles in the night, and retired to Quebec.

General Montgomery determined to brave the season, and follow up his successes by marching directly down to Quebec and joining Colonel Arnold before that city; but the distance was great, the season cold, and the troops began to be homesick, and pressed in crowds for furloughs, or discharges; these could not be resisted; such was the state of discipline, or rather want of discipline, by which his army was weakened, and the expedition ruined.

Colonel Arnold had crossed over upon the Quebec shore, on the 13th of November, and formed his troops on the plains of Abraham; but he found his numbers so reduced, and their muskets and ammunition in such a bad condition. that he could not with safety meet the enemy, and he prudently retired and fixed his position at Point au Tremble, November 19th; the same day Governor Carleton arrived at Quebec from Montreal, and brought the news of its surrender.

On the 1st of December General Montgomery arrived with his army, (if that could be called an army which was reduced by detachments left in garrisons, and those who had returned home, to the pitiful number of about 300 men,) supported by three armed schooners, and well furnished with all such supplies as were necessary to the comfort and convenience of the whole army, as well as for the operations of the siege. On the 5th the general set down before Quebec, and prepared to carry the place by storm.

The cold had now become severe, as is usual in this cli mate, and the sufferings of the army in conducting a siege against a walled town, had become incomparably distressing. Nothing short of that patriotic firmness, both in the general and his brave officers and soldiers, could have supported them under such fatigues, with but a handful of men, say eight hundred at most, and these raw undisciplined troops, unaccustomed to a siege, or even to a single campaign in those mild climates, and in those mild seasons, when soldiers commonly keep the field.

This Gibraltar of America was then garrisoned by about 1500 men, under the command of the governor of Canada, Sir Guy Carleton; yet the brave General Montgomery set down before this strong hold in the severity of winter, and opened his trenches in the snow, (the ground being impenetrably fixed by the frost,) and hardened these trenches with water frozen into ice, and commenced the operations of a siege. In this state of things, insep ́arable difficulties presented themselves; his cannon were Con light to make any impression upon the walls; his

Where wasting their strength in vain, under the such was the fate incredible hardships as were likely to 25th. and exhaust their spirits. Added On the 18th of October, Majvice were short, and many passed the fort of St. Johns, Wi

batteaux, and surprised the fort of

of them about to expire soon, when this little band of heroes would be greatly reduced.

Impressed with all these solemn realities, General Montgomery resolved to make an attempt on Quebec by storm; and accordingly called a council of war to consult his officers, and concert measures for the desperate event.

At this council it became very difficult to overcome that weight of opinion which opposed the measure, until Colonel Morgan, with several other officers of distinction, united their efforts in support of the measure, and the general was gratified with almost an unanimous voice of the council. Before the day arrived for execution, the tidings reached the enemy by several deserters, and the general adopted the following plan, by, and with the advice of his officers. First to divide the army into four divisions. General Montgomery to lead the first division in person, and enter the lower town upon one side, and Colonel Arnold at the head of the second, to enter it upon the other side, whilst the other two divisions, under the command of Majors Livingston and Brown, should make two feints against the upper town, at St. Johns, and Cape Diamond, to divert the attention of the enemy.

On the morning of the 31st of December, 1775, precisely at 5, the rockets were shot into the air, as the sig: nal agreed upon, and the attack commenced. The officers and troops, faithful to themselves and their country, moved with firmness amidst the gloom of the scene, and the cover of a driving snow storm, and the city was beset on all sides at once. But the enemy witnessed the discharge of the rockets, and accustomed to the use of such signals upon such occasions, caught the alarm and beat to arms. Thus alarmed, all hope of surprise was at an end; but the officers led on to the attack.

The brave Gen. Montgomery, at the head of the NewYork line, advanced along the shore of the St. Lawrence,

dispersed the guard, and carried the first battery, without much resistance; but before he could overcome the immense quantity of ice that obstructed his way; and double Cape Diamond, so as to avail himself of this first impression of terror in a fleeing enemy, it became necessary to pass through a narrow defile formed by projecting rocks under the impending precipice: here in this pass he assembled about 200 of his brave companions in arms, whose breasts had caught the kindred spirit that fired his own, and who were ready to support their general, and seize on the battery which had so lately been abandoned, and thus secure their entrance to conquest and glory; when one solitary soldier had dared to return to the battery, seize a match, and discharge one solitary' gun, that involved in death the brave Montgomery, together with his aid-decamp McPherson; Captain Cheeseman; his orderly ser-. geant, and one private. With the discharge of this solitary gun, the soldier fled, and the fire was not repeated; but the brave Montgomery had fallen; M Pherson and Cheeseman, his brave companions in arms, had fallen, and their `spirits had fled to God who gave them, and with them all hopes of victory. The troops appalled at the loss of their general, retired from the defile, and abandoned the enterprise. Colonel Campbell led them back to a position more safe, where they rested in security, ignorant of the fate of the other division.

Not so with Colonel Arnold; he entered the city at the place of destination, at the head of his little band, accompanied by Captian Lamb, with his company of artillery, and one field-piece mounted upon a sled. The main body followed close in the rear. Here were the same difficulties to be overcome which embarrassed the march of Gen. Montgomery: a narrow defile, obstructed with immense quantities of broken cakes of ice; and this defile was guarded by a battery of two twelve pounders, which raked the troops with an incessant fire of grape.

Fired with fresh zeal, as the dangers thickened upon him, Colonel Arnold led on his brave troops to storm this barrier, whilst his flanks were galled by showers of musketry, from the walls and pickets, and at the moment when he approached the battery, a musket ball pierced his leg; shattered the bone, and caused him to be removed from the attack, and carried to the hospital. Colonel Morgan succeeded to the cammand; rushed forward amidst a shower of grape, and mounted the battery, at the head of his troops, whilst his riflemen fired into the ambrazures, and drove the enemy from their post. In this rencounter the captain of the guard, and several of his men, were taken by the Americans. Flushed with this success, Colonel Morgan pressed forward, in momentary expectation of learning the success of General Montgomery, and following the standard of his chief to conquest and to glory; but he soon found himself hard pressed in the street, galled on every side by the surrounding foe, in the midst of a dark tempestuous snow torm, without a guide, and unsupported by the main body; ignorant of his route, and of the situa .tion of the points of defence. In this state of anxious suspense, they were soon joined by Colonel Green, and Majors Meigs and Bigelow, with such troops as they could collect, amounting in the whole to about 200. This was all the force that could be relied upon from such an undisciplined detachment as composed this expedition. When the light of day began to appear, this little band of heroes found themselves advanced to the distance of about forty paces from the second barrier, which lay concealed behind an angle of the street. When this barrier appeared in view, Colonel Morgan rushed to the contest at the head of this little phalanx, who bore their scaling ladders on their shoulders to mount the rampart, and dislodge the enemy. The captain of the post rushed out at VOL. III.

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