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Chapter 7 - Conclusion · History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution

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  Section twenty six of History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American
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  Revolution, Volume one. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are
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  in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox
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  dot org. History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution,
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  Volume one by Mercy Otis Waran, Chapter seven conclusion. In the meantime,
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  General Carleton was not idle. Every preparation that courage or vigilance could dictate
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  was made for the reception of Montgomery. He ordered by proclamation all who refused
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  to take arms immediately to quit the city, with their wives and children on
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  parallel, being truthed with the utmost severity as rebelsent traitors to their king.
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  Many of them obeyed and abandoned their residence and property. The Scotch inhabitants and
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  the functional bliss he could at that time firmly rely on. All others disgusted
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  with the Quebec Act and alienated by the severity of the governor were in a
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  temper to renounce their loyalty and join the Americans. Yet the fear of losing
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  their property in the confusion that might ensue if the city was obliged to change.
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  Its masters, operated on some and caused them to arm, though with
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  great reluctance. The confederation of pecuniary losses will always have a powerful influence on
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  the minds of men. Thus, the zeal which had been nurtured for the
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  defense of liberty, soon began to abate, and both English and Canadians,
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  actuated by the principle of immediate self interest, concealed their former defection to the
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  British government. Many of them were wealthy and opulent, and became dealing more
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  disposed to the united defense of the town, which contained more family these in
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  opulent circumstances than all the province. Besides, after placing a garrison in Montreal,
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  new clothing his troops and stationing some small detachments in the outposts in the
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  neighborhood, General Montgomery sent a few troops to different parts of the province to
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  expedite farther supplies of provisions, clothing, and other necessaries. He then pushed
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  on his march beneath the fall of snows, Embarrassed with bad roads, a
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  severe winter and inhospitable climate, and the murmur of his little army. The
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  term of their enlistment was nearly expired. Nothing kept them together but their attachment
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  to their commander and that zeal in the public clause, which had all wordy
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  prompted them to encounter perils and endure hardships which the human constitution seems not calculated
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  to surmount after being softened by the habits of civilized life. But by the
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  address of the commander and the resolution of the troops, they with incredible expedition
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  arrived at Quebec, notwithstanding the impediments that lay in their way. The soldiers
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  in garrison, with the marines from the King's frigates that had been placed their
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  inn, and the armed militia, both French and English, did not amount
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  to more than two thousand men when the army arrived from Auntrey. All but
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  by the intrepidity of General Carleton and the activity of his officers, they had
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  prepared for defense with the spirit of veterans. They rejected with disdain a summons
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  from Montgomery to surrender the town to prevent the fatal consequences of its being taken
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  by storm, fired on the flag that offered to convey letters with proposals for
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  capitulation, obliged her to retire, and all communication was forbidden by the inflexible
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  Carleton. General Montgomery after this sent a second letter by Colonel Arnold and mister
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  McPherson is aid de camp to General Carleton. Footnote copy of General Montgomery's last
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  letter to General Carleton, Holland House, December sixth, seventeen seventy five.
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  Sir, notwithstanding the personal ill treatment I have received to join hands, notwithstanding
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  the cruelty of sun to the unhappy prisoners, you have taken the feelings of
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  humanity induce me to have recourse to this expedient to save you from the destruction
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  which hangs over your wretchard garrison. Give me leave to inform you that I
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  am well acquainted with your situation. A great extent of works in their nature
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  incapable of defense, manned with the motley crew of sailors, most of them
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  have friends and citizens who with to see us within their walls. A few
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  of the worst troops that call themselves soldiers. The impossibility of relief and the
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  certain prospect of wanting every necessary of life should your opponents confine their operations to
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  a single blockade, point out the absurdity of resistance such as your situation.
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  I am the head of troops, accustomed to success, confident of the righteous
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  cause they are engaged in, inured to danger and fatigue, and so highly
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  incensed to dr in humanity, illiberal abuse, and the ungenerous means employed to
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  prejudice them in the minds of the Canadians that it is with difficulty I restrain
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  them till my batteries are ready from insulting your works, which will afford them
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  the fair opportunity of ample vengeance and just retaliation. Firing upon a flag of
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  truce, hitherto unprecedented even amongst savages, prevents my following the ordinary motor conveying
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  my sentiments. However, I will at any rate acquit my conscience. Should
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  you persist in any unwarrantable defense, the consequence be upon your own head.
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  Beware of destroying stores of any fort, public or private, as you did
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  at Montreal over in the river. If you do, by Heavens, there
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  will be no mercy shown. And the footnelt he upbraided him with personal ill
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  treatment, with the cruelty exercise towards the prisoner that had fallen into his hands,
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  and with the unparalleled conduct except among savages a firing at a flag of
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  truce. He warned him not to destroy either public or private stores, as
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  he had done at Montreal, and kept a protone of superiority as if sure
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  of success. The messengers reached the walls of Quebec, but were ordered to
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  DeCamp with speed, and informed that the governor would received all letters or hold
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  any intercourse with rebels. Thus circumstance, General Montgomery judged that immediate, and
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  decided that action was the only means of serving his country and securing to himself
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  that renown which the luster of his former conduct had acquired. Thus depending too
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  much on his own good fortune and too little acquainted with the arrangement and vigor
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  within the walls, he resolved on the dangerous and desperate measure of an effort
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  to take the city by escalade. He made his dispositions accordingly, and under
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  the cover of a violent snow storm. His army, in four separate divisions
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  began the archers work at the same moment early on the morning of the thirty
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  first of December, but the enemy had gained intelligence of his movements. The
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  alarm had been given and a signal made for a general engagement in the lower
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  town some time before Montgomery had reached it. He, however, pushed on
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  through a narrow passage with the hanging rock on the one side and a dangerous
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  president on the banks of the river on the other, and with a resolution
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  becoming his character, he gained the first barrier. Warmed with the spirit of
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  magnanimity and the thirst for glory, the inseparable companions of exalted minds, he
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  met and daunted the fire of his enemies, and accompanied by some of his
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  bravest officers, he rushed on to attack a well defended barricade. But to
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  the regret of the army, the grief of his country, and the inexpressible
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  sorrow of his numerous friends, the valiant Montgomery, with the Laurel's fresh blooming
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  on his brow, fell at the gates by a random shot from the frozen
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  walls of Quebec. Connected with one of the first families in New York,
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  happy in the highest enjoyment of domestic felicity, he was led by principle to
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  quit the occupations of rural life, and animated with an ardent zeal for the
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  cause of human nature, the liberties of mankind, and the glory of America.
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  Both his active life and his heroic death verified his last expression to his
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  amiable lady, you shall never blush for your Montgomery footnote he married the daughter
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  of Judge Livingston. The writer of these annals had the particulars of his last
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  adieu and a letter from his old lady immediately after his death, and the
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  footnote his philosophic taste, his pleasing manners, his private virtues, and his
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  military abilities were acknowledged and reviewed even by his enemies, who cannot but pronounce
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  the Canadian fields are marked with peculiar glory. It is there the choicest flowers
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  of fame may be called to crown the memory of a Wolf and a Montgomery.
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  Yet while one of those illustrious names written in characters of blood reflects luster
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  on the glory of British monarch, the other will announce to posterity the efforts
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  of virtue to resist the tyranny of his succes assessor. General Montgomery was justly
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  considered as an early barter in the cause of freedom, and the premature stroke
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  that robbed his country of an officer a tried bravery and decided Merit was not
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  only bewailed by his friends, but excited the tear of generous compassion from all
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  those who were susceptible of the nobler feelings of the soul, among such as
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  were opposed to him in political opinion. The animosities of war and the enmities
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  created by different sentiments or rivalry in fame, should ever expire with the life
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  of a hero. Yet the obsequies of this great and amiable man were not
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  attended with those honorary marks of respect usually paid to illustrious military characters when victory
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  has satiated resentment. His body was thrown into a sledge, and without even
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  a coffin, conveyed to the place of burial. The manner of General Montgomery's
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  interment was at first reported much more to the honor of Governor Carleton. But
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  the above account is from the testimony of several respectable American officers then in Quebec
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  footnote, particularly Captain after which General Dearborn taken prisoner at the attempt on the
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  second barrier, and the footnote by the persuasion of a lady who afterwards married
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  the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, who had formerly served in the British army with
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  General Montgomery. The body of this worthy officer was taken up and again interred
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  in a rough coffin, but without any particular marks of respect. The other
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  officers who fell were indiscriminately thrown with their clothes on, into the same grave
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  with their soldiers. The death of General Montgomery decided the fate of the day.
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  The Colonel Arnold and his party, with great bravery, kept up the
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  attack, or did they quit the field until after Arnold was obliged to retire,
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  having received a dangerous wound. Notwithstanding this accident added to the unspeakable loss
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  of their brave commander, this small resolute party kept their ground until galled on
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  every side, attacked in the rear, and their retreat cut off by a
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  British party who found means to secure a passage that prevented even the attempt.
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  Yet they kept up an obstinate defense for several hours, but at last were
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  obliged to surrender themselves prisoners of war. Footnote. Most of the American officers
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  distinguished themselves by their intrepidity and vigilance on this faded day, but none more
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  than Colonel Morgan, who seemed to be adapted by nature, by his strength
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  of body, vigor of mind, and unconquerable resolution for the severe conflicts of
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  war. This was afterwards exemplified in the many reencounters who met in the ravage
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  of the Carolinas at the footnote. Though the manners of their commander in chief
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  had not been treated with that generosity which is usually the result of true magnanimity.
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  Yet General Carlton treated the prisoners that afterwards fell into his hands with mere
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  humanity. Their wounds were dressed, they once relieved, and his own physician
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  sent to visit the sick. He also endeavored to recall those who, after
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  the defeat, had taken shelter in the woods, or such as had been
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  left sick or wounded on the way after the retreat, and by proclamation he
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  promised liberty to all the unhappy stragglers when they should be cured of their wounds
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  and diseases. After the death of Montgomery, the retreat of Arnold, and
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  a surrender of a considerable part of his troops, the broken forces collected and
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  retired about three miles from the city. There they kept up a kind of
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  blockade through the winter, and by the spirit of Arnold on whom the command
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  had devolved, and the vigilance of his party they prevented in a great measure
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  additional recruits and supplies for the relief of the city. This, they were
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  every reason to expect, would be attempted, not only from the difficulties of
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  their situation within the city, but from the fickleness of the Canadians without,
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  And they manifest his position to enlist under the banners of success from their local
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  circumstances. This change of temper might, from the beginning have been apprehended from
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  those pretended allies of the United States a neighborhood in connection with the Savages,
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  their long habit of oscillating between England and France, and their ignorance general the
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  grounds of the dispute must naturally render their fidelity to the States under the jurisdiction
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  of Congress very uncertain. But we lay the Lakes, the wilderness, the
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  Savages, and their employers in that quarter for the present to observed for a
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  time the interesting movements of the borders of the Atlantic, and the disposition discovered
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  by the ancient parent of the colonies, which soon produced consequences at the highest
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  moment. It may, however, be proper to observe here at. General
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  Arnold extricated himself in a remarkable manner from his embarrassments in this quarter, and
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  lived to be conspicuously distinguished through the American War who his bravery and address,
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  his activity, and his villainy end of Section twenty six.