GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS IN CANADA.
On the 23d of June, 1775, the Continental Congress, recognizing the
services of Allen and his associates, voted to pay the men who had been
employed in the taking and garrisoning of Crown Point and Ticonderoga,
and "recommended to the Convention of New York that they, consulting
with General Schuyler, employ in the army to be raised for the defense
of America, those called Green Mountain Boys, under such officers as
said Green Mountain Boys shall choose." With a copy of these
resolutions, and a letter from John Hancock in his official capacity as
President of Congress, Allen and Warner presented themselves before the
convention on the 4th of July. They were admitted in spite of the
opposition of their old enemies, the speculators. Acting upon this
recommendation of Congress, the convention ordered that an independent
body of troops, not exceeding five hundred men including officers, be
forthwith raised of those called Green Mountain Boys, under officers of
their own election.
When this order, forwarded by General Schuyler, was received in the
Grants, a convention of the town committees was called, which met at
the house of Mr. Cephas Kent, innholder, in the township of Dorset, on
the 26th of July, and, after electing a chairman and clerk, at once
proceeded to elect the officers of the regiment. Ethan Allen, who had
previously proposed to the New York convention a list of officers in
which his name appeared first, followed next by Warner's, now offered
himself as a candidate for the lieutenant-colonelcy, which was the rank
of the commander. But he received only five votes, while Warner was
given forty-one. As may well be imagined, he was greatly mortified by
the result, which he charged to the old farmers who did not incline to
go to war, while with the young Green Mountain Boys he claimed to be a
favorite.[65] Though it seemed like a slight to the acknowledged leader
of the Green Mountain Boys to elect his junior and subordinate to the
command of this regiment, if not an act of calm and dispassionate
judgment, it was one of which future events proved the wisdom; for the
less impetuous but no less brave Warner was the safer commander in
regular military operations. It is noticeable that neither Baker,
Cockran, nor Sunderland, Allen's intimate associates in resistance to
New York, was elected by the Dorset convention, though they were on his
list of proposed captains.
A copy of the proceedings was forwarded to General Schuyler, with a
letter briefly setting forth that this action had been taken in
compliance with the orders of Congress and General Schuyler's
recommendation, in no wise acknowledging the authority of New York, but
as independently as other colonies contributing a military force to the
Continental army.
There were then no more regular troops in Canada than served to garrison
the posts, and the governor, General Carleton, attempted to raise an
army of Canadians and Indians for offensive operations, for the
equipment of which 20,000 stand of arms had been sent from England. But
the habitants had no stomach for fighting, and, though martial law was
proclaimed, refused to arm for the invasion of the southern provinces,
while they declared their willingness to defend their own. The governor
urged the Bishop of Quebec to exercise his ecclesiastical authority to
effect this purpose, but the prelate adroitly excused himself. An
attempt was made, through the influence of the son of the late Sir
William Johnson, to engage the Indians in the contest, but they
prudently declined to take part in it. Of all the Canadians, only the
French _noblesse_ showed any willingness to support the governor, and
they were too few to be of much account.
The Americans, apprised of these futile attempts, determined to invade
Canada before reinforcements should arrive from England. Two thousand
men were to be raised in New York and New England, and commanded by
Generals Schuyler and Montgomery.
Among the prizes secured by the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point
was a quantity of materials for boat-building, which now became
available. With ready Yankee aptitude, the soldiers turned their hands
to the construction of batteaux for the transportation of the troops
down the lake, and the surrounding forests rang for many a summer day
with the busy stroke of axe and hammer.
Montgomery reached Crown Point in August, and upon receiving news that
Carleton was preparing for offensive operations, and had several armed
vessels at St. John's ready to transport his forces up the lake, at once
set forth with what troops had arrived. With sweep and sail, the lazy
flotilla of batteaux was urged down the lake to Isle la Motte, where
Montgomery was joined by Schuyler, who though ill had hastened on from
Albany. They then moved on to Isle aux Noix, and there so disposed their
forces as to prevent the passage of the enemy's vessels. From this point
they issued a proclamation to the Canadians, assuring them that their
army was not in any way directed against them, but against the British,
and inviting them to join in the struggle for liberty.
Ethan Allen, whose patriotic ardor had not been cooled by his recent
rebuff, had, by invitation of the generals, accompanied them to Isle aux
Noix. He held no commission, but was considered as an officer, and was
upon occasion to be given the command of detachments. He was now
employed, with Major Brown and accompanied by interpreters, to
distribute this proclamation among the Canadians, and satisfactorily
performed the duties assigned him. On the 6th of September, the American
army, not more than a thousand strong, advanced toward St. John's, and
landed a mile and a half from the fort. This they found too strong to
warrant an assault, and after a reconnoissance, in which they were
attacked by a party of Indians, and suffered a slight loss while
inflicting a somewhat greater one, they withdrew next morning to the
Isle aux Noix, to await the arrival of artillery and reinforcements. It
was during these operations that the brave Captain Remember Baker was
killed. He was held in great esteem by his friends, and his death, being
the first that occurred in the military operations in this quarter,
created more stir, says Ira Allen, than the death of a thousand later in
the war. Montgomery's reinforcements having arrived, he again moved upon
St. John's on the 17th, and laid siege to the place, but, with his
undisciplined troops and slender supply of ammunition, his progress was
slow. Parties were sent out through the country, and were favorably
received by the Canadians, who contributed men and provisions, the
latter the more valuable contribution.
At this time, much against his wishes, for he would rather have taken
part in the siege, Ethan Allen was dispatched by Montgomery on a mission
similar to that in which he was previously engaged. With a guard of
about eighty men, mostly Canadians, he passed through the parishes on
the Richelieu and up the St. Lawrence to Longueuil, "preaching
politics," as he says, and meeting "with good success as an itinerant."
On his way thence to La Prairie, he fell in with Major Brown, who was
out on the same errand, and now proposed to Allen that they should
attempt the capture of Montreal. His plan was, that Allen should return
to Longueuil, and, there procuring canoes, cross his men to the island
of Montreal, a little below the town; while Brown, with about 200 men,
should cross above it. Allen readily fell in with it, and, making haste
back to Longueuil, obtained a few boats and collected about thirty
recruits. In the course of the night he got his party across the river,
and, setting a guard between his position and the town, with orders to
let no one pass, awaited the signal which Brown was to give when he had
effected a crossing. Allen waited with growing impatience, while
daylight grew and sunrise came. All the world began to be astir, and yet
Brown made no sign. Unsupported as he now found himself, he was in sorry
plight, and would have recrossed the river, but he had only boats enough
to transport a third of his force at a time, and the attempt would
certainly result in the capture of the other two thirds. He determined
to maintain his ground if possible, and that, in any event, all should
fare alike. He dispatched messengers to Brown at La Prairie, and to
L'Assomption, to a Mr. Walker, who was in the interest of the
Americans, urging them to hasten to his aid.
Montreal was already alarmed, and the governor and his party were
preparing to retire on board the vessels of war, when a spy, who had
escaped from Allen's guards, brought them information of Allen's
condition. Upon this, Carleton marched out to attack the presumptuous
invader, with forty regulars and "a mixed multitude" of Canadians,
English, and Indians, numbering nearly 500, and Allen perceived that it
would be a "day of trouble if not of rebuke."[66] About two o'clock in
the afternoon, the British force began firing from the cover of
woodpiles, ditches, and buildings, Allen's men returning the fusillade
from positions quite as favorable, till near half the enemy began a
flank movement on their right. Observing this, Allen dispatched half his
force, under a volunteer named Dugan, to occupy a ditch on their flank;
but Dugan took the opportunity to escape with his detachment, as did one
Young, posted on the other flank with a small force, and Allen was left
with only forty-five men, some of whom were wounded. He began a hopeless
retreat, which was continued for a while. An officer pressing close upon
the rear fired his gun at Allen, the ball whistling past his head.
Allen's shot in turn missed his enemy, as both were out of breath with
running. Allen now offered to surrender if assured of quarter for
himself and his men, which was promised by this officer. Whereupon
Allen gave up his sword and surrendered his party, dwindled to
thirty-eight, seven of whom were wounded. A painted and half-naked
Indian rushed toward them, and within a few yards aimed his gun at
Allen, who, seizing the officer to whom he had delivered his sword, made
a shield of him, and kept him spinning around, as the Indian swiftly
circled about the two, in a vain attempt to fire a shot that should kill
only the Green Mountain Boy. Another Indian then took part in the
attack, and Allen's shrift would have been short, had not an Irishman
and a Canadian come to his rescue. He was then well treated by his
captors, walking to the town between a British officer and a French
gentleman, who, though he had lost an eyebrow in the action, "was very
merry and facetious." But when General Prescott, who throughout the war
never missed an opportunity of exhibiting his brutality, met them at the
barracks and learned that the prisoner was the captor of Ticonderoga, he
showered a torrent of abuse upon him, while he shook his cane over his
head. Allen shook his fist at the general, and told him "that was the
beetle of mortality for him if he offered to strike." An officer
whispered to Prescott that it was inconsistent with his honor to strike
a prisoner. Prescott turned his wrath upon the Canadians, and ordered a
sergeant's guard to kill thirteen of them; and when Allen had somewhat
dramatically but successfully interposed to save their lives, Prescott
roared at him, with an oath, "I will not execute you now, but you shall
grace a halter at Tyburn!" By Prescott's orders he was taken on board a
vessel of war and manacled like a common felon, and presently, with
other prisoners, was sent to England. Landing at Falmouth, clad in the
fawn-skin jacket and red woolen cap that he wore when taken, his strange
appearance excited a curiosity that not a little gratified him. From his
capture till he was exchanged in 1778, he suffered on shipboard and in
prison, with brief intervals of kinder treatment, a hard and cruel
captivity, from which he emerged, however, with a spirit unsubdued, and
unswerving loyalty to his country's cause. The attempt upon Montreal has
generally been characterized as rash; yet, if Brown had not, for some
unexplained reason, failed to perform his part in it, it is more than
probable the undertaking would have succeeded. It was one of those
daring enterprises which if successful receive the highest praise, if
unsuccessful are scouted as foolhardy.
Meanwhile the siege of St. John's progressed slowly, principally through
lack of ammunition. But on the 18th of October the fort at Chambly,
further down the river, and garrisoned by about 100 men of the British
Seventh Regiment, surrendered to Majors Brown and Livingston, and among
the most important of its captured stores were 120 barrels of gunpowder,
which enabled Montgomery to push the siege with more vigor. As
gratifying if not as useful was the capture of the colors of the
regiment, the first trophy of the kind received by the Continental
Congress.
General Carleton was making all possible efforts for the relief of St.
John's, whose garrison of 500 regulars and about 200 other troops was
bravely defending it. He had collected a force of 800 regulars, militia,
and Indians, which he embarked at Montreal, with the design of landing
at Longueuil and joining Colonel McLean at the mouth of the Richelieu,
where that officer was posted with a few hundred Scotch emigrants and
some Canadians. Colonel Seth Warner with 300 Green Mountain Boys was
keeping close watch of Carleton's movements, and when the flotilla drew
near the south shore of the St. Lawrence, the rangers poured upon it a
destructive volley of small-arms and a shower of grapeshot from a
four-pounder. Carleton's force retired in confusion, and when McLean's
Canadians got news of the disaster they took French leave of him, and he
with his Scotchmen retired in haste to Quebec. Left now without hope of
relief, St. John's capitulated on the 3d of November, and a considerable
number of cannon, a quantity of military stores, and 600 prisoners fell
into the hands of the Americans. The prisoners were sent by way of
Ticonderoga into the interior of New England.
Montgomery now marched to Montreal, which Carleton had secretly quitted
the night before. The inhabitants proposed a capitulation, which
Montgomery refused, as they were incapable of making any defense.
Promising them perfect protection of person and property, he marched his
army into the place, and took peaceable possession on the 13th.
Colonel Easton had been sent with a detachment to the mouth of the
Richelieu, where he erected a battery of two guns, and, being reinforced
by a gunboat from St. John's on the 17th, he captured, as they attempted
to pass on their way to Quebec, eleven sail of armed vessels freighted
with provisions and military stores, and having on board General
Prescott and 120 officers and privates.
The term of enlistment of Warner's men having now expired, they
presently returned to their homes, not long after to be recalled, with
their leader, in the stress of the Northern winter, by the urgent appeal
of the commander of the army in Canada.
During the occurrence of these events, Arnold was engaged in his
memorable expedition against Quebec by way of the Kennebec. Arriving at
the mouth of that river on the 20th of September, he set forth with an
army of 1,100 men, embarked in heavy batteaux, to voyage up the wild
stream where hitherto had floated only the light craft of the Indian,
the scout, and the hunter. Battling with dogged persistence against the
angry rush of rapids, and now dragging their bulky craft over portages
of swamp or rugged steeps, they made their slow and weary progress
through the heart of the pitiless wilderness at the rate, at best, of
little more than four miles a day. Through constant strain of toil and
hardship many fell sick, and in the passage of the rapids much of their
provisions was lost, so that the horror of starvation was added to the
heavy measure of their suffering. Men killed and ate their dogs, or
gnawed their shoes and the leather of their cartouch boxes, to allay the
pangs of hunger. When the head of the Kennebec was reached, Colonel
Enos, who was ordered to send back the sick, himself went off with three
companies, a council of his officers having decided that it was
impossible to proceed, for lack of provisions. But Arnold, with his
remaining force, held on his way with desperate determination, and,
coming to the Chaudiere, followed it till on the 3d of November they
came to the first house that they had seen for a month, and there
procured some supplies. At Sortigan, the first village reached, they
were kindly received by the Canadians and bountifully supplied with
provisions. A proclamation prepared by Washington was distributed among
the Canadians. It invited them to join the Americans and assured them
protection of person, property, and religion, and was well received by
them. With the aid which these people afforded, Arnold made an easy
march to Point Levi, arriving there on the 9th with about 700 men.
Twenty-four hours passed before his coming was known in Quebec. There
was such dissension among the British inhabitants in consequence of the
opposition of the English merchants to the Quebec Bill, that the city
was in no condition for defense. The French citizens had no inclination
to take up arms against the Americans; and had Arnold the means of
transportation across the broad St. Lawrence, it is probable that he
might easily have taken the city. Three days later Colonel McLean
arrived there with 170 of his regiment of Scotch emigrants, and at nine
in the evening of the next day Arnold began embarking his men in canoes.
By four in the morning 500 were landed at Wolfe's Cove, whence they
marched to the Plains of Abraham. When Arnold's landing became known in
the city, sailors were brought on shore from the ships to man the guns
of the fortifications; the loyal citizens became more confident of
making a successful defense, and when Arnold sent a flag with a summons
to surrender, it was fired upon. He was not strong enough to strike; he
could but menace; and when menace failed to intimidate the enemy, there
was nothing for him but to retire. Therefore he withdrew to Pointe aux
Trembles, seven leagues above Quebec, on the left bank of the St.
Lawrence. There, on the 1st of December, he was joined by Montgomery,
who had marched his little force of 300 men with all possible celerity
through the half-frozen mire of roads wretched at best, and in the
blinding snowstorms of a winter already rigorous in that climate. Three
armed schooners had also arrived with ammunition, clothing, and
provisions. On the 5th the little army, less than a thousand strong,
appeared before Quebec, now garrisoned by more than 1,500 men of
McLean's regiment, regulars, seamen, marines, and militia. Montgomery
opened an ineffectual fire on the town from two small batteries of
mortar and cannon. An assault was determined upon, and on the last day
of the year, under the thick veil of a downfall of snow, the troops made
the assault in four columns at as many points. The attack of two columns
was a feint against the upper town. Montgomery and Arnold led the actual
assault of the other two against the lower town, and gained some
advantages. Montgomery was killed, and his corps of 200 swept back by a
storm of grape and musket balls poured upon them from the second
barrier. Arnold was carried from the field with a leg shattered in a
successful attack upon a battery, and his column of 300, after a
desperate fight of three hours, was overwhelmed by the whole force of
the British now turned upon it, and it was obliged to surrender.
The command now devolved upon Arnold, and the troops, reduced to 400,
withdrew three miles from the city, and there maintained a partial
blockade of it.[67] General Wooster, in command at Montreal, sent
expresses to Washington, Schuyler, and Congress, and on the 6th of
January wrote to Colonel Warner urging him to raise and send on the more
readily available Green Mountain Boys, "by tens, twenties, thirties,
forties, or fifties, as fast as they could be collected." The response
to his call was prompt. In eleven days Warner mustered his men, and
despite the rigors of the northern winter, whose bitterness they had so
often tasted, they marched in snow and pinching cold to the assistance
of their brethren in Canada, and their alacrity called forth the
approval of Washington and Schuyler.[68]
The offensive operations of the Americans in Canada were thereafter
feeble and ineffectual. Reinforcements had arrived, but smallpox was
raging in the camp, so that when General Thomas took command on the 14th
of May there were less than 900 men fit for duty. In this condition, and
with only three days' provisions remaining, an immediate retreat was
decided upon by a council of war. This became precipitate when three
English ships of war arrived and landed more than a thousand marines and
regulars, and General Carleton marched out with 800 regulars against the
Americans, already in retreat.
Artillery, stores, and baggage were abandoned, and the troops scattered
in flight, the general being able to collect no more than 300 of them.
By day and night they retreated nearly fifty miles before they halted,
when, being beyond immediate reach of the enemy, they rested a few days
and then marched to Sorel, in sorry plight, worn with disease, fatigue,
and hunger.
For the most part, the Canadians proved but fair-weather friends, and
gave them little aid now that the fortune of war no longer favored
them. General Thomas died here of smallpox, and General Sullivan took
command. After the cowardly surrender by Major Beadle of his force of
nearly 400 posted at The Cedars, a small fort on the St. Lawrence, to
Captain Foster, with a detachment of 40 regulars, 100 Canadians, and 500
Indians, without artillery, and the disastrous failure of General
Thompson with 1,800 men to surprise the British advance at Trois
Rivieres, all the American troops began a retreat from Canada, where an
army of 13,000 English and German troops were now arrived.
Arnold, who had been in command at Montreal since the 1st of April,
crossed the St. Lawrence at Longueuil on the 15th of June, and marched
to Chambly, whence the army continued its retreat in good order, first
to Isle aux Noix and then to Crown Point.
During the withdrawal of the army from Canada, the services of Warner
and his Green Mountain Boys again became conspicuous. Following in the
rear, but little in advance of the pursuing enemy, he was chiefly
employed in gathering up the sick and wounded. Some straggling in the
woods, some sheltered in the garlick-reeking cabins of the least
unfriendly habitants, he succeeded in bringing a great number of them to
Isle aux Noix.
Thence embarked, in leaky open boats, the wretched invalids voyaged to
Crown Point, their misery mocked by the brightness of the June skies,
the beauty of the shores clad in the luxuriant leafage of early summer,
and the glitter of the sunlit waters. The condition of the broken army
gathered at Crown Point was miserable in the extreme. More than half of
the 5,200 men were sick, and those reported fit for duty were weak and
half clad, broken in spirit and discipline. A few were in tents, some in
poor sheds, while the greater part had only the shelter of bush huts.
Colonel Trumbull says: "I did not look into a tent or hut in which I did
not find either a dead or dying man." More than 300 new-made graves
marked the brief tarry of the troops at Crown Point. Those whom Colonel
Warner did not succeed in bringing off, and who fell into General
Carleton's hands, were treated by him with the greatest kindness.
So closed this unprofitable campaign, in whose prosecution such heroism
had been expended in vain, such valuable lives wasted. Beginning with a
series of successes, it ended in disaster, and was fortunate only in
that it did not achieve the conquest of a province to hold which would
have required the presence of an army that could ill be spared
elsewhere,--a province which was chiefly peopled by a race alien in
language and religion, too abject to strike for its own freedom, and so
priest-ridden and steeped in ignorance that its incorporation with it
could prove but a curse to the young republic.
FOOTNOTES:
[65] _Governor and Council_, vol. i. p. 6.
[66] Allen's _Narrative_.
[67] Williams, vol. ii.
[68] Hall's _Early History of Vermont_.