THE FIFTH SIEGE
Besides Sir Guy Carleton, Wolfe's army of 1759 contained other
officers who were destined to reappear in the history of the city. One
of these was Richard Montgomery, then a lieutenant in the Seventeenth
Foot, but now, after a lapse of sixteen years, a brigadier-general,
and charged with a far different commission. Moses Hazen and Donald
Campbell, two officers who figured prominently in the battle of Ste.
Foye, were likewise returning in different guise to the scene of their
former exploits; and Benedict Arnold, no stranger in Quebec, came
there once more. All of these had made merry at Freemasons' Hall, the
festive hostelry at the top of Mountain Hill, which had been a jovial
rendezvous in the days of military rule. Here they had toasted and
sung, little dreaming that one day they would assail that fort they
had so dearly won, and face in battle their former messmates. Yet fate
had so ordained; and when the thirteen revolting colonies determined
to strike the mother-country by an attack on Canada, it was to
Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold that Congress gave the command
of the two invading armies. The former was despatched against
Montreal, the latter was sent to take Quebec.
[Illustration: General Sir James Henry Craig, K.C.B.
Governor General of Canada 1807-1811.]
Down the Richelieu came Montgomery, and the forts of Ticonderoga,
Crown Point, St. John, and Chambly fell before him. Sir Guy Carleton
hurried to Montreal, but as he was unable to rally the citizens to
their own defence, the town soon fell into the hands of the impetuous
invader. General Carleton escaped in the guise of a peasant through
the provincial lines, and paddled to Quebec in a canoe. There his
first step was to purge of treason the city upon which the hope of all
Canada now rested. Citizens suspected of disaffection were banished
beyond the walls; and though the garrison numbered only eighteen
hundred men, French and English, the loyalty of all was secure,
begetting confidence in their power to meet the attack. A contemporary
diary, that of James Thompson, refers thus to the defences: "I
received order from General Carleton to put the extensive
fortifications of Quebec in a state of repair at a time when there was
not a single article of material in store with which to perform such
an undertaking....My first object was to secure stout spar timber for
palisading a great extent of open ground between the gates called
Palace and Hope, and again from half-bastion of Cape Diamond along
the brow of the cliff towards Castle St. Lewis. I began at Palace
Gate, palisading with loopholes for musketry, and made a projection in
the form of a bastion, as a defence for a line of pickets, in the
gorge of which I erected a blockhouse, which made a good
defence....Also a blockhouse on the Cape under Cape Diamond
bastion....I also had a party of the carpenters barricading the
extremities of the Lower Town by blockading up all the windows of the
houses next to the riverside and those facing the water, leaving only
loopholes for musketry, as a defence in case the St. Lawrence should
freeze across....At this time, the nights being dark, I strongly
recommended the use of lanterns extended on poles from the salient
angles of all the bastions. By means of these lights even a dog could
be distinguished if in the great ditch in the darkest night. This we
continued in the absence of the moon, with the exception of a
composition burned in iron pots, substituted for candles."
[Illustration: GENERAL RICHARD MONTGOMERY
(Fell at Quebec 1775)]
It was November, and up to this time General Carleton had feared only
the arrival of Montgomery's army from Montreal. Suddenly, however, a
new enemy appeared at Point Lévi. Benedict Arnold, at the head of
seven hundred men, had accomplished an amazing journey. Through the
tangled forests of New Hampshire and Maine, beset by the driving
storms of an early winter, this intrepid army toiled overland from
Boston to Point Lévi. On the night of the 14th of November, Arnold's
force crossed the river, and gained the Plains of Abraham without
opposition. Three weeks later Montgomery's army arrived from Montreal,
and the united forces established themselves at Ste. Foye. Both
Montgomery and Arnold had counted upon the co-operation of the French
Canadians; and owing to the success of the army against Montreal, some
of the fickle _habitants_ were persuaded to join the invaders. In
general, however, the French population were not forgetful of the just
treatment they had met at the hands of the British, and if they were
not to be depended upon for a powerful defence, they at least rendered
no assistance to the besiegers. About half of those whom Carleton had
kept within the walls were French, but these, as has been said, were
wholly trustworthy.
The Governor paid no heed to Montgomery's call to surrender. His
envoys were turned away from the gates, and the resolute equanimity of
the town disturbed him. That his temper hardly stood the strain is
evident from the following letter to the Governor:--
"SIR--Notwithstanding the personal ill-treatment I have
received at your hands, and notwithstanding your cruelty
to the unhappy prisoners you have taken, the feelings of
humanity induce me to have recourse to this expedient to
save you from the destruction which hangs over you. Give
me leave, sir, to assure you, I am well acquainted with
your situation. A great extent of works, in their nature
incapable of defence, manned with a motley crew of
sailors, the greatest part our friends, of citizens who
wish to see us within their walls, and a few of the worst
troops who ever styled themselves soldiers. The
impossibility of relief, and the certain prospect of
wanting every necessary of life, should your opponents
confine their operations to a simple blockade, point out
the absurdity of resistance....I am at the head of troops
accustomed to success...and so highly incensed at your
inhumanity, illiberal abuse, and the ungenerous means
employed to prejudice them in the minds of the Canadians,
that it is with difficulty I restrain them till my
batteries are ready....Beware of destroying stores of any
kind, public or private....If you do, by Heavens, there
will be no mercy shown!
"RICHARD MONTGOMERY,
Continental Army, G.C."
If there was one man who knew the impracticability of a "simple
blockade," it was the General in command of the Continental army. No
one stood in greater need of "stores of any kind, public or private."
The spirit of his army was doubtless as he described it; but he had
wholly mistaken the temper of the garrison.
Kirke, Phipps, Wolfe, and Lévis had all left their mark upon Quebec,
and now the battered walls were once more threatened by Montgomery.
The Provincial army had taken possession of every point of vantage
outside the gates, the General having established his headquarters at
Holland House, by the Ste. Foye road, while Arnold occupied the suburb
of St. Roch towards Charles River. The houses of the _habitants_, the
General Hospital, and the Intendant's Palace were thronged with
soldiers, who found their tents poor protection against the rigours of
a winter campaign. A six-gun battery was erected within three hundred
paces of St. John's Gate, a battery of two guns thundered from the
bank of the St. Charles, while a third belched impotent fire across
the river from Point Lévi. From the cupola of the Intendant's Palace a
body of riflemen continued to pick man after man off the ramparts,
until Sir Guy Carleton at last trained his guns upon it. It was a hard
thing for the Governor to destroy perhaps the finest building of all
Quebec, but the rigours of the siege seemed to leave him no
alternative; and soon the venerable building lay in ruins, having
witnessed the chequered history of the city since the days of the
great Talon.
Day and night the cannon on the ramparts answered the enemy's
howitzers, and once again the river gorge echoed back the roar of
artillery. Shells and grenades burst continually in the streets, and
as weeks wore away the citizens became inured to the dangers of battle
or sudden death by roundshot, grape, and canister. Outside the walls,
the enemy suffered in like manner, running the gauntlet of Carleton's
artillery and exposed to the musketry of the garrison. One day as
Montgomery dashed over the snow-covered plain in a carriole his horse
was killed by a cannon shot. Such casual dangers, however, were the
least cause of his anxiety, which was especially due to the
prolongation of the siege. His men were ill-clothed, depending for
rations largely upon the goodwill of the _habitants_, who anxiously
weighed the chances of British prowess. Moreover, desertion and
sickness thinned his ranks; and at last, having resolved upon a _coup
de main_, he formed his plans and awaited a dark night for their
execution.
Meantime, the wary Carleton neglected no means of informing himself of
the enemy's intentions. When this latest resolution of the invader
came to his ears, the night watches of Quebec were doubled, and he and
his devoted officers slept in their clothes at the Récollet Convent,
whence, at a moment's notice, they could hasten to a threatened
quarter. On the 30th of December a deserter from Montgomery's camp,
being allowed within the gates, confirmed Carleton's suspicions by
affirming that the Continental army had received final instructions,
with permission to plunder the city on its capture. Once more the
Governor inspected the fortifications and the barriers of the Lower
Town, and anxiously awaited the assault.
Having accurate knowledge of the city's defences, Montgomery saw but
one plan promising success to his enterprise. This was to divide his
force and attack the Lower Town from two directions. From St. Roch
Arnold was to force the barrier below the Sault-au-Matelot, while he
himself should creep along through Près-de-Ville, at the base of Cape
Diamond, carry the barrier and blockhouse standing in his way, and
reach the foot of Mountain Hill. Uniting at this point, the two
columns would gain the Upper Town and overpower the garrison, the real
assault being conducted under cover of a simulated attack upon the
ramparts from the Plains. The plan was desperate, but at least not
more hopeless for the ill-conditioned troops of the invaders than a
long and cruel siege.
It was the last night of the year 1775, the stars were winter bright,
but the fleecy clouds of impending storm were driven across the sky.
Silently, the guards paced the ramparts of the watchful city, gazing
eagerly over the glimmering Plains of Abraham, and across the river
where the lights of the Lévi outposts twinkled against the dark sky.
Midnight passed, the stars were obscured, and snowflakes began to
fall, at first slowly, then swiftly blown upon the rising wind.
Presently, as the clock in the guard-house struck four, two rockets
shot up from the enemy's camp and burst in a fiery shower beyond the
Cape. Captain Malcolm Fraser of the Highlanders stopped short in his
round of inspection: "Guard, turn out!" he shouted. Having raised the
guard, he rushed down St. Louis Street sounding the alarm, and at the
Récollet Convent found General Carleton and his staff. In five minutes
every bell within the walls was ringing, drummers were beating the
assembly, and every soldier of the fort was at his post.
Meanwhile, the two forces of the Continental army were marching to the
attack. Arnold's division, having the shorter distance to traverse,
reached its objective first. "When we came to Craig's house, near
Palace Gate," writes a participant,[36] "a horrible roar of cannon
took place, and a ringing of the bells of the city, which are very
numerous and of all sizes. Arnold, leading the forlorn hope, advanced
perhaps one hundred yards before the main body....The snow was deeper
than in the fields, because of the nature of the ground; and the path
made (by the advance guard) was almost imperceptible because of the
falling snow. Covering the locks of our guns with the lappets of our
coats, holding down our heads (for it was impossible to bear up our
faces against the imperious storm of wind and snow), we ran along the
foot of the hill in single file....In these intervals we received a
tremendous fire of musketry from the ramparts above us. Here we lost
some brave men, when powerless to return the salutes we received, for
the enemy was covered by his impregnable defences....They were even
sightless to us; we could see nothing but the blaze from the muzzles
of the muskets....We proceeded rapidly, exposed to the long line of
fire from the garrison, for now we were unprotected by any buildings.
The fire had slackened in a small degree. The enemy had been partly
called off to resist the General (Montgomery), and strengthen the
party opposed to Arnold in our front. Now we saw Colonel Arnold
returning, wounded in the leg and supported by two gentlemen....(He)
called on the troops in a cheering voice as we passed, urging us
forward, yet it was observable among the soldiery, with whom it was my
misfortune to be now placed, that the Colonel's retiring damped their
spirits....Thus proceeding, enfiladed by an animated but lessened
fire, we came to the first barrier, where Arnold had been wounded at
the onset. This contest had lasted but a few minutes, and had been
somewhat severe, but the energy of our men prevailed. The embrasures
were entered when the enemy were discharging their guns. The guard,
consisting of thirty persons, were either taken or fled, leaving their
arms behind them....From the first barrier to the second there was a
circular course along the sides of the houses and partly through the
streets....This second barrier was erected across and near the mouth
of a narrow street adjacent to the foot of a hill which opened into a
larger, leading soon into the main body of the Lower Town. Here it was
that the most serious contention took place....Confined in a narrow
street, hardly more than twenty feet wide, and on lower ground,
scarcely a ball, well aimed or otherwise, but must take effect upon
us....A crowd of every class of the army had gathered into the narrow
pass, attempting to surmount the barrier, which was about twelve feet
or more high, and so strongly constructed that nothing but artillery
could effectuate its destruction....Within the barrier, and close into
it, were two ranges of musketeers, armed with musket and bayonet,
ready to receive those who might venture the dangerous leap....This
was near daylight,...and all hope of success having vanished, a
retreat was contemplated....The moment (however) was foolishly lost
when such a movement might have been made with tolerable success...and
Captain Laws, at the head of two hundred men, issuing from Palace
Gate, most fairly and handsomely cooped us up. Many of the men, aware
of the consequences, and all our Indians and Canadians, escaped across
the ice which covered the Bay of St. Charles....This was a dangerous
and desperate adventure, but worth while the undertaking, in avoidance
of our subsequent sufferings. Its desperateness consisted in running
two miles across shoal ice, thrown up by the high tides of this
latitude; and its danger, in the meeting with air-holes, deceptively
covered by the bed of snow...."
[Footnote 36: _Siege of Quebec_, 1775, 1776, by John Joseph Henry.]
[Illustration: Sir John Cope Sherbrooke.
Governor General of Canada 1816-1818.]
With the other wing of the invading army, the issue was even less
doubtful and far more tragic. Montgomery had pushed through the storm,
along the base of the cliffs from Wolfe's Cove to the base of Cape
Diamond. Deep snow covered the rocky pathway, and spray from the
fretting river had rendered it slippery with ice. Every man in the
chosen company knew the peril of the enterprise, and moved forward
stealthily. Soon the advance guard led by Montgomery in person could
discern through the driving snow the first straggling houses of the
Lower Town. A barrier crossed the roadway, but no sight or sound gave
evidence that the guard was on the alert. Forward they crept, silent
and full of desperate purpose. Suddenly, when they were within thirty
yards of the barrier and counting fully upon the surprise of the
outpost, four cannon and a score of muskets pounded forth a deadly
fire. Itself taken by surprise, the Continental army broke and fled.
No sound reached the wakeful guard save the groans of the wounded who
had gone down before that fatal barrier; but, distrustful even of the
silence, their battery continued to sweep the pass.
At dawn a reconnoitring party ventured forth from the guard-house.
Thirteen bodies lay half buried in the snow, and the only remains of
the invading army were General Montgomery, his two aides-de-camp,
Cheeseman and M'Pherson, a sergeant, and eight men. All but the
sergeant were dead, and he too died within an hour. As for the
General, only an arm appeared above the snow, and a drummer-boy picked
up his sword close by. The English soldiers, uncertain whose body it
was, fetched a prisoner, one of Arnold's forlorn hope, who could not
restrain his grief for the brave General who had been the idol of his
troops. Widow Prentice, of Freemasons' Hall, also recognised
Montgomery by the sabre-cut upon his cheek; and Sir Guy Carleton
having no further doubt as to his identity, gave orders that the
slain General should have honourable burial. Up Mountain Hill they
bore him to the small house in St. Louis Street, still known as
Montgomery House, and later in the same day he was laid in a coffin
draped with black, and borne by soldiers to a new-made grave in the
gorge of the St. Louis bastion. A brass tablet now marks the spot near
the present St. Louis Gate.
[Illustration: CAPE DIAMOND
(Près-de-Ville, where Montgomery fell)]
Although both divisions of their army were defeated, over four hundred
prisoners taken, and their General slain, the invaders were yet
unwilling to give up the struggle against the grim walls of Quebec.
They were sore beset by cold, hunger, and the hardships of active
warfare; and smallpox carried off nearly five hundred of their
number. On the death of Montgomery, Arnold had succeeded to the chief
command, but it was April before his wound was healed. Meanwhile, they
had quickly erected a new battery at Point Lévi, and once again the
guns of the citadel entered upon an artillery duel with that historic
ravelin. From time to time rockets sent up from the enemy's camp threw
the defenders of the city into unusual alarm, and once or twice, when
the signals seemed more pregnant, the whole force turned out and
swiftly took up their assigned positions. General Carleton on the
other side, not having enough soldiers to dislodge the besiegers, had
been content to hold fast and wait until spring should bring him
reinforcements from England. No vigilance on the part of the garrison
was relaxed, and throughout the cold and dreary winter the sentries
marched night and day upon the ramparts.
Towards late spring the increased activity of the besiegers caused a
corresponding restiveness among the many prisoners within the city.
Sir Guy Carleton had treated them with as much liberality as was
possible under the circumstances; but on an attempt on the part of
some of the officers to bribe the guard, he speedily placed the
offenders in irons. On the last day of March a large number of
prisoners made an attempt to escape from the Dauphin barracks, just
inside St. John's Gate. Their plan was to overpower the guard, whose
strength was necessarily small, capture the adjacent city gate, and
hold it open for their comrades on the Plains. The plot was
discovered, however, and the prisoners were transferred to the British
gunboats in the harbour.
As the weeks went by, the anxiety of an ever threatened attack told
heavily on the garrison, and even the convalescent were called upon
for guard-house duty. A blockade extending over four or five months
was exhausting their provisions; and for fuel they were at length
reduced to tearing down wooden houses in the suburb of St. Roch. For
half a year the Richelieu, Montreal, and Three Rivers, in fact the
whole of Canada, had been virtually in the enemy's hands; Quebec alone
remained, but, commanded by Carleton, Quebec was a fortress in the
most real sense.
It was the evening of the 3rd of May, and in the gathering darkness a
ship rounded Point Lévi and drew near to the ships in the basin.
Cheers rose from the garrison and a saluting gun boomed from the
citadel. Still the strange craft made no salute, and a heavy crash of
artillery burst from the Grand Battery. For answer, flames leaped up
the rigging and along the bulwarks of the approaching schooner. It was
the _Gaspé_, which the enemy had fitted up as a fire-ship and sent
into the harbour. The crew, being disconcerted by the alert challenge
of the garrison, hastily lighted the fuses and escaped in small boats,
but only to see the impotent fire-ship carried down the river by the
ebbing tide.
Meanwhile, the invading army had drawn near to the ramparts, intending
to assault the town under the confusion caused by the _Gaspé_. To
these dogged troops, steeled for their last great effort, the failure
of the fire-ship was a severe blow. Moreover, their slight remaining
hope vanished a day or two later when the British frigate _Surprise_,
arrived in the harbour, having boldly forced its way through the
ice-packs which still beset the lower river. Not long afterwards the
_Isis_, fifty guns, and the sloop-of-war _Martin_ also rounded Point
Lévi.
After six months of toil, privation, and suspense the brave garrison
was at last relieved. Once more in Quebec numberless joy-bells rang
out, and artillery crashed triumphantly across the tide. Flags ran up
on every bastion and parapet within the walls, and the cheers of the
reinforced garrison carried dark despair to the enemy's camp across
the Plains.
The siege was immediately raised, the invaders thinking only of
escape. General Carleton, with a force of only a thousand men, marched
out by the city gates and tried to fall upon the enemy's flank. So
rapid had been their flight, however, that only the van of his column
was able to come up with the Provincials, who, in their hurried
retreat, had not only abandoned their artillery, ammunition, and
scaling-ladders, but had left their sick and wounded in the tents of
Ste. Foye. Once more the invader had failed to seize the key of all
Canada; and another successful conflict was written in the annals of
Quebec. Never again was a hostile army to beset those grim grey walls.
"Twice conquered and thrice conquering" became the pregnant summary of
two centuries of the history of the fortress, and the lapse of still
another hundred years makes no amendment necessary. Like her younger
sister, New Orleans, the city upon the St. Lawrence had often been the
battlefield of the nations, but, for both, the centuries have brought
prosperity and peace.