AFFAIRS IN CANADA—CAPTURE OF FORT CHAMBLEE—SIEGE OF ST. JOHNS—MACLEAN
AND HIS HIGHLANDERS—MONTGOMERY ON THE TREATMENT OF ETHAN ALLEN—REPULSE
OF CARLETON—CAPITULATION OF THE GARRISON OF ST. JOHNS—GENEROUS CONDUCT
OF MONTGOMERY—MACLEAN RE-EMBARKS FOR QUEBEC—WEARY STRUGGLE OF ARNOLD
THROUGH THE WILDERNESS—DEFECTION OF COLONEL ENOS—ARNOLD IN THE VALLEY OF
THE CHAUDIERE—HIS ARRIVAL OPPOSITE QUEBEC—SURRENDER OF MONTREAL—ESCAPE
OF CARLETON—HOME SICKNESS OF THE AMERICAN TROOPS.
Despatches from Schuyler dated October 26th, gave Washington another
chapter of the Canada expedition. Chamblee, an inferior fort, within
five miles of St. Johns, had been taken by Majors Brown and Livingston
at the head of fifty Americans and three hundred Canadians. A large
quantity of gunpowder and other military stores found there, was a
seasonable supply to the army before St. Johns, and consoled General
Montgomery for his disappointment in regard to the aid promised by
Colonel Ethan Allen. He now pressed the siege of St. Johns with vigor.
The garrison, cut off from supplies, were suffering from want of
provisions; but the brave commander, Major Preston, still held out
manfully, hoping speedy relief from General Carleton, who was assembling
troops for that purpose at Montreal.
Carleton, it is true, had but about one hundred regulars several hundred
Canadians, and a number of Indians with him; but he calculated greatly
on the co-operation of Colonel Maclean, a veteran Scot, brave and
bitterly loyal, who had enlisted three hundred of his countrymen at
Quebec, and formed them into a regiment called “The Royal Highland
Emigrants.” This doughty Highlander was to land at the mouth of the
Sorel, where it empties into the St. Lawrence, and proceed along the
former river to St. Johns, to join Carleton, who would repair thither by
the way of Longueil.
In the mean time Montgomery received accounts from various quarters that
Colonel Ethan Allen and his men, captured in the ill-advised attack upon
Montreal, were treated with cruel and unnecessary severity, being loaded
with irons; and that even the colonel himself was subjected to this
“shocking indignity.” Montgomery addressed a letter to Carleton on the
subject, strong and decided in its purport, but written in the spirit of
a courteous and high-minded gentleman, and ending with an expression of
that sad feeling which gallant officers must often have experienced in
this revolutionary conflict, on being brought into collision with former
brothers in arms.
“Your character, sir,” writes he, “induces me to hope I am ill informed.
Nevertheless, the duty I owe the troops committed to my charge, lays me
under the necessity of acquainting your Excellency, that, if you allow
this conduct and persist in it, I shall, though with the most painful
regret, execute with rigor the just and necessary law of retaliation
upon the garrison of Chamblee, now in my possession, and upon all others
who may hereafter fall into my hands. * * * * I shall expect your
Excellency’s answer in six days. Should the bearer not return in that
time, I must interpret your silence into a declaration of a barbarous
war. I cannot pass this opportunity without lamenting the melancholy and
fatal necessity, which obliges the firmest friends of the constitution
to oppose one of the most respectable officers of the crown.”
While waiting for a reply, Montgomery pressed the siege of St. Johns,
though thwarted continually by the want of subordination and discipline
among his troops; hasty levies from various colonies, who, said he,
“carry the spirit of freedom into the field, and think for themselves.”
Accustomed as he had been, in his former military experience, to the
implicit obedience of European troops, the insubordination of these
yeoman soldiery was intolerable to him. “Were I not afraid,” writes he,
“the example would be too generally followed, and that the public
service might suffer, I would not stay an hour at the head of troops
whose operations I cannot direct. I must say I have no hopes of success,
unless from the garrison’s wanting provisions.”
He had advanced his lines and played from his batteries on two sides of
the fort for some hours, when tidings brought by four prisoners, caused
him to cease his fire.
General Carleton, on the 31st of September, had embarked his motley
force at Montreal in thirty-four boats, to cross the St. Lawrence, land
at Longueil, and push on for St. Johns, where, as concerted, he was to
be joined by Maclean and his Highlanders. As the boats approached the
right bank of the river at Longueil, a terrible fire of artillery and
musketry was unexpectedly opened upon them, and threw them into
confusion. It was from Colonel Seth Warner’s detachment of Green
Mountain Boys and New Yorkers. Some of the boats were disabled, some
were driven on shore on an island; Carleton retreated with the rest to
Montreal, with some loss in killed and wounded. The Americans captured
two Canadians and two Indians; and it was these prisoners who brought
tidings to the camp of Carleton’s signal repulse.
Aware that the garrison held out merely in expectation of the relief
thus intercepted, Montgomery ceased his fire, and sent a flag by one of
the Canadian prisoners with a letter informing Major Preston of the
event, and inviting a surrender to spare the effusion of blood.
Preston in reply expressed a doubt of the truth of the report brought by
the prisoners, but offered to surrender if not relieved in four days.
The condition was refused and the gallant major was obliged to
capitulate. His garrison consisted of five hundred regulars and one
hundred Canadians; among the latter were several of the provincial
noblesse.
Montgomery treated Preston and his garrison with the courtesy inspired
by their gallant resistance. He had been a British officer himself, and
his old associations with the service, made him sympathize with the
brave men whom the fortune of war had thrown into his hands. Perhaps,
their high-bred and aristocratic tone contrasted favorably in his eyes,
with the rough demeanor of the crude swordsmen with whom he had recently
associated, and brought back the feelings of early days, when war with
him was a gay profession, not a melancholy duty. According to
capitulation, the baggage of both officers and men was secured to them,
and each of the latter received a new suit of clothing from the captured
stores. This caused a murmur among the American soldiery, many of whom
were nearly naked, and the best but scantily provided. Even some of the
officers were indignant that all the articles of clothing had not been
treated as lawful spoil. “I would not have sullied my own reputation,
nor disgraced the Continental arms by such a breach of capitulation for
the universe,” said Montgomery. Having sent his prisoners up Lake
Champlain to Ticonderoga, he prepared to proceed immediately to
Montreal; requesting General Schuyler to forward all the men he could
possibly spare.
The royal Highland Emigrants who were to have co-operated with General
Carleton, met with no better fortune than that commander. Maclean landed
at the mouth of the Sorel, and added to his force by recruiting a number
of Canadians in the neighborhood, at the point of the bayonet. He was in
full march for St. Johns when he was encountered by Majors Brown and
Livingston with their party, fresh from the capture of Chamblee, and
reinforced by a number of Green Mountain Boys. These pressed him back to
the mouth of the Sorel, where, hearing of the repulse of Carleton, and
being deserted by his Canadian recruits, he embarked the residue of his
troops, and set off down the St. Lawrence to Quebec. The Americans now
took post at the mouth of the Sorel, where they erected batteries so as
to command the St. Lawrence, and prevent the descent of any armed
vessels from Montreal.
Thus closed another chapter of the invasion of Canada. “Not a word of
Arnold yet,” said Montgomery, in his last despatch. “I have sent two
expresses to him lately, one by an Indian who promised to return with
expedition. The instant I have any news of him, I will acquaint you by
express.”
We will anticipate his express, by giving the reader the purport of
letters received by Washington direct from Arnold himself, bringing
forward the collateral branch of this eventful enterprise.
The transportation of troops and effects across the carrying-place
between the Kennebec and Dead Rivers, had been a work of severe toil and
difficulty to Arnold and his men, but performed with admirable spirit.
There were ponds and streams full of trout and salmon, which furnished
them with fresh provisions. Launching their boats on the sluggish waters
of the Dead River, they navigated it in divisions, as before, to the
foot of snow-crowned mountains; a part of the great granite chain which
extends from south-west to north-east throughout our continent. Here,
while Arnold and the first division were encamped to repose themselves,
heavy rains set in, and they came near being swept away by sudden
torrents from the mountains. Several of their boats were overturned,
much of their provisions was lost, the sick list increased, and the good
spirits which had hitherto sustained them began to give way. They were
on scanty allowance, with a prospect of harder times, for there were
still twelve or fifteen days of wilderness before them, where no
supplies were to be had. A council of war was now held, in which it was
determined to send back the sick and disabled, who were mere
incumbrances. Arnold, accordingly, wrote to the commanders of the other
divisions, to press on with as many of their men as they could furnish
with provisions for fifteen days, and to send the rest back to a place
on the route called Norridgewock. This order was misunderstood, or
misinterpreted by Colonel Enos, who commanded the rear division; he gave
all the provisions he could spare to Colonel Greene of the third
division, retaining merely enough to supply his own corps of three
hundred men on their way back to Norridgewock, whither he immediately
returned.
Letters from Arnold and Enos apprised Washington of this grievous flaw
in the enterprise. He regarded it, however, as usual, with a hopeful
eye. “Notwithstanding this great defection,” said he, “I do not despair
of Colonel Arnold’s success. He will have, in all probability, many more
difficulties to encounter, than if he had been a fortnight sooner; as it
is likely that Governor Carleton will, with what forces he can collect
after the surrender of the rest of Canada, throw himself into Quebec,
and there make his last effort.”[28]
Washington was not mistaken in the confidence he had placed in the
energy of Arnold. Though the latter found his petty force greatly
reduced by the retrograde move of Enos and his party, and although snow
and ice rendered his march still more bleak among the mountains, he kept
on with unflinching spirit until he arrived at the ridge which divides
the streams of New England and Canada. Here, at Lake Megantic, the
source of the Chaudiere, he met an emissary whom he had sent in advance
to ascertain the feelings of the _habitans_, or French yeomanry, in the
fertile valley of that stream. His report being favorable, Arnold shared
out among the different companies the scanty provisions which remained,
directing them to make the best of their way for the Chaudiere
settlements; while he, with a light foraging party, would push rapidly
ahead, to procure and send back supplies.
He accordingly embarked with his little party in five bateaux and a
birch canoe, and launched forth without a guide on the swift current of
the Chaudiere. It was little better than a mountain torrent, full of
rocks and rapids. Three of their boats were dashed to pieces, the
cargoes lost, and the crews saved with difficulty. At one time, the
whole party came near being precipitated over a cataract, where all
might have perished; at length they reached Sertigan, the first French
settlement, where they were cordially received. Here Arnold bought
provisions, which he sent back by the Canadians and Indians to his
troops. The latter were in a state of starvation. Some had not tasted
food for eight and forty hours; others had cooked two dogs, followers of
the camp; and others had boiled their moccasins, cartouch boxes, and
other articles of leather, in the hope of rendering them eatable.
Arnold halted for a short time in the hospitable valley of the
Chaudiere, to give his troops repose, and distributed among the
inhabitants the printed manifesto with which he had been furnished by
Washington. Here he was joined by about forty Norridgewock Indians. On
the 9th of November, the little army emerged from the woods at Point
Levi, on the St. Lawrence, opposite to Quebec. A letter written by an
inhabitant of that place, speaks of their sudden apparition.
“There are about 500 Provincials arrived at Point Levi, opposite to the
town, by the way of Chaudiere across the woods. Surely a miracle must
have been wrought in their favor. It is an undertaking above the common
race of men in this debauched age. They have travelled through woods and
bogs, and over precipices, for the space of one hundred and twenty
miles, attended with every inconvenience and difficulty, to be
surmounted only by men of indefatigable zeal and industry.”
Leaving Arnold in full sight of Quebec, which, after his long struggle
through the wilderness, must have appeared like a land of promise; we
turn to narrate the events of the upper expedition into Canada, of which
the letters of Schuyler kept Washington faithfully informed.
Montgomery appeared before Montreal on the 12th of November. General
Carleton had embarked with his little garrison, and several of the civil
officers of the place, on board of a flotilla of ten or eleven small
vessels, and made sail in the night, with a favorable breeze, carrying
away with him the powder and other important stores. The town
capitulated, of course; and Montgomery took quiet possession. His
urbanity and kindness soon won the good will of the inhabitants, both
English and French, and made the Canadians sensible that he really came
to secure their rights, not to molest them. Intercepted letters
acquainted him with Arnold’s arrival in the neighborhood of Quebec, and
the great alarm of “the king’s friends,” who expected to be besieged:
“which, with the blessing of God, they shall be,” said Montgomery, “if
the severe season holds off, and I can prevail on the troops to
accompany me.”
His great immediate object was the capture of Carleton; which would form
a triumphal close to the enterprise, and might decide the fate of
Canada. The flotilla in which the general was embarked, had made
repeated attempts to escape down the St. Lawrence; but had as often been
driven back by the batteries thrown up by the Americans at the mouth of
the Sorel. It now lay anchored about fifteen miles above that river; and
Montgomery prepared to attack it with bateaux and light artillery, so as
to force it down upon the batteries.
Carleton saw his imminent peril. Disguising himself as a Canadian
voyager, he set off on a dark night accompanied by six peasants, in a
boat with muffled oars, which he assisted to pull; slipped quietly and
silently past all the batteries and guard-boats, and effected his escape
to Three Rivers, where he embarked in a vessel for Quebec. After his
departure the flotilla surrendered, and all those who had taken refuge
on board were made prisoners of war. Among them was General Prescott,
late commander of Montreal.
Montgomery now placed garrisons in Montreal, St. Johns and Chamblee, and
made final preparations for descending the St. Lawrence, and
co-operating with Arnold against Quebec. To his disappointment and deep
chagrin, he found but a handful of his troops disposed to accompany him.
Some pleaded ill health; the term of enlistment of many had expired, and
they were bent on returning home; and others, who had no such excuses to
make, became exceedingly turbulent, and indeed mutinous. Nothing but a
sense of public duty, and gratitude to Congress for an unsought
commission, had induced Montgomery to engage in the service; wearied by
the continual vexations which beset it, he avowed, in a letter to
Schuyler, his determination to retire as soon as the intended expedition
against Quebec was finished. “Will not your health permit you to reside
at Montreal this winter?” writes he to Schuyler; “I must go home, if I
walk by the side of the lake. I am weary of power, and totally want that
patience and temper so requisite for such a command.” Much of the
insubordination of the troops he attributed to the want of tact and
cultivation in their officers; who had been suddenly advanced from
inferior stations and coarse employments. “An affair happened
yesterday,” writes he to Schuyler on the 24th of November, “which had
very near sent me home. A number of officers presumed to remonstrate
against the indulgence I had given some of the king’s troops. Such an
insult I could not bear, and immediately resigned. To-day they qualified
it by such an apology, as put it in my power to resume the command.” In
the same spirit he writes: “I wish some method could be fallen upon for
engaging _gentlemen_ to serve. A point of honor and more knowledge of
the world, to be found in that class of men, would greatly reform
discipline, and render the troops much more tractable.”
The troops which had given Montgomery so much annoyance and refused to
continue with him in Canada, soon began to arrive at Ticonderoga.
Schuyler, in a letter to Congress, gives a half querulous, half humorous
account of their conduct. “About three hundred of the troops raised in
Connecticut, passed here within a few days. An unhappy home sickness
prevails. These all came down as invalids, not one willing to re-engage
for the winter’s service; and, unable to get any work done by them, I
discharged them _en groupe_. Of all the specifics ever invented for
_any_, there is none so efficacious as a discharge for _this_ prevailing
disorder. No sooner was it administered but it perfected the cure of
nine out of ten; who, refusing to wait for boats to go by the way of
Lake George, slung their heavy packs, crossed the lake at this place,
and undertook a march of two hundred miles with the greatest good will
and alacrity.”
This home sickness in rustic soldiers after a rough campaign, was
natural enough, and seems only to have provoked the testy and subacid
humor of Schuyler; but other instances of conduct roused his
indignation.
A schooner and tow galley arrived at Crown Point, with upwards of a
hundred persons. They were destitute of provisions; none were to be had
at the Point, and the ice prevented them from penetrating to
Ticonderoga. In starving condition they sent an express to General
Schuyler, imploring relief. He immediately ordered three captains of
General Wooster’s regiment, with a considerable body of men in bateaux,
to “attempt a relief for the unhappy sufferers.” To his surprise and
disgust, they manifested the utmost unwillingness to comply, and made a
variety of excuses, which he spurned at as frivolous, and as evincing
the greatest want of humanity. He expressed himself to that effect the
next day, in a general order, adding the following stinging words: “The
general, therefore, not daring to trust a matter of so much importance
to men of so little feeling, has ordered Lieutenant Riker, of Col.
Holmes’s regiment, to make the attempt. He received the order with the
alacrity becoming a gentleman, an officer, and a Christian.”
This high-minded rebuke, given in so public a manner, rankled in the
breasts of those whose conduct had merited it, and insured to Schuyler
that persevering hostility with which mean minds revenge the exposure of
their meanness.