REVERSES IN CANADA.--THE HIGHLANDS.--CLOSE OF THE INVASION OF CANADA.
We left Arnold before the walls of Quebec, wounded, crippled, almost
disabled, yet not disheartened, blockading that "proud town" with a
force inferior, by half, in number to that of the garrison. For his
gallant services, Congress promoted him in January to the rank of
brigadier-general. Throughout the winter he kept up the blockade with
his shattered army; though had Carleton ventured upon a sortie, he
might have been forced to decamp.
Arnold had difficulties of all kinds to contend with. His military
chest was exhausted; his troops were in want of necessaries; sickness
thinned his ranks. At one time, his force was reduced to five hundred
men, and for two months, with all his recruitments of raw militia, did
not exceed seven hundred. The failure of the attack on Quebec had
weakened the cause among the Canadians; the peasantry had been
displeased by the conduct of the American troops; they had once
welcomed them as deliverers; they now began to regard them as
intruders.
Notwithstanding all these discouragements, Arnold still kept up a bold
face: cut off supplies occasionally, and harassed the place with
alarms. Having repaired his batteries, he opened a fire upon the town,
but with little effect; the best part of the artillerists, with Lamb,
their capable commander, were prisoners within the walls. On the 1st
day of April, General Wooster arrived from Montreal, with
reinforcements, and took the command. The day after his arrival,
Arnold, by the falling of his horse, again received an injury on the
leg recently wounded, and was disabled for upwards of a week.
Considering himself slighted by General Wooster, who did not consult
him in military affairs, he obtained leave of absence until he should
be recovered from his lameness, and repaired to Montreal, where he
took command.
General Thomas arrived at the camp in the course of April, and found
the army in a forlorn condition, scattered at different posts, and on
the island of Orleans. It was numerically increased to upwards of two
thousand men, but several hundred were unfit for service. The
small-pox had made great ravages. They had inoculated each other. In
their sick and debilitated state they were without barracks, and
almost without medicine. A portion, whose term of enlistment had
expired, refused to do duty, and clamored for their discharge. The
winter was over, the river was breaking up, reinforcements to the
garrison might immediately be expected, and then the case would be
desperate. Observing that the river about Quebec was clear of ice,
General Thomas determined on a bold effort. It was to send up a
fire-ship with the flood, and, while the ships in the harbor were in
flames, and the town in confusion, to scale the walls.
Accordingly, on the 3d of May the troops turned out with scaling
ladders; the fire-ship came up the river under easy sail, and arrived
near the shipping before it was discovered. It was fired into. The
crew applied a slow match to the train and pulled off. The ship was
soon in a blaze, but the flames caught and consumed the sails; her way
was checked, and she drifted off harmlessly with the ebbing tide. The
rest of the plan was, of course, abandoned.
Nothing now remained but to retreat before the enemy should be
reinforced. Preparations were made in all haste to embark the sick and
the military stores. While this was taking place, five ships made
their way into the harbor, on the 6th of May, and began to land
troops. Thus reinforced, General Carleton sallied forth with eight
hundred or a thousand men. The Americans were in no condition to
withstand the attack. They had no intrenchments, and could not muster
three hundred men at any point. A precipitate retreat was the
consequence, in which baggage, artillery, everything was abandoned.
Even the sick were left behind; many of whom crawled away from the
camp hospitals, and took refuge in the woods, or among the Canadian
peasantry.
General Thomas came to a halt at point Deschambault, about sixty miles
above Quebec, and called a council of war to consider what was to be
done. The enemy's ships were hastening up the St. Lawrence; some were
already but two or three leagues distant. The camp was without cannon;
powder, forwarded by General Schuyler, had fallen into the enemy's
hands; there were not provisions enough to subsist the army for more
than two or three days; the men-of-war, too, might run up the river,
intercept all their resources, and reduce them to the same extremity
they had experienced before Quebec. It was resolved, therefore, to
ascend the river still further. General Thomas, however, determined to
send forward the invalids, but to remain at Point Deschambault, with
about five hundred men, until he should receive orders from Montreal
and learn whether such supplies could be forwarded immediately as
would enable him to defend his position.
The despatches of General Thomas, setting forth the disastrous state
of affairs, had a disheartening effect on Schuyler, who feared the
army would be obliged to abandon Canada. Washington, on the contrary,
spoke cheeringly on the subject. He regretted that the troops had not
been able to make a stand at Point Deschambault, but hoped they would
maintain a post as far down the river as possible.
[The reverses in Canada, which spread consternation through the New
England frontier, now laid open to invasion, strengthened the ill-will
and prejudice that prevailed in the Eastern States against General
Schuyler. He was stigmatized as the cause of the late reverses, and
was even accused of being untrue to his country. Committees, which the
alarming state of affairs had caused to be organized in various
counties, addressed Washington on the subject, which, reviling
Schuyler, he at once demanded a court of inquiry. It is proper to add
that the committees in question, after investigating the evidence,
acknowledged to Washington that their suspicions had been wholly
groundless.]
As the reverses in Canada would affect the fortunes of the Revolution
elsewhere, Washington sent General Gates to lay the despatches
concerning them before Congress. Scarce had Gates departed on his
mission (May 19th), when Washington himself received a summons to
Philadelphia, to advise with Congress concerning the opening campaign.
He was informed also that Gates, on the 16th of May, had been promoted
to the rank of major-general, and Mifflen to that of brigadier-general,
and a wish was intimated that they might take the command of Boston.
Washington prepared to proceed to Philadelphia. In his parting
instructions to Putnam, who, as the oldest major-general in the city,
would have the command during his absence, Washington informed him of
the intention of the Provincial Congress of New York to seize the
principal tories and disaffected persons in the city and the
surrounding country, especially on Long Island, and authorized him to
afford military aid, if required, to carry the same into execution. He
was also to send Lord Stirling, Colonel Putnam the engineer, and
Colonel Knox, if he could be spared, up to the Highlands, to examine
the state of the forts and garrisons, and report what was necessary to
put them in a posture of defence.
The general, accompanied by Mrs. Washington, departed from New York on
the 21st of May, and they were invited by Mr. Hancock, the President
of Congress, to be his guests during their sojourn at Philadelphia.
Washington, in his conferences with Congress, roundly expressed his
conviction that no accommodation could be effected with Great Britain
on acceptable terms. Ministerialists had declared in Parliament that,
the sword being drawn, the most coercive measures would be persevered
in until there was complete submission. The recent subsidizing of
foreign troops was a part of this policy, and indicated unsparing
hostility. A protracted war, therefore, was inevitable; but it would
be impossible to carry it on successfully with the scanty force
actually embodied, and with transient enlistments of militia.
In consequence of his representations, resolutions were passed in
Congress that soldiers should be enlisted for three years, with a
bounty of ten dollars for each recruit; that the army at New York
should be reinforced until the 1st of December with thirteen thousand
eight hundred militia; that gondolas and fire-rafts should be built to
prevent the men-of-war and enemy's ships from coming into New York
Bay, or the Narrows; and that a flying camp of ten thousand militia,
furnished by Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland, and likewise engaged
until the 1st of December, should be stationed in the Jerseys for the
defence of the Middle colonies. Washington was, moreover, empowered,
in case of emergency, to call on the neighboring colonies for
temporary aid with their militia.
Another important result of his conferences with Congress was the
establishment of a war office. Military affairs had hitherto been
referred in Congress to committees casually appointed, and had
consequently been subject to great irregularity and neglect.
Henceforth a permanent committee, entitled the Board of War and
Ordnance, was to take cognizance of them. The first board was composed
of five members--John Adams, Colonel Benjamin Harrison, Roger Sherman,
James Wilson, and Edward Rutledge; with Richard Peters as secretary.
It went into operation on the 12th of June.
While at Philadelphia, Washington had frequent consultations with
George Clinton, one of the delegates from New York, concerning the
interior defences of that province, especially those connected with
the security of the Highlands of the Hudson, where part of the
regiment of Colonel James Clinton, the brother of the delegate, was
stationed. He was gratified, also, by procuring the appointment of his
late secretary, Joseph Reed, to the post of adjutant-general, vacated
by the promotion of General Gates, thus placing him once more by his
side.
[Despatches from Canada continued to be disastrous. A post stationed
at the Cedars, forty miles above Montreal consisting of about four
hundred men, had been intimidated into a surrender by a body of
Canadians and Indians. A force of one hundred men, sent to the relief
of the post, was also captured. The enemy was pursued by Arnold, and
overtaken near St. Anns, above the rapids of the St. Lawrence. The
prisoners captured at the Cedars were threatened with massacre if
Arnold should attack; and this led to negotiations which resulted in
their exchange. While these events were occurring mischief was brewing
in another quarter.
Colonel Guy Johnson, with Brant and the Butlers, had been holding
councils with the Indians, and were threatening a maraud on the Mohawk
country. A correspondence was carried on between Guy Johnson and his
cousin, Sir John Johnson, who was said to be preparing to co-operate
with his Scotch dependents. Schuyler considered this a breach of Sir
John's parole, and sent Colonel Dayton to apprehend him. Sir John,
with a number of his tenants, retreated for refuge among the Indians.
Shortly after this came intelligence that Sir John, with his Scotch
warriors and Indian allies, was actually coming down the valley of the
Mohawk, bent on revenge, and prepared to lay everything to waste.
Schuyler immediately collected a force at Albany to oppose him;
letters from Washington directed Schuyler to detach Colonel Dayton
with his regiment on that service, with instructions for him to secure
a post upon the old site of Fort Stanwix. Washington also authorized
Schuyler to hold a conference with the Six Nations, and secure their
active services, without waiting further directions from
Congress--that body having recently resolved to employ Indian allies.]
Lord Stirling, who, by Washington's orders, had visited and inspected
the defences in the Highlands, rendered a report of their condition,
of which we give the purport. Fort Montgomery, at the lower part of
the Highlands, was on the west bank of the river, north of Dunderberg
(or Thunder Hill). It was situated on a bank one hundred feet high.
The river at that place was about half a mile wide. Opposite the fort
was the promontory of Anthony's Nose, many hundred feet high,
accessible only to goats, or men expert in climbing. A body of
riflemen stationed here might command the decks of vessels. Fort
Montgomery appeared to Lord Stirling the proper place for a guard
post. Fort Constitution was about six miles higher up the river, on a
rocky island of the same name, at a narrow strait where the Hudson,
shouldered by precipices, makes a sudden bend round West Point. A
redoubt, in the opinion of Lord Stirling, would be needed on the
point, not only for the preservation of Fort Constitution, but for its
own importance.
The garrison of that fort consisted of two companies of Colonel James
Clinton's regiment, and Captain Wisner's company of minute men, in all
one hundred and sixty rank and file. Fort Montgomery was garrisoned by
three companies of the same regiment, about two hundred rank and file.
Both garrisons were miserably armed. The direction of the works of
both forts was in the hands of commissioners appointed by the
Provincial Congress of New York. The general command of the posts
required to be adjusted.
In view of all these circumstances, Washington, on the 14th of June,
ordered Colonel James Clinton to take command of both posts, and of
all the troops stationed at them. He seemed a fit custodian for them,
having been a soldier from his youth; brought up on a frontier subject
to Indian alarms and incursions, and acquainted with the strong points
and fastnesses of the Highlands.
King's Bridge, and the heights adjacent, considered by General Lee of
the utmost importance to the communication between New York and the
mainland, and to the security of the Hudson, were reconnoitred by
Washington on horseback, about the middle of the month; ordering where
works should be laid out. Breastworks were to be thrown up for the
defence of the bridge, and an advanced work (subsequently called Fort
Independence) was to be built beyond it, on a hill commanding Spyt den
Duivel Creek, as that inlet of the Hudson is called, which links it
with the Harlem River. A strong work, intended as a kind of citadel,
was to crown a rocky height between two and three miles south of the
bridge, commanding the channel of the Hudson, and below it were to be
redoubts on the banks of the river at Jeffrey's Point. In honor of the
general, the citadel received the name of Fort Washington. While these
preparations were made for the protection of the Hudson, the works
about Brooklyn on Long Island were carried on with great activity,
under the superintendence of General Greene. In a word, the utmost
exertions were made at every point, to put the city, its environs, and
the Hudson River, in a state of defence, before the arrival of another
hostile armament.
Operations in Canada were now drawing to a disastrous close. General
Thomas, finding it impossible to make a stand at Point Deschambault,
had continued his retreat to the mouth of the Sorel, where he found
General Thompson with part of the troops detached by Washington, from
New York, who were making some preparations for defence. Shortly after
his arrival, he was taken ill with the small-pox, and removed to
Chamblee. He had prohibited inoculation among his troops, because it
put too many of their scanty number on the sick list; he probably fell
a victim to his own prohibition, as he died of that malady on the 2d
of June.
On his death, General Sullivan, who had recently arrived with the main
detachment of troops from New York, succeeded to the command; General
Wooster having been recalled. He advanced immediately with his brigade
to the mouth of the Sorel, where he found General Thompson with but
very few troops to defend that post, having detached Colonel St.
Clair, with six or seven hundred men, to Three Rivers, about fifty
miles down the St. Lawrence, to give check to an advanced corps of the
enemy of about eight hundred regulars and Canadians, under the veteran
Scot, Colonel Maclean. Sullivan proceeded forthwith to complete the
works on the Sorel; in the meantime he detached General Thompson with
additional troops to overtake St. Clair and assume command of the
whole party, which would then amount to two thousand men. He was by no
means to attack the encampment at Three Rivers, unless there was great
prospect of success, as his defeat might prove the total loss of
Canada.
Sullivan was aiming at the command in Canada; and Washington soberly
weighed his merits for the appointment, in a letter to the President
of Congress. "He is active, spirited, and zealously attached to the
cause. He has his wants and he has his foibles.... He wants experience
to move upon a grand scale; for the limited and contracted knowledge,
which any of us have in military matters, stands in very little
stead." Scarce had Washington despatched this letter, when he received
one from the President of Congress, dated the 18th of June, informing
him that Major-general Gates had been appointed to command the forces
in Canada, and requesting him to expedite his departure as soon as
possible. The appointment of Gates has been attributed to the
influence of the Eastern delegates, with whom he was a favorite;
indeed, during his station at Boston, he had been highly successful in
cultivating the good graces of the New England people. He departed for
his command on the 26th of June, vested with extraordinary powers for
the regulation of affairs in that "distant, dangerous, and shifting
scene."
The actual force of the enemy in Canada had recently been augmented to
about 13,000 men; several regiments having arrived from Ireland, one
from England, another from General Howe, and a body of Brunswick
troops under the Baron Reidesel. Of these, the greater part were on
the way up from Quebec in divisions, by land and water, with Generals
Carleton, Burgoyne, Philips and Reidesel; while a considerable number
under General Frazer had arrived at Three Rivers, and others, under
General Nesbit, lay near them on board of transports.
General Thompson coasted in bateaux along the right bank of the river
at that expanse called Lake St. Pierre, and arrived at Nicolete, where
he found St. Clair and his detachment. He crossed the river in the
night, and landed a few miles above Three Rivers, intending to
surprise the enemy before daylight; he was not aware at the time that
additional troops had arrived under General Burgoyne. After landing,
he marched with rapidity toward Three Rivers, but was led by
treacherous guides into a morass, and obliged to return back nearly
two miles. Day broke, and he was discovered from the ships. A
cannonade was opened upon his men as they made their way slowly for an
hour and a half through a swamp. At length they arrived in sight of
Three Rivers, but it was to find a large force drawn up in battle
array, under General Frazer, by whom they were warmly attacked, and
after a brief stand thrown in confusion. Thompson attempted to rally
his troops, and partly succeeded, until a fire was opened upon them in
rear by Nesbit, who had landed from his ships. Their rout now was
complete. General Thompson, Colonel Irvine, and about two hundred men
were captured, twenty-five were slain, and the rest pursued for
several miles through a deep swamp. After great fatigues and
sufferings, they were able to get on board of their boats, which had
been kept from falling into the hands of the enemy. In these they made
their way back to the Sorel, bringing General Sullivan the alarming
intelligence of the overpowering force that was coming up the river.
Sullivan made the desperate resolve to defend the mouth of the Sorel,
but was induced to abandon it by the unanimous opinion of his
officers, and the evident unwillingness of his troops. Dismantling his
batteries, therefore, he retreated with his artillery and stores just
before the arrival of the enemy, and was followed, step by step along
the Sorel, by a strong column under General Burgoyne. On the 18th of
June he was joined by General Arnold with three hundred men, the
garrison of Montreal, who had crossed at Longueil just in time to
escape a large detachment of the enemy. Thus reinforced, and the
evacuation of Canada being determined on in a council of war, Sullivan
succeeded in destroying everything at Chamblee and St. Johns that he
could not carry away, breaking down bridges, and leaving forts and
vessels in flames, and continued his retreat to the Isle aux Noix,
where he made a halt for some days, until he should receive positive
orders from Washington or General Schuyler. The low, unhealthy
situation of the Isle aux Noix obliged him soon to remove his camp to
the Isle la Motte, whence, on receiving orders to that effect from
General Schuyler, he ultimately embarked with his forces, sick and
well, for Crown Point.
Thus ended this famous invasion; an enterprise bold in its
conceptions, daring and hardy in its execution; full of ingenious
expedients, and hazardous exploits; and which, had not unforeseen
circumstances counteracted its well-devised plans, might have added
all Canada to the American confederacy.