Volume 4, Chapter 9, The Invasion of Canada
While Washington busied himself with crippling the morale of the American Army before Boston, other American forces were not idle.
We have seen that promptly upon seizing Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point,
Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold both pressed upon Congress the urgency of seizing the northern British base in Canada.
in Canada. They realized the necessity of speed. The British commander in Canada, General
Guy Carlton, his troops depleted to aid General Gage in Boston, had only two foot regiments
and two artillery companies to defend the entire region. Speed was also needed to take
advantage of spring and summer weather. There were Americans who supported a prompt strike
at the British base in Canada. For instance, one of the spark plugs of the blow at Ticonderoga
had been John Brown, a lawyer of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, who had been sent as early
as February as a secret agent to the Canadians by the Boston Committee of Correspondents
to whip up support for the colonial cause. But we have seen that the conservatives in
and the Congress timorously scuttled the plan and even tried to get the Americans to withdraw
from Ticonderoga. They even went so far as to drive the bold and brilliant Arnold and
Allen from command. The discontented activist officers at Ticonderoga quickly reacted by
sending Ethan Allen and Seth Warner of the Green Mountain Boys as emissaries to the Continental
Congress. Apparently, Congress found Allen persuasive, for it promptly recommended to
the New York Provincial Congress that it form the Green Mountain Boys into a ranger regiment
with officers of their own choosing. Moreover, four days later, on June 27, Congress finally
decided to authorize an invasion of Canada. While the Americans essentially adopted Arnold's
Tactical plan of taking Montreal and then moving on to Quebec. Congress, of course,
did not have the imagination or daring to place such brilliant military radicals as
Arnold or Allen in charge of the expedition against Canada. Instead, command was given
to the man already in charge of the Northern Department at New York. The timorous and conservative
The British-born Montgomery had had almost as much military experience in Europe as his
friend Charles Lee or Horatio Gates, and had resigned from the British Army in 1772 to
settle in New York and marry into the Livingston branch of the New York-landed aristocracy.
In vain did he press Schuller to march north. Finally, taking advantage of Schuller's absence
at a parley to secure the neutrality of the Iroquois, Montgomery took it upon himself
to make the move against Canada at the end of August, a decision in which Schuller, taken
off the hook, readily concurred. General Carlton decided to make his main stand at Fort St.
John's on the Richelieu River, north of Lake Champlain, but Schuller lingered defensively
The Great Bulk of the American Expeditionary Force came from Connecticut, the conservative
province of New York, as Connecticut's Colonel Hinman said sourly, abounds with officers,
I have not had my curiosity gratified by the sight of one private. While this proved to
be a slight exaggeration, the New Englanders were understandably aggrieved at seeing the
New Yorkers fill the major posts and gain lucrative commissary contracts while they
furnished the fighting men. The New Hampshire grant contribution in the meanwhile had been
The Brutal Cashiering of the Magnificent Alan had been accomplished not by his devoted Green
Mountain boys, but by the timorous town elders of the Grant lands, who hated the radical,
of the Revolutionary Cause, and went back to Ticonderoga in hope of a commission. But
Schuler scornfully allowed the hero of Ticonderoga to sign on only as a private. At the siege
of St. John's, General Montgomery put Allen in charge of 30 Connecticut militiamen and
sent him off through the countryside between the Richelieu and Montreal to try to raise
These Canadian volunteers for the cause. John Brown, now a major, and Warner were also sent
around the countryside on similar errands. Repeatedly urging Montgomery to seize St.
John's without delay, Allen managed to raise about 80 Canadians. On September 24, Allen
encountered Brown near Longville, across the St. Lawrence from Montreal. Brown's bold
The third proposal to strike at Montreal with his force of two hundred had been vetoed by Montgomery, so he joined with Allen in a daring plan for a joint surprise strike at that great Canadian port.
They agreed upon an immediate coordinated attack, Brown to cross the river and approach the city from the north, and Allen, his force now grown to a hundred and fifty, to attack simultaneously from the south.
The plan was brilliantly conceived and rested on the mobility and surprise inherent in a guerrilla-style operation.
But Brown unaccountably failed to cross the river as agreed.
The abandoned Allen was left to face an open battle with a superior force of over 30 British regulars and 200 Canadian volunteers.
Furthermore, Alan's men were not trained and loyal Green Mountain boys, and the Canadians
on Alan's flanks fled as soon as the British force surged out of Montreal to do battle.
Alan and the tiny remainder of his force were taken prisoner, with Alan placed in chains
and transported to England. The American's greatest and most daring guerrilla fighter
was removed from the scene. Washington, who was wont to defend in wet nurse his fellow
oligarch Schuller, could only react with near satisfaction to the loss of Allen. Colonel
Allen's misfortune will, I hope, teach a lesson of prudence and subordination to others.
The population of Canada in 1775 numbered approximately 60,000, almost all of them French peasants
or habitants, oppressed alike by the British state-privileged seniors and by the state-privileged
church.
There were only several hundred English Canadians, old subjects, most of them bureaucrats, soldiers,
Merchants engaged in the Montreal fur trade. Naturally, as the Revolutionary War began,
both the British and the Americans tried to woo the Canadians. Equally naturally, the
French Canadians, certain of English and American contempt for their religion and their ethnic
origins, had little interest in either party and remained neutral and aloof.
If the Anglo-American record of racial and religious bigotry not prevented the French
Canadians from joining the revolutionary cause, Canada, Quebec, would undoubtedly have become
a fourteenth original state of the United States.
The capture of Ethan Allen had considerable influence in swaying the cautious Canadians
and Canadian Indians toward what looked like the winning side.
Carlton quickly dissipated any goodwill among the habitants by trying to conscript them
en masse into the army, a draft that the sturdy French refused to obey. Nine hundred new men
thus conscripted swiftly, deserted at a rate of nearly forty a day.
The weather was now turning cold. The many months of American delay were already beginning
The Heavy New England Force was also irrepressibly asserting its individuality and was in a state
near to total mutiny. Montgomery's orders were being blithely disregarded, and he perceptively
testified to the libertarian spirit of his troops, complaining to Shuler that it was
was impossible to command men who carried the spirit of freedom into the field and think
for themselves. In short, the privates are all generals.
Things had begun to look up for the American forces, however. Montgomery's kinsmen, Colonel
James Livingston, managed to maneuver past St. John's and capture Fort Chambley, some
The great victory at St. John's threw Montreal wide open to the American forces, and General Montgomery swiftly pressed his advantage. Carlton escaped with his 150 regulars downriver toward Quebec, the last British stronghold in Canada. On November 13, a citizens' committee surrendered Montreal to the American force. At this time, Montreal was under siege.
At this point, there occurred another of the near-Mises-at-Victory that were to stud this campaign.
Carlton's fleet, sailing down the St. Lawrence, reached American positions at Sorrell, at
the junction of the Richelieu and St. Lawrence Rivers.
Major John Brown managed to dupe the British into believing that Great Cannon was stationed
at Sorel, thus convincing the British fleet to surrender on November 19. Canada could
have been conquered then and there. But the redoubtable Carlton slipped past the American
lines, disguised in peasant costume, and managed to reach Quebec. He reached Quebec just in
time for the British cause. The Americans had decided to strike on two fronts. While
While Schuler and Montgomery were to make for Montreal, another force was to march overland
across an extremely rugged route through Maine following the Kennebec, Dead and Chaudière
Rivers to assault Quebec.
The daring plan for the expedition had been drawn up by the restless Benedict Arnold, who,
having won the support of General Gates, was selected by Washington to lead the expedition
with the rank of Colonel.
The plan was a brilliant one, and Arnold was happily given a free hand, but time was growing
short.
The decision to go forward with the invasion was made in mid-August, and General Winter
was near at hand.
There was no dearth of volunteers for the Arnold expedition from the board and fretting
troops in the army around Boston.
The assembled force of over a thousand men consisted of ten companies of musketeers from
from New England and Three Companies of Backwoods Riflemen from Virginia and Pennsylvania. Working
at breakneck speed, Arnold was able to assemble the troops at Cambridge on September 11.
They set sail for the Kennebec from Newbury Port, Massachusetts on the 19th, reaching
Gardiner on the 22nd. Arnold now organized his army into four divisions, the lead division
The Lead Division of Riflemen under the command of Captain Daniel Morgan, head of the Virginia Rifle Company.
It was Morgan's task to clear a path for the Army through the wilderness over the numerous carrying places.
This giant, burly frontiersman, teamster, and veteran Indian fighter was to prove to be the great guerrilla fighter of the Revolutionary War.
Overcoming incredible difficulties and hardships, Arnold and Morgan led their men to Quebec
in one of the most famous marches in history, ranked by many with xenophones.
But tragically, Lieutenant Colonel Roger Ennis, in charge of the rearguard division, decided
to betray his post at the end of October and took his force back home, absconding also
with the bulk of the scarce remaining food. Ennis's defection subtracted 300 crucial men
from the expedition, a loss that might well have spelled the difference between victory
and defeat. Still, Arnold and his gallant 700 might have taken Quebec. They arrived
at Point Lévis across the St. Lawrence from Quebec on November 9. The city was weakly
in Montreal, he could join Arnold with only 300, making a total American force of 1,000
before Quebec. Montgomery and Arnold now found themselves besieging a city where 1,800 men
had been mobilized, and with soldiers whose terms of service expired at the end of the
year. The Americans were therefore forced to strike quickly, but the number of men was
Two columns struck at Quebec on the night of December 30. Trying desperately to rally his column, the gallant Montgomery was cut down. The rest of the force promptly retreated in a rout, despite efforts of the brilliant young volunteer, Captain Aaron Burr, son of the president of the College of New Jersey at Princeton, and the president of the University of New Jersey at Princeton.
to Rally the Troops. The collapse of the Montgomery Column left the British free to concentrate on Colonel Arnold's force. Arnold was wounded in the attack. But Morgan, taking command, braved countless bullets and crashed the barrier. Morgan's every instinct was to strike while the iron was hot and the British were in panic. But unfortunately, he complied with the advice of his officers against any further advance.
If not for this timorousness, which Arnold would certainly have overridden, Morgan might
well have seized all of Lower Quebec. The delay proved fatal. Now surrounded by the
British, the undauntable Morgan offered to personally cut a swath through the British
troops to gain an escape route, but the other officers refused. Instead, they decided to
Morgan, completely alone and personally surrounded, steadfastly refused to surrender until the
very end.
The Battle of Quebec had been absolutely disastrous for the Americans, and most of the finest
leaders in the American Army were put out of commission. Alan had been captured, the
The Great Montgomery was dead, Morgan was captured, and Arnold was gravely wounded.
The brave Kennebec marchers were wiped out with one hundred casualties and four hundred
taken prisoner.
Even so, Arnold, now a brigadier general, issuing orders from a hospital bed, refused
to give up, and his few hundred half-starved men lay feudal siege to Quebec for the rest
of the Winter.
For his noble efforts, Arnold once again received mainly humiliation.
He had asked for Charles Lee or someone like him to take command and lead the assault,
but when reinforcements came in early April 1776, he was replaced by craven commanders
who abandoned the siege.
Now he moved disconsolately behind the lines to take charge of the occupation of Montreal.
At this strategic moment, in early May 1776, Carlton surged forth from Quebec with nine
hundred men to rout the American forces.
In early June, New Hampshire's General John Sullivan was appointed commander of the forces
in Canada.
Sullivan was as bold as Arnold in Montgomery, but lacked their brains. Now that strategic
retreat was called for, Sullivan, on June 7, rashly launched an attack against the town
of Three Rivers on the St. Lawrence. The result was collapse. Two hundred Americans, including
the leader of the actual attack, General William Thompson, commander of one of the Pennsylvania
The American forces returned to Ticonderoga in early July, 1776.
Thus ended the American push against Canada, a tragic and disastrous failure. Yet few campaigns
in military history have been so marked by so many hairline turning points, the delays
of Congress and of Schuler bringing on winter weather and the end of American enlistment
terms. The failure of Brown to meet Allen, the melodramatic escape of the formidable General
General Carlton from capture by the Americans, the decimation of Montgomery's army by the
end of enlistment terms, the desertion by Colonel Enos, the high winds delaying Arnold's
crossing of the St. Lawrence, the accidental discovery by Maclean of Arnold's advance,
the hasty attack on Quebec impelled by the end of enlistment terms, the killing of General
and the subsequent route of his column, the wounding of Arnold and subsequent hobbling of Morgan's advance, and the replacement of Arnold the following spring.
Some of the most daring and progressive leaders, those most sensitive to guerilla-type warfare, had been lost.
and Lost, Allen, Morgan, Montgomery, Thompson. The inordinately expensive campaign had succeeded
in losing 5,000 American troops to death and capture. And Canada was lost forever.