The last day of December, 1904, was the 128th anniversary of the
unsuccessful attack on Quebec in 1775, and by a coincidence on almost
that very day the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec erected two
bronze tablets to commemorate the event. We are indebted to Mr. F. C.
Würtele, the Secretary of the Society, for the photographs from which
our two illustrations are made—they thus appearing in our pages in
advance even of Canadian journals.
From the newspaper accounts furnished us, we condense:
When the Canadian Government erected monuments on the battlefields of
1812, the invasion of 1775 seemed to have been forgotten, and no
memorials were placed in Quebec to commemorate the signal defeat of the
Continental invaders on the 31st of December, 1775, at the hands of
General Guy Carleton, the savior of Canada to the British Crown.
However, that brave defence has not been forgotten by Quebec’s citizens,
and some time ago at a meeting of the Literary and Historical Society of
Quebec, it was resolved, “That the time has come for the erection of
historic tablets at Pres-de-Ville and the Sault-au-Matelot, in the lower
town of Quebec, relating to the events of 31st of December, 1775, so
important to the destiny of Canada; and as it is within the province of
the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec to erect such memorials, a
committee is hereby appointed on the subject.”
As such memorials would be battlefield monuments, the Federal Government
was petitioned by the society for means to erect suitable historic
tablets at these places. The request was graciously responded to and
splendid memorials in statuary bronze have been erected, one bolted to
the rock where at its base Montgomery was defeated and killed, and the
other on the St. James street gable of the Molsons Bank, as near as
possible to the site of the Sault-au-Matelot barricade, where Arnold was
defeated, and over 400 of his men made prisoners, both events taking
place in the early morning of that memorable last day of December, 1775.
As these bronzes have been placed in position for the anniversary of
that event, a short historic retrospect may be interesting:
One hundred and twenty-nine years have passed since a force under
Montgomery was sent by Lake Champlain to attack Montreal, and another
under Arnold marched from Cambridge, Mass., via the Voyageur trail up
the Kennebec river and across to the source of the river Chaudiere, to
St. Marie and thence by road to Levis opposite Quebec, where, after
considerable hardships throughout the whole journey it arrived, and
crossing the St. Lawrence appeared on the present Cove Fields, on the
14th, was fired on and soon retired to Pointe aux Trembles, where the
arrival of Montgomery from Montreal was waited.
Montgomery carried all before him, taking Sorel, Montreal and Three
Rivers. General Carleton, who was in Montreal, knowing the importance of
Quebec, and that for divers reasons Montreal could not then be defended,
destroyed the government stores and arrived at Quebec on the 19th of
November, where Colonel MacLean, who had preceded him, was preparing for
its defence.
The defences were strengthened and barricades erected and armed in the
Lower Town, in Sault-au-Matelot street, and the present Sous-le-Cap,
also at Pres-de-Ville, where is now the Allan Steamship Company’s
property.
Montgomery arrived on the 1st of December with his army, and Arnold’s
800 raised the attacking force to 2000 men, who proceeded to take
possession of St. Roch’s and erected batteries on the high ground,
Montgomery issued general orders on the 15th December, which were sent
into the town, and a copy is now to be found in the Dominion Archives at
Ottawa:
(Q. 12. PAGE 30.)