ATTACK ON QUEBEC.

199

CHAPTER XCIII.

PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR, CONTINUED.— Attack on Quebec.- Death of Montgomery.- Governor Dunmore's Operations in Virginia.

1. WHEN Washington reached Cambridge, the British forces in Boston amounted to eleven thousand five hundred. The Ame rican forces were nominally about seventeen thousand; though, exclusive of the sick and absent, really but fourteen thousand five hundred. they were arranged, however, in a semicircle of about twelve miles in length, they were thought insufficient for closely besieging the city.

As

2. Washington, as soon as he had taken a survey of the whole ground, called a council of war. This council, without a dissenting voice, gave it as their opinion that the posts around Boston, though numerous, must be occupied and sustained; and that, for this purpose, a force of at least twenty-two thousand men was necessary. They also recommended to the colonies of New England to make up the deficiency.

GENERAL MONTGOMERY.

3. One great difficulty which stared them in the face was the want of ammunition. Washington had found, to his surprise, that there was not powder enough in the whole American army to furnish nine cartridges to each man. This was a most alarming fact, and perplexed even the commander himself.

4. While he was employed in organizing the army near Boston, sc as to render it available, Generals Schuyler and Montgomery had taken Fort Cham-blee', in the north, and besieged St. John's. The latter was also at length taken, with six hundred prisoners and five hundred

CHAP. XCIII.-1. What was the amount of the British forces? Of the American? 2. What was proposed by the council of war of the Americans? 8. What great difil. culty had the colonists to contend with? 4. What was doing in other places? 5. What did General Montgomery do?

stands of arms. It was during the siege of St. John's that Colonel Allen was taken prisoner, as we have already stated.

5. After the capture of St. John's, General Montgomery went against

DEATH OF MONTGOMERY.

Montreal, which surrendered without resistance. He next marched against Quebec; but, in the mean time, Washington had dispatched General Benedict Arnold, with eleven hundred men, by way of the Kennebec River, seven hundred of whose troops had arrived late in the autumn, scaled

the heights of Abraham, and placed themselves before the city.

6. Arnold had, however, been so slow in his operations, after his arrival in the river near the city, that the enemy was better prepared for a defence than had been expected. Beside, he had no artillery, and only six charges of powder to each man. In these circumstances, he was obliged to fall back twenty miles up the river with his troops, and wait the arrival of General Montgomery.

7. He was joined by the latter and three hundred men, December 1st, and they proceeded forthwith to the siege of Quebec. After con tinuing the siege till December 31st, they made a desperate attempt to scale the walls, in which General Montgomery and several of his most valuable officers were slain, and General Arnold wounded.

8. Being thus defeated in his purpose, Arnold ordered the army to retire about three miles, where they spent the winter. He had lost about one hundred men who were killed, and three hundred who were taken prisoners. In the spring, finding his force too small to accom plish any important purpose, he left the country; and the posts which had been taken in this quarter gradually returned into the hands of the British.

9. The death of General Montgomery was deeply lamented, both in

What of the expedition against Quebec, led by General Arnold? 6. What did Arnold do after his arrival? 7. What happened in the siege of Quebec? 8. What did Ar nold order? What did he do in the spring?

ARNOLD'S EXPEDITION TO QUEBEC.

201

Europe and America. He was born in Ireland, and was a most excellent officer and valuable citizen. He and his two aides-de-camp fell at the same instant. At his death Montgomery was only thirty-eight years of age. Congress caused a monument to be erected in New York to his memory, which may be seen in the churchyard near St. Paul's church, New York.

10. There were some internal troubles about this time in Virginia. Lord Dun'-more, the governor, like most of the colonial governors, was unfriendly to the colonies. Fearing the colonial troops would seize the powder of the public magazines, he ordered it to be carried on board a vessel. He also undertook to arm and equip several vessels for the crown; and, when the people would not furnish them with provisions, he proceeded to burn Norfolk, then a town of about six thousand inhabitants.

CHAPTER XCIV.

PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR, CONTINUED.-Anecdotes and Incidents of Arnold's Expedition to Quebec. 1. THE project of taking an army across the District of Maine to Quebec, over ninety

daring expedition to Quebec, proved him to be so.

years

9. Give some account of Montgomery. 10. What of the troubles in Virginia?

CHAP. XCIV.-1. What can you say of Arnold's project?

2. It is true that Washington approved the plan, and encouraged it; but this does not show that it was not both rash and hazardous. Washington did not know what a rough and dangerous route it was, and depended for his information on others, who probably misunderstood and misrepresented the facts.

3. General Arnold set out in September. He had with him, as was stated in the preceding chapter, eleven hundred men. He had also a few volunteers beside, among whom was Aaron Burr, afterward vice president of the United States, but then only twenty years of age. They went by water to the mouth of the Kennebec River, in the usual

manner.

4. There they procured two hundred bateaux. These were long, light flat-boats, for shallow water. The current of the river was rapid, the bottom rocky, and the navigation often interrupted by falls. Sometimes they had to transport the baggage by land; sometimes they were obliged to carry their boats on their shoulders, or drag them up the rapids with ropes.

5. They had steep precipices to climb, vast shady forests to pass under, and quagmires to wade through. They had also deep valleys to traverse, where the pine-trees were tossing over their heads in the stormy wind, and where the river was rushing and foaming over the rocks with a noise like that of the ocean.

6. They were sometimes a whole day in travelling four or five miles, with their baggage lashed on their backs, and axes in their hands to hew a road through the wilderness. Some of them died at last from mere fatigue; many others became sick and perished, and all suffered greatly for want of food.

7. Many a young soldier, as he lay down at night on his pillow of green boughs, hungry and fatigued, and perhaps cold, too, for the frosty nights had come, thought of the parental home and fireside, where, perhaps, a mother and sister were weeping for him. But these thoughts were driven away by the next morning's march.

8. By the time they reached the source of Dead River, a branch of the Kennebec, their provisions were almost exhausted; and what remained were damaged, as well as their ammunition, by water which had got into the bateaux during their passage. The soldiers, it is said, began to kill and eat the lean dogs they had with them; and even this food was esteemed a luxury.

9. The sick had now become so numerous that one of the colonels was ordered back with them to Boston. He not only obeyed the

2. What is true respecting Washington? 8. What troops had Arnold? 4. How did the troops proceed upon the water? 5-7. What difficulties had they by land? 8. What of their provisions?

HESSIAN TROOPS SENT TO AMERICA.

203

orders, but went further, and took back his whole regiment of three or four hundred men. He was tried afterward for deserting General Arnold; but the court-martial acquitted him on the ground that the men must have starved had they remained.

10. But Arnold, who was a man of great decision, marched on. For thirty-two days not a human dwelling was seen. They arrived, at last, on the mountains between the Kennebec and Chau-di-ère', and found their way down the latter to Point Levy, opposite Quebec, where they arrived November 9. The people were here as much amazed at their arrival, as if so many ghosts had come among them-which, indeed, many of them more resembled than living beings.

CHAPTER XCV.

PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR, CONTINUED.— The Hessian troops hired and sent to America.-General Howe succeeds General Gage.- The British driven from Boston.

1. THE British, all this while, had possession of Boston, Roxbury Neck, and Bunker's Hill, as well as the command of the harbor and shipping. They, therefore, had free access to such supplies as came to them by the water. But it happened, in one instance, in the winter of 1775-6, that the supply of fuel and food fell short, and the army were put on very scanty allowance.

2. In this extremity, they sent eleven armed vessels to Georgia, to bring rice; but only two of them could get any, on account of the hostile state of the public feeling toward them. For fuel, they used the timber of dwelling-houses and other buildings which they pulled down for that purpose, and even of some of the churches.

3. In the spring of 1776, efforts were made in England to raise troops for the American war, but they were not very successful. The war was not popular among the mass of the people there, and only a few thousand soldiers were enlisted. At length a bargain was made by the government for seventeen thousand German troops, called Hessians, because they came from the small state of Hesse. These were all sent over to America.

9. What was done by one of the colonels? 10. Describe the appearance of the men on reaching Quebec.

CHAP XCV.-1. How were the British situated at this time? 2. What did they de or food and fuel? 8. What was done in England in the spring of 1776? What bargair was at length made as to Hessians?