real. Governor Carleton, conscious of his weakness, immediately retreated on board one of the vessels of a small fleet lying in the river, and escaped to Quebec; and on the following day [November 13], Montgomery entered the city in triumph. He treated the people humanely, gained their respect, and with the woolen clothing found among the spoils, he commenced preparing his soldiers for the rigors of a Canadian winter. There was no time to be lost, by delays. Although all their important posts in Canada were in possession of the patriots, yet, Montgomery truly said, in a letter to. Congress," till Quebec is taken, Canada is unconquered." Impressed with this idea, he determined to push forward to the capital, notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather and the desertion of his troops. Winter frosts were binding the waters, and blinding snow was mantling the whole country.

The spectacle presented by this little army, in the midst of discouragements of every kind, was one of great moral grandeur. Yet it was not alone at that perilous hour; for while this expedition, so feeble in number and supplies, was on its way to achieve a great purpose, another, consisting of a thousand men, under Colonel Benedict Arnold,' had left Cambridge [Sept., 1775], and was making its way through the deep wilderness by the Kennebec and Chaudiere Rivers, to join Montgomery before the walls of Quebec. That expedition was one of the most wonderful on record. For thirty-two days they traversed a gloomy wilderness, without meeting a human being. Frost and snow were upon the ground, and ice was upon the surface of the marshes and the streams, which they were compelled to traverse and ford, sometimes arm-pit deep in water and mud. Yet they murmured not; and even women followed in their train. After enduring incredible toils and hardships, exposed to intense cold and biting hunger, they arrived at Point Levi, opposite Quebec, on the 9th of November. Four days afterward [Nov. 13], and at about the same time when Montgomery entered Montreal, the intrepid Arnold, with only seven hundred and fifty half-naked men, not more than four hundred muskets, and no artillery, crossed the St. Lawrence to Wolfe's Cove, ascended to the Plains of Abraham, and boldly demanded a surrender of the city and garrison within the massive walls. Soon the icy winds, and intelligence of an intended sortie" from the garrison, drove Arnold from his bleak encampment, and he ascended the St. Lawrence to Point au Trembles, twenty miles above Quebec, and there

3

1 Page 234.

5

2 Pronounced Sho-de-are.

Judge Henry, of Pennsylvania, then a young man, accompanied the expedition. He wrote an account of the siege of Quebec, and in it he mentions the wives of Sergeant Grier and of a private soldier, who accompanied them. "Entering the ponds," he says, "and breaking the ice here and there with the butts of our guns, and our feet, we were soon waist-deep in mud and water. As is generally the case with youths, it came to my mind that a better path might be found than that of the more elderly guide. Attempting this, the water in a trice cooling my arm-pits, made me gladly return in the file. Now, Mrs. Grier had got before me. My mind was humbled, yet astonished, at the exertions of this good woman." Like the soldiers, she waded through the deep waters and the mud.

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⚫ Page 201. Several men who were afterward prominent actors in the Revolution, accompanied Arnold in this expedition. Among them, also, was Aaron Burr, then a youth of twenty, who was afterward Vice-President of the United States. Page 202. Page 202. 'This is a French term, significant of a sudden sally of troops from a besieged city or fortress, to attack the besiegers. See page 434.

awaited the arrival of Montgomery. These brave generals met on the 1st of December [1775], and woolen clothes which Montgomery brought from Montreal, were placed on the shivering limbs of Arnold's troops. The united forces, about nine hundred strong, then marched to Quebec.

PALACE

HOPE

ST JOHN
UPPER

PRESCOTT

TOWN
ST LOUIS

Citadel

WALLS OF QUEBEC.

It was on the evening of the 5th of December when the Americans reached Quebec, and the next morning early, Montgomery sent a letter to Carleton, by a flag,' demanding an immediate surrender. The flag was fired upon, and the invaders were defied. With a few light cannons and some mortars, and exposed to almost daily snow-storms in the open fields, the Americans besieged the city for three weeks. Success appearing only in assault, that measure was agreed upon, and before dawn, on the morning of the last day of the year [Dec. 31, 1775], while snow was falling thickly, the attempt was made. Montgomery had formed his little army into four columns, to assail the city at different points. One of these, under Arnold, was to attack the lower town, and march along the St. Charles to join another division, under Montgomery, who was to approach by way of Cape Diamond, and the two were to attempt a forced passage into the city, through Prescott Gate." At the same time, the other two columns, under Majors Livingston and Brown, were to make a feigned attack upon the upper town, from the Plains of Abraham. In accordance with this plan, Montgomery descended Wolfe's Ravine, and marched carefully along the ice-strewn beach, toward a pallisade and battery at Cape Diamond. At the head of his men, in the face of the driving snow, he had passed the pallisade unopposed, when a single discharge of a cannon from the battery, loaded with grape-shot, killed him instantly, and slew several of his officers, among whom were his two aids, McPherson and Cheeseman. His followers instantly retreated. In the mean while, Arnold had been severely wounded, while attacking a barrier on the St. Charles,5 and the command of his division devolved upon Captain Morgan, whose expert riflemen, with Lamb's artillery, forced their way into the lower town. After a contest of several hours, the Americans, under Morgan, were obliged to surrender them

GENERAL MONTGOMERY.

6

4

1 Messengers are sent from army to army with a white flag, indicating a desire for a peaceful interview. These flags, by common consent, are respected, and it is considered an outrage to fire on the bearer of one. The Americans were regarded as rebels, and undeserving the usual courtesy. 2 The high rocky promontory on which the citadel stands.

3 Prescott Gate is on the St. Lawrence side of the town, and there bars Mountain-street in its sinuous way from the water up into the walled city. The above diagram shows the plan of the city walls, and relative positions of the several gates mentioned. A is the St. Charles River, B the St. Lawrence, a Wolfe and Montcalm's monument [page 202], b the place where Montgomery fell, c the place where Arnold was wounded.

These are small balls confined in a cluster, and then discharged at once from a cannon. They scatter, and do great execution.

This was at the foot of the precipice, below the present grand battery, near St. Paul's-street. Afterward the famous General Morgan, whose rifle corps became so renowned, and who gained the victory at The Cowpens, in the winter of 1781. See page 331.

selves prisoners of war. The whole loss of the Americans, under Montgomery and Arnold, in this assault, was about one hundred and sixty. The British loss was only about twenty killed and wounded.

Colonel Arnold, with the remainder of the troops, retired to Sillery, where he formed a camp, and passed a rigorous Canadian winter. He was relieved from chief command by General Wooster,' on the 1st of April, who came down from Montreal with reinforcements, when another ineffectual attempt was made to capture Quebec. When, a month afterward, General Thomas took the chief command [May, 1776], Carleton was receiving strong reinforcements from England, and the patriots were compelled to abandon all hope of conquering Canada. They were obliged to retreat so hastily before the overwhelming forces of Carleton, that they left their stores and sick behind them. Abandoning one post after another, the Americans were driven entirely out of Canada by

the middle of June.

3

The Virginians were rolling on the car of the Revolution, with a firm and steady hand, while the patriots were suffering defeats and disappointments at the North. We have already alluded to the fact, that the people of Williamsburg, then the capital of Virginia, had driven Lord Dunmore, the royal governor, away from his palace, to take refuge on board a ship of war. He was the first royal representative who "abdicated government," and he was greatly exasperated because he was compelled to do so in a very humiliating manner. From that vessel he sent letters, messages, and addresses to the Virginia House of Burgesses, and received the same in return. Each exhibited much spirit. Finally, in the autumn, the governor proceeded to Norfolk, with the fleet, and collecting a force of Tories and negroes, commenced depredations in lower Virginia. With the aid of some British vessels, he attacked Hampton, near Old Point Comfort,5 on the 24th of October, and was repulsed. He then declared open war. The Virginia militia flew to arms, and in a severe battle, fought on the 9th of December, at the Great Bridge, near the Dismal Swamp, twelve miles from Norfolk, Dunmore was defeated, and compelled to seek safety with the British shipping in Norfolk harbor. In that battle, the regiment of men, chiefly from Culpepper county, raised by Patrick Henry, and at the head of whom he demanded payment for the powder removed from Williamsburg, did very important service.7

1 Page 270.

6

* General Thomas was seized with the small-pox, which had been raging some time in the American camp, and died at Chambly on the 30th of May. He was a native of Plymouth, Mass., and was one of the first eight brigadiers appointed by Congress [note 5, page 238]. Carleton treated the prisoners and sick with great humanity. He afterward, on the death of his father, became Lord Dorchester. He died in 1808, aged eighty-three years.

⚫ Page 237.

4

Page 71.

Page 64.

* This regiment had adopted a flag with the significant device of a coiled rattle-snake, seen in the engraving. This device was upon many flags in the army and navy of the Revolution. The expression, "Don't tread on me," had a double signification. It might be said in a supplicating tone, "Don't tread on me;" or menacingly, "Don't tread on me.' The soldiers were dressed in green hunting-shirts, with Henry's words, LIBERTY OR DEATH [page 237], in large white letters, on their bosoms. They had bucks' tails in their hats, and in their belts tomahawks and scalping-knives. fierce appearance alarmed the people, as they marched through the country.

Their

Page 237,

Five days after the battle at the Great Bridge, the Virginians. under Colonel Woodford, entered Norfolk in triumph [Dec. 14, 1775], and the next morning they were joined by Colonel Robert Howe,' with a North Carolina regiment, when the latter assumed the general command. Dunmore was greatly exasperated by these reverses, and, in revenge, he caused Norfolk to be burned early on the morning of the 1st of January, 1776. The conflagration raged for fifty hours, and while the wretched people were witnessing the destruction of their property, the modern Nero caused a cannonade to be kept up. When the destruction was complete, he proceeded to play the part of a marauder along the defenseless coast of Virginia. For a time he made his head quarters upon Gwyn's island, in Chesapeake Bay, near the mouth of the Piankatank River, from which he was driven, with his fleet, by a brigade of Virginia troops under General Andrew Lewis. After committing other depredations, he went to the West Indies, carrying with him about a thousand negroes which he had collected during his marauding campaign, where he sold them, and in the following autumn returned to England. These atrocities kindled an intense flame of hatred to royal rule throughout the whole South, and a desire for political independence of Great Britain budded spontaneously in a thousand hearts where, a few months before, the plant of true loyalty was blooming.

CHAPTER III.

SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. [1776]

THERE was great anxiety in the public mind throughout the colonies at the opening of the year 1776. The events of the few preceding months appeared unpropitious for the republican cause, and many good and true men were disposed to pause and consider, before going another step in the path of rebellion. But the bolder leaders in the senate and in the camp were undismayed; and the hopeful mind of Washington, in the midst of the most appalling discouragements, faltered not for a moment. He found himself strong enough to be the effectual jailor of the British army in Boston, and now he was almost prepared to commence those blows which finally drove that army and its Tory abettors to the distant shores of Nova Scotia. He had partially re-organized the conti

1 Page 292.

3

When Dunmore destroyed Norfolk, its population was six thousand; and so rapidly was it increasing in business and wealth, that in two years, from 1773 to 1775, the rents in the city increased from forty thousand to fifty thousand dollars a year. The actual loss by the cannonade and conflagration was estimated at fifteen hundred thousand dollars. The personal suffering was inconceivable.

* General Lewis was a native of Virginia, and was in the battle when Braddock was killed. He was the commander of the Virginia troops in the battle at Point Pleasant [note 4, page 237], in the summer of 1774. He left the army, on account of illness, in 1780, and died not long afterward, while absent from home. Note 2, page 80.

nental forces under his command; and on the first of January, 1776, he unfurled the Union Flag, for the first time, over the American camp at Cambridge.' His army had then dwindled to less than ten thousand effective men, and these were scantily fed and clothed, and imperfectly disciplined. But the camp was well supplied with provisions, and about ten thousand minute-men," chiefly in Massachusetts, were held in reserve, ready to march when called upon.

UNION FLAG.

During the summer and autumn of 1775, the Continental Congress had put forth all its energies in preparations for a severe struggle with British power, now evidently near at hand. Articles of war were agreed to on the 30th of June; a declaration of the causes for taking up arms was issued on the 6th of

July; and before the close of the year, bills of credit, known as "continental money," representing the value of six millions of Spanish dollars, had been issued. A naval establishment had also been commenced; and at the opening

'The hoisting of that ensign was hailed by General Howe, the British commander in Boston, with great joy, for he regarded it as a token that a gracious speech of the king on American affairs, lately communicated to Parliament, was well received by the army, and that submission would speedily follow. That flag was composed of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, symbolizing the thirteen revolted colonies. In one corner was the device of the British Union Flag, namely, the cross of St. George, composed of a horizontal and perpendicular bar, and the cross of St. Andrew (representing Scotland), which is in the form of x. It was the appearance of that symbol of the British union that misled Howe. This flag is represented in the above little sketch. On the 14th of June, 1777, Congress ordered "thirteen stars, white, in a blue field," to be put in the place of the British union device. Such is the design of our flag at the present day. A star has been added for every new State admitted into the Union, while the original number of stripes is retained.

2 Page 229.

The resolution of the Continental Congress, providing for the emission of bills, was adopted on the 22d of June, 1775. The bills were printed and issued soon after, and other emissions were authorized, from time to time, during about four years. At the beginning of 1780, Congress had issued two hundred millions of dollars in paper money. After the second year, these bills began to depreciate; and in 1780, forty paper dollars were worth only one in specie. At the close of 1781, they were worthless. They had performed a temporary good, but were finally productive of great public evil, and much individual suffering. Some of these bills are yet in existence, and are considered great curiosities. They were rudely engraved, and printed on thick paper, which caused the British to call it "the paste-board money of the rebels." Note 1, page 307.