Battle of Quebec (1775)

Battle of Quebec
Part of the American Revolutionary War
Canadian and British forces attacking Arnold's column in the Sault-au-Matelot painting by C. W. Jefferys
Date December 31, 1775 Location Quebec City, British province of Quebec Result Decisive British victory
Belligerents
United Colonies 1st Canadian Regiment	Great Britain Canadian militia
Commanders and leaders
Richard Montgomery † Benedict Arnold Daniel Morgan (POW)	Guy Carleton Allen Maclean
Strength
900 regulars 300 militia	1,800 regulars and militia
Casualties and losses
about 50 killed 34 wounded 431 captured	5 killed 14 wounded

The Battle of Quebec (French: Bataille de Québec) was fought on December 31, 1775 between American Continental Army forces and the British defenders of the city of Quebec, early in the American Revolutionary War. The battle was the first major defeat of the war for the Americans, and it came at a high price. General Richard Montgomery was killed, Benedict Arnold was wounded, and Daniel Morgan and more than 400 men were taken prisoner. The city's garrison, a motley assortment of regular troops and militia led by Quebec's provincial governor, General Guy Carleton, suffered a small number of casualties.

Montgomery, whose army had captured Montreal on November 13, in early December joined in besieging Quebec with a force led by Arnold that had made an arduous trek through the wilderness of northern New England. Governor Carleton had escaped Montreal before Montgomery's arrival, and last-minute reinforcements arrived to bolster the city's limited defenses before the Americans arrived. Concerned that expiring enlistments would reduce his force, Montgomery made the end-of-year attack in a blinding snowstorm to conceal the army's movements. Separate forces led by Montgomery and Arnold were to converge in the lower city, outside the walls, before scaling the walls themselves. Montgomery's force turned back after he was instantly killed by cannon fire early in the battle, while Arnold's force penetrated further into the lower city. Arnold was injured early in the movement, and Morgan took over his command and continued to lead the assault. His column was eventually trapped in the lower city and surrendered after being surrounded. Arnold and the Americans maintained an ineffectual blockade of the city until spring, when British reinforcements arrived to break the siege.

In the battle and the following siege, French-speaking Canadiens were active on both sides of the conflict. The American forces received supplies and logistical support from local residents, and the city's defenders included locally raised militia. When the Americans retreated, a number of their supporters accompanied them; those that did not were later subjected to a variety of punishments when the British re-established control over the province.

Background

Main article: Invasion of Canada (1775)

Shortly after the American Revolutionary War broke out in April 1775, a small enterprising force led by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold captured the key fortress at Ticonderoga on May 10. Arnold followed up the capture with a raid on Fort Saint-Jean not far from Montreal, alarming the British leadership there. These actions stimulated both British and rebel leaders to consider the possibility of an invasion of the Province of Quebec by the rebellious forces of the Second Continental Congress, and Quebec's governor, General Guy Carleton, began mobilizing the provincial defenses. After first rejecting the idea of an attack on Quebec, the Congress authorized the Continental Army's commander of its Northern Department, Major General Philip Schuyler, to invade the province if he felt it necessary. Schuyler immediately began working to acquire men and materiel for an expedition at Ticonderoga and Fort Crown Point. As part of an American propaganda offensive, letters from Congress and the New York Provincial Assembly were circulated in Quebec, promising liberation from their oppressive government. Benedict Arnold, passed over for command of the expedition, convinced General George Washington to authorize a second expedition to go through the wilderness of what is now the state of Maine directly to Quebec City.

Brigadier General Richard Montgomery, engraving after a portrait by Alonzo Chappel

In September 1775, the Continental Army began moving into Quebec, with the goal of liberating it from British military control. Brigadier General Richard Montgomery led the force from Ticonderoga and Crown Point up Lake Champlain, successfully besieging Fort St. Jean and capturing Montreal on November 13. Arnold led a force of 1,100 men from Cambridge, Massachusetts on the expedition through Maine toward Quebec not long after Montgomery's departure from Ticonderoga.

One significant expectation of the American advance into Quebec was that the large French Catholic Canadien population of the province and city would rise against British rule. Ever since the British took control of the province during the French and Indian War in 1760, there were difficulties and disagreements between the people and the Protestant English-speaking British military and civilian administrations. These tensions were eased following the passage of the Quebec Act of 1774, which restored some civil rights to Catholics and recognized the Catholic establishment. The majority of Quebec's French inhabitants chose not to play an active role in the American campaign, in part because they had come to accept British rule with its backing for the Catholic Church and preservation of French culture.

British preparations

Defense of the province

General Carleton had begun preparing the province's defense immediately on learning of Arnold's raid on St. Jean. While Carleton concentrated the defense at Fort St. Jean, he left small garrisons of British regular army troops at Montreal and Quebec. Carleton followed the American invasion's progress, occasionally receiving intercepted communications between Montgomery and Arnold. Lieutenant Governor Hector Cramahé, in charge of Quebec's defenses while Carleton was in Montreal, had in September organized a militia force of several hundred to defend the town, although they were "not much to be depended on", with estimates that only half the militia forces were reliable. Cramahé had also made numerous requests for military reinforcements to the military leadership in Boston, but each of these came to nought. Several troop ships were blown off course and ended up in New York, and Vice Admiral Samuel Graves, commanding the fleet in Boston, refused to release ships to transport troops from there to Quebec because the approaching winter would close the Saint Lawrence River.

Invasion routes of Montgomery and Arnold

When definitive word reached Quebec on November 3 that Arnold's march had succeeded and that he was approaching the city, Cramahé began tightening the guard and had all boats removed from the south shore of the St. Lawrence. Word of their approach resulted in further enlistments in the militia, increasing the ranks to 1,200 or more. Two ships arrived on November 3, followed by a third the next day, carrying militia volunteers from St. John's Island and Newfoundland that added about 120 men to the defense. A small convoy headed by HMS Lizard also arrived that day, from which a number of marines were contributed to the town's defenses.

On November 10, Lieutenant Colonel Allen Maclean, who had been involved in an attempt to lift the siege at St. Jean, arrived with 200 men of his Royal Highland Emigrants. They had intercepted communications from Arnold to Montgomery near Trois-Rivières, and hurried to Quebec to help with its defense. The arrival of this experienced force boosted the morale of the town militia, and Maclean immediately took charge of the defenses.

Carleton arrives at Quebec

Guy Carleton, commander of the forces in the city (painter unknown)

In the wake of the fall of Fort St. Jean, Carleton abandoned Montreal and returned to Quebec City by ship, narrowly escaping capture. Upon his arrival on November 19 he immediately took command. Three days later he issued a proclamation stating that any able-bodied man within the town that did not take up arms would be assumed to be a rebel or a spy, and would be treated as such. Men not taking up arms were given four days to leave. The result of this proclamation was that about 500 inhabitants (including 200 British and 300 Canadiens) joined the defense.

Carleton also took steps to address the weak points of the town's defensive fortifications. He had two log barricades and palisades erected along the St. Lawrence shoreline, within the area covered by his cannons. He assigned his forces to defensive positions along the walls and the inner defenses. He also made sure the under-trained militia in his forces were under well-trained leadership.

Arnold's arrival

Template:Details3 The men Arnold chose for his expedition were volunteers drawn from New England companies serving in the Siege of Boston. These were formed into two battalions for the expedition; a third battalion was composed of riflemen from Pennsylvania and Virginia under Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Morgan's command. The trek through the wilderness of Maine was long and difficult. The conditions were wet and cold, and the journey took much longer than either Arnold or Washington had expected. Many of the expedition's food stores were spoiled en route due to bad weather and wrecked boats. About 500 men of the original 1,100 (including one of the New England battalions as well as others who had become sick or wounded along the way) died en route or turned back, taking many of the expedition's provisions with them. Those that reached the first French settlements in early November were starving. On November 9, the 600 survivors of Arnold's march from Boston to Quebec arrived at Point Levis, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence opposite Quebec City. In spite of the terrible condition his troops were in following the trek, Arnold immediately began to gather boats so they could cross the river. Arnold was prepared to cross the river on the night of November 10, but a storm broke out that delayed the crossing for three days. After crossing the river, Arnold moved his troops onto the Plains of Abraham, about 1.5 miles (2 km) from the city walls.

Benedict Arnold in 1776, mezzotint engraving by Thomas Hart

The troops that approached Quebec's walls were a pitiful force. Arnold had no artillery, each of his men carried only five cartridges, more than 100 muskets were unserviceable, and the men's clothing had been reduced to rags. Despite being outnumbered two to one, Arnold then demanded the city's surrender. Both envoys he sent were shot at by British cannons, signifying that the demand was declined. Arnold concluded that he could not take the city by force, so he blockaded the city on its west side. On November 18, the Americans heard a (false) rumor that the British were planning to attack them with 800 men. At a council of war they decided that the blockade could not be maintained, and Arnold began to move his men 20 miles (32 km) upriver to Pointe-aux-Trembles ("Aspen Point") to wait for Montgomery, who had just taken Montreal.

Montgomery's arrival

On December 1, Montgomery arrived at Pointe-aux-Trembles from Montreal. The force he led was made up of 300 men from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd New York regiments, a company of artillery raised by John Lamb, about 200 men raised by James Livingston for the 1st Canadian Regiment, and another 160 men led by Jacob Brown that were remnants of regiments disbanded due to expiring enlistments. These were supplemented several days later by a few companies detached by Major General David Wooster, who Montgomery had left in command at Montreal. The artillery he brought included four cannons and six mortars, and he also brought winter clothing for Arnold's men and other supplies that had been taken when most of the British ships fleeing Montreal were captured. The commanders quickly turned towards Quebec, and put the city under siege on December 6. Montgomery attempted to send a personal letter to Carleton demanding the city's surrender, using a woman as the messenger. Carleton declined the request and burned the letter. Montgomery tried again ten days later, with the same result. The besiegers continued to send messages, primarily intended for the populace in the city, indicating the hopelessness of their situation, and suggesting that if they rose to assist the Americans, conditions would improve.

A 1777 French map depicting the points of action in and around Quebec

On December 10, the Americans set up their largest battery of artillery 700 yards (640 m) from the walls. The frozen ground had prevented the Americans from entrenching the artillery, so they froze some snow into blocks and fashioned a solid wall. This battery was used to fire on the city, but the damage it did was of little consequence. Montgomery realized he was in a very difficult position, since the frozen ground prevented the digging of trenches and his lack of heavy weapons made it impossible to breach the city's defenses. The enlistments of Arnold's men were expiring at the end of the year, and no ammunition was on the way from the colonies. Furthermore, the likelihood that British reinforcements would arrive in the spring was high, meaning he would either have to act or withdraw. Montgomery believed his only chance to take the city was during a snowstorm at night, when his men could storm the walls unnoticed.

While Montgomery planned the attack on the city, Christophe Pélissier, a Frenchman living near Trois-Rivières, came to see him. Pélissier was a political supporter of the American cause who operated an ironworks at Saint-Maurice. He and Montgomery discussed the idea of holding a provincial convention in order to elect representatives to Congress. Pélissier recommended against holding a convention until after Quebec City had been taken, as the habitants would not feel free to act in that way until their security was better assured. The two did agree to have Pélissier's ironworks provide munitions (ammunition, cannonballs, and the like) for the siege. This Pélissier did until the Americans retreated in May 1776, at which time he also fled, eventually returning to France.

A snowstorm arrived on the night of December 27, prompting Montgomery to order the troops to prepare for the attack. However, the storm subsided, and Montgomery called off the attack. That night, a sergeant from Rhode Island deserted, carrying the plan of attack to the British. Montgomery consequently drafted a new plan; this one called for two feints against Quebec's western walls, to be led by Jacob Brown and James Livingston, while two attacks would be mounted against the lower town. Arnold would lead one attack to smash through the walls at the north end of the lower town, and Montgomery would follow along the St. Lawrence south of the town. The two forces would meet in the lower town and then launch a combined assault on the upper town. The new plan was only exposed to the senior officers.

Battle

Montgomery's attack

John Trumbull's 1786 Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec

A storm broke out on December 30, and Montgomery once again gave orders for the attack. Brown and Livingston led their militia companies to their assigned positions that night: Brown by the Cape Diamond bastion, and Livingston outside St. John's Gate. When Brown reached his position between 4 and 5 am, he fired flares to signal the other forces, and his men and Livingston's began to fire on their respective targets. Montgomery and Arnold, seeing the flares, set off for the lower town.

Montgomery led his men down the steep, snow-heaped path toward the outer defenses. The storm had turned into a blizzard, making the advance a struggle. Montgomery's men eventually arrived at the palisade of the outer defenses, where an advance party of carpenters sawed their way though the wall. Montgomery himself helped saw through the second palisade, and led 50 men down a street toward a two story building. The building formed part of the city's defenses, and was in fact a blockhouse occupied by a small contingent of 15 Quebec militia armed with muskets and cannons. The defenders opened fire at close range, and Montgomery was instantly killed, shot through the head by a burst of grapeshot. The few men of the advance party that survived fled back toward the palisade; only Aaron Burr and a few others escaped unhurt. Many of Montgomery's officers were injured in the attack; one of the few remaining uninjured officers led the survivors back to the Plains of Abraham, leaving Montgomery's body behind.

The St. John's gate was the site of James Livingston's feint.

Arnold's attack

While Montgomery was making his advance, Arnold advanced with his main body toward the barricades of the Sault-au-Matelot at the northern end of the lower town. They passed the outer gates and some British gun batteries undetected. However, as the advance party moved around the Palace Gate, heavy fire broke out from the city walls above them. It was impossible to return the defenders' fire, so Arnold ordered his men to run forward. They advanced down a narrow street, where they once again came under fire as they approached a barricade. Arnold was organizing his men in an attempt to take the barricade when he was shot in the ankle. He was carried to the rear, and gave command of the detachment to Daniel Morgan. Under Morgan's command, they captured the barricade, but had difficulty advancing further because of the narrow twisting streets and damp gunpowder, which prevented their muskets from firing. Morgan and his men holed up in some buildings to dry out their powder and rearm, but they eventually came under increasing fire as Carleton, having realized the attacks on the northern gates were feints, began concentrating his forces in the lower town. A British force of 500 sallied from the Palace Gate and reoccupied the first barricade, trapping Morgan and his men in the city. With no avenue of retreat and under heavy fire, Morgan and his men surrendered. The battle was over by 10 am.

This was the first defeat suffered by the Continental Army. Carleton reported taking 431 prisoners, about two thirds of Arnold's force, and reported 30 Americans killed, and "many perished on the River" attempting to get away. Allan Maclean reported that 20 bodies were recovered in the spring thaw the following May. Arnold reported about 400 missing or captured, and the official report of Congress claimed 60 killed and 300 captured. British casualties were comparatively light. Carleton's initial report to General William Howe, mentioned only five killed or wounded, but other witness reports ranged as high as 50. Carleton's official report listed 5 killed and 14 wounded.

General Montgomery's body was recovered by the British on New Years Day 1776, and was given a simple military funeral on January 4. Lieutenant Governor Cramahé paid for the burial; the body was returned to New York in 1818.

Siege

General David Wooster, who replaced Arnold late in the siege (1776 mezzotint by Thomas Hart)

Arnold refused to retreat; despite being outnumbered three to one, the sub-freezing temperature of the winter and the mass departure of his men after their enlistments expired, he laid siege to Quebec. The siege had relatively little effect on the city, which Carleton claimed had enough supplies stockpiled to last until May. Immediately after the battle, Arnold sent Moses Hazen and Edward Antill to Montreal, where they informed General Wooster of the defeat. They then traveled on to Philadelphia to report the defeat to Congress and request support. (Both Hazen and Antill, English-speakers originally from the Thirteen Colonies who had settled in Quebec, went on to serve in the Continental Army for the rest of the war.) In response to their report, Congress ordered reinforcements to be raised and sent north. During the winter months, small companies of men from hastily-recruited regiments in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut made their way north to supplement the Continental garrisons at Quebec and Montreal. However, the presence of disease, especially smallpox, in the camp outside Quebec took a significant toll on the besiegers, as did a general lack of provisions. In early April, Arnold was replaced by General Wooster, who was himself replaced in late April by General John Thomas.

Governor Carleton, in spite of appearing to holding a significant advantage in manpower, chose to not attack the American camp, and remained within Quebec's walls. Montgomery, in analyzing the situation before the battle, had observed that Carleton served under James Wolfe during the 1759 Siege of Quebec, and knew that the French General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm had paid a dear price for leaving the city's defenses, ultimately losing the city and his life in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. British General James Murray had also lost a battle outside the city in 1760; Montgomery judged that Carleton was unlikely to repeat their mistakes. On March 14, Jean-Baptiste Chasseur, a miller from the southern shore of the St. Lawrence, reached Quebec City and informed Carleton that there was a group of 200 men on the south side of the river ready to act against the Americans. These men and more were mobilized to make an attack on an American gun battery at Point Levis, but an advance guard of this Loyalist militia was defeated in the March 1776 Battle of Saint-Pierre by a detachment of pro-American local militia that were stationed on the south side of the river.

When General Thomas arrived, the conditions in the camp led him to conclude that the siege was impossible to maintain, and he began preparing to retreat. The arrival on May 6 of a small British fleet carrying 200 regulars (the vanguard of a much larger invasion force), accelerated the American preparations to depart. The retreat was turned into a near-rout when Carleton marched these fresh forces, along with most of his existing garrison, out of the city to face the disorganized Americans. The Americans, their forces ravaged by smallpox (which claimed General Thomas along the way), eventually retreated all the way back to Fort Ticonderoga. Carleton then launched a counteroffensive to regain the forts on Lake Champlain. While he successfully defeated the American fleet in the Battle of Valcour Island and regained control of the lake, the rear guard defense managed by Benedict Arnold prevented further action to capture Ticonderoga or Crown Point in 1776.

Aftermath

On May 22, even before the Americans had been completely driven from the province, Carleton ordered a survey to identify those Canadiens that had helped the American expedition in and around Quebec City. François Baby, Gabriel-Elzéar Taschereau and Jenkin Williams counted the Canadiens who actively provided such help, determining that 757 had done so. Carleton was somewhat lenient with minor offenders, and even freed a number of more serious offenders on the promise of good behavior. However, once the Americans had been driven from the province, measures against supporters of the American cause became harsher, with forced labor to repair American destruction of infrastructure during the army's retreat being a common punishment. These measures had the effect of minimizing the public expression of support for the Americans for the rest of the war.

Between May 6 and June 1, 1776, nearly 40 British ships landed in Quebec City. They carried more than 9,000 soldiers under the command of General John Burgoyne, including about 4,000 German soldiers, so-called Hessians from Brunswick and Hanau under the command of Baron Friedrich Adolf Riedesel. These forces, some of which participated in Carleton's counteroffensive, spent the winter of 1776–1777 in the province, putting a significant strain on the population, which only numbered about 80,000. Many of these troops were deployed in 1777 for Burgoyne's campaign for the Hudson Valley.

References

English references

• Black, Jeremy (2009). "The Three Sieges of Quebec". History Today (June 2009). History Today Ltd: 50–55.
• Fortier, M.-F. "Christophe Pélissier". Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. Retrieved 2009-01-03.
• Fraser, Alexander (1907). Fourth Report of the Bureau of Archives, 1906. Toronto: Ontario Bureau of Archives, Dept. of Public Records and Archives. OCLC 1773270.
• Gabriel, Michael P (2002). Major General Richard Montgomery: The Making of an American Hero. Madison, New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. ISBN 9780838639313. OCLC 48163369.
• Griffin, Martin Ignatius Joseph (1907). Catholics and the American Revolution, Volume 1. Ridley Park, Pennsylvania: Self-published. OCLC 648369.
• Lanctot, Gustave (1967). Canada and the American Revolution 1774–1783. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. OCLC 70781264. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Morrissey, Brendan (2003). Quebec 1775: The American Invasion of Canada. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 9781841766812. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Nelson, James L (2006). Benedict Arnold's Navy. New York: McGraw Hill. ISBN 9780071468060. OCLC 255396879.
• Royal Society of Canada (1887). Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, 1886, Series 1, Volume 4. Ottawa: Royal Society of Canada. OCLC 1764607.
• Shelton, Hal T. (1996). General Richard Montgomery and the American Revolution: From Redcoat to Rebel. New York: NYU Press. ISBN 9780814780398. OCLC 77355089.
• Smith, Justin H (1907). Our Struggle for the Fourteenth Colony, Volumes 1 and 2. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. OCLC 259236. {{cite book}}: External link in |title= (help)
• Stanley, George (1973). Canada Invaded 1775–1776. Toronto: Hakkert. ISBN 9780888665782. OCLC 4807930.
• Sutherland, Stuart. "Biography of Richard Montgomery". Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. Retrieved 2010-04-29.
• United States Continental Congress; et al. (1906). Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, Volume 4. Washington, DC: United State Government. OCLC 261514. {{cite book}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help)
• Wood, W. J (2003). Battles of the Revolutionary War: 1775–1781. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Da Capo Press. ISBN 9780306813290. OCLC 56388425. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

French references

• Lacoursière, Jacques (1995). L'Histoire Populaire du Québec (in French). Sillery, Quebec: Les éditions du Septentrion. ISBN 2-89448-050-4. OCLC 316290514.

Further reading

• Brymner, Douglas (1905). Report on Canadian Archives for the year 1904. London: Maclean, Roger. OCLC 45254379. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help) Contains correspondence and reports (including the notes from a war council held at Quebec City November 16, 1775) concerning the American invasion.
• Lacoursière, Jacques (2001). Canada, Québec (in French). Sillery, Quebec: Les éditions du Septentrion. ISBN 2-89448-186-1. OCLC 63083822.
• Starowicz, Mark (2000). Le Canada une histoire populaire (in French). Saint-Laurent, Quebec: Éditions Fides. ISBN 2-7621-2282-1. OCLC 44713313.
• Vergereau-Dewey, S. Pascale (2005). 1775–1776: The Journal Of Francois Baby, Gabriel Taschereau, And Jenkin Williams. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Press. ISBN 0870137409. OCLC 57069273.
• Ward, Christopher (1952). The War of the Revolution. New York: Macmillan. OCLC 425995. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

External links

• Battle of Quebec during the American Revolution letters for the years 1775 thru 1776
• Animated History Map of the Invasion of Canada